Welcome to Windtraveler!

We are Brittany, Scott, Isla (eye-la), Haven and Mira (meer-uh) - the estrogen-rich family that is behind Windtraveler.  

Scott and I set sail in September of 2010 to seek a life less ordinary.  We had a blast sailing down the East Coast to the Bahamas and to the Caribbean via the "thorny path".  We spent an extended hurricane season in Grenada, got pregnant and came home to have our little Isla in March of 2012.  We decided we needed a bigger boat to accomodate our growing family so we sold our old boat, got a new boat and our life at sea resumed in September of 2012.  Life was pretty hunky dory.

Then, we got the biggest surprise of our lives and discovered we were pregnant with twins.  Talk about a game changer!  We continued to cruise most of 2013 while I grew two baby girls in my belly, and in December of 2013, we moved back to land and in with my parents and awaited the birth our new crew.  

Our little fish, Haven and Mira were born (full term, yay!) March 6, 2014 and we continued to live stateside (on land) for the following ten months. The first eight months with the twins were hard. Really hard. And we were glad to be near family and extra hands. But when the twins were ten months old, we returned to our boat which was on the hard in Tortola to resume cruising around the British Virgin Islands for the next eight months. The goal was to see how we did with three little ones on the boat, and the BVI were an ideal testing ground. No long passages, no overnights, no need to really worry too much about weather...it was wise of us to be conservative and we found that the twins, and our family, thrived again on the water.

We decided to make long term plans in the BVI and, after assessing our finances and wanting to 'settle down' a bit and make some money while building something, we made our biggest change yet and bought a daysail charter company here on Tortola. This move was bold, risky, and kind of nuts - but that's how we roll. We now live aboard our boat at the Nanny Cay Marina and run Aristocat Charters, aka our fourth baby. The plan is to live here for the next five to seven years while we build our business, pay off the loan and make some money. It's ideal and the best of both worlds to us; we get all the benefits of the cruising lifestyle we enjoyed in one of the places we loved the most, but are filling our cruising kitty in earnest. What the future holds we don't know, but it's always an adventure - that's for sure!

You can see more of the particulars of our journey on our "Route" page and in the bowels of this blog, but that's the gist of it.  It's been a trip! 

If you are a) incredibly ambitious and b) have a lot of time on your hands - you can read our blog from the very beginning...if interested, you can do begin here, and just keep clicking "newer posts" until you get to the present day. If you do this, you deserve a medal for sure.


Note: Unlike most sailing blogs - Windtraveler is not the name of our boat. Our boat's name is"Asante" - but, because this blog started before we got our first boat, we thought Windtraveler pretty appropriate for what we wanted to do (travel by wind) so we stuck with it, confusing as it may be. 

If you are just joining, you might want to start at the beginning to catch up...Under the section"Archives" you will see a bunch of dates, go to the earliest and then work your way up! Before you start asking us questions - please be sure to hit up our FAQ Page
, because we cover a lot of the basics right there.  You can also check out the post on why we're doing this.

Also - please read our DISCLAIMER before you take our word as gospel (hint: our word is not gospel).

We hope you enjoy our story and our adventures! Thanks for stopping by!

35 comments:

Barry Pachico said...

Hey... have been on my own form of a "hiatus" and have not kept up with you folks for a long time. I just found the link to your site in my favorites on my old home computer and thought I'd see what you were up to. I saw pics of a baby (Congrats!) and I thought is was awesome to be raising a child while living on the boat and then I was floored when I read the words "sold Rasmus" and felt sick in my stomach. Of course, more reading revealed that you are working on your new boat and will be back on the water again!!! I was elated to read that! Good luck in your future endeavors and I look forward to hearing about them.
All the best!
Barry

Windtraveler said...

Thanks Barry, glad to have you back :)

Anonymous said...

Sounds incredibly relaxing! You're seeing the world at your own pace and giving your child the opportunity to see everything this planet has to offer, good on you! Will be keeping up with this blog and wish you all the best for the future!

Regards, everyone here at First Class Sailing

Joris Gerritsen said...

Dear Brittany,

I am a enthousiastic follower of your blog; one of the best on the net! But today I found that you have changed your font of the text you post. That is a mistake, I believe. Suddenly I can hardly read it anomore. Please find a better font and then go on as before....
Kisses, Joris.

Ourjourneytothsea said...

Awesome!!

gunky said...

If you are looking to sell, to move to a larger boat, we'd like to talk to you....gunkylump at hotmail dot com.

randy

Mik Hetu said...

Hey, Brittany, Scott, and three little cuties (GREAT names for the girls, by the way)!
FYI, I've listed your blog on the liveaboard site WeFloatThroughLife.org, and I shall soon list your book, too. Your fans can vote you up!
Also, I'm inviting you to post on the site - with a byline and an active link to your blog - about any aspect of living aboard. And we can set up a "buy the author a cup of coffee" button, too, if you'd like. What initially caught my eye about your blog is the info about raising children aboard, but then I found your post about how some cruisers earn money while afloat. Either topic, or preferably both, are welcome!
Thank you for your time!
Mik Hetu

Ryan Johnson said...

Just found your blog on Cruising World. I was very happy to find a family with three under three, cruising. I´m currently in Perú and have been wanting to start my sailing adventure for quite some time. I plan to get my feet wet this year and purchase my first boat. I´ve had awesome experiences sailing. My first sailing experience was when I was a kid in homeschool, we went on a three day excursion from Los Angeles to Catalina Island on the Tall Ship Tole Mour. I fell in love with it ever since.

Unknown said...

What a lovely family and life! My grandparents sailed around the Caribbean in their retirement on a 45 foot Lord Nelson with gorgeous teak decks. Your boat looks very similar in size and layout.

