Outfitting

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Yard Dog’s Christmas

We have been in the boat yard for two weeks now. Things are moving along at the expected pace (slower than I would hope, but reasonable for this oppressive climate). The boat is covered, and has its first coat of primer. The propeller shaft is off, the old swim ladder (which has been held captive by […]

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Darwin

The sky feels too low here. That was my first and most enduring sentiment about Darwin. I also have an overwhelming desire to open my photo editor and drop the exposure, turn up the contrast, add a bit of saturation, and mess with the white balance. What Darwin lacks aesthetically, it more than makes up for […]

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Preparations

After nearly a year of gathering moss, Convivia and her crew are overcoming inertia and getting ready to cruise again.  This week, we took advantage of the public holiday and school break and got Convivia out of the river and onto her anchor. Before we could do that though, there were a number of boat-list items […]

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Frickin Hella Fans

To say I am annoyed with Hella Turbo Fans is an understatement. These very basic fans cost a mint and aren’t nearly as robust as one would hope. We lost 3 in the first year of cruising. Hella was kind enough to replace them for us, but more continue to fail, and the RMA process […]

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Farkwar is Born

When I was younger (let’s just say  I was 10) my uncle would entice me to row him across what seemed like an endless [Muscongous] sound to Loud’s Island, by making up silly stories about a fellow named Barfoolean Farkwar. Barf would do things like set out to sail without a sail. When he realised […]

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Gear Review: GoToobs

Okay, I don’t do a lot of gear reviews because, well, because this is really not that kind of blog. That said, there is one piece of gear that we use every day (except some of the crustier passagemaking days perhaps). When we use it, we hardly notice it’s there. In my opinion, that’s a […]

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Crossing an Ocean with iNavX

Note: I wrote this post in September while making passage from Vanuatu to Australia. I was all fired up about it until Vick read it and crinkled her nose (or something like that). I relegated it to the drafts folder and forgot about it until now. Recently a bunch of this year’s puddle jumpers have […]

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The Anchorage of Doom!

Cue creepy music. We anchored in the north east conner of Opunohu Bay along with almost every other boat that crossed the Pacific from the Americas. (big exaggeration but it paints the right picture.) It was a tiny anchorage with reefs all around and a very squirrely wind, a perfect recipe for doom (dun dun […]

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Land Ho…me

We have been living on dirt for a week now and it’s not as totally weird as I thought it would be. Of course, I have been working on the boat every day, so it’s not like Convivia and I are estranged, but it is strange to watch the kids spread out all over this […]

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Preparing to Jump

We are about a month away from setting out across the largest ocean on the planet. The list of things to do; for the boat; for the kids; for us; just gets longer but we are confident that we will be able to make the trip safely and comfortably. This week we are working on […]

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