Agora, is a Fountaine Pajot Lavezzi catamaran. Hull number 172, built in Aigrefeuille, France, in 2007, the vessel is 12.8 metres (42 ft) long, including the bowsprit, and has a beam of 6.5 metres (21.5 ft). Agora spent most of her early years in the Caribbean island of Martinique. When we bought this vessel in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was named “Virus”. Obviously, the name had to be changed before we started our repositioning of the boat to Canada.

We chose “Agora”, which is Greek for a “gathering place”, as it represented the central public square where community members would meet socially to discuss politics, philosophy, and education. As educators, the name resonates with us for its significance to community, open discourse, and civic engagement.

After following the sailing traditions to rename our boat, we departed La Marin, Martinique. We spent several months at the end of 2020 relocating Agora to Canada. This journey included transiting the Panama Canal and spending almost a month in Costa Rica waiting out a hurricane.

More details on our floating home can be found in our blog post and on our YouTube page.

We are Dugg and Kristen Steary, Critical Care Paramedics and paramedic educators, following our dream to sail the world. Who is the captain of Agora? We both share all responsibilities on the boat equally. Sailors often categorize boat jobs as pink, blue, or mixed, often referred to as purple. It’s important to us to be able to do all jobs onboard for redundancy and safety. Now that being said, Dugg will admit that Kristen is much better at helming the vessel (especially in tight ports and marinas). Kristen admires Dugg’s ability to learn and perform almost all maintenance and repair, big or small, on Agora.

Learn more about us here.

Our first mate is Ares, a working-line German Shepherd who thinks he is a Retriever or some other water canine. Having Ares onboard adds some challenges to sailing and cruising in other countries. But he also adds so much to our adventure, and he’s a natural enhancement to our onboard security systems.

Occasionally, our children join us for part of our journey. Both are young adults following their own dreams, and we don’t get the opportunity to sail with them as often as we would like. Their stories are theirs to tell, but if opportunity allows, we will include them in future posts and videos.

Additionally, for the early days of moving onto the boat and beginning our dream, our canine companion was August. August was a diva from a show line of German Shepherds who did her best adapting and supporting us with our transition from a large house, to a condominium, and then onto a catamaran.

August has unfortunately crossed the Rainbow Bridge in 2025 and is now running in a large grass field on solid ground. We miss her each day.