Live Free 2 Sail Fast

Kids Corner: The Life Of A Cruiser Kid

I’m going to say this outright: cruising is hard. Sure, maybe its worth it for a really pretty or fun place, but it can have it’s downsides, and can sometimes be just downright SCARY. But that’s okay. Sure, I’m new to this whole cruiser kid thing, but I get around.  It’s scary, especially since it’s going on for three days, with water pounding on the hull, every now and then mom or dad shouting for us to hold on, and the waves are so big, even your dad, an experienced sailor, is surprised. This was one of many crossings that freaked me out. On the first crossing, on the second day (also our SECOND day of cruising!), our accemetric sail ripped, and then I knew something: cruising is hard, can sometimes seem dangerous, and can be scary (I know, I’ve said that 5 times already. But this is how I feel!) sometimes.

Of course, this is NOT at all how cruising is. Some days, your sailing smoothly along, not a care in the world. Others, it can be scary. But not always. Cruising can be A LOT of fun, if you just see it differently. On crossings, hair chalk or hair coloring can be a lot of fun, as well as reading, maybe sometimes phones or I-pads, playing with a pet, drawing or painting, and TONS of other cool stuff!  In the anchorage or marina, snorkeling, swimming, paddle boarding, surfing, and other watersports can be fun, too.  Or maybe, you’ll go see a friend. In the few months that I have been cruising, I’ve had the privalige of trying many of these things and have had so much fun!

I think that the highlight of cruising, for me, so far, has been the other cruiser kids. It’s nice to know that you’re not the only one out there. Its been especially fun radioing, swimming, talking, playing, having sleepovers, or maybe just paddle boarding over to say hi. You never know. Although I miss my class and friends back at home, I’m still in contact with them, and I doubt they have forgotten about me. You know, cruising really isn’t that bad. It’s quite fun, and most times I’m scared, the feeling goes away quickly. Thank you for reading this report.  Cruiser Teagan….Up And Out

My daughters are 8 and 10 and both write posts for the Friday “Kids Corner” Posts that we try to put out every Friday.  Think I write these…. I don’t.  They are truly written by kids for kids and we welcome feedback from kids around the world who want to talk to either of my daughters about cruising.  Of course, I read all the comments and the each post before they get put out but that’s just prudent dad stuff.  We love where we are and what we’re doing and I want to keep doing this as long as possible.  We would love your help….and it’s soooo easy….just follow our tiny website so we can grow and reach more folks as we go along.  

If you’re REALLY motivated…check out our Patreon Site and consider buying Quincy the Great Dane some dog food!

Kids Corner- Regatta Day

Okay…once again, I have zero idea what I should write about (this is, what, the fifth time?). sigh. OH. I know.   So I bet you want to know who won the boat races. Well, unlike what I had earlier thought, the bigger boats raced each other, and the little boats raced each other. So, for the little boats, there was Kellyn’s boat, my and Levi’s boat, another kid named Owen, and an adult decided to make a boat (name unknown, although he said that he was 12…) …and anyway, so the 2 big boats raced. The teen’s original boat had sunk, so they constructed one in 4 hours, and called it Ramshackle. The other boat was called Wind seeker, and they were the ones that won. Ramshackle, apparently, was really good for going upwind. Wind seeker went basically any direction if there was wind…and they were SUPPOSED to go downwind, so you can imagine how the race went. And afterwards, the teens were muttering about what they would have given for 1 more hour of work…anyway, for the little boats, long story short, Kellyn’s boat came in first, mine second (GO STARLIGHT!!!). My Friend took his boat out of the water when another kid crossed the finish line…TEAGAN UP AND OUT.

The Boats:

The Races:

Not from the author of Kids Corner: 

I’ll write more about La Cruz and the La Cruz Kids Club when I write my article about places we’ve been (La Cruz), but suffice to say the kids love the activities and we’re thankful for all the kids here in one place.  We love what we’re doing out here and I can’t thank all of you enough for following and reading our posts.  More coming up on cooking on the Big Green Egg on a boat and some of the land travels we just completed.  Wanna support this blog- FOLLOW us.  Want a cool LF2SF Sticker and T-Shirt?  Support us on Patreon and we’ll send you the swag you deserve! 

