Would you want to to sail around the world with your family on a sailboat?

Friday, April 9, 2010

Starting to get on island time

It's starting to feel like we are finally in the Bahamas.  We sailed to Great Guana Cay on Wednesday and spent 2 nights there. We had a lovely walk to the other side of the island where there is a magnificent 5 mile beach.  The colors were breath taking!  There is a huge barrier reef that protects the beach.  It's the third largest barrier reef in the world.  There is an inner reef which we snorkeled. 
It had beautiful corals and sea fans.  There were big crevices and caves for fish to hide in.  There was not a ton of fish, but we saw a nice variety including a huge lobster.  Too bad lobster season ended a week or so ago.   We forgot our camera so Arthur and I hiked back this morning while the kids slept in then ate their breakfast.  They are so cute calling us on the VHF when they get up.  The pictures that we took do not do justice to the color of the water.

A big cold front is coming down from Canada and bringing strong winds and rain late tonight.  We ducked into Hope Town to wait out the weather.   It's a very quaint little hole in the island that is absolutely packed with boats.  Around the lagoon are cute little cottages painted bright colors.  We haven't had time to explore the island yet.  When we arrived we were visited by another cruising boat with 2 children.  Charlotte Ann has 2 lovely children aboard, Dylani age 9 and Mitchell age 7.  Rivers was thrilled to play with a girl her age and Stephen enjoyed playing with the little boy.

Saturday, April 3, 2010


What's for dinner?


Mahi Mahi are so colorful

Yum
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Leaving Beaufort 3/30/10
                               Are we there yet?

Finally Moving, Finally Bahamas

Well we finally left North Carolina!!!  It's about time.  We had a great weather window open for us on Tuesday, March 30, so we decided not to mess around down the coast but to cross the Gulf stream North  out of Beaufort and head South once we crossed it. Winds were predicted to be light and from the right directions.  Well they got the right directions part right but the wind was a little stiffer than we would have liked.  We flew across the Gulf Stream with a third reef in both sails and and faces full of salt water.  The first 2 days were tough and poor little Rivers got very sick.  Then it finally calmed down and we started to get accustomed to our 4 hour watch schedule.  We even got our fishing lines out and caught 2 Mahi Mahi on the third day!  Unfortunately I lost the first one while I tried to net it, but we soon had another bite and that one we had for dinner.  Delicious!  Arthur sauted it with olive oil, scallions, garlic and a little lemon.  We arrived in the Bahamas late last night and we had to go up and down the coast until daybreak when we could make a safe harbor entrance.  We are at Marsh Harbor in the Abacos.  We decided to spend tonight at the Moorings/Sunsail marina.  The local customs office is closed on weekends, but they will come to you at the marina.  We had to stay on the boat for a couple of hours until the three customs officers arrived.  I'm not sure why it takes three but I must say they were the nicest custom officers I've delt with.  It was very hard keeping the kids off the dock until we were cleared.  We also needed to wash all the salt off our boat and do laundry.