Featured Content
From House to Sailboat: How a Family Road Trip Changed Us
We traded a conventional life in Ottawa for the dream of raising our children aboard a sailboat — even though I had never sailed.
About Our Boat
SV Aphrodite is a St. Francis 50 catamaran — Hull #1 of an award-winning bluewater design. See her specs, equipment, and offshore features.
Long Reads: Galapagos
Volcanoes, sharks, penguins, sea lions, offshore fishing fleets, and a message in a bottle — the Galapagos is one of the most interesting and diverse places we have visited during…
Long Reads Grenada
A muddy hike, memory-making at Grenada Carnival, drama on a public bus, sailing passages from Trinidad to Grenada and Grenada to Haiti, and what happened when COVID-19 arrived in a…
Why the Caribbean Has Virtually No Tides
Why Caribbean tides are tiny — and why Panama’s beaches can vanish at high tide.
Luperón Long Reads — Boat Kids Go Local
Joining a local school taught entirely in Spanish, learning baseball, making friends, and discovering how quickly the Luperon cruising community can rally when help is needed.
Luperón Long Reads — Designing and Building a Mooring for Our 50-foot Catamaran
A technical long read about how we built a three-point hurricane mooring.
Luperón Long Reads — Waiting Out Hurricane Season
A gritty, funny, and affectionate look at Luperón, Dominican Republic — from stray dogs and bureaucratic red tape to unexpected kindness, cruiser culture, and lunch with Bruce Van Sant.
Bahamas Long Reads — Exumas Stories
Isolated anchorages, tidal creeks, swimming pigs, dock drama, cruiser life, and an encounter with a wild dolphin.
Southern Bahamas Long Reads — Beyond the Exumas
New to sailing, our family navigates shallow reef cuts, spots nurse sharks and wild flamingos, and visits remote island communities in the southern Bahamas.
Latest Blog Posts
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Keel Art: Whale Sharks on a Moving Canvas by a Teen Artist
In Langkawi, Malaysia, Karen painted our keels in unbearable heat. It still wasn’t the hardest part.
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Leaving for an Epic Adventure: Crewing on a Sailboat at 18
After ten years calling SV Aphrodite home, our 18-year-old leaves for his first offshore crewing adventure from the Bahamas to French Polynesia.
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MedGemma Impact Challenge: Offline Triage App for Sailors
This is a description of the SailingMedAdvisor application that he wrote for the MedGemma Impact Challenge 2026.
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Land Diving on Pentecost Island: Ritual, Tourists, Ethics
An uncomfortable look at the commodification of risk from Taipei 101 to land diving on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu.
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Boat Interior Painting: Teaching My Teen A Useful Skill
Painting our galley and table was a life skill I wanted to share with my daughter and the results genuinely surprised us both.
