Solar Cooking: Testing the Go Sun Stove and the Sun Flair Solar Oven for BWS

Think that solar cooking means one pot meals and reheating frozen meals? This is my Squid Stuffed with Saffron Rice in a Spicy Tomato Sauce. It was cooked in a solar oven. Think that solar cooking requires you to live in the tropics? Wondering if solar cooking is a pracitical cooking method? Curious about different…

Boat Writers International Writing Contest 2018 Winner: Boating Travel & Destination

Exciting news! This arrived in the mail this week!! It seems appropriate that my submission was an article about Vanuatu, a place I have described as my “unicorn of the South Pacific”, as I had to wait 8 long years before we finally sailed into Port Villa Harbour. The wait, however, was certainly worth it….

Abandoning Ship, Cooking up a Storm, Keeping Your Cool and Solar Gadgets to Keep you Connected; Article Roundup

There is an old sailors mantra that says you should always step up into the liferaft, or in other words abandoning the vessel should be the very last resort. We had a chance to inspect our Viking life raft when we had it serviced in Fiji. Sitting inside the small, orange inflatable compartment was sobering;…

2-4-1 in the BWS February Issue

There is still a few days to pick up the February issue of Blue Water Sailing magazine where you’ll find information about building an onboard medical kit in my regular column, Heather Francis Onboard, as well as a story about our time in New Caledonia earlier this year! You can also subscribe to the digital…

Cooking Underway

I am very excited and proud to announce that you can now find me in Blue Water Sailing Magazine every other month! Look for my new column “Heather Francis Onboard” in the August issue. I will be tackling crew health and welfare issues; everything from tips for cooking underway, healthy entertaining and how to start…