Tag: Family Circumnavigation

The Escher family — two parents and four children from Ottawa, Canada — spent over a decade circumnavigating the world aboard SV Aphrodite, a St Francis 50 catamaran. These are the posts from that voyage: crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific, cruising the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Fiji, Vanuatu and Southeast Asia, homeschooling four kids at sea, refitting and repairing the boat in remote anchorages, and raising a family aboard across more than 40 countries. Written from the boat, as it happened.

Job Jar for Kids: Boat Jobs For Kids with Karen dusting our Nav desk in the background on SV Aphrodite

June 12, 2026July 25, 2026Lorraine Escher

Job Jar for Kids: How Real Boat Chores Build Grit

Betty after accepting her university offer in Canada after years of homeschooling on a sailboat.

April 22, 2026July 21, 2026Lorraine Escher

Homeschooling on a Sailboat: Betty is Accepted to University

Our niece, Jorja, from Calgary in front of the Bridge of the Americas, Panama.

September 26, 2025July 22, 2026Lorraine Escher

Crossing the Panama Canal: A Different Cruising World

Alfred toasting edited

August 8, 2024July 23, 2026Lorraine Escher

Alfred Escher remembered

Our move from house to sailboat began with a roadtrip. Here is a photo of our kids running along the beach of Lake Superior with a banner of our tent and van with the text The Road Trip that Changed Everything, referring to the 60 day camping trip we took the summer before we bought our St. Francis 50 catamaran, SV Aphrodite.

January 1, 2024July 22, 2026Lorraine Escher

From House to Sailboat: How a Family Road Trip Changed Us

October 26, 2023July 24, 2026Lorraine Escher

Medical Mission in Papua New Guinea: A Teen Volunteer

August 23, 2023July 24, 2026Lorraine Escher

Travel Safety in Honiara: Mugged on Skyline Road at Dawn

Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Eight Bathers painting.

June 20, 2023June 20, 2023Lorraine Escher

An Octave of Women: Shades of Contrast in Fiji

Removing what remained of the port rudder

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023Lorraine Escher

Removing our rudders in the water, and towing another catamaran

Galapagos Long Reads with a Close-up of the Feet of a Blue-Footed booby bird

June 12, 2022July 25, 2026Lorraine Escher

Long Reads Galapagos