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It has been twelve weeks since Garrett and I returned to the United States from Nicaragua on a repatriation flight. Our sailboat, Thisldu, is still in Nicaragua, where she will be until we can safely return and move her down to Costa Rica. Learn more about our future cruising plans, how we came to live in Charleston, and what the transition from cruising to regular life (*as regular as life can be during a pandemic) has been like in this post.
After being stranded in Nicaragua for two months, Garrett and I are excited to announce that we are finally on U.S. soil! Read this post to learn a little bit more about what we’ve been going through and what traveling during the pandemic was like.
Garrett and I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support in response to our situation and endeavor to get home. Thank you. We’ve also received a lot of questions in response to last week’s blog post and two news articles, so we put together this FAQ to answer the most common questions surrounding our current situation. We hope this helps!
When Garrett and I set out on this cruising season, we had the goal of transiting the Panama Canal by April 30, 2020. That isn’t going to happen anymore. We’ve been sheltering in place at a marina in Nicaragua for 45 days, hoping that Costa Rica and Panama might open their borders and allow us to move south. A lot of that hope was lost this week, so, we’ve made other plans. Click here to find out what we plan to do next.
Letters written by women across the globe during the 2019-20 Coronavirus Pandemic. Read about the experiences of women who are about to give birth for the first time, facing isolation on a sailboat in Nicaragua, have elderly parents to care for, mitigating the disruption of work and regular life, trying to stay occupied during the suspension of school, and, above all, are just doing their best to stay healthy and sane during this crisis.
In the fourth installment of my Meet the Cruisers series, I introduce you to Jamie and Carson on S/V LeeAnn, a Seattle couple who plan to cross the Pacific in just a few weeks! My intention with this series is to introduce you to the cruising individuals, couples, and families that we have met while providing insight into this lifestyle, sharing the different types of stories, dreams, and reasons that drive people to cruise, and giving you an inside perspective on what it’s really like to be out here. If you’re interested in cruising one day or just intrigued by this lifestyle, I hope that this series shows you that there isn’t just one type of person who is cut out for living this way. Everybody has a different story. Read Jamie and Carson’s here.
Hello and welcome back to Meet the Cruisers! This month, I’m introducing you to Keenan, Nicole, and their sailor dog Jack. They hail from San Diego and are spending this season cruising Mexico, from Baja to Barra de Navidad and the Sea of Cortez. Learn more about Nicole and Keenan, like how it is to sail with a dog, how they’re funding this lifestyle, the biggest challenges they face, and more here!
Garrett and I sailed out of Mexico for Nicaragua four days ago. While we were at sea, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Panama enforced border restrictions and closures. We got nervous with every passing mile. Would we be allowed into Nicaragua? Will we be able to transit the Panama Canal next month as planned? Learn about the impact of COVID-19 on cruising through Central America here.
Garrett and I have spent the past four months sailing 2,400 miles along the Pacific Coast of Mexico on our 35-foot sailboat, Thisldu. We’ve made twenty-six stops, slightly improved our Spanglish, and have nothing but great things to say about this country. Read about our experiences cruising Mexico along with what’s next for us here.
In the second installment of my Meet the Cruisers series, I introduce you to Emma and Daniel of S/V Indy. My intention with this series is to introduce you to the cruising individuals, couples, and families that we have met while providing insight into this lifestyle, sharing the different types of stories, dreams, and reasons that drive people to cruise, and giving you an inside perspective on what it’s really like to be out here. If you’re interested in cruising one day or just intrigued by this lifestyle, I hope that this series shows you that there isn’t just one type of person who is cut out for living this way. Everybody has a different story.
In this post, I update you on our cruising adventures from late November through late January, Los Muertos through La Cruz, crossing the Sea of Cortez from Baja to the Mainland. AND I share an exciting announcement! Learn what’s coming for us and read about our adventures in Muertos, Espiratu Santo, La Paz, Mazatlán, Isla Isabela, Matanchen, Chacala, and La Cruz.
In the first installment of my Meet the Cruisers series, I introduce you to Richard, a nineteen-year-old solo sailor from Alaska with plans to sail Darwind, his 28’ Pearson Triton across the Pacific. My intention with this series is to introduce you to the cruising individuals, couples, and families that we have met while providing insight into this lifestyle, sharing the different types of stories, dreams, and reasons that drive people to cruise, and giving you an inside perspective on what it’s really like to be out here. If you’re interested in cruising one day or just intrigued by this lifestyle, I hope that this series shows you that there isn’t just one type of person who is cut out for living this way. Everybody has a different story.
