Kate’s galley has always been well looked after – the wood varnished, the countertops oiled, the sink scrubbed clean – but after 17 years living onboard it was starting to look a little dingy. The countertops that were installed shortly before we bought Kate were constructed out of 4-inch strips of thin hardwood, glued down…
Category: Sailing
Reading Round Up
Seeing as it is still January, and therefore people are ok with being all nostalgic about years past, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post a round up of the articles that were published in Cruising World Magazine 2025. I got back into the swing of things by writing a feature on a 126-year-old…
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Galley Notes: Babaganoush on a Rainy Day
Eggplant has long been the bane of my culinary existence. It grows in abundance in the tropics and so has been a constant at the markets for as long as I can remember. They are usually of the Asian variety, long and thin, pale purple or with stripes of white, small seeds. I’ve seen them…
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2025 Recap & Catch Up
2025 was a hard year. I can say this because we spent the entirety of it in the boatyard in Kudat, Borneo, Malaysia. This was not the plan, of course. Which is maybe why hauling out sometimes feels like voluntarily checking into an insane asylum- an olde tyme one that only requires one signature to…
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Marina Life
For most boaters staying in a marina is something they do on a regular basis, it’s nothing special. But for us, it is a luxury that we haven’t had in many, many years. Nine in fact. Yep, it’s been nine years since we’ve had Kate alongside – that’s not counting the 10 minutes we spent…
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Borneo: Impressions
I had high hopes for Borneo. Not expectations but hopes. I was hoping that our first border crossing in a long while would be a reboot for us, an opportunity to reset and start again fresh in a new country. I was hoping to leave behind all of the emotional baggage that I had collected…
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Day Tripping & One Night Stands
In theory, day sailing is a great idea. Sail during the good daylight hours, throw the pick in a (hopefully) protected anchorage by mid-afternoon, have plenty of time to cook dinner, go to bed at a reasonable hour, and wake up refreshed to do it all again. But in reality, it is a little different.
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Galley Notes: Cheats Congee in Cruising World Magazine
Something that has been on heavy rotation in my galley these past few months has been my Cheats Congee. I say cheats because I don’t use uncooked rice and I don’t claim that it is a traditional recipe. Congee is a savoury rice porridge that is warm, and soothing, and delicious. It appears in many…
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A little perspective
For the past few weeks we’ve been surrounded by some pretty spectacular landscape. Islands that rise sharply out of the ocean, their sheer cliffs towering above us, their jagged, rocky spires unwelcoming. They are stoic and dramatic, inspiring and intimidating. And, according to Google, probably formed some 550 million years ago. Which puts our short lives on this planet in sharp perspective for sure.
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Beginning again…again
Steve and I quickly realized that there was no alternative but to buckle down, soldier through, and make the best of all the obstacles that we encountered.
