(This post was written on Wednesday evening, November 11 and updated today. For some strange reason, video was loading really slowly last night...) Rain, wind, rain, wind, more rain, higher winds, shall we count the numbers 20, 30, 40 mph… Yesterday morning, in the calm before the storm, we moved Casstaway from our anchorage at Emerson Pointe across the Manatee River to DeSoto Pointe. We did...

Long ago and far away, we planned to depart Regatta Pointe Marina for the last time and set out for sea-faring adventures yet unknown – a life “on the hook” cruising Casstaway full time and journeying wherever the winds might take us (meaning a return to the Bahamas and then on through the Caribbean). But once again life got in the way, beginning with a nasty pandemic, and sprinkled with...

From Emerald Bay we began to make our way back north on Sunday, March 31, planning to eventually stage our return crossing to Florida from Riding Rocks, a point at the far south of Bimini. Looking at weather windows we hope to cross around April 11-14, but said weather plays havoc with even the best laid plans and Todd spends a significant amount of time each day reviewing and analyzing weather,...

Casstaway and crew, along with our buddy boat Lily Belle, arrived at South Bimini, Bahamas on a beautiful sunny afternoon, Friday, March 1st after an uneventful (thankfully) journey from Rodriquez Key, near Key Largo, Florida. Even though wind direction wasn’t conducive to raising sails, we still had a lovely day making our very first blue water ocean crossing.  Bimini Big Game Club...

Pots to the left of us, others on the right. Stuck in the middle with you. That pretty much describes our journey from Palmetto to Marathon. A mine field of crab pots. It’s enough to make even these sailors crabby too. Except, who can be when your eagle-eye for those damned pots is also bringing you views of blue sea, sun and dolphins? After leaving Marco Island we made two anchorage stops in...