Our Route, Our Story
Our family circumnavigation so far.
Eleven years, three oceans, one boat
We wanted less stuff, greater simplicity and more time together as a family.
By August 2015, we had learned to sail, bought a St Francis 50 catamaran, packed up our house and moved aboard in Florida.
Since then we have sailed on SV Aphrodite through the Caribbean, across the Pacific and on to Southeast Asia.
Before We Moved Aboard
In December 2014 I wrote my first blog post: could our family of six really sail around the world?
Rick flew to Antigua for sail training in January 2015, while I studied for my RYA Day Skipper theory at home near Ottawa. On his return trip, Rick visited the Miami International Boat Show.
Buying SV Aphrodite
In March 2015, with help from our consultant Pat Reischmann, we bought SV Aphrodite, a St Francis 50 bluewater catamaran, in Fort Lauderdale.
Then Rick and skipper Dave Houston sailed her through the Florida Keys to Bradenton.
Training, refit trips and packing up
In April 2015 I passed my Day Skipper theory exam and flew to Antigua for three weeks.
I was a complete beginner sailing with an experienced group during Antigua Sailing Week. Then I did my RYA Day Skipper practical training.
That spring we also made several trips to Florida for SV Aphrodite's refit.
At home we had six weeks to downsize. We shipped eleven boxes to the boat from Ogdensburg, New York, and at the end of June 2015 we handed our house keys to our tenants.
Then came our “camping gap month” in a tent in a campground in Ottawa.
Moving aboard
In early August 2015 I flew with our four kids to Victoria, BC, where they stayed with their aunt Caroline, Rick's sister. I flew on to Florida alone, and Rick joined me from Ottawa. We hauled SV Aphrodite out in Tampa.
In mid-August our friend and skipper Mark Burton arrived from the UK to help us get to know SV Aphrodite, with a strong focus on keeping the kids safe.
Later that month Caroline flew down with her two teenagers and our four kids, and all six of us moved aboard.
Florida and the Bahamas
Our first eight months living aboard, when the boat, the weather and our routines were all still new to us.
Learning the ropes in Florida
We were on our own from September 2015. We practised anchoring and provisioning, and above all keeping four kids safe on a boat.
That fall we sailed south to the Florida Keys, where the kids went trick-or-treating in Tavernier.
Across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas
Our first major passage took us across the Gulf Stream from Florida to Cat Cay in the Bahamas.
Then came Nassau, the tidal creeks and ruins of the Exumas, a spring in George Town, and the generosity of the people of Abraham's Bay on Mayaguana.
The Caribbean
From the Bahamas we sailed on to Luperón, where our six years in the Caribbean began.
A hurricane hole in Luperón
By way of the Turks and Caicos, we reached Luperón in the Dominican Republic and stayed for hurricane season. We built our own mooring, and the kids went to the local school in uniforms. We also met Bruce Van Sant, the legendary author of The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South.
Down the island chain
We crossed the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. After Luperón's gritty charm, the beach-vibe polish of St Thomas gave us a case of reverse culture shock.
Then we worked our way south: Montserrat's volcano, Dominica, Martinique, Bequia and Grenada's carnival, before hauling out in Trinidad for hurricane season.
The zigzag years
Our route here looks like a giant zigzag. A gale hit us on the 800-mile run from Grenada to Haiti, and we spent a sub-zero winter on a dock in Georgia.
Sailing from Georgia through the Bahamas, we again stopped in Luperón.
Then came more boatyard time in Trinidad, and Martinique, where COVID caught up with us.
The COVID years in Grenada
We waited out the pandemic in Martinique and Grenada. The anchorages around Hog Island had so many kid boats that the children went trick-or-treating from boat to boat.
Leaving the Caribbean
In November 2021, after six years in the Caribbean, we left Grenada.
We sailed north past Puerto Rico and Hispaniola to Miami, where we collected our mail and had our Fischer Panda generator serviced.
Then we headed south through the Bahamas and the Windward Passage, past Jamaica, and arrived in Colón, Panama.
Panama
Crossing the Panama Canal was a big step: it meant we were on our way to crossing the Pacific Ocean and beyond.
Through the Panama Canal
We went up through the Gatún Locks, across Gatún Lake and down through Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.
When we passed under the Bridge of the Americas into Balboa, the cruising culture changed overnight.
Waiting on a generator
On the Pacific side we waited for our Northern Lights generator, exploring the Azuero Peninsula and Golfito, Costa Rica, where Paul photographed wild scarlet macaws.
Back in Panama City, a crane lowered our new generator into a transom locker while other boats left for the Galápagos.
Crossing the Pacific
Night watches meant some sleep deprivation and calm nights under more stars than we'd ever seen. Dolphins rode our bow wave more than once, and booby birds hitched a ride on deck.
Swimming at the Equator
With no wind, we motored due west along the equator for most of a day, from 81°46′ W to 83°27′ W. The water was 3,000 metres deep. We jumped in anyway.
An unplanned stop in the Galápagos
We hadn't planned to stop. Then an island appeared that looked like a Martian landscape, and we couldn't resist. We cleaned the hull offshore, checked in, swam with sea lions, penguins and sharks, and hiked the Sierra Negra volcano.
Three weeks of open Pacific
This was our longest offshore passage. Flying fish and squid landed on deck, and a squid-fishing fleet lit up the horizon at night.
The kids finished their homeschooling year at sea, and Karen dropped a message in a bottle.
Our first landfall was Fatu Hiva, where there were no ATMs. We traded a sailing line for fresh fruit.
French Polynesia
We spent a month in Fakarava's lagoon, then sailed on to Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora and Maupiti.
