After buying our Oyster 435 sailing boat in Ipswich, absolutely nowhere near our home, we needed to get the boat back to Portsmouth so we could start preparing her for our sailing adventure. Getting her from Ipswich to Portsmouth involved crossing the terrifying Thames Estuary, riddled with sand banks, wind farms and massive ships,, Read More
Every sailing boat needs cool boat stuff! People planning to sail the world, sailboat cruisers and liveaboard families definitely need cool gadgets and fun stuff on their boat. From towable water toys to cool drones to spear guns! So here’s our list of cool boat gadgets that we really, really want on our boat, Read More
I first saw a Water-to-Go filter bottle at the Adventure Travel Show in London a few years ago. A man was filling up a chunky black plastic bottle from a fish tank full of muddy water, and then pouring out clear water into a glass and drinking it. In fact, he was passing it, Read More
This is the story of how we negotiated and renegotiated the price of our boat, after getting a marine survey. It’s a summary of how we searched for a boat, found a boat, made an offer on a boat, had a boat survey done, haggled, negotiated, whinged, cried and eventually, handed over a huge, Read More
We love Asia and so do our kids. Asia is different to our home in the UK. The culture, the food, the people, the transport, the climate, the language. So much for your kids to learn and experience. Travelling or holidaying in Asia with kids is a fantastic adventure, one that will stay with them, Read More
Buying your first boat is a crazy, terrifying, exciting, frustrating and above all, expensive business. Buying a used sailing boat is even worse. There are so many traps to fall into, so many untruths to uncover, so many complicated procedures to follow. We’ve just about managed to stumble our way through to boat ownership., Read More
A whole two months have passed since we purchased our 1990 Oyster 435 sailing boat. And what a two months it has been! Our slightly naive plan was to buy our perfect boat at the start of the UK sailing season and be sailing confidently around the Solent by the end of said season,, Read More
Buying a sailing boat isn’t as easy as it sounds. When you are a sailing novice and a boat buying newbie, the choices can be overwhelming. This is a quick idiot’s guide to how we narrowed down our search and bought a sailing boat. If you’re thinking of buying a sailing yacht for a world-wide, Read More
Someone famous once said that all great journeys start with a single step. If that’s the case, then the delayed 06:50 to London would appear to be the step that sets us off on the path to starting our sailing adventure. It’s a beautiful fresh and crisp spring morning, exactly the sort that I’m, Read More
We’ve been joking about buying a boat, filling it fun of gin and sailing around the world for years, even before our kids were born. It was such a ridiculous dream that neither of us actually meant it. So guess what we’re going to do next….. We don’t have a boat and we don’t, Read More