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The Grants

Our lifestyle is very different from how we were living on land. Being together most of the time and everyone having to help out with the running of day to day life has made us closer. The kids have to take on a lot more responsibility, driving boats around, advising the helms person which way to avoid reef hazards from up the mast. The kids spend a lot less time with other children which leads them to make friends fast and enjoy the company of adults. With no TV or internet, they have to find other forms of entertainment, reading and imaginative play plenty.

Peter, the Skipper

I feel like my identity has changed, I'm no longer Peter the Photographer but the Skipper of Yamana. I'm beginning to feel worthy of the title, Capitano as they say round here. I still have so much to learn and experience but I feel totally on the case with all aspects of running a sailboat. I made a great effort to be fully pre pared for our Pacific crossing. Therefore the thought of exposing my families lives to greater danger than land life is

Alice

So hands up those who think cruising life is cruisy! I had the illusion in London I’d be hanging loose on this boat as we floated from one beautiful place to the next. Yes we have been in many stunningly beautiful places , but the reality is it’s Hard Work.. Domestic life has taken over, lots of meals, washing, camping style, not comfortable, salt water to deal with, everything a dinghy ride away, it all takes up a lot of time.

alleviated by my confidence in my abilities, the boat and our safety precautions. The risk's are far outweighed by the rewards.

I love sailing, both in Yamana and Luna. Visiting remote places and meeting interesting people. The mission 'keep the boat afloat' gets a bit much at times, working and working when I could be exploring, playing or relaxing in a beautiful place. Fortunately I like getting into things, learning, figuring out, fixing, improving and spotting problems before they begin.

I'm really looking forward to the crossing the Pacific, fine tuning my sail trimming skills and the effects of the isolation on us all, inward journeys. I not sure what to think about arriving back in New Zealand. It will be about twenty years since I lived there, and the Bay of Islands where we're bound will be completely difference from my home town Wellington. Finishing cruising and getting back into the rat race is not something I'm looking forward to. But I currently have this vision of making a living from a small fleet of boats, that could be fun.

And then of course the home schooling. We do two to three hours in the mornings, I do english, history, geography and music on Monday Wednesday and Fridays and Pete maths and science the other days. Both Olive and Ruben spend a lot of their days reading and learning in other ways and I feel confident (most of the time…) that they will be up to speed when we arrive in New Zealand.
I love being outside all the time, the skies, the contact with the weather and environment is special. And of course the travel, I will miss Central America, learning Spanish and salsa has been great, I’ll be back for more one day.
Ahead of us is our big sail across the Pacific, I feel ready, more experienced and positive but there’s always some trepidation. Being in horrible conditions is horrible but it is wonderful to arrive in a safe protected anchorage and drop the anchor. The longest passage we’ve done to date is just four days so it’s going to be a different experience being at sea for anything between twenty and thirty days. We are going to have to get creative with the space.
My work as a cranial sacral therapist is on hold, I simply don’t have the space physically or otherwise but I still do people’s feet with good results. I look forward to resuming this in New Zealand.
Difficult to say what has changed in me, friends who come and stay comment on how things are very much on Yamana as they were in Surrey Rd, it’s still noisy, still crasily busy. I couldn’t live in this floating world indefinately but for now I thank God for the opportunity and the experience.

Olive

I thought Yamana would be a huge fancy boat like in magazines and that I would never get seasick. It small but you get use to it. Its really fun going to new places and travelling so it doesn't get boring, especially fun when you have got other kids to play with on other boats, doing sleep overs with them. I like building sandcastles, sailing luna, exploring islands, and making bases.

I don't like home schooling but I never really liked school so that hasn't changed. There are no other kids of your own age who you can exchange answers and stuff. But you get to help decide what you are going to learn which is good.

Its ok sharing the same cabin as Ruben apart from when he kicks me in the night accidently, I would rather have my own berth.

It's fun getting to drive in the dinghy, it's like driving a car. I like been up the spreaders and looking out for reefs and giving Ruben a Harry Potter quize at the same time.

I'm not too happy about going across the Pacific because I get seasick but hopefully I'll get over that. I don't like passages, the best thing about a passage is arriving. I can't wait to learn how to surf.

Ruben

living on a boat is very different from living in a house. You have to do much more work, like pulling in the boom, it's disturbing when I'm reading my book which I do a lot. School is much worse, because oh Idon't know it just is, no other kids and I once asked how rocks are made then we spent two weeks finding all about how rocks are made, I wished I had never asked.

But half the time we're having a nice time at sandy beaches or swimmiing and stuff like that. The boat I think is a very very good boat because it's very seaworthy and it's almost the perfect space for all of us. You can't keep buying everything we want because there is not the space to store it but we can keep some things. Some of the work is very satisfing, for instance putting milk in the milk cupboard in very organised way.

I miss the luxuries we had on land, like boursin, flushing toilets, sainsburys orange juice, and most of all sansburys pesto. I also miss my friends but I can cope.

Being on passage in big waves is really bad, because I get very seasick. But I never get scared, apart from the time we got hit by a water spout, but we were fine.

I am not looking forward to going on the 1000s of passages ahead of us, I don't like passages because of the motion. In a way I can't wait to get to New Zealand but I think I will miss exploring new places and meeting new people.