I’d be lying if I said our sailboat adventures were only about the destinations. A huge part of cruising life is the time spent underway. Those hours and days when we’re keeping the boat moving toward the next port. But what exactly do we do while we’re out there? Especially on longer passages that stretch beyond a few hours and turn into days at sea? Great question. Let me take you along.

We’ve been in El Salvador for over three months now. And we’re still here. Why? Because slow travel by sailboat often means waiting for the right time, and right now isn’t it. To the north, it’s hurricane season. To the south, it’s stormy season. And to top it off, the ocean swell is too big for us to safely cross the bar and head out into the Pacific Ocean.

Ah, slow mornings with coffee and a book, long beach days, sunset views while gently bobbing at anchor, and wrapping it all up with a beach fire. Just another day in paradise, right? Old salty sailors say cruising is about sacrifice over comfort. They’ll tell you about surviving a summer in the Sea of Cortez with nothing but a spray bottle and a fan. Instagram definitely tells both stories - the luxe sunsets and the down and dirty boatwork.

“100% you won’t be able to paddleboard that back,” I said to Mark as he loaded our 100-litre dry bag onto his paddleboard. “Nah. It’s fine.” It wasn’t. He swam back to the boat while pushing the paddleboard—and our food. Just another day in the life of provisioning as liveaboard sailors.