Whether aiming for the Virgin Islands or all the way to Grenada, getting to the Eastern Caribbean is well-known to be challenging because it requires going 1,400 miles east against the strong easterly trade winds (i.e., directly into it). In our case, it nearly ended our cruising life, with plenty […]
Live your best life
Hello there! We are Brian and Brenda, often known as B & B. We met back in 2009, when our lives were well established. Or so we thought. It has been an adventure ever since. Travel, the tropics, and scuba diving have always been our passions, but we’ve evolved our understanding of passionate living. We used to think it was setting aside time for an annual big vacation, but each time it was harder to come back and return to the daily grind of 10-12 hour days. Early retirement called to us. We needed a plan. After three years of planning, we’re finally here, living our best life yet. Spreading our wings and soaring.
Brian
A California boy who kept leaving and coming back. Illinois for grad school, upstate New York for work, and most recently southern Florida. Working in tech and pursuing my passions there was rewarding, but also earned me quite the reputation as a workaholic. I prefer to say dedicated. At some point though, it’s time to walk away and pursue the many other passions life offers. No regrets.
Brenda
A California girl from Idaho. I rebuilt cars in my youth and transferred those skills to surgery as a nurse. Now I build around a boat! I’ve been told I think like an engineer. I don’t know. But I do know life is short. I worked to live, not lived to work. And now with my besties I’m working to live my best life.
Asrai
I’m told “asrai” is a type of aquatic fairy from English folklore. How obscure is that? Mom says I’m “the boss”. I tend to believe her. I’m a Russian Blue, which explains a lot about me. Mostly I prefer to sleep, eat, ride on mom’s shoulder and hide whenever the boat is moving. I used to get seasick easily but I’m beginning to get my sea legs. I get angry when the boat bounces up and down, and I don’t like wind so I just stay inside when it’s really blowing. What I do like is a sunny calm anchorage, the smells of new places, and birds! So for now wherever my human goes I go.
Today’s Nesting Spot
After a long 2023 season beating into the trade winds from Miami to the Virgin Islands, then on down to Grenada, our theme for 2024 is to mostly relax. We are hanging out in the Windwards in the southeast Caribbean all year.
If you want to see our whole journey, check out our Soaring page.
The Latest
We arrived at sunrise. After endless small islands rising 100 feet at best, this was a sight to behold. It’s massive. Massively tall. Massively wide. Wow. Our approach was pitch black, with a first-quarter moon that had set hours before. After sailing 60 nautical miles south from Turks and Caicos, […]
Lazy jacks are a system of lines on each side of the boom that are rigged to a point high on the mast and down through a series of points until attached along the length of the boom. Their primary purpose is to contain and guide the main sail, particularly […]
May was approaching and we needed to head back to start our trip north up the U.S. east coast. I was excited to spend the summer exploring the Chesapeake and sailing into New York harbor. Sprinting Home Down at the southern end of the Ragged Islands in the Bahamas, we […]
Into the wilderness. This is the outback. The wild west. No one is coming to help. In fact, for much our time here, there was no one, period. The Ragged Islands are the southern half of a long chain of small islands extending south from Georgetown and Great Exuma, ultimately […]