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…
“You don’t know what you can do until you’ve done it, right?”
I recently had a virtual catch up with a dear friend of mine and she wrote that sentence in her letter. It jumped off the page at me. She and her husband are working through the same problem that we are; trying to find a balance between the sailing life and working to fund that…
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Sickness and Seashells
Last week was my birthday and with Steve away I was totally expecting to spend it by myself. I thought if the weather was nice I would go to town in the afternoon, find a nice little café, order a very decadent dessert and a glass of red wine and people watch for a bit….
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Returning to my roots
I started traveling in the pre-digital era. There was no Facebook or Instagram, almost no one carried a phone and internet cafes, when you could find them, worked on dial-up. It was also pre-digital photography, so documenting the places I had journeyed far and wide to see meant lugging some heavy equipment, insisting rolls of…
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The more things change the more they stay the same
“I am about to spend the first night on the boat alone…yikes!” That’s what I posted on July 9th, 2008 on Facebook (thanks for the reminder internet). At the time we were tied to a dock in San Diego, far from the threat of cyclones, close to grocery stores, good internet, hot showers and all…
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Grotty Yachtie or Bust?!
The other day, while standing on the side of the road outside town, I was picked up by an ex-pat. She had passed me by but then noticed in her review mirror that so had two taxis that were following her. She pulled a U-turn and asked me if I wanted a lift. I hadn’t…
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July Article
If you’re in Australia or New Zealand you can find a story about out time sailing in the Kingdom of Tonga in the July issue of Cruising Helmsman Magazine. It’s on sale now, Steve even found a copy of it in the Melbourne Airport last week! Love, H&S
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Bottle Shock and Amnesia
Before we departed Noumea I hit the grocery store and stocked up on a few things; not exactly essentials but items that make the occasional afternoon a little less ordinary. I found excellent prices on olives, sun-dried tomatoes, smoked mussels and pate- yes, I know pate, but at $1.00 a tin even we can afford…
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Halo! from Port Vila
We had a quick but bumpy passage from New Caledonia, pushing headwinds the whole way, despite weather forecasts assuring us differently. Although Port Vila harbour has leads and lights that would have made navigating in after dark we did not know what would be the state of the harbour after Pam; would there wreckage and…
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Au revoir
After two days of beating against 20-25 kt winds we are finally tucked into Port Boise just inside the Havannah Pass, almost exactly where we started from a month ago. Tomorrow morning on the out going tide we are planning to slip through the pass and point NE to Vanuatu. Winds look like they will…
