We skipped Carriacou the first time through.No good reason.We just kept going. This time we planned to stop for a week. We stayed three. We wrote a quick postcard when we first got here. Read that one here. This is the rest of the story. A short, easy sail We left Île de Ronde on a calm morning with our friends on Mellow Puff beside us. The passage was short. The seas were flat. Nobody got wet and nothing broke. After the season we had getting south, an easy day felt like a g

Three years ago, Sophia had a desk in a classroom in Killingly, Connecticut. Now she has a cockpit. A guitar. A mask and fins that never fully dry. People ask us all the time how she's doing out here. Is she lonely? Is she behind in school? Does she miss "normal"? So here's the real answer. One boat at a time Sophia was three and a half the first time we put her on a boat. It was a little Compac 16 on the lakes near home. Then came the Tartan 28. That was our first time out o

Starting Small: Our First Steps into Sailing We didn't start offshore. We started small. Sophia was just three and a half when we got our first boat, a Compac 16. We sailed it on the lakes around our home in Connecticut. From day one, she was fascinated by it. One day stands out vividly. We were out on the lake when the weather turned fast. Suddenly, we were caught in a hailstorm. The cabin was tiny, just big enough for Sophia and me to squeeze into. Tony was out there, battl

Cruiser Lingo Explained: Boat Phrases That Confuse Everyone

Sailing alone has its own kind of magic. But buddy boating changes everything — and once you’ve done it right, it’s hard to go back. We spent three years buddy boating around the Bahamas before we ever got to the Caribbean. Dozens of boats came in and out of our orbit over that time. Some we buddy boated with for a week and never saw again. Some became the people we still call when something big happens in our life, wherever in the world they happen to be. There’s an old sayi

We spent a month in Grenada, and it was exactly what we needed. Hanging out with friends at Le Phare Bleu and Secret Harbour. Brewery runs. Lazy weekend hangouts that turned into whole afternoons. The best part, though, was wednesday wing day and the pool at Le Phare Bleu. The kids would just show up and find whoever else was around — no organized kid groups, no set schedule, everybody doing their own thing. We half expected something more structured, and honestly it threw u

We weren’t planning on writing about a pediatrician visit. But some days give you no choice. We spent the morning wondering the old part of St. George’s, Grenada. The spice market was loud and fragrant, stalls piled with nutmeg, cinnamon, and cocoa the way only Grenada does it. We walked through the mall, then the carnage area, taking in the mix of old buildings and everyday island life. It was a good day. An ordinary day, the kind we’ve come to love about this stretch of our

A week ago we said we were still searching for Grenada's "it factor." We'd seen the monkeys at Grand Etang, toured the rum distillery, moored off St. George's, Woburn Bay and Mt Hartman Bay — good stuff, but we still couldn't put our finger on what makes people love this island. Surprisingly one more week in, and we've got it. It's not a place. It's the people. Grenada reunion A Reunion We Didn't Plan This week looked nothing like last week. We barely left the anchorage. Boa

We’ve been in Grenada for a week now, and we still haven’t seen it all. After over 3,000 nautical miles and a whole season on the move, we finally made it here. That’s on purpose — this is our hurricane season hub, so there’s no rush to check boxes. We’re taking it slow, one anchorage at a time. St. George’s: Great Access, No Anchoring Our first stop was St. George’s Bay. The water was clear and perfect for swimming, and it was easy to get into town for provisioning — everyth

Martinique to Grenada: 155 Miles, One Night, No Stops We had one goal: Grenada, before August 1st. Everything else was just logistics. Le Marin came first, the charter hub of the Eastern Caribbean, where chandleries and rigging shops line the docks and someone always has the part you need, or knows who does. We stocked up, crossed off the boat list, and got ready for the stretch ahead. We anchored in Sainte-Anne. Quiet, quaint, easy. It reminded us of Les Saintes back in Guad

