Hi! We spent five years living aboard and sailing on a couple of sailboats (34ft then 42ft). We began our journey as a family of 3 on the east coast of the UK in 2017 and sailed across the North Sea to Northern Europe. After a couple of years exploring the continent, Jersey in Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly, the south coast of the UK, and having a baby(!) - we set sail south down the Atlantic coast from Cornwall, UK and sailed down to southern Portugal when Erin was only 8 months old. We have PLENTY of tales to tell! Now we're ready to share our experiences and all the knowledge we picked up to help other families get out on the water sailing. Come join us!
Dogs on Boats! A DOGGY SPECIAL πΆβ΅οΈ #6
Hi Reader, Welcome to the 6th edition of 'Families Afloat'! The brand new weekly newsletter full of inspiration, stories and invaluable information for sailing families. If this is the first one you've received - welcome aboard! It's great to have you here. If you want to have a read of previous newsletters, you can find them on our homepage: https://familiesafloat.co.uk. Now, on with this week... It's all about taking your dog sailing with you! Our furry friends are definitely part of the family and if you plan to take them cruising with you to other countries, then you've got some planning and paperwork to be getting on with (as well as making sure they adjust to life on the water so they can enjoy the adventure too!). β What You Should Be Thinking About This Week'Moving Onto Your Boat With Your Dog' Moving home can be stressful time for humans, let alone dogs. We did our best to make the transition easier for Scrappy and would love to share our ideas to help you make it easier for when you move aboard with your dog. Our article gives you lots of tips for helping your dog adjust to life on a boat from moving around both above and below decks to where they can sleep onboard. Read it here: 'Moving Onto Your Boat With Your Dog'. β Boat Tour of the WeekThis week we are touring Sierra and Billy's 1978 DeFever 43' Trawler called Mountain Myst. They bought her for $100 (yes, you read that right!!) and have spent the past year lovingly bringing her back to life. Check out what they've managed to do! β β Do you have a family sailing yacht boat tour you'd like to share? It can either be your own boat or one you've found on YouTube! Let us know here.β β Sailing Tip of the Week'Setting Sail With Our Dog (Scrappy) Onboard' Find out what we do with Scrappy when we go sailing. Read about how we set the boat up for him and what we do to make sure he is as comfortable as possible on passage. Check out 'Setting Sail With Our Dog (Scrappy) Onboard' on Sailing Mutiny's website. β Gear ReviewThis week we're looking at doggy life jackets! It's not just humans that need to wear life jackets, your furry friends need to aswell. It won't just help them to float in case they fall overboard, it will also give you a handle to grab onto to help pull them back onto the boat, or lift them in and out of your dinghy. Before we left we bought Scrappy a Crewsaver Petfloat. I'm pretty sure we had him in an XS size (he is only tiddly!) I think he found it comfortable to wear and didn't protest too much! We made the mistake of leaving it to dry out in the sun too often though so the foam inside shrank which meant it didn't work as effectively as when it was new. So, when it was time to replace it, we decided to try another brand. We found Ruffwear life jackets on Amazon and after seeing all the glowing reviews (there are nearly 2,300 reviews and it gets an average of 4.8 stars!), we decided to buy the XXS size for Scrappy. It feels more robust that the Petfloat and the design does a better job at keeping his head out of the water. He doesn't like putting it on though! It has a good handle for carrying him and lifting him in and out of the dinghy. We are very pleased with it. π βThis was the Ruffwear life jacket we bought but it looks like they have discontinued this model and now only sell the Float Coat Dog Life Jacket. It looks very similar to Scrappy's and also gets 4.8 stars on Amazon. β Galley Recipe of the WeekThis week it's all about what we feed our dog Scrappy while we're abroad and out sailing. It's provisioning... but for your dog! Dogs can be harder to feed than humans, especially if they're used to eating a certain food. We did a lot of research prior to setting sail and have put together an article well worth a read (including lots of links to other useful websites we found). Read it here: What Do We Feed Our Dog (Scrappy) While Weβre Abroad? (surprise... it's not what's pictured below anymore!) β Sailing & Cruising TipsEver wondered how your dog will go to the toilet on the boat once you start sailing? β "Re-toilet training a dog is possible, even if they're a not a puppy anymore - you can teach an old dog new tricks!"
