Messing About In Boats

There is a distinct playful, childlike pleasure to be found in sailing a small boat. Sailing a bigger… [more]

Messing About In Boats Messing About In Boats

Ship’s Log: 4th of July Weekend, 2011

I've found, time and again, that no plan is the best plan. This weekend was a perfect proof of that theory.… [more]

Ship’s Log: 4th of July Weekend, 2011 Ship's Log: 4th of July Weekend, 2011

Shine Bright!

I have intentionally been hiding and diminishing my joy of and excitement about life for years in order to make other people feel more comfortable.

Shine Bright! Shine Bright!

Ship’s Log: June 13th—Monitor®/QuickCover® Test Sail

I headed up to the mast and released the main halyard clutch… too late to notice that I had cleated the coil just below the clutch. With the halyard fully jammed

Ship’s Log: June 13th—Monitor®/QuickCover® Test Sail Ship's Log: June 13th—Monitor®/QuickCover® Test Sail

Childhood Experiences… Missing

Ruby understands that there are many things we will be giving up to go sailing around the world but I don't think she's got the context to understand it fully yet. The following are some of the experiences that Ruby and Miles might never share with their peers.

Childhood Experiences… Missing Childhood Experiences… Missing

Landfall in Paradise

April 13, 2012

When we left Mexico we were headed to Nuku Hiva, one of the northern Marquesan islands, with an easy anchorage in a town that allowed us to clear in to French Polynesia. About a week into our passage we opened the Charlie’s Charts and our Lonely Planet guide books and decided to head for Hiva [...]

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Shellbacks.

April 6, 2012

For many years whenever I got cold enough to warrant socks or sleeves or worse, a jacket, or if I bought a new pair of long pants that needed hemming, my solution was simple, I’d ditch all those things and head to the equator. So when I was actually on my way to the equator [...]

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The Vastness

April 5, 2012

When I was a boy I would sit facing the ocean, on a beach, on a breakwater, on a boat and imagine myself surrounded by its vastness. In these youthful projections, I would never tire of its endless blue. I pictured myself a captain on a small, seaworthy vessel.

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Convivia Gourmet

March 27, 2012

Okay, maybe a gourmet is a bit haughty when most of our meals are cooked in one pan but we have been having some seriously good food lately and I thought it was worth mentioning. If you search for a book or article and use the words “cruising” and “cooking” you are likely to find [...]

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The Awesome Ocean

March 26, 2012

Wow! We are currently rushing, racing, charging across the pacific at a sustained 7 knots with statistically significant periods of 8 knots. This speed, it seems, comes at a price. We have really enormous swell. If my estimation is correct (and it’s really tough when you are in it) we are looking aft at 3-4 [...]

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Day to Day

March 24, 2012

We raced out of Bandaras Bay on Monday with good steady winds that moved us 173 miles in our first 24 hours. Even though we were bashing through swell and all a little queasy it felt amazing to be ticking away the miles so quickly. Since then we’ve passed the 500 mile mark, the boat [...]

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The Crew Gets Our Groove Back

March 23, 2012

Today was another slow and steady day. We had plenty of sun (enough to top off our batteries by 2pm) and the few clouds we saw were distant and fluffy. The wind was practically non-existent, but we ghosted along at 2-3 knots on what there was. On the “exciting” side, it was Miles’ 4.5 birthday [...]

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Low Lattitudes High Levels of Awesomeness

March 22, 2012

I just had one of those rare pure moments of perfect bliss. It happened when I went forward to let out the boom vang. After letting it go I paused for a moment to look around (something we do almost constantly out here). Something about the familiar vista caught my attention and I went forward [...]

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First Days of Passage

March 21, 2012

The first two days of passage making went quickly. We got into our grove after about 12 hours. Ruby got to drawing (some pretty amazing stuff really) and Miles pretended to blow things up. Vick and I just stared out at the sea and (I at least) tried to wrap my head around what we [...]

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Zarpe diem or 6 busses for 6 Tacos

March 15, 2012

Today’s goal was to obtain a zarpe. For those who haven’t done this, a Zarpe is the official document that you get when you leave a country by boat. They aren’t strictly necessary, but you can be rejected from entering your next port if you don’t have one. We decided that a 2,800 miles U-turn [...]

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