It is that time of a year again, the seasons are changing and many of us sailors are planning how and where spend the storm season. We spent four cyclone seasons holed up in Vuda Point Marina, Fiji, which meant we got the process of packing up and shipping off down to a fine art….
Strange Drums and the Banks Band in Port Vila
I have always been attracted to the beat of a drum. In the sixth grade when we all had to pick an instrument to study at school I choose the drums. For the next seven years I played in the school band. I was never particularly interested in the drum set, no teenage dreams of…
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I swam with the tiger sharks and survived!
I am not big on New Years Eve, never have been. Maybe it is because in Canada where I grew up it arrives shortly after we see the darkest day of the year, hardly feeling celebratory. Also knowing that the coldest of winter weather is still to come and months will be spent trapped inside,…
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The Pace of Life
It has been a pretty exciting week around here and this photo sums it up perfectly. That’s Steve holding a shiny new, out of the box outboard. Which means; A. He’s home and B. We are upwardly mobile again. The pace of everyday life on board has changed this week, in more ways than one….
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Galley Notes: Fermenting on a Small Sailboat
Steve has been away for almost 7 weeks and, as per usual, while he’s been gone I have been experimenting in the galley. This time I have been making sauerkraut, and some variations, using the process of natural fermentation. I am a big fan of sauerkraut, always have been. Growing up in Nova Scotia it…
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TBT: Photographing Kastom Dancing in Vanuatu
In the South Pacific radio is still used as one of the main means of communicating with the local population. There is often death announcements, notices about power and water interruptions, flight information and, of course, weather bulletins. Local businesses use radio to advertise specials and promote services and if there is a local paper…
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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…
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“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…
