Some people like to call it a “Shake down cruise” but I think that sounds too nicey nicey. There has been nothing “cruisey” about the last two weeks on board Kate. The term “Sea Trial” seems much more appropriate. As is the norm before a passage and after a long period on the hard we…
Category: Sailing
Remember that time we sailed around Costa Rica?
“As we neared Costa Rica we sailed into days of violent squalls. The thunder was so loud I wondered if the rig was coming down, and caught myself ducking with my hands over my head. The pitch black night was punctuated by blinding bolts of lightning that often struck the water nearby. We watched as…
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Hard times, no more
The last few weeks have been long and exhausting. This time of year in the South Pacific always is. As the heat of summer recedes and winter brings calmer weather and favorable winds there is a rush to get projects completed, to meet deadlines, to catch weather windows. But this year our transition from being a…
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"Safety never takes a day off."
During the first few months we lived on board I would often find myself awake in the middle of the night, my mind swirling around worst-case scenarios, wondering how, or if, I would cope if something bad happened. Sometimes I was worried about the big stuff but as often it was knowing that a chipped…
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Safe and Sound… and so very Grateful
I am not sure we realize how very lucky we were this past weekend. As we boarded a plane on Tuesday to return home to Kate in Fiji it wasn’t our luggage that was weighing us down. It was a deepening low pressure system, a late season cyclone in the South Pacific, that was heavy on…
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"Land food"; the latest food craze on boats
I have been spending a fair amount of time this week in front of my laptop writing a couple articles about provisioning and cooking on board. While researching what has already been published (in the hopes that I might have something new to say, HA!) I keep stumbling across this notion of “boat food”. That…
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Hope floats
We use our dinghy a lot. It is more than just the “family car” that carries us to and from shore. It is our “off-road”exploration vehicle, our means for mobile entertainment, our backup plan and more recently our escape pod. When we bought Kate she came with a Zodiac Zoom. How long it had been…
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For the Love of Sailing
Read another of my articles in February’s issue of Blue Water Sailing. Better yet give a copy to the one who makes your heart sail this Valentine’s Day.
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Grand Opening of the Boatyard Brew Company
Back at the beginning of December Steve and I did something that we’ve been talking about for a long time. Something that we should have done years ago. After months of procrastination, and with the holidays just around the bend, we decided there would be no better time for it. We put up our first…
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Kate on Cover of Cruising Helmsman
We have some very exciting news to kick off the New Year! Kate is featured on the January 2015 cover of Cruising Helmsman, “Australia’s No.1 Sailing Magazine”. A real team effort with me at the helm and Steve snapping photos from the dinghy. And if you happen upon a December issue there should be a…
