It Started With A Stench For years, every time we reached in to our utensil drawer above the refrigerator, or pulled open the large drawer below, our nostrils were assaulted by the unmistakable scent of mold. Attempts to purge the offending odor with vinegar, then bleach, had no effect. We learned to live with it, […]
Author: Kimberly
We Will NEVER Be a Dog Boat!
Five years ago, when we set sail from New Orleans, we made a vow to ourselves that ¡Pura Vida! would be dog free. We love them all, but made the difficult decision based on reading about the complications and expense of clearing into new countries, the need to ferry them ashore several times a day, […]
Game Changer
Two doctors, a firefighter, three tanks of pure oxygen, a defibrillator, and a team of fellow cruisers doing non-stop CPR couldn’t save him. What happened in our anchorage recently, in the San Blas islands off the Panamanian coast, only a few boat lengths away from ¡Pura Vida!, was a sadly enlightening experience for us. One […]
A Beginner’s Guide to French Wine
Over a year ago, when friends, Lauren and Brian made it to Martinique, I found myself drooling over every Facebook and blog post they wrote. We were still in Puerto Rico, with limited options for good wines, bubbles, and fancy food stuff at the grocery stores. I poured over every word, eager for my chance to indulge. When that […]
That Time We Were a Kid Boat
As we are preparing to depart Grenada, it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed since we arrived, a little over three months ago. In that quarter, we found ourselves welcomed into a loving and fun community of sailors with children. The horror! We had always prided ourselves on our ability to steer […]
Wai’tukubuli – Tall Is Her Body
How can you not love the original name of Dominica? The Amerindian settlers, who called themselves Kalinago, and were later labeled Caribs by European colonizers, gave the land a name fitting her grand form. She does make quite the first impression! The designation, Dominica, derived from Latin for “Sunday”, the day the Europeans first […]
Antigua’s Bottom and The Shirley Heights Death March
We thought we were, pretty much, done with Antigua after exploring the north and west coasts of the island over a three week period. We thought wrong. We knew there was much more to enjoy, both in and out of the water, but our goal was to get to the south coast where we could […]
10 Must-Sees and Off-The-Beaten-Path Anchorages in The British Virgin Islands
We like people. Really, we do. We especially enjoy meeting and socializing with other cruisers and island locals, but typically we are happiest when we are able to drop the hook in the more isolated corners of the archipelagos we visit. Seeking this kind of seclusion is what led us to spend months in the […]
Adventures in Eating
Since the Bahamas, I’ve enjoyed photographing some of the most, uh, interesting food and drink we’ve encountered. We’ve eaten very much as we always had, needing to make only a few adjustments, as we’ve found certain staples aren’t always available, but discovering new culinary delights is a major advantage to traveling. I can only […]
Box of the Dead
Securing a slip at the Ponce Yacht and Fishing Club meant two exciting things for us; we finally could receive Amazon deliveries, and we would be able to have our generator repaired properly. I don’t know which one I was more thrilled about. There was not much frivolousness included in the packages from Amazon. After […]