Kids Corner: Regatta Prep

Kids Corner: Ramblings of a Boat Kid by Teagan

Hello. I have a lot of stuff to write about.  First of all, the most exciting thing that’s happened since we left the marina (it’s really rocky. One of these days, we’re gonna have a repeat of Muertos!!!) is: So, the “La Cruz kids club” (totally recommended) does a cool trash boat regatta every year and me and my sister decided to do it too. I collected trash with Levi and Everest (other kids here too).  Unfortunately neither of them could not make it to the boat building…so I did it myself (with some help on making the sails from mom).  I did make it kinda pretty, but who can blame me?  We tested it out before we left, and the wind actually caught the sails and it sailed! Kind of…and dad said that with a little adjusting, I would go a lot faster! A lot of the other other boats looked a lot faster, though, like my friends boat. They’re boat is one of those mono hulls that has two other hulls on either side, kinda like the boats that ancient Hawaiians used. The teens have also got a really awesome boat, too. Its basically exactly like my friends boat, except their boat is made out of bottles, while the teen’s boat is made out of a kind of tannish flexiglass. They both have really good made sails, made out of a plastic bag, and they both are really good.  Anyway, I gotta go. SAILOR/BOAT BUILDER TEAGAN UP AND OUT.

We live on a 51′ (1977) Aleutian Ketch (a cruising sailboat) with our two kids and our Great Dane.  We give both of our daughters time to write and be published on our website simply to give them a voice from the boat also and communicate with any other kids out there who want to talk via the blog.  This gives the girls a voice to discuss kid boat issues with others and allows us a safety net for their communications with others, since we read everything that comes and goes.  Makes me more comfortable.  We don’t mandate that our kids write about much of anything specific, just that they write and learn to communicate in the world around them.  

We’re a small self-published website that usually done from a cruising sailboat or anywhere we can find with strong wi-fi and cold beer.  Wanna help us out….FOLLOW US.  Wanna help us some more…buy us a cold beer or Quincy some dog food?  Check out our Patreon Site. 

Kids Corner: MineCraft Musings

Good Morning.  The following writing is done entirely by a 10-year old on board a cruising sailboat in Mexico.  These are her words and thoughts (and spelling) which are published every Friday on our website (when we have connectivity).

hello, everyone!!! Hey, I know I’m supposed to wright about sailing, and stuff…but today I REALLY want to write about Minecraft, and that is TOTALLY what I am gonna do today(after all, dad did tell me to write about whatever I want). Minecraft is basically this game where, you can either play in survival, or creative. My personal fav is creative, where you have never ending reasources, you can fly, and the monsters don’t come after you. The purpose of creative is to find something that you really want to build, and then to set your mind to it, and eventually, you will have a beautiful, hand made creation, that you can either enjoy in survival, or with your friends, or both! Survival now, that one is equally pretty cool. You spawn in someplace around the world, usually with a village nearby, and you basically, well, survive. You kill animals for food, build a shelter, and craft a bed, or else, you won’t make it through the night. Cause ya see, at night, monsters spawn. Zombies(witch burn in daylight), skeletons(they have bows and arrows, so be carefall), creepers(these silent green guys are so quiet, and they don’t burn in daylight, AND they explode when they get near you!), and many more monsters of the night. My fiercest rival is the endermen, a tall black monster with purple eyes. All you have to do to get their attention is make eye contact with them, and the suddenly, WHAM! They teleport to you and start hurting you, and are very hard to kill. Luckily, they hate the rain, so all you have to do is go swimming in a pond, or something, and they’ll go away. These so called “Endermen” are said to have built the “world”. I have no idea what exactly that means, but if you find an abandand mineshaft, you know who built it. they can also pick up blocks, and put them down, although, I have not seen this very much. As a matter of fact, if you build a portal the right way(I’m not gonna tell you, although, you can probably find it online), you can visit the end, an eirie world of floating islands, with dozens of endermen, and you’ll probably spawn next to the largest island, with the evil ENDER DRAGON. And yes, I said DRAGON. Unfortunately, it cannot be tamed, but must be defeated, by one ready to face it. You get TONS of xp(experience points), and a dragon egg. No, you cannot hatch it, but rather use it as a trophy. The best part is, when the dragon dies, its body rises up into the air, and explodes, raining xp everywhere!!! Well, I think that’s big enough for today. SAILOR(and gamer)TEAGAN UP AND OUT!

Want to read more?  Please follow our website and check out our Patreon Site too.

Kids Corner: The Kellyn Interview

The following is an interview between older sister Teagan and younger sister Kellyn for this Kids Corner Post:

Okay, so I’m going to interview my sister, Kellyn (who’s finally showing some interest in the blog), for reasons that I will keep to myself.    How do you like living on a boat?  Kellyn: “I love the boat. Sure, there’s no privacy, BUT at least I kinda get a bunk bed. [But I don’t get to sleep in it]. I sleep on the bottom, which is quite comfy”.  Do you like having a Great Dane on the boat?  Kellyn: “I mean of COURSE, who wouldn’t want a Great Dane on their boat? Quincy’s the friendliest dog ever. Sure, she barks (quite loudly, actually), but that’s just her way of saying “HI!”.  Do you like living with 3 other people? Kellyn: “I would love some privacy, but I love my family, and I don’t know what it would be like without them”.