In this post, Garrett and I sail from Bahia Tortugas, Mexico, to Bahia Santa Maria, San Jose del Cabo, and Los Frailes in the Sea of Cortez. We say goodbye to the Baja Ha-Ha, hello to our first squall, and finally soak in some r&r at an anchorage. Read more about our adventures cruising in Mexico here!
Join us on our first leg of the 2019 Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally as we sail 360 nautical miles from San Diego to Bahía Tortugas, Mexico. The four-day and three-night sail had a lot of ups and downs, learnings, and excitement as we brought Thisldu into international waters.
Santa Barbara. Ventura. Marina del Rey. Newport Beach. Dana Point. Oceanside. One week, seven harbors. It was exhausting. This post captures our experiences with all of these marinas and the time at sea in between. It’s also the last of the Cruising Down the California Coast chapters—we set sail for Mexico on Monday!
Garrett and I said goodbye to our crew in Monterey and embarked on our first long double-handed overnight sail to Morro Bay, and then again to Santa Barbara. We survived 22-hour sails, spotted hundreds of dolphins and a few blue whales, rounded Point Sur and Point Conception, and finally crossed into SoCal. Read more about the third and fourth legs of our cruising journey here!
On October 2nd, after five years of dreaming, planning, and scheming, Garrett and I finally cast off the bowlines and began our cruising adventure. In this post, I talk about our first two legs of the journey, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz to Monterey. We experienced all sea states, some of which I’d rather not endure again. Read about our first 110 nautical miles of cruising down the California Coast here!
Garrett and I have spent the better part of the last five years dreaming, planning, and preparing to go cruising down the California Coast to Mexico, through the Panama Canal, around the Caribbean, and back to the East Coast. Here’s a breakdown of how we prepared our Rafiki 35 to be ocean and cruising ready! It includes the improvements we made to the boat, what safety measures we have taken, how we organized our tiny living space, and more.
A few weeks ago, we announced that we quit our jobs to travel and sail full-time. Here are our detailed travel plans for our summer in Europe and cruising season that will kick off in the fall!
After coming up with the dream to travel by sailboat back in 2014, Garrett and I learned how to sail, saved our pennies, and bought a sailboat two years later. Learn how we saved enough money again by the spring in 2019 to be able to quit our jobs to travel and go cruising in this post!
In 2014, Garrett and I came up with a dream of traveling the world by sailboat. But we didn’t know how to sail, and we didn’t have any money. In this post I talk about how we learned how to sail and how we saved money to be able to buy our Rafiki 35’ sailboat outright in the fall of 2016.
A few days ago, I announced that Garrett and I quit our jobs to be able to travel and sail full-time. Today, I want to talk about how we came up with that plan. Everything was born from one conversation where we each spoke about the five different things that really mattered to us. Read this post to find out more about what we value and how we made room for it in our lives!
Garrett and I have a big announcement! We both quit our jobs this week to follow our dream to travel and sail around the world full-time. This is something we’ve been hoping to do for years and we’re so excited that the day to share this with you has finally come! Read this blog post to find out more about our summer travel plans in Europe and our long-term cruising plans that will kick off in the fall. Cheers!
Garrett and I have spent the last year living on our 35’ sailboat in the Bay Area. Here are our takeaways on what we enjoy the most, what we enjoy the least, and what we’ve learned during our year on the water as liveaboards.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to live on a sailboat? My husband and I have been living on our 35’ sailboat in Sausalito, California for 6 months now. Here are the things we enjoy most about this liveaboard lifestyle, things that we could live without, and the tools that make this experience easier.
Changing the name of a boat must be done properly to avoid bad luck. Read about our own boat renaming ceremony (plus get a look at the new name on the transom!) and learn how to conduct your own.
When the weather wasn’t in our favor, we had to give up on our plans to sail to Half Moon Bay from San Francisco. Read what ultimately led us to make the decision and what we ended up doing instead. (Hint: it still included sailing.)
Curious to know what it’s like to live aboard a sailboat? Here’s a glance into our first 30 days of liveaboard life. (Hint: we love it!) Being able to call the San Francisco Bay your backyard is pretty sweet.
Six months after leaving our sailboat in Nicaragua in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Garrett has returned. Read about how he prepared for this trip, where he plans to cruise to next, and why I didn’t go along this time here!