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Robyn Hawkins - @sailing.mutinyβ
β When we first moved aboard with our dog, he was 2.5 years old, house toilet trained and rarely had an accident. One thing we soon realised was that if we had any hope of being able to do longer passages, then we would have to BOAT toilet train Scrappy. This took a lot more work and time than we'd hoped, so apart from a couple of initial longer passages around the 24 hour mark, we stuck to shorter passages and coastal hopped. While we were wintering in Jersey (around Scrappy's 3rd birthday), we made a massive effort to boat toilet train him so we could do longer passages, and it paid off! π Read all about how we did it here: (Re)-Toilet Training Our Dog On The Boat. β Do you have a really useful tip you'd like to share? Let us know here.β β YouTube Video of the WeekThis newsletter, my video of the week on YouTube is 'Living On A Boat WITH A DOG || EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know!!' by Sierra from Tula's Endless Summer. In the video, you'll get to meet Jetty, and Sierra discusses the following topics... Is living on a boat with a dog for everyone?; Where does she go to the bathroom?; What do we do when we can't bring her places?; Flying with a dog; Safety; Food; Checking into countries with a dog; Do dogs get seasick?; and Reasons to have a dog on a boat! Go and check it out! β β Have you watched a really good video this week? Let us know here.β β Pets CornerThis week it's Jetty from Tula's Endless Summer @jettythegypsy, @tulasendlesssummer_sierra, and @tulasendlesssummer. Look how happy and chilled she looks being on the water! π₯° "Feeling sorry for all the dogs that only have a window to stick their heads out of π #boatlife." Want your salty seadog (or cat, or other pet!) to be featured in the newsletter?! Let us know here.β β Cruiser Confession of the WeekSometimes things don't go quite the way we planned... Each week we'll share an embarrassing moment submitted by your fellow cruisers so we can learn from their mistakes (and probably have a giggle in the process!) β "I was walking from the boat along the pontoon to the shore with Scrappy on his extending lead (the lead is important!) and we came across some ducks chilling on the fuel dock ahead.
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The fuel dock stuck out slightly from the main pontoon (this is also important).
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Scrappy likes chasing ducks π, so he shot off ahead of me, the extending lead doing its thing and extending as he ran.
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Scrappy was nearing the fuel pontoon and was committed to rounding the corner to meet up with the ducks, when the lead stopped extending.
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Scrappy didn't stop rounding the corner though. The problem was, there wasn't enough lead to get around the corner and instead he ended up going around the corner slightly before the fuel dock... straight into the water. π
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I managed to stop laughing and fished him out, made a lot easier by the fact he was still attached to the end of the lead and took him back to the boat to be dried off.
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Scrappy isn't actually a fan of being in water so he felt very sorry for himself π.
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The ducks lived to quack another day."
Robyn Hawkins - @robyn.sailing.mutinyβ
β β β β β β β β What's the worst thing that's happened to you onboard?! Let us know here. Your oops moment can be shared anonomously or you can put your name to it - it's completely up to you! β Bilge BanterComplete the following (and get as inventive as you want!!!) β A group of children are swimming near your boat.
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You should _______________________________.
