WHEW! Hello from my terribly neglected blog! (I'm very active on Instagram and Facebook though, much easier and less time consuming!) I have all the usual excuses of why I haven't written so I won't bore you with those, but I do have a very cool family (who is doing some very awesome stuff) to introduce you too...
When you take your kids out of mainstream society to go and live on a boat, you will get a lot of flack from the collective 'they'. "It's unsafe!" "It's weird!" "It's irresponsible!" "It's selfish!" Society, in general, will say a lot of things about your adoption of an unconventional life, and because the human knee-jerk reaction to things we don't understand is to reject them, it is to be expected. Sure, there will be the few people who will support your choices, see the benefits that travel and cultural immersion will grant your family, and defend you when others scoff; but there will be many who think it is truly insane to hop aboard a (relatively) small boat and sail off into the sunset with children in tow...
Voyaging With Kidsis for those people. But more than that, it is for you, the dreamer disillusioned with suburban life, harboring big dreams to live a life less ordinary in the hopes of doing something tremendous with your family. This book will walk you through the steps and show you that once there, living and traveling aboard with your family can truly be a wonderful - even magical - life.
The amazing (and totally convincing) forward, by none other than Capt'n Fatty Goodlander (he, himself, a former boat parent), is enough to make the most loyal of landlubbers take pause:
"There is only one thing I have ever done that's as fun as growing up aboard, and that's parenting aboard. A small boat on a large ocean is the perfect place to raise a child, especially in today's frantic, monetized, cyber-hyped world. You are physically, mentally, and spiritually close. There are few distractions, little peer pressure, and almost no shore vices to entice...The entire world can be your classroom...There is little need to teach religious tolerance when all your playmates pray to different gods. Racial prejudice is not an issue, either, when you live amid an international rainbow society. Best of all, while living aboard, you can easily and consciously disconnect your family from anything and everything ashore. You, the parent, can control the physical, mental, spiritual, and cultural environment of your child 24/7, which is almost impossible in most shoreside environments. Your child will morph into more than a son or daughter; he or she will grow to become crew as well. A family is a team, and there's no better place than a sailing vessel to learn teamwork."
This book will not only help to answer the questions that keep you awake at night before embarking on such a journey ("What's the ideal age to take kids voyaging?" "What sort of boat should we get?" "How can I keep them safe?") but will also answer the questions you didn't want or were too afraid to ask ("What if my kids don't like it?" "Will their education suffer?" "Will my children turn into social pariahs?") Written by three very experienced and very respected cruising families, Voyaging with Kids is organized in a semi-chronological way (Chapter 1: Getting Ready, Chapter 2: Choosing a Family Cruising Boat...and so on) so that it is easy to navigate. The writers provide a 'factual and balanced' description of life afloat with kids of all ages and there's a great highlight chapter written completely by former cruising kids (spoiler alert: they went on to become intelligent, happy, accomplished adults!) From infancy to teens, Voyaging With Kidscovers it all and leaves no stone unturned.
The two versions of Voyaging With Kids,Kindle and hard copy, both have their advantages and, while I do prefer to read books these days on my e-reader (just so much easier and compact!), I also find that having a hard copy of reference books much more user-friendly to have on the boat. The kindle version has active links to videos and resources, where the hard copy has better images and more legible graphs and tables.
For anyone who is even remotely interested in voyaging with their children either in part or indefinite, this book is a must read. For me, it has most certainly earned it's place on the shelf right between to Beth Leonard's Voyager's Handbook and Nigel Calder's Mechanical and Electrical Manual and will, no doubt, be the benchmarking reference guide when it comes to cruising with children.
Oh, and don't forget to pass it on to nervous and ill-informed friends and family, it might just help put their mind's at ease.
