It was over 10 years ago that I sat down and wrote the first post on the Out Chasing Stars blog. I can still vividly remember hesitating and re-writing the words over and over again. Committing to starting a blog and publishing that post for others to see felt like it would take our dream…
What Qualifies as a Modern Sailing & Cruising Memoir? Here’s how I am defining modern cruising memoirs for the purpose of this blog post: View my suggestions on Amazon. Orca Who: John Pennington and his now-wife, Kara PotterThe boat: Cape Dory 30Where: Sailing around the world, starting from coastal California, down to Mexico, across the…
I’ve always been a big reader, but since moving onboard the boat, the number of books I consume every year is truly terrifying. Thankfully, I have figured out how to read many books for free (legally, of course!) As sailors, it’s nice to read about adventures similar to our own, though usually there’s more drama…
While Georgetown gets busy, with 400 cruising boats at a time in the peak months (Feb-April), it’s a different kind of busy from the northern Exumas, especially Georgetown. After hearing so much about it, we were excited to make our way north and check out the rest of the island chain. Many of our friends…
There aren’t many times where one of my loves of my past life (spreadsheets) combines with sailing. But coming up with a solution for how to track our performance under passage was the perfect opportunity! I created this spreadsheet as a way to help plan our passages, track our performance underway and help us make…
I never thought of myself as a particularly creative person – I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, ran a small business, and have been traveling full time on my boat for the past seven years, none of which are especially creative pursuits. But something changed in the past year – maybe it’s the end…
Now that we’re back in Texas and living on land, we’ve been visiting friends (with social distance) and seeing our doctors. I’ve actually had two comments: Friend: Ya’ll don’t LOOK like you’ve spent six years out in the sun. My PCP: Your skin looks great. What sunscreen do you use? Tons of sunshine out on…
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…