The three of us plan on moving aboard Winnie in January of 2015.

We will learn the ways of living aboard a sailboat while making our way around the globe.  Our basic plan is to make it all the way around, westbound, through the Panama Canal, South Pacific, New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, South Africa, the Atlantic, South America, Caribbean, and home.

We estimate that it will take about three years, with about half the time in ports and backpacking through various island communities and countries, and the other half at sea.

We will begin our journey on the Mississippi River near St Louis, Missouri, and make our way south through the river system, all the way to Mobile Bay where we enter the ocean.  Our route has been determined based on trade winds, hurricane seasons, pirate waters, and places that we all want to explore.

The route will inevitably vary as we adjust our course due to wind, waves, mental well-being and the recommendations from people we meet along the way.  A more detailed list of all probable ports and a map of our projected route is posted below.

We have been working to outfit Winnie as a comfortable home, but she still lacks many modern conveniences. We aim to live a self sufficient life. We will make our own electricity via solar panels or our homemade bicycle generator. We will have enough electricity to keep some lights on and keep our batteries charged up.

We have kept the boat as simple as possible, by using things like a manual freshwater pump, hand-pump toilet, cockpit bucket showers and catching rainwater. We also have a grill off the back of the boat, and a two-burner gimbaled propane stove inside the cabin.  Without much refrigeration, we will be storing lots of pasta, rice, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, dried and canned foods, catching fish and sprouting to supplement our diet as much as we can.

We are trading in our cell phones for VHF radios and GPS units.  We will be able to make full updates when we can get Wi-Fi at ports, but while at sea, we will only be able to send short satellite text messages with our location.  We hope to document the journey along the way, and sporadically upload video and photo content about the places we are visiting, and our life onboard.

St Louis MO, Cairo IL, Paducah KY, Demopolis AL, Mobile AL, Tampa FL, Key West FL, Cuba, Cancun Mexico, Isla de Cozumel Mexico, Belize City Belize, Roatan Honduras, Limon Costa Rica, Bocas del Toro Panama, San Blas Islands Panama, Colon Panama, Panama City Panama

Isla de las Perlas Panama, Galapagos Ecuador, Easter Island Chile, Pitcairn Islands UK, Gambier Islands French Polynesia, Tahiti French Polynesia, Moorea French Polynesia, American Samoa US

Fiji, Tonga Polynesia, Auckland New Zealand (NZ), Wellington NZ, Milford Sound NZ, Sydney Australia (AUS), Brisbane AUS, Great Barrier Reef AUS, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, Thursday Island AUS

Sorong Indonesia, Manila Philippines, Hong Kong China, Macau China, Ha Long Bay Vietnam, Da Nang Vietnam, Vug Tau Vietnam, Bangkok Thailand, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives

Port Louis Mauritius, Reunion Island France, Antongil Bay Madagascar, Nossi-Be Madagascar, Comoros Islands, Mozambique Africa, Durban South Africa, Cape Town South Africa

Along red line: St Helena Island UK, Rio de Janeiro Brazil Alternate route along green line: Grytviken South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Elephant Island Antarctica, Davis Coast Antarctica, Cape Horn Chile, Ushuaia Chile, Southern Patagonia Chile, Valparaiso Chile, Lima Peru

Salvador Brazil, Sao Luis Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean Islands, Key West FL, home Alternate green line route: retrace our previous path through Panama Canal, Central American coast, Key West FL, home