A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 2 ← Previous Chapter 1 ⚓ Next Chapter 3 → A note on how this story is told: Heidi documents our life with a small voice recorder held just below her chin. She has always been the one with the presence of mind to capture things as they happen — recording moments, preserving details, keeping a running archive of memories I would otherwise let slip away. This account is mine, but it exists because of her voice. There is a specific kind of evening in Maui that should probably come with a liability waiver. The sun drops into the ʻAuʻau Channel in a slow, indulgent blaze. The trade winds ease off just enough to feel like forgiveness. And somewhere in that light, whatever reasonable instincts you had been using to navigate your adult...

A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 3 ← Previous Chapter 2 ⚓ Next Chapter 4 → I found her on a Thursday, at Keʻehi Boat Harbor, on the western edge of Honolulu near the airport — a part of town where the boats are older, the slips are cheaper, and nobody is trying to impress anyone. She was sitting in her berth with the settled resignation of something that had been waiting a very long time and had stopped expecting rescue. A Pacific Seacraft 25. The boat was designed by Henry Mohrschladt and first built in 1976 — the same year the original Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture, which tells you something about the era. Only 157 of them were ever made. The hull was hand-laid fiberglass, modeled after the double-ended workboats of the 19th century, the kind of vessels that hauled cargo a...

A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 4 ← Previous Chapter 3 ⚓ Next Coming Soon → Monday morning I made my way to the harbormaster’s office to announce my intentions. The gentleman at the counter greeted me with the administrative precision of one who communicated primarily through implication, and his implication that morning was clear: the Transpac race fleet was arriving from California, they would need every available slip in the marina, and Tiny Bubbles — and by extension I — was not part of any plan he had made. The Transpac, for context, is a biennial offshore race from Los Angeles to Honolulu — roughly 2,225 miles of open Pacific, sailed by everything from grand-prix racing machines to well-prepared cruising boats crewed by people with serious sailing experience — people I...

Discover Local Customs Cultural faux pas adds some spice to this couple's cruising life. By Josh Holloway There are many ways to immerse yourself in a new culture. Some people read books. Some hire guides. Others unknowingly commit minor social crimes and wait for the consequences to be explained to them in a crowded hut. Cultures can clash over something as simple as a beach barbecue — one never knows if the sticks on the sand may be needed for a different purpose. The Meeting Hut Incident A hush consumed the entire maneaba, a Kiribati meeting hut. My lovely wife, Heidi, and I sat crisscross on the dirt floor, fidgeting awkwardly, keenly aware that all the villagers were staring at us in disapproval. A few moments earlier, Heidi and I had been chatting enthusiastically about our previous day’s fishing catch, and how we had enjoyed cooking it up over a beach fire in the nearby cove. A villager had asked, “Where did you get your wood?” “From the be...

Setting Sail with Kids "The sailing itch returned, and my wife and I decided it was time to raise sail again and introduce our brood to the dream." By Josh Holloway There are many romantic visions of family sailing life: sunsets, dolphins, children laughing in the rigging. There are fewer brochures featuring a toddler urinating on a carefully assembled brunch buffet. This is an oversight. Cove and Kai enjoy a swing in the rigging of Tiny Bubbles II in the waters off Maine. The Brunch Incident “Josh, shut off the water!” my wife, Heidi, yelled up to me from the galley. Huh? What water? I thought, as I turned just in time to witness our 1-year-old standing proudly in the cockpit, having repurposed himself into a fully operational fountain. The stream arced gracefully across the entire brunch buffet and, for good measure, continued through the companionway onto my wife. I reacted quickly, which is to say, not quickly enough. I scooped him ...

Costa Rica to Panama with Kids: Crossing Sixaola to Bocas del Toro — Carenero, Bastimentos & the Bridge That Changed Us Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro with Kids: How to Cross the Sixaola Bridge, Island-Hop to Paradise, and Come Home Slightly Sunburned and Completely Satisfied In which we navigate a pedestrian border crossing over a river, discover that boat taxis are a perfectly acceptable school bus alternative, snorkel in a national marine park, encounter a snake of non-trivial dimensions, and conclude that Panama is best appreciated with tropical fruit, a cold beer, and sufficiently low expectations about the surrounding rubbish situation. The Bocas del Toro archipelago sits on the Caribbean coast of Panama, just across a small bridge over the Rio Sixaola from Costa Rica. In a straight line it's roughly 40 miles from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. In actual travel time, given that you cross an international border and then board a boat, it takes around three to fo...