β βSubmit your answers here.β β Puzzle CornerIt's time to get your thinking caps on. Can you solve our nautical themed puzzle?! This week it's a RIDDLE! β Find out in the newsletter next week if you're right. β Last Week's Puzzle - ANSWER The answer to the puzzle last week was... A compass! Did you get it?! β β Competition TimeThis month we have teamed up with Kim from Sailing Britican. She has very kindly offered one of our readers the prize of enrollment on her online Boat Safety Course (complete with personalisable Manual for your boat) worth $347! β To find out more about it (and enter!), please visit our competitions page - just click the big orange button below! β
Brand: Sailing Britican Prize: Enrollment on their Boat Safety Course and Manual (online) Retail value: $347 Giveaway open to: Entrants worldwide aged 18+ This competition will run: During March 2023 and the winner will be chosen and announced in April 2023. β If you are a brand or company that is interested in giving away a quality sailing or travel product or gift voucher, please leave your details here.β β Really Useful WebsitesEach week we'll share some of our favourite sailing related websites that we have found super helpful and/or found ourselves revisting time and time again. β Tula's Endless Summer Sierra and Billy have sailed up and down the East Coast of the USA, to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and to the Domican Republic with their dog Jetty. They've put together some really useful information about sailing with your dog to these places and also some tips to help keep your dog cool when it gets hot. βhttps://tulasendlesssummer.com/category/traveling-with-a-dog/β β Sailing Mutiny Dave and I set sail from the UK and have travelled around the Atlantic coast of Europe with our dog Scrappy. I wrote a load of articles about a wide range of subjects for information on what to do before you leave, what to do once you leave home and you're off cruising, and also a couple about returning home again afterwards. βhttps://sailingmutiny.com/category/life-onboard/sailing-with-a-dog/β β What websites do you find yourself going back to time and time again? Tell us about them here.β β Have You Found This Newsletter Helpful?Do you know anyone else who would benefit from reading it? Please forward this newsletter to them and recommend that they subscribe so they don't miss any future emails from us! (You can subscribe here!) By doing this, you are helping our community grow. The more of us there are, the better this newletter will become! π β Join Us on Social Media β Enjoyed Families Afloat?βFind out how you can support us here so we can keep sharing Families Afloat with you all each week. π₯° β Thanks for joining us! I really hope you enjoyed reading this week's edition of 'Families Afloat'. Hope to see you again next week. In the meantime, fair winds and following seas! Robyn and Dave β Experiment
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113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205 |
Families Afloat | Sail Away Together
by Robyn, Dave, Erin, and Scrappy
Hi! We spent five years living aboard and sailing on a couple of sailboats (34ft then 42ft). We began our journey as a family of 3 on the east coast of the UK in 2017 and sailed across the North Sea to Northern Europe. After a couple of years exploring the continent, Jersey in Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly, the south coast of the UK, and having a baby(!) - we set sail south down the Atlantic coast from Cornwall, UK and sailed down to southern Portugal when Erin was only 8 months old. We have PLENTY of tales to tell! Now we're ready to share our experiences and all the knowledge we picked up to help other families get out on the water sailing. Come join us!
Hey Reader, I hope you've had a great week. Did you see my email last weekend where I told you I'd just relaunched Families Afloat as a brand new website?! Visit Families Afloat by clicking the image above or the links in the email Have you had a chance to check it out yet?! I'd love to hear what you think of the new (and IMO very much improved design! Let's be honest, the last website was a bit crap...! π) It's still early days for it but I'm adding new posts to it as often as I can. What...
Hi Reader, Iβm back!!! Itβs been a while since I emailed and a LOT has happened since then! Weβve moved back to the UK from Portugal and are in the process of trying to resettle into βnormal lifeβ. The bottom line is that itβs not going very well - moving back in the middle of winter probably wasnβt our smartest move! π Weβre missing boat life like crazy and have started boat hunting again π. The other thing Iβve been doing which has taken up a LOT of time is redesigning Families Afloat from...
Hi Reader, Welcome to the MAY edition of 'Families Afloat'! The monthly newsletter full of inspiration, stories and invaluable information for sailing families. If you want to have a catch up of our previous newsletters, you can find them here: NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE. This week's topic is what cruising is really all about... Fixing your boat in foreign countries! π I'm pretty sure that almost every cruiser we've met has had to fix their boat abroad at some point in their journey, if they haven't,...