In Warderick Wells

Hi everyone.  For a short while we have a little internet (very little as it turns out, so maybe no pictures just yet) and so wanted to say hi.  We are in Warderick Wells, which is the headquarters for the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  The anchorage is a very distinct channel between otherwise very shallow water, so the colors are really stunning.  We'll post pictures as soon as we get more bandwidth. 

We are once again among other people, but there are still no services just yet.  We're getting down to the last of our fresh food - a few carrots, cabbage, cheese, butter, 3 tomatoes, potatoes and garlic - so we have broken out the canned food finally.  The kids have decided that they LOVE canned fruit.  :)  Canned asparagus, not so much.  Personally, I've started to day dream about restaurants in Seattle.  Yesterday, it was the new(ish) french restaurant on lower Queen Anne -- beignets and french coffee, yum!

The wind is forecast to blow hard over the next few days - 20 knots or so - so we are probably going to stay here until it dies down.  We are then headed to Farmers Cay for the 5 F's festival (First Friday in February Festival at Farmers).  We will then start watching the weather to head north.

We were here in Warderick Wells and at the 5 F's Festival 9 years ago for our honeymoon.  I know it shouldn't be surprising, but things have changed here at Warderick Wells and, strangely, it makes me a bit sad.  As one example, last time, you could do volunteer work at the park to offset the cost of the mooring ball.  Back then (with our smaller boat), the ball was $15, and I think we put in 4 hours each of hard labor to offset that fee, including hauling and making concrete by wheelbarrow/hand.  It was really hard work, but it was also fun and we got to meet many of the other cruisers.  This morning, we asked whether we could volunteer this time - our mooring fee is up to $20 (egad!) - but they don't really have the volunteer program in place.  And there's are now t-shirts and souveniers to buy at the park office.  Which makes it all feel a bit more formal and impersonal.

But it's still stunningly beautiful.  We'll take lots of pics and post them down the road somewhere.

In the beautiful Exumas

We are currently anchored on the west side of Shroud Cay (pronounced
"key") in the Exumas Land and Sea Park in the Bahamas. Danny is down
below working to set up a wind generator that we bought in Ft.
Lauderdale and the kids are running all around the boat with Hannah
playing the "mommy" and Rye playing the "puppy." We are slowing
settling into our life on board. We are losing track of the day of
the week and are adjusting to having no cell phones or wifi. [This
post was posted by Susan's sister, who received the post via a high
frequency email account that transmits data at speeds calculated in
baud.] Instead of days of the week, we track our time out here by the
weather (including the 6:30 a.m. forecast we get by radio), where we
want to go next, and tracking our use of resources like water, power
and food. In some ways I feel like we're living a water based version
of homesteading. We wash our clothes by hand (well, with a plunger in
a bucket), generate our own power, and as of yesterday when Danny got
the reverse osmosis water maker working, make our own water.

The list of things we "do" each day is pretty small, although we are
busy most of the day. Tracking the weather, meals, exploring, boat
work, playing and a bit of homeschool now and then keep us quite
busy. We all go to bed around 8 every night and usually sleep until
6:30 or 7. In our free time, we are still trying to work through a
substantial list of boat projects (like installing the wind
generator), but none of the projects are super urgent.

We've met nice people on several boats to date, but haven't really
bonded with many boats yet because it's hard to get on the same travel
schedule. There is one boat we've met up with twice now, Pura Vida
(also a catamaran), and we are both planning to make it to at least
the Dominican Republic, so we may buddy boat with them that far if our
schedules sync.

In some ways, it's hard to see the changes our family is going through
since they are happening subtly, but we seem to be settling in well to
life together and on the boat. The kids seem to be getting along
better each day, and they can keep themselves busy and happy with
their few toys for longer periods of time. And there seem to be much
fewer tantrums and fits and the kids are following directions better
with each passing day (there are MANY new rules that we've had to give
kids so that they will stay safe and not damage the boat or its
systems). It also seems like Hannah's speech is more clear than it
was a month ago, but I'm not sure whether that's really the case or
whether we're just more in tune with her and what she's interested in
each day so we are better able to anticipate the context.

