Plans are the bane of sailors.  It can be very difficult to arrive at a fixed location on a fixed date.  When making arrangements to visit with people, we often tell them that they can pick either the day to meet us or the place to meet us, but not both.  It’s a bit of a joke because of course airlines don’t work that way, but there is also a lot of truth to it.  You really can’t predict accurately when the wind will blow or which way it will be blowing more than a few days in advance and both of those things are very important to sailors.  Sometimes we have VIP guests and our usual approach is to try to arrive a week or so early so that we can coordinate with their schedule.  But even that big of an adjustment doesn’t always work.       This year, we had VIP plans of that sort.  A previous attempt to meet up with my sister Kathy and her two boys had gone awry when our plans were driven by weather and boat work in a ...

     Beaufort (pronounced BO fert, not BEW fert which is the one in South Carolina) is a delightful stop for sailors.  In two of the three trips we’ve made around Hatteras we kept on going further south because we had crew on board.  In the other, everything had gone wrong and we more or less fell to the ground and kissed it when we landed.  This time the main factor driving us into port was weather and hoping that the cats would adjust to life at sea more quickly if we kept the sailing trips fairly short.  When we checked in with the dockmaster, he told us in a disgusted tone that the town was full of pirates and we had picked a terrible time to stop.  He told a tale of raucous debauchery and streets filled with thousands of miscreants not much better than motorcycle gangs. Beaufort is one of those tiny little seaports where you can tie your boat up right in the center of town and be in the thick of it.     The truth was a bit differe...

     Pretty much everyone knows the legend of Diamond Shoals and Cape Hatteras.  Every year a few boats sink rounding this famous little point of land and 95% of the time my Mom asks me if I heard about the latest tragedy.  In a world where every square meter of land and sea is meticulously mapped, the Shoals appear on the map in a kind of “Here there be dragons” way.  No government agency maps it because it literally shifts with each wave, building and receding seemingly at random.  The shoals really want to extend offshore further, but they run into the mighty Gulf Stream which draws a line that they cannot pass as any sand that ventures too close gets swept away.  Unfortunately, the Gulf Stream runs into the wrong direction and moves nearly as fast as poor Dragonfly can travel, so traveling in the stream is not an option unless we enjoy standing still. Pretty much everywhere on the globe has these little numbers indicating the depth of the ocea...

    You may not know this if you somehow have only followed our journey via the blog because we are somewhat lazy at keeping it current (I’ve made a vow to do better which should last at least a few months), but three of the four previous years we have gone south to the Bahamas for the winter season and returned around July.  In the past, we have always just got someone to stay at our house and watch the cats for us.  This year we are returning to the boat about the same time as ever and making the same initial journey, but everything feels different.  Everything is different.    This year, we don’t plan to return home when the winter sailing season is over and hurricanes start to roll into the picture.  Making that decision created a cascade of difficult changes that included selling virtually all of our possessions barring those that fit onto the boat and a small handful of things that have sentimental value which we are stuffing in a storage u...

Last month, we had the pleasure of welcoming my two favorite aunts, Laurie and Liz, aboard Dragonfly . Family visits are always special, but there's something uniquely grounding about sharing time on the water with people who’ve known you forever. As we prepped for the trip, the weather seemed determined to test our patience. But sailors learn early on—life’s best moments often happen between raindrops. We set sail through a misty morning, navigating toward the Tide’s Inn. It’s not far, but this time we faced a new challenge: the bridge. You know, that bridge. The kind of structure that looms ahead, and no matter how many measurements or reassurances you get, there’s always that brief, heart-stopping moment when you wonder if you’ll make it through. Spoiler alert: the mast is still standing, and my nerves are mostly intact. After the bridge victory, we docked at Tide’s Inn, a place where the land itself seems to breathe with life. Laurie, Liz, Mike, and I took a walk along the In...

As the months begin to bear the weight of the letter r , the world seems to collectively shift its attention. For some, it’s back to school—a return to classrooms, lunchboxes, and the click-clack of chalk on a board. For us, it’s a different kind of schooling. One without walls, where the lessons come from the wind, the water, and the stubborn demands of a sailboat named Dragonfly . Cruisers go to school too, but ours is on the Chesapeake, where summer’s relentless heat finally loosens its grip. It's a strange kind of relief—like peeling off a sweat-drenched shirt after a long August day, replaced with the first crisp breaths of fall. The air turns cooler, clearer. You can feel the change in your lungs before you even hit the water. But before we point the bow south, there's some studying to be done. This month, it’s the SSCA GAM —learning, prepping, gathering tricks of the trade. October brings us back to one of our favorite playgrounds: Annapolis. The Sailboat Show. Cruisers ...

After dropping off the Goldens at the airport in Staniel Cay, we headed just a little bit south to Black Point Settlement on Great Guana Cay.  Great Guana Cay feels like a true "family island"--the kind where you get to become a temporary local.  In fact many of the workers at tourist-centric Staniel live in Black Point and commute early each morning by boat.  There are far fewer cruisers anchored here and the friendly locals have not become tired of us yet.   The local laundromat has a couple of bikes you can rent and tool around the island.  We did so and then hiked out to the first of two local attractions:  The blow hole. The second local attraction is a driftwood sculpture garden. But the main attraction in town is Lorrain's Cafe - which has wifi, good food and drinks.  All the cuisers would come over in the morning to work on their computers and then take a break when Lorraine opened for lunch. They also had a number of very helpful "staff" to as...