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With Brio

Life is too short to say later. And winters suck.

With Brio
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3 Little Wins (Brio’s 2015 Refit)

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Leah
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We accomplished quite a lot in our 12-day “refit” (including spending $4000 — ouch!!! — which I’ll breakdown in another post) but I thought I’d start with 3 silly little wins. Full disclaimer though: If you read this and think, … Continue reading →

The ironies of boating (sailing in Muscongus Bay)

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Leah
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The Swedes have a great saying, roughly translated as, “joy shared is doubled, pain shared is halved”. You my lucky reader get to be the recipient of the pain today, as we sail along with one bar of signal and … Continue reading →

I thought it was the lobster buoys you had to avoid (hauled out in Rockland, Maine)

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Leah
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Now that you know about my penchant for running over lobster buoys and that we’re currently hauled out, you might think you’ve got it figured out. Leah driving + many, many, many lobster buoys = Brio in the workyard 😉 … Continue reading →

I don’t really like sailing, I just like reading (sailing in Penobscot Bay, Maine)

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Leah
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I think I took approximately 1800 photos over the last two weeks. Which works out to be… a lot every day 😉 But as I was scanning through trying to pick out my favourites, I realized there was a theme: … Continue reading →

Boat Project: Removing, re-bedding and resealing the toerail and hull-deck joint (in Portland, Maine)

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Leah
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It’s been a while since we’ve done a big boat project… so this one definitely deserves a little write-up! Non-boaters, or boaters with boats that don’t leak (liars!), feel free to skip this one 😉 What’s the big deal? Okay, … Continue reading →

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Welcome to With Brio!


We've been sharing bits and pieces from our life aboard since we bought our first boat -- Brio, a 1981 Nor'West 33 -- in Mexico in 2011.

After cruising Brio through the Panama Canal and then living aboard through three winters in Maine, we added crew (Zephyr was born in April 2018), changed boats (Brio II is a 1988 Sabre 42 Centerboard), and are currently cruising the Caribbean!

Feel free to poke around, read some of our recent thoughts, or drop us a note -- we'd love to hear from you!

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🏴‍☠️🎃 Happy Halloween! Our little skel 🏴‍☠️🎃 Happy Halloween! Our little skeleton-pirate declared this “the best Halloween ever!” (and decided the boat was a bit too much to actually carry around 🤣). Cruising the trick or treat scene with cozy care bear Auntie Jessie was the icing on the cake! 🎃🏴‍☠️
Can’t help but wear half his costume early 🙃 Can’t help but wear half his costume early 🙃 This little character’s current costume request is a skeleton-pirate-dog, with a boat 🤷🏻‍♀️ #wheresmyhotgluegun
Happy Thanksgiving! 🇨🇦 The good years we do Happy Thanksgiving! 🇨🇦 The good years we do double Thanksgiving (the bad years we accidentally miss them both 🙈) so I’d say we’re off to a good start. Missing some key people (👀 @sailboat25 and @jessicakruger55) but a special family-filled day nonetheless! 💕
Three years ago we moved onto Brio II and started Three years ago we moved onto Brio II and started the next chapter in boat life ✨ In hindsight we kept the little Brio for too long — we’d outgrown her and didn’t want to accept that — but Brio II has been the best. We set out looking for a ready-to-cruise aluminum lifting keel and ended up with a *giant* project centerboard cruiser, but she’s fast, she’s pretty, and three years in I wouldn’t make any different choices. One month until we’re back aboard!
34 was the year that went completely not according 34 was the year that went completely not according to plan 🙃 (Wait… do any of them go to plan?!?) 

But so much ✨living ✨ happened in the last year, my birthday wish was just for more like this. Exploring beautiful parts of this continent with family and friends; finally feeling like the (many, many) months of boatyard life were worthwhile; enjoying the quirky, thoughtful, adventurous little guy that Zephyr is becoming; making plans and then changing them and then changing them again; and then somehow magically finding ourselves living *next door* to my sister in a completely unplanned land break… 🤯 Life is a funny roller-coaster but I am thankful to be here for it all and I won’t even START to guess what the next year might look like 🤣 #reflections
Zephyr’s first camping weekend was a lake-swimmi Zephyr’s first camping weekend was a lake-swimming, marshmallow-roasting, tent-sleeping, bacon-eating, dog-playing, smoky success! 🙌 Thanks Auntie Jess and Uncle Juan for making it possible!
Watching these guys sail away today… 🥹 Jess a Watching these guys sail away today… 🥹 Jess and I won the parental lottery with these two, so while we’re super sad to see the stern of Synchy, we’re also just incredibly proud of their continued pursuit of life over the horizon. It’s been 24 years since they last pulled out of Vancouver and “hung a left”, but you wouldn’t know it looking at this beauty! Travel safely guys, and we’re looking forward to a raft up in Mexico this winter! 💕 #parentswhosail #cruisingfamilies #boatlife #sailingfamily
One million photos that could be shared, but this One million photos that could be shared, but this one is my fav 💕 Just me and my baby sis, before she became a Mrs and I sniffled through the entire ceremony (…okay, and reception 🙃). 

Despite the bee that stung mom’s face and the makeup artist who got covid and had to bail a few days before the wedding, the whole thing was absolute magical perfection. So fun to spend time with people who love you guys as much as I do! #jessfoundthejuan 
@thestubbornbaker @juankcortes
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