About Us
Hello! We are Floss, Dez, Sam (aged 17) and Evan (aged 15). This is the story of our travels and adventures around the world, over land and sea with our kids. The boys were 8 and 10 years old, we left our jobs and schools, rented out our house and spent a year backpacking, Read More
Top Posts
What are our must have boat gadgets for living aboard and travelling on our sailing boat?? After travelling overland around the world, we were pretty good at knowing what travel gear worked in our backpacks, and what didn’t. We had our favourite travel accessories that are invaluable to us while on the road. Since buying a sailing boat and setting off around the world, we have found essential boat and sailing gadgets for entertainment, safety, fun, relaxation and convenience. Can our favourite backpacking travel gear really turn into must have boat gadgets for our sailing adventure around the world? Sometimes, yes. But there are so many more boat gadgets too. Read More
I’d been looking forward to “hauling out day” for about a month. It marked the official end of our first sailing season and would be the start of a new chapter in the book that I’m going to write about all of this when I get around to it (although I said that about the ‘Backpacking Around the World with Kids’ book too). I was full of optimism about all the jobs we’d be able to get done, but also slightly fearful about what we’d find lurking below the waterline when the boat was taken out of the water for the winter. I was also completely naive about the reality of working on a boat over the winter in the UK. The steep learning curve and the unforeseen boat projects continue! Read More
The learning curve of an inexperienced, new boat owner has been a lot steeper than I expected. Owning and fixing up an older sailing boat for cruising the world has been much more of an emotional roller coaster ride that I was prepared for. During the first five months, we have had many boat maintenance wins and fails and I’m sure there are many more to come. I’m hoping we’ve found most of the broken bits, but I fear we haven’t even scratched the surface. Read on for a quick summary of our wins and fails so far. Read More
The RYA Diesel Engine Course doesn’t sound like the most exciting way to spend a Sunday, does it? Well, it isn’t. But if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to learn all about that diesel engine on your boat and save loads of money in the long term, this is it! Read this review to find out all about it… Read More
I’ve now got just over seven months of early morning train action under my belt, commuting from Portsmouth on the 06:34 to London, it’s high time for a bit of reflective writing. I’m looking back on the highs and lows of the commute, boat ownership and our first summer of sailing. Things have definitely moved on since my first ‘Thoughts on a Train’ post… Read More
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, and sailing down the English Channel, the busiest shipping channel in the world ever, probably. This was going to be an adventure, especially as we barely know the blunt end from the pointy end. We’d better hire some help then. Let’s hope we get enough wind to sail and don’t sink, eh? Read More