Dreaming about living on a boat or sailing across an ocean?
You’re in the right place!
A’hoy!
My name is Fiona McGlynn and I created Waterborne to help you make the leap from landlubber to living aboard and traveling the world by sailboat.
Our story
When my husband, Robin, and I bought our first bluewater boat, we were in our 20s and 30s and knew almost nothing about boat ownership and offshore sailing. Just two years later we cast off the dock lines and set sail on a 3-year 13,000-mile trip that took us across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.
Our story is hardly unique. At any given time, there are hundreds of small cruising boats sailing the world’s oceans, crewed by people of all ages and in all life stages. You don’t have to be a retiree, trust fund heir, or have saltwater running through your veins to go cruising.
Of course, it’s not easy. We faced a tsunami-sized learning curve in preparing ourselves and our boat for the trip. Fortunately, we were lucky to have a sailing community, our liveaboard neighbors and friends, who helped us with everything from diagnosing engine problems to sharing tips for sailing at night to finding the best weather forecasts.
Dreamers, Doers, and Doners
Not everyone has a sailing community, so I wanted to create a place online where you can find stories, research, and recommendations from seasoned sailors who’ve turned their cruising dreams into reality.
In the bluewater cruising community you might hear people referring to dreamers, doers, and doners. We dreamed about going cruising and got a lot of help from the people who’d gone before us. Now that we’re “doners” we’re excited to help the next generation of “dreamers” on their way.
Have a story you’d like to share?
We want to hear it! If you want to submit a guest post, check out our submission guidelines.
Let’s work together…
Interested in sponsoring, advertising, commissioning a story, or working with Waterborne? Drop us a line at [email protected]
We hope you enjoy the site and if there’s anything you’d like to learn about (or you just want to say hello), please feel free to drop us a line. [email protected]
Meet the crew
Fiona McGlynn is an award-winning boating writer who created Waterborne as a place to learn about living aboard and traveling the world by sailboat. She has written for boating magazines including BoatUS, SAIL, Cruising World, and Good Old Boat. She’s also a contributing editor at Good Old Boat and BoatUS Magazine. In 2017, Fiona and her husband completed a 3-year, 13,000-mile voyage from Vancouver to Mexico to Australia on their 35-foot sailboat.
Robin Urquhart was born and raised in the Canadian North. His first memory of travel on water was by dogsled across a frozen lake. After studying environmental science and engineering he moved to Vancouver aboard a 35’ sailboat with his partner, Fiona, with the idea to fix up the boat and sail around the world. He has written for several sailing publications including SAIL, Cruising World, and was previously a contributing editor at Good Old Boat.
