Circling the Great Loop A dock hand tosses our stern lines, and I move to the front deck, slipping the bow lines off pilings. Glen gooses the engines, first one then the other, playing the throttles so the stern clears the dock. It is early Sunday morning, and sun lightens…

Hang On Baby Leaping lizards! Or should I say gripping lizards. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, lizards appear to have adapted remarkably fast in the face of adversity. Their ability to grip and hang on has become stronger. And not just a little — ten times stronger. Lizard superpowers! …

But Hope is a Risk Worth Taking My whole life I have been that person in class who waves their arm wildly when the teacher asks for a volunteer, excited at the thought of doing something different. I get enthusiastic trying new things and I’m not afraid to show it…

Sometimes Settling for Less is Okay “Our boat just isn’t out there. Maybe it’s not meant to be.” Every so often someone will write on boating forums that they have been searching for months, even years, for the perfect boat. …

“Off the Florida Keys, there’s a place called Kokomo,” Roughly forever ago, I was an Army soldier stationed on the DMZ in Korea. It was freezing cold. Every step through icy mud seeped water into my combat boots. Our unit was into the second week of a month-long field exercise…

“…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?” The notion of “high ground” means something different in the Florida Keys. There is little that resembles a hill along 160 miles of islands dotting the ocean between Miami and Key West. …

Mistakes Will Be Made Voyaging around the world, I loved the quiet of sailing at night through the inky black ocean. Night watch was mine, gazing at stars amid scant traffic in the middle of the sea. Every once in a while, on a cloudless night when the stars were…

Way down south in the Everglades where the black water rolls and the sawgrass waves The eagles fly and the otters play in the land of the Seminole…. By the end of the day, I’d gotten used to seeing alligators. Pedaling along a 15-mile bike loop, I accelerated past a…

Finding a boat that suits your requirements and budget has never been easy. During the pandemic, it’s even harder to kick the proverbial tires. I’d just finished writing an article and eased myself on the sofa next to my husband, his back arched over a laptop screen. Glen was searching…