I haven’t been here much recently. By here I mean both on the blog and in the galley. My enthusiasm for the blog ebbs and flows like the tide. Ironically, when we finally have half decent internet access and I get a chance to ‘catch up’ with the world is when I experience the most…
Top Ten on the Beach
We spent last weekend on the beach, but not just any beach. We spent last weekend on perhaps the busiest beach in all of the Philippines. The island of Boracay (pronounced Bor-RA-cai) is only 9km long and 1km wide. White Beach takes up most of the western side of the island and is THE tourist…
Gigantes Sur in a Nutshell, OK Seashell
Last week we stopped at a little island called Gigantes Sur. Still in the Western Visayas province of the Philippines it is a small island off the east coast of Panay; a dot among several others in the area. There isn’t too much in the way of Cruising Guides for the Philippines, or at least…
Pressure Cookers; A Galley Essential?
Almost everyone will tell you that a pressure cooker is a ‘must have’ in your galley, but is it really? Sure they are economical, a great way to save time and very trendy right now but like any cooking technique pressure cooking does have it’s limitations. This month in my Blue Water Sailing column I…
First Impressions; Philippines
We’ve been in the Philippines for almost three weeks now, which for me is just enough time to start to get comfortable in a place. After a few weeks I’ve finally stop comparing our current destination to the one we just left. After a few weeks I have gotten past the shock and awe factor…
Goodbye Palau, Hello Philippines
After what seems like endless delays we are finally underway to the Philippines!!! The passage from Palau to Surigao, our first port, is about 500NM, so with any luck and some good winds we should be in the Philippines in 4-5 days. As always we will be dropping a GSP waypoint daily via our SPOT….
What it is Like to be On Passage?
We are preparing to to set sail to the Philippines in a few days. Meals are cooked, cabin in stowed and we have a keen eye on the weather. But it is always a little difficult to prepare for passage because you’re never really sure what lies ahead. As we ready ourselves for sea I…
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Sometimes you have a bad day and shake it off. Other times bad days string together into a bad week, leaving you to wonder just how you managed to pissed off absolutely all of the God’s, at the exact same time. At the beginning of March we had one of “those” weeks. We had recently…
How-to Make Dinghy Chaps
We just left the world of inflatable dinghies after a very frustrating and costly few years dealing with our problematic Takacat. There will be more info about our experience and disappointments coming up, as well as our reflections on our new hard dinghy from Porta-bote. But if you’re still in the blow up boat camp and…
Provisioning, Passages and the Peanut Butter Princess
We are preparing for our next passage to the Philippines, which means we’ve been doing lots of schlepping of provisions. It’s not that I am worried about finding good provisions in PI, it’s just that I know there are somethings I may not be able to find. For me part of the excitement of sailing…