Good Morning, by the time you read this, we’ll be starting our passage from Muertos directly across to Banderas Bay, known as one version of the Southern Crossing.  We’ll pick back up with Kids Corner from Banderas Bay, PV Mexico when we get there. 

Kids Corner: Swimming With GIANTS

Kids Corner is a feature on this website and blog that my 10-year old writes as weekly post about whatever’s on her mind at the time.  We do this to allow her to have a voice on the website and get her to correspond with other kids around the world while she’s out here with us having the unique experience of living full time on a cruising sailboat (our floating hovel).  While we’re not that unique in this adventure (there’s lots of other boats with kids), we want still want to have our own experiences and allow both the 10-year old AND the 7-year old to write about it in their own words with light editing (for content) from me.  So here’s writing from both kids:

From Teagan (10 years old):

WE.JUST.WENT.SWIMMING.WITH.THE.BIGGEST.FISH.IN.THE.WORLD………A WHALESHARK!!!! It was so cool, I mean, you think its gonna be scary, like they might swallow you whole (but they can’t, their throats are like as big as, like, your eyeball), or hit you really hard or something, but usually, they just don’t want to be disturbed, and then they won’t do anything. But they were like, REALLY big, like most of them were bigger than the boat (it was a ponga though). They were just moseyin’ along, trying to find some food.

These creatures are really big, and usually they’ll be fine. just get in the water slowly and don’t get too close, or else you could spook it, and it will swim away before you can see it really good, or get some photos with your underwater cam. Sometimes, before you can see it, it will be swimming too fast for you see it. Don’t worry, though, the guide said that the only day that they didn’t see one was because it was only days before the whale shark season ended (I don’t recommend reserving it around that time). I’m going to post some videos on our YouTube Channel. It’s really important that we don’t touch them, because we have bacteria on our hands, and if we touch them, we’ll transfer that bacteria to them, harming their skin, and we don’t want that. It is so important that we preserve this amazing species. In Asia, they like to eat shark fin soup. What is so sad is, they toss the body of the sharks in the back in the ocean and leave it to die. just think about it…. Teagan Up and Out! 

From Kellyn (7 years old)- her first post that she wrote on her own: 

LITERALLY. JUST. SWAM. WITH. THE. WORLD’S. LARGEST. FISH! [And I’m seriously NOT kidding]. A Whale Shark. Have you ever seen one? Like, not in photos or videos or something, but actually going in the water? Well I have. [Plus my family and some other people].

And if you are scared here’s some stuff you need to know: 1.They can’t and won’t swallow you because…their esophagus[which is a fancy shmancy word for throat]is really tiny. 2.They eat plankton. [NOT people]. 3. You should stay 2 meters away their body and 3 meters away from their tails for safety.  KK-shazaam! (more…)

Kids Corner: Reporting From Somewhere Fun In Baja

Ignoring the fact it’s Friday the 13th once again…we’re starting to publish our Kid’s Corner Posts once again as we have internet/wi-fi and we’re somewhere that we can access it.  We’ll publish Kids Corner every Friday that we have access to internet or perhaps publish it ahead of time to try to stay as consistent as possible.  Kids Corner Posts are completely written by a 10-year old girl and her little sister from a cruising sailboat currently in the Sea of Cortez.  There’s light editing by a parent for content and themes but aside from that all ideas and discussions are from the mind of a 10-year old.  We would LOVE to have as many kids as possible follow the Friday posts as we go through our adventures.  Here we go… (more…)

Kids Corner: Tenth Birthday

From a Kid on a Boat to Kids Everywhere…Kids Corner: 

“HALLALUJEH! HALLALUJEH! WHY AM I CELLABRATING? ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TEAGAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEE! I turned ten last night, around midnight. As a firstborn, my dad was SOOOOO anxious to hear whether I was okay or not. Everybody was there, at 12 o’clock at night, waiting. I really wanted to come out at first, and I was early. But then I sensed the coldness, the bright lights, and all of these weird things crowding around me, cooing at me, with really hairy tops and dressed in animal skins, I knew that I was meant for a better world…but where could I escape to? I saw an opening in the place where I had just come out. Yes, that place was warm and there were no hairy things in there, at least what I had accounted of.  They picked me up and raised me to be one like them. They put animal skins on my body {which were VERY itchy}, and I grew hair on my top as well. I tried to escape, ANYTHING to let me be free! But alas, they were invulnerable. Curse those stupid baby fences! And oh, the horror of………. THE DOGGIE! It was everywhere, even in THE best hiding spots EVER! And yet it caught me every time. And then…………………”IT” CAME! They left me with gramma for some unknown reason, and I took this as my chance to escape! But again, she found me and gave that oh so amazing hot milk…but then they came back…with another! This one was even MORE horrible! But alas it is time for my nap {not really} TEAGAN UP AND OUT…”

