Tropical Depression (aka the things we can’t control)

‘In 1928 I had my first experience of a hurricane,’ my grandmother Joyce had written in her journal chronicling her life in Antigua. After an eventful summer in Europe, I was rejoining my bateau in Guadeloupe during peak hurricane season. Part of the reason I’d chosen Guadeloupe was that it was the next island from […]

Zen and the art of Seasickness

Seasickness, in fact any kind of motion sickness, is something I’ve been plagued by all my life. Long, vomity car rides; being miserable and nauseous on every boat I’d ever been on up until this point; even park swings as an adult were rides of gastronomical danger (adults can still go on park swings, goddamnit […]

F*** off and other things you can’t say to men in the Caribbean: A Smart Girl’s Survival Guide

We were at Carnival in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and it was Mardi Gras: the wildest and most sexually charged night of the holiday week. Everyone was appropriately dressed up in face paint and the obligatory red and black iterations of their lingerie. Night had fallen and suddenly the cheerful light-hearted phalluses of the parade seemed a […]

Cruising Luxuries aboard Anne Bonny

A little while ago I met some fabulous people who lived on a sailing boat somewhat bigger and better equipped than my own (understatement of the century). They were shocked that I cruised without basic things like a fridge or shelter in the cockpit. They sent me this great article from Yachting World, where seasoned […]

With great bateau comes great responsibility

What it’s like buying a boat for the first time Introducing Anne Bonny When I was a teenager dreaming of having a boat (a standard daydream), I felt like Anne Bonny would be a super cool name to choose because she was one of the few famous female Caribbean pirates, and ‘Mary Read’ just didn’t […]

How to move to the Caribbean and get a boat

I told my sister I was writing a blog, and very supportively she said ‘that’s fantastic, I’m sure you’d be good at that’. Then she wrinkled her brow when I said it was more of a memoire type narrative. ‘That’s not really what a blog is any more’, she said kindly. ‘They’re supposed to be […]

Introduction to Seasick and Dangerous

Image credit: BBC Part 1: Devil’s End My mother grew up in a village called Devil’s End. OK, in reality it was Aldbourne, a quintessential chocolate box in Wiltshire, but they filmed a series of Doctor Who outside her house in the 70s and for a while this was the main thing I associated with […]

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