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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It’s just a flesh wound: when sail handling goes wrong
Rope burn in a sailboat race — a lighthearted look at the small mishaps that come with life on deck.
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Rat aboard!
One morning in Barbados, in the hull of a 65-foot Farr, Rick spotted a rat under the bunk pillow above him. The skipper of SV Spirit of Juno dealt with the eight-inch beast using a screwdriver and a firm foot.
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Hiking – learning the language of sailing
Slowly, very slowly, I’m acquiring the language of sailing. Rick called from Barbados, and I learned hiking: holding yourself out over the windward side to keep a heeling boat flatter and faster.
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Teaching the kids to heel
My kids had a day off, so I took Betty and Paul to the Children’s Museum. This post isn’t about tilting boats at all. It’s about the valuable skill of teaching my kids to heel and stay close ashore.
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Self Sufficiency, Safety and Medical Treatment at Sea
Days of highs, lows and the unexpected. As I started my Day Skipper course in Ottawa, Rick, asthmatic with one working lung, was laid low in Antigua wondering if he had pneumonia. My studying took a back seat.
