This is the first half of a 2-part article published in the South African Sailing magazine of April and May 2014.
I have been living on Merlin, our 44ft Dean Catamaran, for the last 5 years, 2 of them spent cruising across 2 oceans with 3 kids. I would like to share some …Read more
If this title conjures up visions of fighting off cold and polar bears in Svalbard, or the Northwest Passage with Jimmy Cornell or rounding Cape Horn you will be disappointed (although we have sailed around Cape Horn). The eighties in this article are years of age.
Noted for its world-class diving sites, the “drier” side of Bonaire is many times forgotten. The salt mountains of the south, the largest pink flamingo sanctuary in the Caribbean and the wild and barren Washington Slagbaai Park in the North all contribute to a side of Bonaire that some mistakenly …Read more
My husband was pretty sure I was serious about selling up and going cruising when I returned the gold watch he had given me for our anniversary (“She’s even too crazy to be a cruiser,” I hear you gasp). However, what really convinced him was when I parted with my (shamefully vast) collection of “Cottage Living” and “Victoria” …Read more
Imagine your house. Now shrink it down to your living room and kitchen. That’s the size of the boat my husband and I lived on for two months with seven people as we sailed across the largest ocean on the planet on Llyr, a 53-foot steel ketch. Now take that space and shrink it down to …Read more
I first read Ruth’s article about going overboard when it was first published in the Caribbean Compass back in 1999.
It was an amazing story and I wondered if I could possibly be as resourceful as Ruth if something like that happened to me. Before I went cruising, …Read more
Who can forget the photos of the 40 ton southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) that breached onto a 33ft sloop in South Africa in 2010, breaking the mast before sliding into the water with an ‘eerie …Read more
Most sailors setting off on a passage dream of encountering wildlife at sea.
Yet ask blue water sailors about their biggest fears, and near the top of the list is likely to be ‘striking a whale’. It’s one of the events most likely to be catastrophic at sea. Today, we can usually avoid really bad weather, but can we avoid a sleeping whale at …Read more
“What did we sign up for?!” I thought after our first day at anchor in the Sea of Cortez. We had spent the prior night and wee morning hours fighting through a 30 knot coromuel to get to the anchorage. Both us and the boat were covered with …Read more
At 16o 36.050 S and 97o 31.080 W we turned around. It was not equipment failure or dangerous weather; it was fatigue.
We were half way to Easter Island from the Galapagos and from there we were headed to the fjords of Chile.
But it was not to be. We knew we would only get more tired and the safety of our family in a vast empty sea would be at risk. I had resisted abandoning the plan. I wanted the children to see that dreams and plans can be …Read more
We have been living aboard for about a year and a half now, 7 months at a dock in Morehead City, North Carolina, 3 months moored in Marathon, Florida, 3 months cruising the Bahamas, 3 months docked in Baltimore, and now making our way south again.
I have a lot to say about boredom, because I …Read more
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