Thorny or Thornless? Gentlemen sometimes sail to weather

After dropping our friends off in the Exumas, we explore the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and the Dominican Republic. The only thing is... it's all to windward. We continue our bashing between islands along the Thorny Path. Of course we're armed with Van Sant's "Thornless Path" book, but really found it to be a bit out of date. Little Bird makes quicker passages, and I'm not so sure how many resources NOAA has for their marine forecasts anymore -- it seems PredictWind and Windy (and a bit of Chris Parker newsletters) did a little better job for us. Also, most people we know will put up with the occasional motor-sail to windward to shorten a passage here and there. I guess we're not "pure" sailors! But we're having plenty of fun anyway.

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Little Bird is named in honor of Cecilia Rose. If you enjoy this video, please consider making a tax deductible donation to a great cause at:
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We're Tif and Frank. In a significant act of vanity, we're making YouTube video of our sailing exploits. In 2021, we sailed our Balance 526 Catamaran from Cape Saint Francis, South Africa to the island of Grenada in the Caribbean on a 30 day passage. Since then, we've been sailing up the islands exploring beautiful anchorages and meeting great people. Over the next few years, we'll be sailing through the Bahamas, San Blas, Panama, and across the Pacific. With any luck, eventually we'll sail around the world.

We're from Santa Cruz, California and grew up in and around the water. This is our third catamaran (we also had a Seawind 1000 and Catana 431) and eight boat (fishing boats, monohulls... boats tend to take over sometime!). We love fishing, stand-up paddle boarding, surfing and Tif has a yoga and workout addiction. It has been fun to learn to wingfoil, perfect our snorkeling skills, and watch others kitesurf (maybe someday we'll give it a try).

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