Crossing the Panama Canal

Post author:Gavin
Post published:April 7, 2011
Post category:Atlantic Pacific Panama thoughts Travel

There's a really curious side of sailing that may not be immediately obvious to people outside the cruising community. In our little sailing world, word of mouth is everything - where to anchor, where to eat, which marina is good, how much is diesel in the next port, did you hear about that Japanese boat that exited the Panama canal backwards, don't miss the so and so - the list goes on. The interesting thing that I have noticed is that in face to face conversations the…

1000 miles to Bermuda

Post author:Gavin
Post published:May 25, 2010
Post category:Atlantic Bermuda Sailing thoughts

Leaving Nassau wasn't as easy as we thought. The generosity and hospitality of our new Bahamain friends was second to none and it seems that the Weather gods conspired to keep us there for one more night - which turned out to be a brilliant way to say goodbye to the Bahamas - with a home cooked feast at Geoffrey & Rosa's house, with the whole family coming over to say hello - a beautiful baked hog fish, home made coleslaw, banana fritters (whose name we cannot…

Who broke my vegemite!?

Post author:Gavin
Post published:March 30, 2010
Post category:Miami Sailing thoughts Travel

Ten days ago I flew out of Sydney - destination "dream realisation!" I've had this idea to sail around the world for a while now, in fact I tried to work out when and how I first got this idea and haven't been able to crack it - the earliest confirmed mention of this was when I was 19... but I'm guessing it would have been born much earlier than that. Either way, it feels quite incredible to be on the eve of beginning to fulfill a…

Xmas and a flat battery…

Post author:Gavin
Post published:December 25, 2008
Post category:Family thoughts Travel

Christmas has come and gone and what a great success it was. The whole xmas crew enjoyed themselves, food, drink, sunshine and presents a plenty!! Had a fairly restless sleep last night... actually thinking about work, and solving website hosting issues in my head. how loong will these last for? still get the odd pang of anxiety-like sensations about having to return to work soon, only to remind myself that in fact I don't! Funny thing happened yesterday, my watch battery went flat, it's worked faultlessly for…

One week and definitely not counting

Post author:Gavin
Post published:December 17, 2008
Post category:4WD setup thoughts

It dawned on me on Monday that this is the first time since 1997 when I was travelling around Africa for 4 months that I am unemployed, have next to no responsibilities, don't own any businesses and am basically free to do what I want... FAAAAAARK!! seriously it's a fairly scary feeling... but I'm getting over the anxiety pretty fast! So, in the last 4 days I have skateboarded twice, ridden my mountain bike a couple of times, have squeezed in a surf, 2 social lunches, a…

Re-birth

Post author:Gavin
Post published:November 16, 2008
Post category:thoughts

Well after running a business in one form or another since 1994, I am attempting a re-birth of sorts by shedding as many responsibilities as possible and hitting the road... hahah alright for those of you that know me, you'll know that this is near impossible for me... but seriously, I'm going to attempt to spend the next 6 months of my life (leading up to my 35th birthday on May 7th 2009) just having fun! I am almost certain that this will be a bigger challenge…