Monthly Archives: April 2015

Heading North in the ICW (April 21-26, 2015)

Lionfish for our celebratory back-to-the States meal

Lionfish for our celebratory back-to-the States meal

We stay at the Ocean Club Marina in Port Canaveral for two nights. The plan was originally for just one but it was so nice and the boys wanted to stay an extra day so we agreed. Hours after we arrive, I’m walking down the dock hearing that song ‘proud to be an American’ playing in my head. I can’t even describe how wonderful it feels to be back in the States. We rent a car and, after the whole customs thing, we go to the grocery store. We

Even in the ICW, there are islands ...

Even in the ICW, there are islands …

don’t even need that much, but I want to see if a grocery store is really is as great as I remember. It is. It clinches the feeling of ‘we’re home.’ If it feels this good just to be in FL, I can only imagine how wonderful it will feel once we’re back on familiar streets and seeing familiar faces.

Continue reading

Overnight Passage: West End, Bahamas to Florida (April 19-20, 2015)

IMG_5696The reason the agriculture agent from the U. S. Customs & Border Control Office is sitting in our boat is simple: border-crossing fruit. Or, more specifically, oranges. She has come to confiscate them. What happened was this … after arriving at Port Canaveral and docking at the Ocean Club Marina around lunchtime, we eat lunch and shower. Then we rent a car to check in at the customs office and do some other errands. After arriving at customs, I begin walking to the counter with our passports and boat documents. Matt elbows me aside and whispers, “Can you please just sit down and let me handle this?” Aye, aye, Captain. The boys and I take a seat. Matt goes through our paperwork with the official and answers questions. Continue reading

Grand Bahama Island (April 16-19, 2015)

Lucaya Marina

Lucaya Marina

Matt and I do our night watches completely differently. I usually pack him a bag of snacks before I go to bed. He sets his alarm for every 15 minutes and catches catnaps lying down in the cockpit. I never try to sleep on my watch. For one thing, I’m too paranoid something will happen while I’m at the helm. For another, the nights are too magical to sleep and I’m usually not tired until the end of it. I’d much prefer to watch the stars and the phosphorescence. I have my iPod and play the song Cool Change by The Little River Band. My favorite line is “It’s kind of a special feeling; out there on the sea alone. Staring at the full moon like a lover.” It is special out here and I will miss this part of sailing. The vastness and all of the possibilities the Universe

Dolphin, small whale? It's at least 14 feet long.

A marine biologist said this was a rare sighting of a beaked whale

represents. I’m thinking, as I stare up at the stars, that the world has gotten bigger. Not the physical world, but rather my perception of my world. I think that as one chooses certain paths in life and, as one travels further down a path and invests more and more time and energy in that path, it can sometimes seem that there are fewer and fewer opportunities to take other paths and that the only option is to keep going deeper down the same path (career or otherwise). It’s not true, it’s not true, whisper the stars.  The truth of some things actually becomes clearer in the dark of the night. Continue reading

Atlantis & Beyond (April 12-15, 2015)

Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas

Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas

The lost city … Atlantis. It really is like a small self-contained city – tons of shopping, a massive casino, 29 restaurants, multiple huge towers of rooms, pools, etc. I was hoping for a more gradual re-entry into society. This feels like a hard shove. After the solitude and quiet of the Exuma Islands, the mass consumption and commerce makes me want to leave. Our first afternoon here, I tell Matt I’m going to walk the property while he and the boys go to the water park (Aquaventure). I am not quite ready to be among the hordes of visitors yet. When the crew returns to the boat for dinner, I ask him how the water slides were. “There is just enough height and speed to scare the hell out of you,” he says. “You’d love it,” he adds. Continue reading

Leaving the Exumas, Arriving in Nassau (April 10-12, 2015)

Picture-perfect island near Norman Cay

Picture-perfect island near Norman Cay

In the morning, Matt and Malachi swim again while Joshua and I kayak to a nearby beach. We leave at 10:30 am and anchor off of Norman Cay at noon. There is another, larger plane wreck here that I want to snorkel. We go over in the dinghy but I’m the only one who snorkels. It’s a fairly large plane and I keep wondering if a shark has taken up residence within. The wrecks are disconcerting. People likely died here and now the only inhabitants are finned ones who nonchalantly swim

Half of the plane wreck

Half of the plane wreck

in and out of the windows. We leave at 1 pm and anchor at our destination, Allan’s Cay, at 4 pm. The only inhabitants of this beautiful island are iguanas. While anchoring, we see at least 5 of them on the beach. Matt and Malachi swim over; Joshua and I kayak over with a bag of grapes and wood skewers (we’ve heard they can be ill-mannered and may bite). We show up on the beach and at least 20 of them tramp out to greet us. We hold out grapes on the ends of the skewers. They race forward to grab them and then run away, watching from a distance to see if there will be more. The shy ones lose out to their more courageous brethren. Joshua, the tender-hearted animal lover, takes pity and throws some grapes to those on the sidelines. Continue reading

Warderwick Wells, Exumas (April 8-9, 2015)

DSC00204We leave O’Brien’s Cay Wednesday morning and at noon moor at Warderick Wells. This is the headquarters of the National Land & Sea Park, a 22 x 4-mile nature reserve that encompasses numerous islands. The entire Bahamas are visually stunning but some places are just over-the-top. This is one of those places.