Pretty cool that Teagan still has a chance to be creative and write her weekly column while we’re still here.  We’re going to make every effort to allow her to continue to write, post and grow her writing skills as we go along.  Very exciting for us here that we’ve been contacted by a number of cruising boats prepping for the Baja Ha-Ha also, congregating here in San Diego.  Teagan writes for kids everywhere from our boat..while we’re waiting for both our engine and the start of Baja Ha-Ha.  Which will come first? Not sure.

As we’ve gone along these past few months, we’ve started to collect home-schooling references and supplies and took inspiration from the sailing vessel “Totem” to buy a complete set of encyclopedias.  Here’s me unpacking them:

As we unpacked them, we realized how much space they took up and knew we would need to shuffle things around to fit the entire set.  So, we reshuffled the salon and now it looks like this: 

We bought last years “World Book” set (2018) and can’t be happier with it.  We know we won’t have wi-fi and internet in many of the places we’re going but we know we need a way for the kids to continue to do research..so these books will be instrumental I think.  So the kids will be home-schooled here on the boat as we go…we’ll cover this as we go.  Stick with us as we’re a family living on a sailboat with a Great Dane and prepping to leave to go sailing in far-away places.  

Kids Corner: SKY, A Favorite Computer Game

“Hey ya’ll. I’m back! We leave for school in 25 minutes, so I gotta hurry. It’s really cool that we still get to have internet {at the moment}. My favorite game is called Sky: Children Of Light. Its this game where you collect golden spirits and you get wings! Then you have to travel all over sky, finding silver spirits, that give you expressions. Every 2 months a new season comes, with new silver spirits. You see, you can get garments and stuff from spirits, like instruments! My favorite is the harp, and you can actually play instruments! As a matter of fact, you can get new hairdos, new wing colors, new pants, even new masks. But for seasonal spirits, you get, like upgraded stuff. Like you can get hairdos with hats! And this season only, you can get an umbrella!!!{which helps a lot In the hidden forest}. You can also get different wing shapes! And the best part is that for normal spirits, you have to unlock most stuff with end candles, the hardest candle to find {candles are the natural currency}. But for seasonal spirits, you don’t have to unlock anything. It’s a really good game and you should totally get it. TEAGAN UP AND OUT”

These are writings from my daughters while we sit at our dock waiting on our engine to get fixed.  We have internet and are still in the US so this is easy and fun while they still have the ability to do this.  Soon today will be yesterday and we’ll be off for our adventure, but today the kids go to school and I work on the boat.  We’re living on our boat with two kids and a Great Dane ready to head south.  We’d love to have you FOLLOW us and check us out as we continue this adventure. 

Kid Corner: Thoughts on Composting Toilets?

“Soo…we are leaving in a month. I’ll update u. school has started, and it’s the end of September. School is SOOOO boaring. Dad is provisioning up. I actually thought that he had things under control……until he got 50 of these little sugar cubes that were actually stuff to start fires. Literally. That’s their one purpose. And DON’T even get me started on the coconut poop bricks. See we have a composting toilet. That means that we have to empty the pee bottle by hand and the POOP BUCKET. But after the poop is emptied out, we have to mash up these dirt bricks, and put them in the poop bucket, just so that it doesn’t smell. And of course whoever does that certainly never, ever gets so smelly and so poopy that they have to shower 3 times. Luckily, dad is that person right now. That might change though…AND he made US haul ALL of this inside. Sigh. The life of a boat kid is SO awesome. And of course we can’t forget the toilet. NOT. TEAGAN UP AND OUT.”

Kids Corner has been off the blog for a couple weeks because we’ve been busy, simply didn’t get to it but we’re back.  Kids Corner is written entirely by a 4th Grader who lives on a sailboat in a room with her sister.  It’s mostly unedited but reviewed as we try to develop good writing habits with our kids. Hope you liked this week’s Kids Corner and you tune in for the next 7-fridays until we untie the docklines and go south. That is…if our engine’s working and back in our boat.  And, you can check out our Patreon site to see if supporting us is right for you.