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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Newbie Sailor Arrives at Antigua Sailing Week
In Antigua, surrounded by sailing inside and out, my room at the Pineapple House deserves more than a passing mention. The Frangipani room, with its bright sink and fresh-cut flowers, has real charm.
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She was a Day Skipper, one way ticket yeah
Good news, I passed my RYA Day Skipper Theory exam. Forty hours of coursework, a six-hour exam, and now I can plot a course by tide and weather, and place myself in the world with a chart, compass and buoys.
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Leaving for Antigua Sailing Week – parting is such sweet sorrow
I greet Antigua Sailing Week with mixed feelings: living the fantasy of leaving my family for three weeks to chase my own ambition, while worrying about all of them, and reminding you the word is becoming.
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RYA sailing training – it’s not child’s play
For one flickering morning I was the smartest person in the family. I reminded Rick I was writing my RYA exam tomorrow, and watched realization dawn on my Masters-in-Space-Physics husband. Yes, really.
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Adding colour and design pizazz to our catamaran
With Aphrodite in Bradenton for her refit, it’s the perfect moment to add some personality. Rick and I are dreaming in blue with a splash of tangerine, and we want our four kids woven into the boat’s artwork.
