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Happy Salty New Year

January 2, 2016 by Carly Filed Under: Alaska, Arctic, Australia, bahamas, Beaver Road Trip, Caribbean, New England, Newfoundland, Northwest Passage, Nova Scotia

Of course it’s the 11th hour and I’m writing a post for the New Year. I’m late for everything, never on time, always in a flustered rush. But hey, if I was on time that wouldn’t be me.

New year resolution…. better time management.

Ha! Let me put that on the list of eat better and exercise, those New Year’s resolutions seem to roll over year after year.

happy new year

We all know very well on the improvements we need to make on ourselves but what of those achievements we’ve reached previously in the year? Lets check those puppies out people! What did you pull off in 2015? [Read more…]

at a cross road

December 13, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Alaska, Arctic, Australia, Beaver Road Trip

We’ve been living on board Salty for past 2.5 years, we’ve had highs and lows living our adventure. In this short time we have sailed roughly 18,000 nautical miles, now I’m not a seasoned sailor but hooly dooly that’s a lot of miles. We’ve sailed the Bahamas, New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Caribbean, Greenland, the Northwest Passage and Alaska – in that order.

I’m not ashamed to say that we’re tired. Tired of the constant moving. Tired of not seeing friends. Tired of planning meals around the weather conditions. And tired of not having a toddler friendly backyard. Don’t get me wrong, the beach and sea are great for young kids but you always have to be on your toes when it comes to kids under 5 and the water. Crew is not yet 2 years old and into EVERYTHING, we find that one of us has to be within 2 feet of him at all times. It’s exhausting.

say it isn't soSo it’s come to this. We are dreaming of some land. Land in which we can open our back door and let the kids discover without constant adult supervision. I know there are still dangers outside for them but nothing like living on a boat, one ear always open for that dreaded scream and splash of one of our mini me’s falling overboard. The kids want bikes, pets and friends. Hell I want a bike too!

Are we buying a house and becoming landlubbers? Not yet, but we are at a turning point in our travels. Like many cruisers we have exhausted our funds, our cruising kitty is sick.

We have some big decisions to make that not only affect us but our kids and extended family. We are living a life in limbo.

We’ve been exploring Maine and checking out properties to see if it would be something that would fit our family, our whole family…. including Salty. In this plan I would head up to Maine with the kids and the Beaver, Carl would fly back to Alaska and prep the boat to take her back through the Northwest Passage. Salty would be flipped from a family friendly boat to an adventurous high latitudes charter boat.

In the coming weeks we will need to make a firm decision of land or sea. We could always head back to Alaska and hope that Carl could land a job for the summer then head south at the start of winter, but finding temporary employment doesn’t bring in big bucks for future sailing plans. How do people sail and support a family of 5? Can it be done?

Another idea is to head back to Alaska straight away and cruise south aiming for a Pacific crossing come April 2016 but this would have us sailing in rough winter seas landing us in Australia dead broke, if we even make it that far.

Ahh the sleepless nights of tossing and turning thinking about the future. I’m sure there are other cruisers out there that struggle with the same emotions as we are. We love sailing and traveling but we keep coming back to: is this the right time for us? Maybe if we give it another couple of years, wait for Crew to be 4 and give the live aboard thing another go. But we have the boat NOW, will we be shooting ourselves in the foot in a years time?

we have met the enemy and he is us – Walt Kelly

If anyone has some slick ideas about how we can keep cruising and afford to buy a sensible amount of chocolate along the way please let us known. As for now we’re looking outside of the the box but not yet giving up the dream.

Greenland slideshow

November 7, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Arctic

Here’s a little slideshow of our trip to Greenland this year. I love looking back and reminiscing about our time there, it is truly our favorite cruising ground to date. Check it out and I’d love to answer any questions you may have about cruising Greenland.

happy polar bear week

November 5, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Arctic

PB1Yep that’s right, a whole week dedicated to those scary/cute fluffy creatures of the ice. Last summer we saw in total six polar bears, one in Greenland and five in Arctic Canada. They are the most amazing creatures, big and clumsy, yet graceful in their own way. [Read more…]

Northwest Passage video

November 3, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Alaska, Arctic

The Arctic was such an amazing adventure, it will always be tucked away in our hearts, never to be forgotten. We met some amazing people along the way and learnt how to work better as a family. I think the greatest lesson we learned was how to cherish food and lead an even simpler life. Our days were filled with homemade bread, UHT milk and lots of water. Oh, and I can’t forget the butter. I wish I would have known that butter was making a comeback on the healthy food list, so much guilt would have been set aside.

Some days went on forever, 24 hours of sunshine melts away any conception of time. If it wasn’t for the kids we would have lost ourselves in the Arctic with day and night being as one.

There was never a boring day. Ice, polar bears, seals, icebergs and strong winds kept us on our toes. And the kids made sure there was never an idle moment.
We left Massachusetts USA in May of 2015 and arrived in Nome Alaska 4 months later. It will forever be the most amazing 4 months of our lives.

 

Northwest Passage

[Read more…]

Happy Halloween from all of us on Salty

November 1, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Arctic

halloween8Being Australian I’m not much into Halloween but when you rub up against the (US) outside world it’s inevitable that the kids will want to join in. We weren’t into forking out a ridiculous amount of money to buy costumes for the kids so we made do with what we had in their overused dress up bag. [Read more…]

Salty goes on Charter in Alaska

October 23, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: Arctic

AK Glacier 5

We left out with our guest on a typical rainy Seward day with the promise of whales, seals and glaciers. Our guest was dressed in 4 layers of warmth sitting in our enclosed cockpit complaining of the cold that was penetrating her bones. After a late fuel up we left out headed for our first anchorage only a few miles away at Thumb Cove. We were greeted by 2 whales and gushing waterfalls. [Read more…]

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Hi, I'm Carly. I'm a mum, an Australian, a wife, chocolate lover and often a seasick sailor. I like keeping a blog for us to look back on all our adventures. If you think this lifestyle would fit your family please contact me and I can tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. Read More…

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