A build-up to voyaging
It was supposed to be a one-year sailing adventure, but it’s been 12. Sarah and Will Curry bought their first boat together in Mexico in 2012. They outfitted her for offshore use on a minimal budget and set sail across the Pacific in March 2013.
After living the South Pacific dream, they sold the boat in Sydney, Australia, and a period of boat-less-ness ensued: No projects, no maintenance, and an easy land-travel life. It was during those six months that desperation grew for another cruising vessel on which to continue the life aquatic long-term. A Jeanneau 43 came up for sale in Nanaimo, B.C., Canada, letting Sarah and Will live aboard and cruise in local waters before heading south once again.
They sailed down the Washington/Oregon coast in 2017 and slowly cruised California city by city, anchorage by anchorage. In 2019 they welcomed twin boys and returned to the boat in San Diego with two babies (and much more luggage). They couldn’t ready themselves or Kaiquest in time to sail to Mexico with the 2019 Baja Ha-ha, but made the journey down to Cabo San Lucas in February of 2020 when the twins were seven months old — before they were mobile.
During the Covid years, the Currys shared time between land-life in North Vancouver and boat-life in Mexico. Sailing with toddler twins proved challenging, but they were determined to be a cruising family. Will spent his teenage years cruising Mexico, Hawaii, and Brtish Columbia and the positive effect on family ties has been long lasting.
With growing boys and a wish for brighter working spaces, the catamaran concept became more appealing. Kaiquest was sold in Puerto Vallarta and their search began in the spring of 2022, at the height of the catamaran craze. With their sights set on a Leopard 46, Sarah and Will kept finding themselves as a back-up offer on boats in the Caribbean. A Leopard 46 was posted privately on Facebook in Greece and, after one zoom call, they made an offer to buy it sight unseen; she was the one.
Cruising in Greece, Turkey, and across the Mediterranean was more wonderful than they could have imagined. In 2024 they joined the ARC+ rally to sail from Spain’s Canary Islands to Cape Verde, and then across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, arriving in December 2024. The twins aren’t yet fully trained crew but enjoyed their first ocean crossing immensely, and didn’t once ask: “Are we there yet?”
On top of their personal cruising life, Sarah and Will work for Hydrovane International Marine, their family business and manufacturer of the Hydrovane windvane self-steering system.
OV: What inspired you to go voyaging?
S&WC: Family history and gin-and-tonics. On our first date my now-husband regaled me with stories about his family’s offshore sailing adventures as a teenager and how he had a dream to sail to the South Pacific. Despite never having sailed before, I responded: “I’m in” and we started planning for a grand adventure right then and there.
OV: What is it about your boat that prompted you to choose it?
S&WC: The choice of first boat was based purely on location and price. We reached our target savings, looked at available boats on yachtworld.com, viewed a couple, and moved onboard a 1986 Beneteau First 405 in Guaymas, Mexico, two months later. We sold her in Sydney, Australia for the same price two years later.
Our second boat search was focused on newer models with comfortable cockpits. A 2001 Jeanneau SO 43 came available near our hometown of North Vancouver, BC. We owned the Jeanneau for seven years and sold her in 2022 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
A catamaran was on the mind soon after our twins were born in 2019. For our third boat, we targeted a Leopard 46, at the height of the catamaran frenzy in 2022. We placed backup offers on three L46s that didn’t work out. I joined Facebook to be part of the Leopard 46 Owners’ Group and a post in Greece prompted me to reach out. We bought Kaia privately, sight unseen, from a diligent previous owner in August 2022.
OV: How do you generate electricity on your boat?
S&WC: Our favorite power generation method is solar. Our first boat had a total of 180 watts of solar that led to a no-refrigeration cruise across the South Pacific once we realized that the output couldn’t keep up. The biggest drawback was no cold beer.
We installed 440 watts of solar panels on our second boat, and this kept up with our needs well enough in the Pacific Northwest, California, and Mexico.
Both monohulls had high-output alternators, although we rarely ran the engine for power.
Our catamaran came with 2,600 watts of solar. We’ve been fully self-sufficient in the Mediterranean, and now Caribbean, including running air conditioning in the late afternoon and cooking with an induction stovetop and electric oven. We rarely plug in to shore power. She also has a 9kW generator that we’ve run a handful of times in two years. We added a Watt&Sea Hydrogenerator for the Atlantic crossing, knowing that solar output at sea and in the trades is greatly reduced. Our Parasailor blanketed the solar panels for much of the trip, but the Watt&Sea let us keep up with at sea power demands — with an output of over 25Amps at most times.
OV: What type and capacity of batteries do you have on your boat?
S&WC: Our first two boats had Trojan lead acid batteries — banks of about 400 Amp hours.
Our current boat has 1,200 amp-hours of Lithium Batteries.
OV: Do you have a Wi-Fi network on the boat?
S&WC: Yes. Starlink is our main connection source in the daytime when the inverter is on. We also have a 12-volt Redbox router. We mostly use this at night with a local SIM card for data.
OV: Do you use satcom?
S&WC: Starlink has become important to us. We used it all the way across the Med and Atlantic. We also keep minutes on an Iridium phone as a secondary means for downloading weather or making emergency calls. Finally, we have a Garmin InReach Mini for tracking, and back up weather information if needed.
After 10 years of chasing Wi-Fi or data connections for work and passage-making with slow, expensive SatCom methods, Starlink has been the biggest game changer for an improved life and safety onboard. In the ARC+ we were connected on an active WhatsApp group to the 93 other boats around us. Will could keep up with work emails while at sea.
OV: Do you have a HF SSB and VHF radios?
S&WC: We installed a second-hand SSB radio on our first boat, days prior to crossing the Pacific in 2013. It stopped transmitting a week out. Fortunately, we could still listen to the Pacific Puddle Jump net, which we greatly enjoyed. We didn’t turn on the SSB again after reaching the Marquesas. We have not installed SSB on our subsequent boats.
Yes, we have a VHF radio and an AIS Transceiver.
OV: What type of anchor do you have?
S&WC: We bought Rocnas for the first two boats, and our catamaran came with an 85-pound Mantus.
OV: What is your auxiliary engine?
S&WC: Our catamaran came equipped with a 9KW North Lights generator. We are not reliant on it.
OV: What is the most important maintenance task you perform while voyaging?
S&WC: Checking lines for chafe. And keeping the salt off everything.
OV: What equipment do you plan to add next to your boat?
S&WC: We recently added a Parasailor that has proved quite stable and ideal for light-to-moderate tradewinds. We also added the Watt&Sea Hydrogenerator using a pair of brackets that attach onto the Hydrovane Shaft, simplifying the installation. We mounted the Hydrogenerator the day before we left Las Palmas. Both are products that we believe in and that we are now dealers for.
We are finished with adding equipment for a while — we hope. The next big purchase might be a toy for the Caribbean; Will has his eyes on a wing foil.
OV: What are your future voyaging plans?
S&WC: Our catamaran, Kaia II of Vancouver, is currently positioned in Saint Lucia after crossing the Atlantic with the ARC+ rally in November/December. We will keep her in Trinidad for hurricane season and spend one more winter in the Caribbean before continuing north or west. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sailing.kaia/ ν