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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Every voyage has a beginning, so where do I start?
A slow week for learning to sail. The twins started daycare, then Henry caught a cold on day one and I’ve been in full mommy mode since. Still, I finally plotted everything we must finish before we depart.
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Food Allergies On Land, and At Sea
Food is a social bridge, but one of our children carries an Epi-pen for life-threatening allergies. As we plan our sailing trip, I’m wrestling with how to keep him safe and fed far from any hospital.
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Docking a Sailboat: Is it a Relationship Builder?
Today I bumped a parked car and shattered its bumper, hardly reassuring given I’ll soon be mooring a sailboat for the first time in Antigua. Is docking a relationship builder, or a circus? We’ll find out.
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Renting Out Our House to Sail: Suddenly It Felt Real
Last hours of the school holidays, kids glued to Avatar, guilt setting in, and then an email: our agent wants to show the house to a possible renter tomorrow. Two thousand pieces of Lego say otherwise.
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Annapolis Boat Show: 4 Things Beginners Will Want to Know
Feeling seasick is one thing, but being lost in sailing jargon at a boat show can be intimidating. I know because I’ve lived it. Here’s how to start making sense of it.
