Hello!

Hello and welcome to my first blog post. My name is Betty, I'm seventeen, and I have been circumnavigating by sailboat for the past eight years with my family. The boat is a St. Francis 50 catamaran, called Aphrodite, built in South Africa in 2005. Six people are onboard, with my parents, my two brothers (ages 15 and 12), my sister (age 12), and me.

My family at the Plaza De Francia in Panama

We started our trip in Florida in 2015, then went on to travel through the Bahamas, the Caribbean, back down to Florida, through the Panama Canal, then through the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Tonga, New Zealand, and currently Fiji. It's been a wild ride, and we have made many unforgettable memories in each place.

Some of the highlights for me have been playing baseball with local children in the Dominican Republic, Carnival in Grenada, volunteering on an archeological dig for the University of Hawaii in Tahuata, French Polynesia, and swimming with sharks in Fakarava, French Polynesia.

Me and my sister (Karen, age 12) in a church on Kauehi, Tuamotus

However, even after eight years, we are still learning, and with these highlights have come quite a few mishaps. For example, just recently on the sail from New Zealand to Fiji, we experienced 50-knot (about 93kph) winds and lost a rudder. As such, we are going to be in Fiji a bit longer than we had planned, but with the beautiful clear water and super friendly people, I don't think anyone is feeling too bad about that.

After quite a few years of watching my mother share stories on her blog (https://aphrodite.cat/)with her devoted following, I've finally decided to try it myself. On this blog, I'm hoping to share quite a few stories and maybe even inspire a few of my readers to start their own sailing adventures. Enjoy!!