How to make a stranger SMILE
To make a stranger smile is a joyful, life-affirming moment, and it’s a skill we’ve been trying to acquire since we started cruising.
How to make a stranger SMILE Read Post »
To make a stranger smile is a joyful, life-affirming moment, and it’s a skill we’ve been trying to acquire since we started cruising.
How to make a stranger SMILE Read Post »
This was just about the most perfect trade wind sailing we have ever had: strong, constant wind and a current on our side in the Flores Sea. Bliss!
Perfect Trade Wind Sailing Read Post »
Cruisers are obsessed with weather forecasts. The main phenomena we watch in forensic detail are the fronts coming at us, specifically the lows…
Why are cruisers obsessed with weather forecasts? Read Post »
As we’re constantly reminded, in olden times there were no engines, mariners navigated by the stars and relied on trade winds, currents and luck. Quite a lot of the time this meant ending up on the ocean floor or stuck in port…
You can’t sail without an engine Read Post »
It was every hackneyed cliché in the book. And it was going to be exactly what we had hoped for in the long journey south across the remotest parts of Sulawesi. But as we have learned over the years, when you’re a sailor, it never quite works out the way you expect…
We Were Spinning 360° Read Post »
The currents we jumped into on our first dive were a swirling whirlpool; we hoped they wouldn’t be so violent as we sailed south…
Fighting currents when diving and sailing! Read Post »
Apart from the weather, continuing knocks and vibrations from our engine were shaping the route and causing delays, so we had to embrace the enforced changes and go with the flow.
Crossing at night is not normally a concern. But the Gulf of Tomini is crowded with rumpons (fish aggregating devices, aka FADs). They lie in wait to snare you in their lines. And more dangerously, their solid floating platforms can put a hole in your boat.
Sailing dangers of Indonesia Read Post »
…it rapidly starts to resemble a classical quest, complete with highs, lows, wonderful characters, self-realisation, philosophy and strange, far from home.
Jamie’s quest for cash Read Post »
…when you consider they had never seen a sailboat before, it was amazing and heart-warming how they took us into their homes…
They’ve never seen a sailboat Read Post »
Our trusty Honda EU20i 2.0kW has been slowing down and the rapidly declining generator is starting to become a real problem.
The generator is failing two days before departure Read Post »
The shallow sliver of water caught between Sulawesi and the small island of Lembeh is the Lembeh Strait, muck diving centre of the world, and a mecca for underwater macro photographers.
Muck Diving the Lembeh Strait Read Post »
Jamie talks about the side of sailing that we don’t always show in our episodes. As many sailors will tell you, it ain’t all cocktails and white sand beaches, sometimes life gets in the way. After 1232 nautical miles of
Diving and going to hospital in Bitung Read Post »
What would you do if you were on a sailboat in a deep lagoon dotted with reefs and your engine stopped dead?
We killed our engine dead Read Post »
We love Sulawesi, but it’s not easy finding somewhere safe to anchor when the water depth rises from 1.5km to 7m in seconds.
Anchoring with the charts, depth and weather against you Read Post »