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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House to Boat: Downsizing When the Pressure Is On
Rick, not one for hyperbole, called our move from house to boat hellish. Selling the van, storing gear, and shedding belongings from under our own feet gave me hives, and the urge to avoid it all.
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Stress-free camping? Not here.
There’s a difference between living in a campground and staying in one, and after more than two weeks I’ve learned it. Our tarp and eight-person tent give our site a prickly measure of permanence.
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A visit from CBC Radio’s Stu Mills
Looking after four young kids is never dull—especially when CBC Radio’s Stu Mills turns up at your Ottawa campsite, tipped off by our ad selling all our camping gear as we prepare to sail away.
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Galley refits on our St Francis 50 catamaran
The galley refit began almost the day we bought Aphrodite—a new Isotherm fridge, refinished Corian counters, and cabinetry Rick tore out after the old fridge quit mid-passage to Bradenton.
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Camping solo with four kids
Rick’s off in Bradenton wrangling refits, so I’m camping single-handed with our four kids near Ottawa. I’ve done solo before, cycling the Pacific coast with 70 pounds of gear, but four kids is its own sport.
