Are you a “world cruising dreamer?” If you are a world cruising dreamer, there is a good bet that you are much like me. I’ve read about Chichester, Slocum and Tania Abei. Like you, I’ve dreamed about trade wind passages, South Pacific anchorages, Panama Canal transits, and maybe rounding the Cape, any cape. Quiet anchorages, beautiful beaches, exotic people and remote ports of call are blazoned in my imagination, fueled by the stories that I have read. I’ve been a sailor for fifty years, not just the USN type. I’ve owned cruising sailboats for most of that time and my boat is the one that actually leaves the marina. Where have I been? * Chesapeake Bay, Florida, Cuba and everything in between. Navy transfers gave me the opportunity to make many of my long trips as I was transferred around the country. * several voyages to Abaco, the islands in the Bahamas nearest to my Jacksonville home. I’ve always wanted to take a very long trip, why didn’t I go sooner? Mostly though, I’ve daysailed with family and friends, introducing their kids and mine to a sailing life. I’ve always dreamed about sailing off to who knows where. But, somehow, pursuing a career, raising a family, saving for college, paying off the mortgage and preparing for the future, always seemed to be more important, and they were. Now, in my seventies, I wouldn’t change my life for a world of travel adventure. But, a long trip occasionally, at least longer than my usual, wouldn’t hurt! It wouldn’t be the South Pacific or around the Americas. I probably wouldn’t even make it deep into the Caribbean. But, just because you can’t do it all, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do some of it. Just because you can’t go everywhere, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go somewhere. There are beautiful places, wonderful people and great adventures, pretty close to home. This book is about two long voyages, both epic for me. Hopefully, I will describe: * interesting adventures, while providing helpful details to others, who also would like to test the cruising waters and make a similar trip, maybe their first. * voyages that certainly won’t be chronicled in the lore of great sailing adventures, but they were big trips for me, ones that I could make, and did. * voyages that any sailor with a suitable boat and moderate experience can do. How did it all work out? Surprisingly, though I thought I was “Too Old Not to Go” on the first trip, I discovered I could do it again almost a decade later! Now, closer to 80 than 70, I’m still at it, wondering “Just when is Too Old?”