We are a Canadian family of six who left Ottawa in 2015 aboard our St Francis 50 catamaran, SV Aphrodite. I began this blog in 2014, before we bought our sailboat. I had never sailed.

While we had dreams of our family sailing around the world, we didn’t anticipate that a single idea would lead us to sail to more than 40 countries. More than a decade later, we are still circumnavigating.

Learning to Sail as a Family

Our family started sailing when our children were 9, 7, 4 and 4. Child safety was top of mind. But at the time, I felt very much like an outsider looking in. What would it be like to parent four kids on a sailboat?

I wanted to document what it felt like to learn to sail, to attend the Annapolis Boat Show as a complete beginner, and to downsize an entire house.

My husband, Rick, had taken sailing as a university elective. I was keen to learn. Before we left Ottawa, we both took RYA sailing courses. I also crewed on a race boat during Antigua Sailing Week.

Homeschooling and sailing were new to us, but adventure travel was not. So, about a year after we began sailing, I was surprised to experience culture shock.

Isn’t this a lifestyle people dream about?

More Than a Decade of Family Sailing

More than a decade later, this blog has become a record of our family sailing around the world.

If you are new here, these are some good places to start.

1. Buying our St Francis 50 Catamaran, SV Aphrodite
2. Moving from House to Boat: Our Family Camping Gap Month
3. Learning to Sail From Scratch: Our First Six Months
4. Crossing the Panama Canal: A Different Cruising World
5. Heavy Weather Sailing: Force 8–10 from New Zealand to Fiji
6. Catamaran Haul-Out in Malaysia: 322 Days for a Refit

Sailing With Kids

Every child who grows up on a boat will have a different story. For our family, sailing has never been only about the places we visit. We have always tried to look beyond the boat, and education has been an important part of that journey.

1. Living on a Sailboat with Kids: Freedom or Confinement?
2. Sailing with Kids: Our First Year Cruising as a Family of Six
3. Job Jar for Kids: How Real Boat Chores Build Grit
4. Luperón Long Reads — Boat Kids Go Local
5. Homeschooling or Boatschooling: Can It Lead to University?
6. Card Game Illustration: A Boat Kid’s First Job at 10
7. 2nd Pacific Puddle Jump: Boat Kid Becomes Skilled Crew at 18

Places We Have Sailed

Starting in 2015, we sailed from Florida to the Bahamas and through much of the Eastern Caribbean.

Our live tracking map shows only part of that route because we lost the data from our first seven years of cruising. If it were complete, the Caribbean portion would look like a giant zigzag stretching from Georgia to Trinidad. At one point, we even sailed back to Miami to pick up mail.

We spent the COVID years in Martinique and Grenada. In 2021, we crossed the Panama Canal. In 2022, we began crossing the Pacific. We are now in Southeast Asia.

You can click and zoom in on this map to see where we’ve been and to follow our route.

These are some of my favourite blog posts from our travels.

1. Bahamas Long Reads — Exumas Stories
2. Dominica Travel: If Outside Magazine Visited the Caribbean
3. Crossing the Panama Canal: A Different Cruising World
4. Long Reads: Galapagos
5. Sevusevu Ceremony in Fiji: Reluctant First-Time Kava Drinker
6. Land Diving on Pentecost Island, Vanuatu: Ritual, Tourists, Ethics
7. Bangla Road Phuket: A Family Outing Takes an Unexpected Turn

We plan to continue our route via South Africa to Brazil. When we reach Trinidad we will have closed the loop on our circumnavigation.

Boat Life & Projects

I did not anticipate how much of cruising would involve maintenance, repairs and improvisation. Cruising has introduced us to many interesting and resourceful people.

For example, in the Bahamas, I met a man who fashioned a temporary front tooth with a seashell.

Here are some of the boat projects we have worked on.

1. Catamaran Refit: Preparing Our Boat for Cruising
2. What Goes Wrong on a Sailboat: When the Watermaker Breaks
3. DIY Catamaran Safety: Our Pool Noodle Swim Enclosure
4. Washing Machine Retrofit on a Catamaran: Saving Time & Space
5. Boat Woodwork Refit in Malaysia: A Full-On Transformation
6. Brother Lim Cushion: A Fresh Start for our Marine Upholstery

See also SV Aphrodite’s Specs and Detailed Equipment List.

Life Before Sailing: Downsizing and Moving Aboard

Our transition from land to boat was quick. We bought a boat in March 2015, radically downsized our home in Ottawa, rented out our house, and put some gear in storage. Less than five months later, we had completed a refit and moved aboard.

1. Sailing Family: From Corporate Suits to Hippies?
2. Downsizing Room by Room: A Simple Strategy For a Big Task
3. Getting Our House Ready for Tenants
4. Long-Term Basement Storage

Family Dictionary: Life Afloat A to Z

The SV Family Dictionary grew out of more than a decade of family life aboard. It contains more than 100 words and phrases that developed naturally within our family, many illustrated with photographs, video or audio.

Linguists call this kind of family language a “familect.” Words from our family dictionary appear throughout this blog, or you can browse the entire dictionary to learn our language and get a sense of what life aboard Aphrodite is like.

In early October 2026, the Globe and Mail will publish a First Person essay about Betty’s departure and our family dictionary.

If you would like to follow our journey, please subscribe.