Tashtego at Warderick Wells, Exumas

Tashtego at Warderick Wells, Exumas

Continue reading

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, Bahamas (April 6-7, 2015)

Coral Garden Reef, O'Brien's Cay, Exumas

Coral Garden Reef, O’Brien’s Cay, Exumas

It’s time to get home. This is a feeling that arises more frequently now and it manifests differently for everyone. For the Norwegians, it was mounting frustration with the inefficiency of things. For the boys, it’s increased chatter about Cleveland (and Legos). For me, it was us spending an entire day trying to do laundry (closed in the morning) and buy some groceries (one tiny market was closed with no posted hours; the other, still closed at 2:25 pm had a sign saying it opened at 2 pm), resulting in traversing the island for most of the day. For Matt, it is a sporadic general frustration with everyone and everything. After telling the boys to do their jobs for the nth time, Matt barks, “Do your damn jobs!” Joshua, with his dimpled cheeks, looks at Matt with a mock serious expression and chirps, “What’s my damn job?” Malachi and I burst out laughing. Matt stomps up the

Johnny Depp's island

Johnny Depp’s island

companionway. In the afternoon, the frustration gets aimed at me. I’ve either overdone or underdone something. “Geez!” Matt shouts, “Sometimes dealing with you is like dealing with The Rain Man.” Somehow I sense this is not a compliment. So … upon departing Staniel Cay Monday morning, we decide to make progress northwest toward Nassau but to see what we can on the way. In the afternoon, we anchor off of O’Brien’s Cay near Little Halls Pond Cay (an island owned by Johnny Depp).

DSC00083We leave to snorkel the Coral Garden Reef and a plane wreck that is only 50 yards from our boat. When we return, we find another boat has irritatingly anchored right near us, despite all of the space. The captain Matt hired in Newport said he played his music really loud and walked around topside naked when it looked as if another boat was going to anchor near his. Interesting tactic. Perhaps we should try this. Perhaps not.DSC00090

Matt, the more sociable of the two of us, gets into many conversations with fellow sailors about where they’ve been and what they’ve seen. This has resulted in great advice on places to visit that are not listed in the guide books. One such place is Jeep Reef. The Aussie who told Matt about it said it’s some of the best snorkeling in the world. We have a rough idea of where it is and, on Tuesday morning, we dinghy around until we find it. There

On the banks, Exumas

On the banks, Exumas

is a small buoy above the reef where we can tie up. Towering coral columns and tons of sea life exist in these 20-30 feet of water. We float over the reef and see the remnants of a Jeep down below. A barracuda eyes us menacingly (this is the only look they sport). After a while, we head back to the boat. We are only a few yards away when we see our first shark while snorkeling. It’s only about 4

Shark #1 at Jeep Reef

Shark #1 at Jeep Reef

feet long. I go after it but it disappears. Right before getting into the dinghy, I peer under the water one last time. A sting ray is zooming up from the bottom and headed straight at me. I get a little freaked at this enthusiastic greeting. About ten feet from me, it appears startled and heads back down. Perhaps he mistook me for someone else? Then, just past it, I see the one creature I’ve been wanting to see but haven’t. A lobster scuttles from one coral cave to another down on the sandy floor. I’m ecstatic but he disappears before anyone else can see DSC00086him. After snorkeling, we dinghy to yet one more deserted beach and drink hot chocolate to warm up.

In the afternoon, Matt and I dinghy back to the Coral Garden and then snorkel the plane wreck again, which is only 50 yards off our boat. One of my favorite things is watching and listening to the fish eat coral. I remember first seeing this while solo-snorkeling off of St. John. I was floating above a large

The plane wreck

The plane wreck

parrot fish and realized the crunching I was hearing coincided with it appearing to gnaw on coral. I captured it on video and played it for the family when I returned to the boat. I was astonished that fish eat coral (and that it’s so noisy). Matt looked at me in surprise. “Everyone knows that fish eat coral,” he says. Well, everyone except The Rain Man.DCIM100GOPRO

Staniel Cay, The Exuma Islands, Bahamas (April 1-5, 2015)

IMG_5595It’s April Fool’s Day. We briefly consider playing a joke on the Norwegians – rowing up to their boat in the early morning and depositing the boys on it with a note that says “We’ll meet you in Staniel Cay this afternoon to reclaim our progeny.” Trond and Karolina are in their early 30’s and dated six months before setting off on a year-long sail together. Trond likes risks. He once rowed across the Atlantic in 60 days with a friend in one of those pod-like water crafts. This might be funny … until Malachi throws up. We decide against it, unsure if they even know the significance of April 1st. Continue reading

George Town, Bahamas (March 27-31, 2015)

IMG_5521It’s a shorter sail (5+ hours) from Long Island to George Town. George Town is the beginning of the chain of Exuma Islands. This is where Matt wants to wait out the weather front that is coming. It’s been a rough sail so we are glad to get in. The last hour is motoring while Joshua and I stand on the bowsprit watching for the coral heads that could puncture our hull. We anchor at Sand Dollar Beach near our Annapolis friend and the Norwegians (Trond & Karolina). Everyone is tired. We spend the late afternoon hoisting the dinghy down off the boat. After dinner and a bucket bath, we are in bed before 9 pm. We get woken up through the night by strong winds. Matt goes up to watch the anchor because we are expecting the winds to shift (which can pull the anchor loose). There is some excitement as another boat pulls loose and other sailors are loudly blowing theirs horns at it. It drags about 600 feet before the owners realize what is happening. This is the thing about living in a mobile home – it’s mobile. Sometimes you’d just prefer it stay put. Continue reading