Becoming a Sailor

Becoming a Sailor

More Than a Decade Afloat • Raising Sailors • Stories from SV Aphrodite

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Category: Refits, Haul-Outs and Buying Gear

Refits, Haul-Outs and Buying Gear takes us out of the water and into the dusty world of boatyards, marinas, and anchorages with a twist of cultural differences and communication gaps roped in — all in pursuit of repairs, upgrades, and the endless quest to improve our boat.

Escher family and crew of SV Aphrodite at Lunas Shipyard prior to the launch. Paul is away in French Polynesia crewing on another boat temporarily.
05/23/202606/09/2026 Lorraine Escher

322 Days on the Hard

Blue tape on a hyalon Zar dinghy to prepare for a leak repair in Lunas Shipyard, Langkawi, Malaysia
05/13/202605/17/2026 Lorraine Escher

The Point of the Work

Karen Escher painting the keel in Langkawi, Malaysia.
04/13/202604/14/2026 Lorraine Escher

Karen paints our keel. An artist’s challenges are not what I would have expected.

Karen painting the underside of our saloon table at Lunas Shipyard in Langkawi, Malaysia.
01/11/202604/22/2026 Lorraine Escher

Learning to Paint with Karen Aboard our Sailboat

Hands showing how the curvature of our hull impacts the amount of usable counterspace.
11/27/202504/23/2026 Lorraine Escher

How Did I Miss the Skill of Measuring with Accuracy?

A man in a yellow shirt at Brother Lim Cushion in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
11/24/202501/27/2026 Lorraine Escher

A Fresh Start for Our Boat’s Upholstery in Malaysia

Eastbay Foreman, Rashid, and another woodworker from Eastbay apply new cherry veneer to a cupboard in our saloon.
10/27/202505/22/2026 Lorraine Escher

Teak and Transformation: Refinishing SV Aphrodite’s Woodwork in Malaysia

Paul in Power Boat Boatyard, Chaguaramas, Trinidad with our Mantus Anchor 2017 below SV Aphrodite, our St Francis 50 catamaran.
11/05/201706/29/2026 Lorraine Escher

Living with Four Kids in a Boatyard in Trinidad — Turns Out, It Isn’t So Hard to Stay ‘On The Hard’

08/13/201506/03/2026 Lorraine Escher

Sleeping on stilts during a refit

08/12/201510/05/2025 Lorraine Escher

Successful haul-out in Tampa

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SV Aphrodite Family Dictionary Bingo Wings with Karen demonstrating

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Paul at the top of the mast of SV Aphrodite in Auckland, New Zealand.
A composite image that includes four checklists I created after moving from a house to a sailboat as a family of six from Canada.

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Homeschooling Four Kids

Early Years of Cruising

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