Featured Content
Why We Want to Sail
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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Pigs, Sharks, and Thunderball Grotto — Exploring the Exumas with Kids
Swimming pigs, Thunderball Grotto, and a snorkelling site called The Aquarium: our days in the Exumas left four-year-old Henry shouting It’s amazing, I love it. Homeschooling snuck in where it could.
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The Tidal Creeks of Shroud Cay, Bahamas
Anchored among the coral heads at Shroud Cay, we reunited with our Tavernier friends Dave and Nathalie, waited out rough water with fresh homeschooling books, then set off to explore the tidal creeks.
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New cruisers regroup
Barnacles clinging, watermaker fixed after Rick’s dash to Miami, we lingered in West Bay near Nassau to regroup. Yes, we hold meetings. Here’s what a boat family actually discusses after a hard month.
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Water rationing for 12 days in the Bahamas
Twelve days into rationing our water in West Bay near Nassau: drinking and cooking only, no showers. Our watermaker had quit, and a St Francis 50 without desalination is a thirsty thing.
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Allen Cay, Bahamas — Our First Isolated Anchorage
My blog is called “Becoming a Sailor,” but what does that even mean? At Allen Cay, our first truly isolated anchorage, I wrestle with whether to write like a purist or just tell you the honest truth.