We knew Dominica had a reputation as "the nature island," and honestly, it undersells the place. Our first taste of it was the Indian River, where our guide Alexis rowed us slowly through a tunnel of trees. The trees were thick and tangled, dripping with roots that arched straight out of the water. Among them were bloodwood trees, named for the sap that runs red when you cut into the bark. This added to the whole eerie, otherworldly feel. It's the same stretch used for Tia Da

We figured the exploring was over once we left the mainland. Les Saintes proved us wrong. The sail south from Guadeloupe was short, just a few hours, but it felt like arriving somewhere completely different. Bourg des Saintes greeted us with red-roofed houses climbing up the hillside and a bay that lives up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful anchorages in the world. We picked up a mooring ball and just sat there for a minute taking it in, the water impossibly turq

We are so proud of Sophia this week — the kind of proud that sits in your chest and doesn’t move.Latitude & Attitudes, one of the biggest names in the sailing world, featured her in their “Tag-A-Cruiser: Next Gen” series. Twelve years old, “salty since 2022,” just as comfortable reading a nautical chart as she is working through a textbook at the nav station. This one meant something extra, and it took me a minute to understand why. When the email came in — they’d love to fea

Guadeloupe has given us some of our favorite moments of this whole journey — and we’ve barely scratched the surface.We started on the leeward coast in Deshaies, wandering black sand beaches and the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies. The garden sprawls across a hillside overlooking the coast, with paths winding through tropical plantings, koi ponds, and a small lake with black and white swans. It’s the kind of place where color hits you at every turn — hibiscus, heliconia, ginger l

We spent ten days in St. Martin. That’s usually how it goes, you arrive thinking you’ll stay a few days, and ten days later you’re still there, half because the island won’t let you go and half because the boat had other plans. St. Martin/Sint Maarten is a strange and wonderful thing: one island, split between French and Dutch sides, and the difference shows up in everything — the food, the pace, the language switching mid-sentence depending on which side of the invisible bor

We finally made it to Marigot. After the transmission saga, after the windlass rebuild, after weeks of repairs back in the BVI, we were supposed to be on the other side of it — clear water, a fresh destination, a little breathing room. Instead the passage over was rough. We ended up pulling a mess of sargassum into the engine’s water intake. And then, almost as if the boat wanted to make sure we knew the universe wasn’t done with us yet, the watermaker’s high-pressure pump ga

Boat Dog. Beach Connoisseur. Paddleboard Enthusiast. Beagle Terrier. East Coast, Bahamas, and Now the Caribbean. We had a little fun with this one. We often look at our dog and pretend to think about what he's thinking. So here it is — a funny twist, a view of Bolt's everyday. We promise we are not losing our minds, and we definitely have a great sense of humor. Let me tell you something about my life. I’ve been to more places than most dogs will ever dream about. I’ve napped

BVI to St.Martin a 25 hour upwind sailing passage We checked in at Soper's Hole, enjoyed a great meal, and restocked our pantry before making our way through the chain of islands. The original plan was simple: explore the BVI for a bit, then make the jump to St. Martin. We anchored the dinghy and swam in to the park at The Baths, then did the full hike through the boulder caves — squeezing between giant granite rocks, ducking through narrow passages, popping out into hidden p

Three years ago we left with a dream, a carefully chosen boat, a 9-year-old, and a beagle who was already more sailor than most people we know. Over 10,000 nautical miles later — through the Bahamas, the USVI, the BVI, and beyond — we've learned a lot. Some of it we expected. Some we didn't. I recently came across a post about things people wish they'd known before living aboard full-time and it got me thinking. A lot of it rang true. But after three years of living this life

The original plan was simple.One year. The Bahamas. Then home.That was it. That was the whole thing. We weren't trying to change our lives or sail to the Caribbean or become the kind of people who write sailing blogs. We just wanted one big adventure before we settled back into everything we'd always known. One year felt bold enough. One year felt like enough.We made it to the Bahamas. We loved it in ways we hadn't expected to. And then, right on schedule, we went back.I want