Sailing across the Pacific

We made it.

In 2014 we walked away from conventional life with two young kids and zero sailing experience. No trust fund, no charter company, no safety net — just a boat, a family, and the belief that the ocean would teach us the rest. It did.

This year, that belief got tested for real. The Pacific Crossing — roughly 4,000 nautical miles of open Pacific, from Panama to the Marquesas, French Polynesia. Weeks with no land in sight. A journey that had us troubleshooting broken things mid ocean, hand steering, weather calls, and a lot of incredible days.

We didn't make that crossing alone. 180 people made it with us — every one of them with their name written, by hand, inside the boat that carried us across.

The wall of crew

Every name on this wall is hand written inside Catalpa II

The Crossing, in short

• Route: Panama → Marquesas, French Polynesia

• Distance: ~4,000 nautical miles

• Vessel: Catalpa II, our Pearson 530 ketch, our Floating home to our family

• What actually happened: cascading electronics failures from a brownout, a rebuilt nav plan on the fly, and a Pacific crossing that went the way real ones go — hard in places, unforgettable throughout