See-Level goggles on a boat

Feeling Seasick?

If you’ve ever spent any time on a boat in rough conditions then you’ll probably understand what feeling seasick is all about. First you might start feeling a bit hot and uncomfortable, you get a funny sensation in your mouth, that queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach, you start turning green and clammy,…

Measuring Microplastics

A couple of weeks ago on the Women Who Sail New Zealand Facebook group, one of the members Michele, put up a post about a citizen science project – The Big Microplastic Survey. If you haven’t heard of Citizen Science before, I wrote a post about it a year or so ago. It is basically…

girl in wet weather gear playing ukulele on an inflatable boat

Sailing with a Ukulele

“After years of ‘pot bashing’, it is time to learn an actual instrument to enhance our summer raft ups.” announced Nicci’s email. I wasn’t offended – anyway, our pot bashing she speaks of would have to be the most melodic kind of pot bashing you have ever heard… but regardless, I was happy to move…

Citizen Science for Sailors

There is a saying about a child wandering along a beach throwing the starfish back in to the sea. A man comes along and says “what are you doing? There are thousands of starfish here and this beach is miles long, you can never make a difference” The child picks up another starfish and throws…

Being a good boat guest

So you’ve been invited to go and stay on someone’s boat? Awesome! The next best thing to having a boat of your own is having friends who have boats. It is much cheaper and just about as much fun. So to increase your chances of having a fantastic time – and being invited to come…

Origami Boats

Being a boat lover, you just can’t have too many boats around the house. They remind you what you are missing out on living between four walls and a roof, instead of bobbing around on the water where you rightly should be. I like staying in hotels, especially when you head to the loo and…

Medical Matters

I recently did a first aid course, where the main thing I learnt was how to dial 111. (or 911 or 999 – for goodness sake why can’t the world agree on one emergency number!?!) We didn’t even get to bandage anyone up. Just dial 111 and give the person a plaster, we were told……

smiling female sailor with sun setting in the background

Being Sun-Smart

Here in New Zealand we are constantly being reminded about the dangers of skin cancer and the importance of getting your moles checked. New Zealand and Australia have the highest rates of melanoma in the world. As sailors who spend a lot of time outside and in the sun, we are particularly vulnerable,  I booked myself…

Folding Bikes

I remember the first time I saw a folding bike in real life, some people turned up to a cafe in Mt Maunganui with these strange looking bikes and carrying dry bags. “Cruisers” we thought, and we were right. We got chatting and they had sailed half way around the world to get to New…