I remember spending weeks on the boat with them. The food tasted better, the air smelled sweeter, and the sun was toasty warm. I miss the smell of the inside of their boat and sleeping with the sound of the waves lapping on the sides.

Your girls will benefit so much from the experiences you are giving them and the closeness you can only get by spending weeks at a time in a tiny little space. Wishing you all the best from Dallas, Texas!

James said...

great blog! I really enjoy each post and every new adventure. Amazings pictures too. Greetings from Chile. www.sediasoto.blogspot.com

Tricia said...

I just wanted to say how much I love reading your blog! Your posts can always be counted on to inspire adventure and I love reading about life on the Asante. I also wanted to let you know that I just finished writing a post about my favorite travel blogs that inspire adventure and I've included your blog in it. I should be posting it in the next couple of day. Happy Travels!

Texas injustice said...

Hi…
I read your articles and must say i was intrigued. I think you should definitely set up an account on soSAILize, a sailing social network and create articles on there as well. There is an easy editor and articles get shared on their wall as well as promoted on social media.
Its FREE to join ofcourse. All you have to do is request to be an author. Not only you can write about you but you can write about anything regarding sailing ( including news stuff or commentaries ) . It would even be a good idea to create a donate link.
I really hope you join and become part of the community.
Here is how : http://sosailize.net/sailing-articles/sailing-author
Sincerely ….
Nikos

CW Bill Rouse said...

Jennifer Johnson suggested we contact you. We have been cruising 10+ years and are selling our boat soon and want to ship a container of our belongings from VIs to Galveston. We would like to more specifics about your experience dealing with Tropical for shipment. We can be contacted at svbebe @ gmail.com --- without spaces. Thanks in advance,

Judy and Bill
S/V BeBe

Jesse said...

Hello,

Firstly, thank you for what you do! Your blog is a constant source of information and inspiration as my wife and I explore the idea of cruising with our kiddos. To that end, I am on a constant boat search. We are probably a year or so from making this all a reality and on a few occasions, I remember reading that you often entertain the idea of a larger boat. The Brewer 44 is near the top of our list and if you are ever considering moving on from Asante, we'd likely be very interested. Stepping into a boat that is already prepped for little ones would put us way ahead of the game. I believe posting this comment will provide you with my e-mail address? If so, please just let me know if an when the time comes that you are considering selling that beautiful boat of yours.

Thank you!

Jesse

Unknown said...

Hi Scott and Brittany,
We have been looking at Brewers and in particular a Brewer 44 (hull#268) here in California. We are planning on buying/moving aboard within the next two years and start our cruzing life in the South Pacific.
The particular Brewer we are looking at has a huge refrigerator and freezer (almost 6 foot square ea). One is driven off the Onan generator and the other is driven off the 85hp Perkins. While they work fine, they require 2 hours of engine time a day to keep up. Too much I think. Have you changed yours to a 12v system? If so, how was it done? I am thinking these boxes might be bigger than what is needed. 12 sq ft total WOW!
I would also upgrade this boat to at least 800Amphr with a solar panel system as well as replace the 120v Pur 60 water maker with a newer more modern watermaker. The original tops of the water tanks were cut off and now the water is stored in Imtra water bladders.
Any thoughts for me on the Brewer upgrades for blue water cruzing?
~Scott

Unknown said...

Wow! I think it's amazing what you guys are doing and with three little ones. I recently took a trip with my two children and wife around the French Riviera on latesail and we had an amazing time, we also noticed that it was a great experience for the kids, they got to get away from wi fi and many technological gadgets that were spoiling them, now they ask when can we go again. Your girls are very lucky to be able to spend so much time at sea.

Unknown said...

My wife and I love your Blog - we purchased a Lagoon 440 catamaran in May 2016 (ELYSIAN) and she is currently in charter, based out of Anse Marcel St Martin.

We get her back (from our charter manager) in Sept 2017, I will be working on her for a few months and then the family is joining me in St Martin for us to our own Caribbean cruise for two years. At this stage we are expecting to be in Tortola for Xmas 2017 and are looking forward to catching up with you all - My wife Rachel and I have five children: Bethany 18, Jasper 16, Amelie 13, Gideon 11 and Malakai 7 :-)

Beach and Yacht said...

Your story is very inspiring.

Anonymous said...

Hello, I have been following you guys for years and have loved watching your family grow on the ocean. My wife and I started a youtube channel recently for babies and toddlers, mostly educational videos like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RdDjOA-Dws
We are hoping to eventually have enough of a following to earn some income, and combined with a few other forms, do some traveling like your family does. I would be honored if you subscribed and gave some feedback. Safe travels!

- Greg

Kent Little said...

Really sorry to hear about the loss of your Tayana. If life gets back to normal and If you're in the market for another, I have 3 T48's currently listed and all three are motivated sellers. www.LittleYachtSales.com
Thanks,
Kent Little
Kemah, TX

Unknown said...


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Unknown said...

I came across your Blog and thought you may be interested in an item I brought on my last Cruise. :) I've been on a few cruises and it had all the items I needed. Here's the Link: Hope you like it!!
CruisePaks.com/CruiseKit

Anonymous said...

My husband would love to day-sail with our family. But I have two children (1 and 3 years old) and it's just no fun to sail on a teeny sailboat because I have to hold onto my kids the whole time to keep them from going overboard! Constantly dodging the boom. No thank you.
Any advice on a very affordable ($1,000-2,000)boat that would allow me to have the kids "down below" and safely playing without me having to worry about the boom and the waves?

Greengrassho said...

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Unknown said...

It is great reading what you have been up to. You are certainly living the dream. Good luck from all of us at

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