* I made some minimal contributions this book and received a promotional e-copy in turn for an honest review. All opinions are my own. It's a great book ;)
Things have been plodding along up here. As I've written before, this break has been a nice change and we're grateful for the opportunity to be here. While it might not be a 'vacation' per se, it has provided us with enough downtime to get some work done. Scott has gotten a temporary gig as a captain for Chicago Sailboat Charters which is great experience, and I've been working on solidifying a few freelance writing jobs to temper my growing bikini addiction. I'm also s l o w l y chipping away at the mountain of email I have accumulated over the last twelve months of "acute inbox negligence". We're getting our ducks in a row for our return to Tortola (which will be in early October), I'm gearing up for a blog re-design and - shocker - there are still not enough hours in the day.
Since this visit, we've also enjoyed a little press here and there. All this news and media has been shared on our Facebook Page, but I know there are quite a lot of you who don't partake in social media, so to those of you for whom all this is "old news", sorry! The Daily Mail picked up our Bored Panda article, and then we had a story run about us in the Chicago Tribune. The aftermath has been...interesting. Aside from no fewer than ten pitches for a reality television show from various producers and production companies (no, we are not entertaining any such thing...see below re: video), an audition for a television commercial (that, we would do!), and the Tribune article getting re-printed in papers across the country (hello new friends!), we've had a couple people stop us when we are out and about and say, "Wait a minute? Are you that family we read about in the paper that lives on a sailboat?" While I know that our lifestyle and what we have done thus far is hardly trailblazing when compared to the exploits of many of our fellow cruisers, I have to remember it is out of the ordinary in these parts. To have a little light shine on us in terms of attention has been nice, even if there are others who are far more adventurous (and possibly more deserving.) Note: two blogs of families currently inspiring and blowing my mind in equal parts are Salty Kisses and Anasazi Girl.
In addition to the press, we're going to be on TV! We had the great honor to be featured in a short video clip by our friends Paul and Sheryl Shard of the Distant Shores television show for their upcoming television episode on Cruising with Children. Interestingly enough, this also happens to coincide with the release of the much anticipated book Voyaging With Kids - A Guide to Family Life Afloat which promises to be the definitive manual on cruising as a family and is - in part -written by my good (bloggy) friend, Behan, of the excellent site Sailing Totem. If you get a copy, make sure to look for Isla in there as I believe they used (with permission of course) a couple of our photos.
Paul and Sheryl filmed this segment back in April (I think it was April?) when we were in Virgin Gorda. Check out the edited piece below. I really wish I would have thrown on some makeup or done my hair (face palm), but - hey - there's a reason I'm a Blogger and not a Vlogger. I was ridiculously nervous at the (very likely) prospect of sounding like an idiot and, in hindsight, there is so much more I could have said but I think it makes for an okay couple of minutes. Plus, you can hear my "real" voice and not just my "writing" voice which I am told is something that is surprising to people: "You have a Chicago accent!" "You don't sound like a cheerleader!" (double wince) and you can see, that - yes - Scott really does look like he belongs in Hollywood (swoon). If you are interested in purchasing any of the Distant Shores videos, they'll certainly whet your whistle as to what the cruising life entails. Enjoy!
Note: when I posted a link to the Chicago Tribune article (headline photo) many people commented "where is Scott?" Sadly, the paper chose that Scott-less photo out of the twenty-something I sent them. Also, we have hardly any (if any?) photos of the five of us sailing together. To remedy this in the future, I went against the urging of every single cell in my body and bought a selfie stick. I know. I kind of want to shoot me, too. But at least we can have a few more family photos, right?
is for those people. But more than that, it is for you, the dreamer disillusioned with suburban life, harboring big dreams to live a life less ordinary in the hopes of doing something tremendous with your family. This book will walk you through the steps and show you that once there, living and traveling aboard with your family can truly be a wonderful - even magical - life.
,Kindle and hard copy, both have their advantages and, while I do prefer to read books these days on my e-reader (just so much easier and compact!), I also find that having a hard copy of reference books much more user-friendly to have on the boat. The kindle version has active links to videos and resources, where the hard copy has better images and more legible graphs and tables.
and Nigel Calder's Mechanical and Electrical Manual
and will, no doubt, be the benchmarking reference guide when it comes to cruising with children.
. I know. I kind of want to shoot me, too. But at least we can have a few more family photos, right?
