Our trip has had many goals, but a primary one has been to teach ourselves, and especially our children, about the different cultures of the people in our world, and the values those people possess.  Many people never learn what's important to other cultures and too often feel that other people should feel as they do.  But we know that other cultures have very different values from our own, and we feel it's important, especially for the coming generation who will be leading our society in only a few years, to know this as well.  We hope that with better understanding, future generations will be better equipped to defuse some of the strife that threatens world peace.

Although sailing to Australia was our original goal when we left St. Maarten in 2002, we joined the Darwin-Kupang, Indonesia Rally which left Australia in July 2006. This put us deeply into SE Asia, and formed a commitment to continue on around the world!

After cruising Indonesia for 3 months we sailed up the Straits of Malacca cruising through Malaysia and Thailand.  Christopher, taking time off from university, re-joined us there for 3 months and sailed with us to Sri Lanka.  Jon, Sue and Amanda spent the rest of 2007 on the voyage across the Indian Ocean, switching continents from Asia to Africa, with stops in the Maldives, Chagos Archipelago,  Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa.

While we'd originally planned to go around South Africa and continue on to the Caribbean to sell Ocelot and move ashore for a while, we decided in 2008 that we'd like to continue cruising.  We had planned to sail from South Africa in June 2008 (after cyclone season had ended) to the northern Indian Ocean (via Mayotte) to catch the monsoon across to the northern Maldives and back to Langkawi, Malaysia.

But the summer in the US beckoned, so in June 2008 so we left Ocelot at Tuzi Gazi Marina in Richards Bay, South Africa and flew with Amanda back to the States.  She entered the University of Washington, Seattle, as an oceanography major in September 2008.  Jon and Sue spent another 6 months in the States, working and visiting family and friends.

In April, 2009 Jon and Sue returned to Ocelot. After much boat work and once the pirate activity in the western Indian Ocean calmed down, we sailed north to Mayotte, Madagascar, and the Seychelles.

LATEST NEWS: We're in the Seychelles, preparing to leave for our next landfalls: southern Maldives and Langkawi, Malaysia

  Stay tuned!

Jon with a wild lemur in Mayotte

Ongoing improvements to photos -
In general, if you see a border around a picture, or if your mouse-pointer turns into a hand when you mouse-over a photo, then clicking on the picture will bring up a larger version.  Use the Back Button to return.
Click on the example above

Does Ocelot sail with just Sue and Jon?  We're finding out!  Chris and Amanda are now both attending the University of Washington and we miss them like crazy!

Amanda is studying  --  Oceanography!  (surprise)  She lived aboard for 6.5 years and logged more than 20,000 miles on Ocelot.  And this summer she worked on a 100-foot powerboat in the Pacific Northwest.
More from Amanda

Christopher has been enrolled at the University of Washington in Computer Science and Engineering studies since September of 2005.  He took time out to visit us for 3 months beginning Christmas 2006. He is almost finished his degree, and was an intern at Microsoft this summer for the second time.
More from Christopher...

Where is Arthur? Our beloved sailing cat was going to suffer greatly crossing more oceans and sitting out months of quarantine in Australia. In March 2005 we flew him "home" to Northern California to live with Jon's brother's family where he is now happily climbing trees and warming laps in a non-floating house.
More about Arthur the Sea Cat...

Want to build your own website?  Jon has published 2 pages of tricks and traps for others attempting to put together a website like ours.
Read Jon's FrontPage 101 and FrontPage FAQ pages

On the Move Again

In mid-July Sue and Jon (only!) sailed Ocelot up the Mozambique Channel, avoiding whales this time!  Our passage to Mayotte turned out to be our 3rd longest passage to date, after we hadn't sailed in 20 months!
See our new Mayotte Newsletters pages

After Mayotte we crossed over to Madagascar, which we'd visited in 2007.  There we met our friends who'd sailed in from Chagos
See our new Ocelot Returns Newsletters

For cruisers, we've now updated our Cruising Madagascar pages to include  listings of several new anchorages (in the extreme north, and around Nosy Be) we had not visited on our first trip.
Revisit our Cruising Madagascar page

From Madagascar we continued NE for a very fast passage, returning to the Seychelles.
See our new additions to our Seychelles Newsletters

Now that the kids are starting their own lives at university, Sue has published an article on 2‑handed cruising
See Sue's 2‑Handed Cruising article

Having arrived in the Seychelles after an incredibly boisterous sail, Jon developed a torn retina in his right eye. Read about it, and our emergency trip to Johannesburg to fix it
See our newsletter The Eyes Have It

----- July 2009 -----

Sue and Jon are back aboard Ocelot, in Richards Bay, South Africa!  We've updated the site with the latest newsletters from this year.
See our latest Africa Newsletters: Family Update and Kruger Return

We've added a new page on Touring in Southern Africa, with lots of suggestions for others who might want to really experience Africa.
See our Touring Africa page

We've also added a Cruising Madagascar page, complete with photos, cruising info, and anchorages.  If you're sailing to the Great Red Island, you'll want to read (and save) this!
See our Cruising Madagascar page

----- June 2008 -----

We've now completed our Madagascar Destination pages, including reports on the interior & cruising the NW coast.
See our Madagascar Destination pages...

We've now added 5 pages on Madagascar's Flora & Fauna, including a full page on their fascinating Lemurs.
See our Madagascar Flora & Fauna pages...

Amanda has now posted her amusing journal entries from when we toured Madagascar's interior.
See Amanda's Madagascar Journal pages...

Ongoing

We are continuing to put Google Ads on selected pages.  This has been a difficult decision as our site has always been completely non-commercial.  But at well over 600 pages, it also requires significant maintenance.  We're hoping that Google's reputation for appropriate ads will not detract from your experience.  Your feedback here would be appreciated.

We've now trashed our old, automatically generated site map in favor of a much more compact and intuitive page with explanations.
Check out our new Site Map...

• 11.2 months (340 days or 17%) off Ocelot (in the USA, touring inland, etc.) and
• 56.3 months (1,714 days) living on Ocelot, of which we've spent:
  •  4.1 months (126 days or  7%) on multi-day passages, and
  •  4.3 months (132 days or  8%) doing long (>6 hour) day sails, and
  •  8.5 months (258 days or 15%) moving Ocelot shorter distances, and
  • 39 months (1,198 days or 70%) staying in one place, of which
    • 43% were spent in some remote, idyllic anchorage, and
    • 57% were spent in port, doing land-based activities (explorations, shopping, maintenance, etc.)
• We've moved Ocelot 516 (30%) of our 1,714 days on board.
• In 5.5 years we've sailed about 23,900 nautical miles (~27,500 statute miles or ~44,300 km).