The only real deadline on our horizon is that our good friends, the
Casselmans, are coming to Nassau on February 11th. So we will island
hop in the Exumas until we get closer to that date. I think it's
helpful that we can't really travel farther south for now (given our
deadline to be in Nassau), because it prevents us from trying to have
a "schedule" for heading south. As some of our friends might find
shocking, we are truly slowing down and enjoying these beautiful
islands. [By the way, since I can't post pictures right now, I
encourage you to get on the web to look at pictures of the Exumas and
the Exuma Land and Sea Park, which is where we are right now.]

It's also an interesting time on this trip in the sense that we are
aware of the external changes in our lives -- losing track of the day
of the week, losing the internet and having only rudimentary email,
not having many other kids around (our kids haven't played with other
kids for a month or more now), living in bathing suits or nothing at
all.... Soon this will be the norm and we'll forget that we used to
jump on the web every 5 minutes to look something up.

Today we plan to travel to Hawksbill Cay, which is quite close, where
there are many loyalist ruins (loyalist meaning English loyalists who
fled to the Bahamas from the colonies following the Revolutionary
War). I'll write more about that later, but there are ruins
throughout the the Bahamas, both from a long time ago and more
recently. The ruins - whether recent or much older - are really
powerful to visit. It's been hard for us to put our finger on just
why, but I think the ruins are both a reminder of the transience of
time and illustrate the contrast between how beautiful but rugged this
place is. Although many people can now visit these islands for
"vacation," without modern technology like water makers and solar
panels (and even with those things), this incredibly beautiful place
is one that is harsh and in many ways inhospitable. There is no water
to speak of on the islands (except rainwater caught in cisterns)
basically no soil to support crops.

I'll sign off by saying that Danny just headed to the bow of the boat
in nothing but his sun hat and glasses. Rye accompanied him in
nothing but his life jacket. Good thing there is only one other boat
in the anchorage... :)

Beautiful Night

Danny is below, asleep with the kids. It's a beautiful night out in the Gulf Stream. Very warm, and there are bioluminescent sparkles in our wake. There's a cruise ship that looks like it will pass right in front of us, and it's amazing to see those ships lit up at night. Just think, there are people in the disco right now having a party while I'm outside standing watch, scanning the horizon every 7 minutes. :)

3rd Time Our Charm?

We are on a mooring ball at Alligator Reef Lighthouse in the Florida Keys, positioned to cross the Gulf Stream tonight. The sun is setting and I'm about to make pasta for dinner. We plan to leave around 10 p.m., with Danny and I trading watches while the kids sleep. We should reach the west edge of the Bahamas in about 10 hours.

We'll post from the Bahamas when we can.

Happy snow day to all our friends in Seattle.

Not quite yet

We left Marathon, FL this morning and poked our heads out into the Gulf Stream toward the Bahamas. The seas are small but really lumpy so it was a pretty uncomfortable ride. Next thing we knew the kids were whining and laying down because they were "tired" (translation: getting seasick). We hadn't considered seasickness meds for them this morning since the seas were so small, but in retrospect that would have been a good idea. (The good, prescription seasickness meds take a few hours to kick in.) So we are right now headed back to the Florida coast.

The window to cross to the Bahamas extends through tonight, so the plan is to stop soon, rest, and then cross tonight. Meanwhile the kids are resting.

No comment on what happened to the blueberries Hannah had for breakfast.

Sailing at 7 knots ...

... with just the spinnaker flying in the Florida Keys. Oh yeah.

Eeeeeek!

That's the sound of us changing plans at 4:30 in the morning. We have a good crossing window, but we don't feel ready to take it since we just got out of the yard/marina yesterday. We haven't been traveling on the boat for nearly 2 weeks, and the boat is so new to us, we want to run it (and the systems) for at least a few days before we undertake this crossing. The delay will also give us a chance to install a new wind generator we bought in Lauderdale.

We're going to head south to the Keys and then probably cross at the next window.

This was a super hard decision because it probably means that we won't get to the Bahamas for at least a week, we will probably have to motor (instead of sail as we would have today), and we will miss having a Kalik in Bimini with our friends Lisa and Craig. For our friends in Seattle, Kalik is the weakest, priciest beer you can imagine. But it tastes amazingly good on a hot day. :)

We think, however, that all is not lost, as it is apparently it's lobster season in the Keys. So we probably won't be miserable there.

Stay tuned.