Jeff Bolster

A circumnavigation is the stuff of dreams, the ultimate sailing challenge. Few pull it off.

As Hurricane Irma stormed toward Tortola with our boat in its crosshairs last year, I mustered every possible shred of hope.

Every once in a while, a cruising family sails into an exquisite moment in the life of a boat and its people.

I fell under the spell of the Norwalk Islands early in life. My first dinghy, first fish, first outboard, first stranding, first (and only) dismasting and first island getaway — a camp that would have made Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn green with envy — all occurred in that enticing little archipelago.