Composting Toilet  5- Year Review

It has been five years since we installed a composting AirHead toilet onboard Kate and the other day, while giving the unit it’s monthly deep clean, I thought it might be handy to tell you what we like, what we’ve learned, and what we’ve improved. (I wrote about how a composting toilet works, and how…

Reading Round Up

Seeing as it is still January, and therefore people are ok with being all nostalgic about years past, I thought I’d take the opportunity to post a round up of the articles that were published in Cruising World Magazine 2025. I got back into the swing of things by writing a feature on a 126-year-old…

2025 Recap & Catch Up

 2025 was a hard year. I can say this because we spent the entirety of it in the boatyard in Kudat, Borneo, Malaysia. This was not the plan, of course. Which is maybe why hauling out sometimes feels like voluntarily checking into an insane asylum- an olde tyme one that only requires one signature to…

Galley Notes: Cheats Congee in Cruising World Magazine

Something that has been on heavy rotation in my galley these past few months has been my Cheats Congee. I say cheats because I don’t use uncooked rice and I don’t claim that it is a traditional recipe. Congee is a savoury rice porridge that is warm, and soothing, and delicious. It appears in many…

Lest We Forget – Lesson from the South Pacific

No matter where I am in the world I always stop and reflect on November 11th, Remembrance Day. As a Canadian I learned about the war in Europe, where most of the Canadian troops served. I had no idea how much action happened in the South Pacific. While sailing in Solomon Islands we encountered many…

Reading Round Up/date

It is only recently that I have felt the tickle at the back of my brain asking me to write something for this space. But, like the faint, annoying tingle before a sneeze, if I turn my head away from the screen, the feeling subsides. And it has, again and again, over the past year….

Reading Roundup for a Tropical Depression

I woke up yesterday to a tropical depression.  Funny, I thought to myself, that’s what most of June felt like. Or was that May? Regardless, it was actually referring to the weather, not my mental health. (Which, before you start worrying, has been fine.) But what that TD means is that the hagabat, or monsoon,…

Solomon’s Article Wins Best in Travel & Destination

I am proud to announce that my article about our time in the Solomon Islands, “Patience of Solomon’s,” has taken first prize in the Boat Writers International Annual Writing Contest! Judge Carol Pierini said, “Patience of Solomon’s presents a well-documented overview of the Soloman Islands, complete with extensive details for each port. From introduction to…

Reading Roundup 2019

As you read in the last post I took a bit of a break from life online during 2019. But, just because I wasn’t writing on the blog doesn’t mean that I wasn’t writing. I had a very productive year and had several articles published, one of which I am particularly proud of. So, here…

Living Low-Impact on a Boat

If you have been reading for a while, then you probably noticed that we try hard to live in a way fosters sustainability and that is low-impact to the world around us. A big part of this comes about by the small, everyday decisions that we make. Whether it is choosing reusable shopping bags over…