Our boat is complex. There are lots of moving parts, standing parts, parts work pretty well or parts that could use improvement. While circumnavigating, we’ve learned so much about our boat, but one of our very early lessons was on lazy jacks. What are Lazy Jacks? Our boat, Starry Horizons, a Fountaine Pajot Helia 44,…
Whether you are just starting out and learning how to sail or have completed a world circumnavigation like us, sometimes it helps to be reminded why we do this. There are many benefits to the cruising life, and some inspirational words always help me get there. And at the moment, they make me miss cruising!…
As we sailed from Recife, Brazil to the Caribbean, the world started to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’d made the decision to aim for Antigua, which ended up being absolutely perfect. We arrived in St John’s, the only port of entry open, on March 26th and cleared into the country, aware that…
We finished our world sailing circumnavigation on March 26th, 2020. We were supposed to have a party in St Lucia; instead, we had to deal with the COVID pandemic, which we rode out very nicely in Antigua. Since we didn’t get to have our party, we had a digital one instead! Over two hundred people…
One of the first projects we tackled in the very early stages of outfitting our boat for cruising was to add folding propellors to our sailing catamaran. Now, after nearly 45,000 nm of total sailing – including a world circumnavigation – here’s our thoughts on folding propellers, and more specifically, our Flexofold propellers. What are…
On our sail from Saint Helena to Brazil, we noticed something quite troubling. The set screws that hold our forestay together were backing out, and some were already completely missing. This was causing misalignment between the luff extensions and was damaging our sail. A properly aligned luff extension: Our misaligned one. You can see the…
We tackled a slew of projects in Cape Town, and one of them was installing a new hydrogenerator. Since then, we’ve sailed over 6,000 nm on three long passages. Let’s talk about how our hydrogenerator has worked out. What is a Hydrogenerator? A hydrogenerator is a unit that sits on the back of our boat….
This post is a collaborative effort between myself and ‘Hope’ from Covert Castaway. I heard her podcast episode titled Getting a Risk Plan and was very intrigued by what exactly a risk management plan for a cruising boat would look like on paper. Hope is familiar with risk management assessments through her job as a…