Hi, my name is Sarah. This is my blog. My family and I left our well ordered life in the Discovery Islands of British Columbia, Canada; to chase a life long dream of sailing with our children. (2 girls age 8 and 10 at the beginning of the adventure). We purchased an ex-charter boat in Croatia after spending over a decade saving. We moved aboard Otoka in late May 2018.

I was never much of a sailor, but it had always been a dream of my husband to buy a sail boat and live aboard. In 2015 I had the opportunity to join Exxpedition Amazon crew to sail from Recife, Brazil to Bartica, French Guyana. This journey changed everything for me. It brought into focus all the amazing lessons that the Ocean can teach us about ourselves and our humanity. I came home with the knowledge that I was going to make this dream come true and in the process gift my kids with resourcefulness that they will be able to draw on for the rest of their life. Oh, and maybe by writing this blog I will find a way to my true calling of inspiring others to live a more connected life to their own families, their community and to the earth itself.

Hello my name is Nick.
I am the dad, the skipper, the dreamer, and the musician.
I was born in England but moved to a small island on the west coast of Canada in 1985, when I was 11 years old.
I’ve always had a dream to sail around the world, not actually around it as a globe, but around it as in “explore different places”.
Members of my family have always sailed as a way to explore. My grandparents sailed their home built trimaran “Lizard of Woz” to Canada in 1976. An uncle circumnavigated the world in his home built catamaran “Boanerges” in the early 1980’s. More recently, another uncle and aunt  sailed the world for almost 10 years on a 55′ Spencer named “Arena”.
I have always wanted to travel this way but found it financially out of reach. In 1994 I tried a budget version with an old yellow school that I converted for living. I intended to drive it all the way to Central America with a group of 8 friends on board, but after endless mechanical failures it was abandoned in Southern California and the trip was continued by train.
I worked as a heavy equipment operator since the age of 18 for the family business performing road building and land development on Canada’s wild west coast with excavators and big trucks. The skills learned in this line of work are very transferable to world cruising. Heavy equipment requires constant repairs and maintenance that is very similar to a boat.
After running my own company for 10 years we finally had enough assets that we could finance a sailboat with enough left over to take a year and half off work to travel.
A sabbatical or a holiday, regardless of what you call it, I needed a break from the day to day routine of running a business. When my wife and I realized we could pull off a trip like this, I seized the opportunity and went for it. Who knows how or when life might change and make such a trip impossible, if I wanted to do this, now was the time!

Our youngest daughter Miss T, was 8 when we left Canada for our new life aboard. She is an enthusiastic and extroverted personality, always curious and busy. She has a keen passion for the natural world and how it works. She is great company when completing a task.

Our eldest daughter Miss C, was 10 when we started our adventure.  She loves to read and more often than not has a book in hand and is adventuring in two worlds simultaneously. She loves helping and learning the active rolls associated with sailing.