In a Tahiti marina we spotted SV Guillemot, the superyacht we had “raced” after the Galápagos.
West to Tonga
From Maupihaa, a remote atoll at the western edge of French Polynesia, we crossed to Vava'u, then worked our way south through Ha'apai to Nuku'alofa.
Landfall in New Zealand
It took six days to sail from Nuku'alofa to Opua in the Bay of Islands. That's where our Pacific crossing ended and our New Zealand chapter began.
A New Zealand summer
We spent the southern summer in New Zealand, first in Opua, where Betty left us for a three-week Outward Bound experience.
Then we sailed to Auckland, where the twins went to summer camp and we caught up on boat work.
Melanesia
With winter's arrival in New Zealand, and our supply of warm clothing running thin, we were eager to head north to Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Onto Fiji, through a gale
The passage north from New Zealand brought Force 8 to 10 winds, a rudder problem 500 miles out and a night on the para-anchor, 60 miles from Savusavu.
Once ashore, we arranged to make a new rudder.
We participated in a sevusevu ceremony, I drank my first cup of kava, and we cooked stew in a hot spring.
Vanuatu
Six hundred miles of trade winds carried us from Suva to Vanuatu.
From Port Vila, we carried 2,200 pounds of dry concrete to Pentecost Island on our catamaran. There we watched the land diving and met Margaret, a subsistence farmer.
Then we sailed on to Luganville on Espiritu Santo.
The Solomon Islands
Honiara taught us a hard lesson in travel safety when we were mugged. However, we still remain in touch with the woman who came to our aid.
Farther west came Marovo Lagoon and Munda, where Barney Paulsen's backyard museum is full of World War II history.
Papua New Guinea
We arrived on Green Island and then sailed to Kavieng, Papua New Guinea. We had planned to provision and be on our way. Instead, we went ashore and immediately felt welcomed by the local people. They were excited to report that Will Smith had just arrived. He was staying on a superyacht in the same anchorage.
Then Betty met Marine Bayer, a nurse who is a Knight of the Legion of Honour in France and a member of the French Explorers Society. Betty volunteered with Marine's Aidocean medical mission on New Hanover Island.
In PNG, our family learned about shallow water blackout the hard way, in a freediving accident with Paul. After hyperventilating, he dove to 31 feet and very nearly didn't make it back. We are grateful every day that he did, and we wrote about it so other families understand the risk.
Micronesia and the Philippines
Micronesia and the Philippines are neighbours on the map, but they felt worlds apart.
North to Micronesia
We crossed the equator again to reach Chuuk Lagoon, a diving mecca full of World War II wrecks, where children spearfish for dinner.
We snorkeled on several wrecks and dived on a sunken Japanese Betty bomber. We were fortunate to tour the USNS Mercy hospital ship.
Betty and I toured on land, but men with machetes approached us twice on the same day. One man threatened to cut off our guide's arm unless we paid a $5 bribe. We paid up, but the local guide was quite scared.
Then we carried on west across Micronesia. Along the way, our Family Dictionary was written at sea and in Colonia, Yap, at 9°30.852′ N, 138°07.331′ E.
The Philippines
Our first stop in the Philippines was Allen, which had never received a foreign, privately-owned sailboat before. The culture felt wildly different from Micronesia: scooters buzzed everywhere, and jeepneys, brightly painted old military jeeps turned into buses, gave the streets a completely different feel.
Puerto Galera, on Mindoro, was our base in the Philippines for two months. A Ukrainian couple had their wedding photos taken on our boat.
Then family arrived from Calgary, and we sailed with them to Apo Reef, snorkeling some of the clearest water we'd found since French Polynesia.
Southeast Asia
Rick has wanted our children to experience Southeast Asia for as long as I can remember. He had previously traveled to Asia for work. His colleague from Ottawa, Dave Garrard, moved to Kuala Lumpur for work and liked it so much he stayed.
Sailing here let us catch up with Dave and his wife Nonny.
Into Malaysia
We crossed the South China Sea, rounded Singapore and sailed up the Strait of Malacca to Lumut, on Malaysia's west coast. Our schedule was driven in part by Paul writing an AP Calculus exam in Kuala Lumpur in early May.
We stayed at Pangkor Marina until March 2025. It's called “Hotel California” for a reason, but we had family visiting from Germany, so we sailed north to Penang.
Thailand, and an anchor lost and found
From Penang we sailed north to Phuket and Phang Nga Bay, where we lost our anchor in deep water. Two technical divers and a lift bag got it back for us.
Then we sailed back south by Koh Lipe to Langkawi.
322 days in a Langkawi boatyard
SV Aphrodite was hauled out at Lunas Shipyard in Langkawi for a 322-day refit: new woodwork, cushions, bottom paint and a Corian galley countertop.
We stayed in a house in Kuah to escape the dust.
In March 2026, Paul flew to the Bahamas to start a crewing trip to Tahiti.
Karen painted whale sharks on the keels.
Back to Thailand, then Malaysia
Freshly refitted, we sailed back to Phang Nga Bay and Phuket for a family day out on Bangla Road.
In July 2026, Paul arrived in Phuket, flying back from Tahiti.
Then we headed south to Langkawi and down the Strait of Malacca toward Port Klang.
Betty leaves for Queen's
In August 2026 Betty left for Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Rick went along with her.
Our friend Carl, a retired NYC cop and a recurring character on this blog, drove them from Ottawa to Kingston.
In September 2026 Rick returned to SV Aphrodite in Malaysia.
What's Next
We will continue our circumnavigation as a crew of five, staying in regular contact with Betty.
Behind the map
A few notes on the map. Open a box to read more.