If you’ve started laying the groundwork for boat life on land, the next step isn’t an ocean crossing. It’s a quiet, slightly wobbly weekend where the boat never leaves the dock and your pet simply gets to know this strange new home. You don’t need perfect confidence from day one. You just need to give your dog or cat enough time and calm repetition that the boat starts to feel like “normal life”, not a chaos machine. Why staying at the dock is enough for weekend one It’s temp

If you’ve started laying the groundwork for boat life on land, the next question is usually: “What do I actually need to set up on the boat itself before my pet comes aboard?”. You don’t need a perfect, magazine‑ready yacht. You do need a few simple systems in place so your dog or cat can be safe while you’re still learning together. This isn’t about buying every gadget in the chandlery. It’s about creating a boat where your pet can move, rest, toilet and cope with surprises

If your last question was “can my pet live on a boat at all?”, the next one is usually: “Okay… but where do we actually start?” You don’t go from sofa to ocean crossing in one leap, and neither does your dog or cat. These first steps are about laying foundations on land so that, when you do step onto the pontoon with a bag of gear and a slightly racing heart, your animal already has some tools to cope. 1. Start with the pet in front of you Before we think about rigging or rou

If you’ve ever watched a dog sleeping in the cockpit or a cat sunbathing on deck and thought, “Could my pet actually live like that?”, you’re not alone. It’s one of the first questions people ask me when they hear I share a small sailboat with three rescue animals. The short answer is: some pets can live happily on a boat, and some absolutely shouldn’t. Whether boat life is fair on your animal depends far more on their health, personality and your routines than on your Instag

If you’re trying to figure out how to share your life at sea with a dog or cat on board, you’re in the right place. The Sailing Pets is a vet‑led project created to make travelling with animals safer, kinder and less stressful for everyone involved. I’m Rita, a veterinary surgeon and liveaboard sailor currently cruising Southeast Asia on my 35‑foot Hallberg‑Rassy Rasmus, Swizzle, with my three rescued crew members: Fifa, Binks and Mazu. After years of working in clinics and