Planning to go cruising? Don’t get a pet! Maybe it’s a forgone conclusion because a dog or cat is already a member of your family: if you will have a pet aboard, here’s what we’ve learned in the process of adding a cat to Totem’s crew. Panchita was a callejera, a street cat who adopted us: she is one of thirty-something animals we fostered while in Puerto Peñasco on Totem’s extended refit. The rescue agency where our daughter Siobhan volunteered had offered to transport Panchita north of the border for adoption, as they did with another adult cat we fostered. But when the time came to follow t ..read more

We’re rolling out a series featuring “after” insight from Totem’s massive refit - starting with the forward head. The smallest cabin has very big changes, and is a showcase for many of the decisions shaping our refit overall. This started as a simple repair (this is a theme… the domino effect of a small project). The original sole was a fiberglass shower pan with teak grating, intended as a wet head. In early Totem days we removed the shower, but  in its wet head lifespan the seam between the pan and a bulkhead opened up. Water found a way through and rotted the lower portion of the bulkh ..read more

The conventional approach on contents of a well-supplied ditch kit no longer makes sense for most cruisers.  As we prepared Totem for ocean passage making again, we were more critical about what belongs in ours. It now looks very different from the ditch kit we packed to sail south from Puget Sound in 2008. Ditch kit stowed in the main cabin on Totem; Maldives, 2015 The point of a ditch kit is to provide resources to survive if we must abandon ship. Necessary resources are contextual, of course. Are you 5 miles or 1,500 miles from the coast? What is the nearest rescue or aid-rendering re ..read more

Motoring off the dock. photo: Marc Blaquiere In spite of ourselves, or perhaps thanks to ourselves, we are safely in Banderas Bay after a weeklong passage - Totem’s first since hauling at the Cabrales Boatyard in April 2021. Your boat is unreliable until proven otherwise. This cautionary phrase is repeated to coaching clients eager to set off. Jamie and I did not take our own advice very well: before departing the harbor, Totem’s brand new engine had been run for less than five minutes. New plumbing, wiring, LiFePO4 batteries and a range of new equipment from solar panels to offshore communic ..read more

Jamie and I are on a road trip to San Diego to share what might be our last stateside Thanksgiving for a while with family. Yesterday, I tossed two loaves of homemade sourdough in the car, along with our duffle bag of clothes. The bread was baked ahead to grow just stale enough for perfect stuffing at tomorrow’s feast, because good bread makes any meal that much better. Totem’s ‘old’ galley… I can’t wait to hide Nisse in her updated one! Judging by recent conversations, the baking habits many folks developed during the pandemic are coming cruising with them. That’s great news! Baking your own ..read more

Inspecting the condition of your rigging is an important step in safe passage preparation, so going aloft is – or should be – on the maintenance shortlist of many cruisers this time of year. Does that sound like a glorious opportunity to gaze at your boat from an eagle’s eye view, or a nerve-wracking ascent to avoid (or get over with as quickly as possible)? Maybe the reaction is “hell no, that’s a job for a rigger!” However you feel about going aloft, cruisers should be familiar with safe practices for ascending their boat’s mast(s). Here are some tips for doing it well. Jamie on a pre-India ..read more

Hurricane Lee’s projected path as seen on Sept. 8 It’s appropriate for reflection on sailors discussing the weather to start with a bar joke. An ‘ol salt swaggers into a bar. He has a ship’s wheel stuffed into the front of his trousers. The bartender says, “Hey, you’ve got a ship’s wheel in your trousers!” The ‘ol salt says, “Aye mate and it’s driving me nuts!” Two sailors DID saunter into a bar taking stools not far from where Jamie and I tucked into our lunch in Newport, Rhode Island last week. We were on break from teaching at the Confident Cruiser Seminar Series at the international boa ..read more

We’ve been asked recently: what do you do to keep your cruising sailboat clean? What routines do you have for liveaboard boat cleaning? On Totem we have two basic principles: Keep the approach simple and effective, because there are lot of other things we’d prefer to spend our time doing than cleaning the boat. Prioritize environmentally friendly cleaning products, for reasons that shouldn’t need explaining. Looks like it’s time to clean Sonora desert sand off the solar panels again… Cleaning Tools We have far fewer cleaning tools on the boat than we did in our house – and almost all ru ..read more

In 2013 NOAA announced plans to end the production of traditional paper nautical charts, to the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth from many mariners. Ten years later, most cruisers do not rely on paper charts (arguably, many had moved away from them well before 2013). Is this a travesty, or just the march of technology and time? What do we do on Totem? When Jamie and I were preparing to go cruising, we spent several years gunkholing around Puget Sound with our growing family on board. We had a small handheld GPS, a Garmin MAP76, and a paper chartbook for the region. When we bought Totem ..read more

Jamie, inundated by boxes held at the Arizona garage of friends Getting mail while cruising is a problem all cruisers need to address (groan…). It’s been more than 15 years since Jamie and I received mail the conventional manner, to a fixed address we called home. I have intended to update our guide to the best virtual mailbox services for a while: first, there are a number of market entrants since our 2017 summary. More importantly, there’s a key factor (the key factor?) easily overlooked which picking ‘the best’ service for your needs. Services to consider include those in the USA, Canada ..read more