15. New Stamp in the Passport - Turks & Caicos

This week has been a whirlwind of activity.  Our days at Emerald Bay Marina were crammed full of projects in preparation for leaving the Bahamas.  

We moved to Georgetown because every respectable cruiser goes to Georgetown.  

It is a cruisers' haven where all paths cross; boats traveling north, south, jumping off to Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and beyond.  We looked forward to some down time to enjoy hanging with fellow cruisers at the infamous Chat & Chill Beach, a great beach across from the city that has volleyball courts, hammocks, swings, horseshoes; just a great place to “chat & chill”.  

    Chat & Chill Beach - Georgetown, Exumas. 4/4/2016

The kids loved our time here because there are lots of kid boats.  We met back up with the crew from Take Two and made new friends aboard Alley Cat, Neptune II, Singing Frog & Paisley.  

    That's my little monkey in the tree waiting for her turn to swing on the rope.

    Alley picked Paige up and off they went to a friend's boat.  Kind of like watching your baby drive away in a friend's car for the first time :)

Along with the fun, Andrew & I stayed busy every minute we were there.  He continued with boat projects.

Finished the hand sewing on our new main sail.  We were able to give away a few items onboard and the ladies stole me away for a massive provisioning run (Georgetown is the first proper grocery store we’ve seen since Nassau).  

Our new friends aboard Alley Cat are finishing up their two year journey & were happy to share all their tips of travel for the Caribbean islands to come.  I spent 5 hours taking notes and marking places of interest in my guide book. 

 It is so helpful to hear from someone who has already been there & done that.

Andrew did get to enjoy a hike to the top of Monument Hill.

    Sky & the Take Two guys.

Open mic night at St Francis Resort was a blast!  Lots of cruisers singing & playing instruments and, when the weather forced us to cram into the small dining room, it turned into a sing-along with the kids from Paisley leading with the ukulele on some oldies but goodies.  

For the first time ever, we saw bioluminescence along the shore as we launched our dinghy.  They look just like fireflies in the water.  If you scoop your hands slowly through the water, they stay on your skin until you dip it back into the water.  It was the perfect ending to a great stay in Georgetown.

Thursday morning we were all set to head out to Rum Cay.  The wind was light enough for us to get the new main sail switched out.

    Flying the new main for the first time.  Sewn entirely by the Abby Singer crew!

And Andrew re-calibrated the autopilot before getting underway.  

It was a great morning to be on the water!  We soon heard friends from other boats (Dream Catcher, MeNorah, Neptune II & Take Two) that were heading out as well, which always makes you feel like you made the right choice when reading the weather.  

    I am standing straight, the boat is heeling that much!  Makes lunchtime a challenge :)

We were about half way through our day sail to Rum Cay when Andrew said everything was looking good for us to continue on and bypass our original stop.  The weather was right and the boat was ready but I wasn't!  I had big plans on things I wanted done to make our first passage more comfortable, snacks prepared, easy meals, cabin secured.  I had planned on using the night at Rum Cay to do all those things but when the wind blows, you go.  

We spent 48hrs at sea (our longest passage ever) to make passage to Providenciales in the Caicos Islands.  The hours at sea seem to stand still and fly by all at the same time.  The rolling seas and heat of the sun make you wish for nightfall.  And when sitting night watch all alone with no one but the bioluminescence and millions of stars to keep you company, you wish for sunrise.  Before you know it 2 days have passed and you did it, you survived.  The cabin was a mess from the pallet on the floor for the girls who were trying to help with night watch, dirty dishes left in the sink until I finally bit the bullet and stayed below long enough to get caught up.  My bum is bruised from banging around the galley during meal prep and clean up, but proper planning and paper plates should eliminate this in the future :)  It is hard to imagine passages being second nature or spending weeks at sea during an ocean crossing but that will be the norm soon.  

Even though I had some frustrating moments because of our course change, it really was quite pleasant.  

We colored, read books and watched the big rollers come in, enjoyed the solitude of the evening sky and the beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

    Sunrise - 4/9/2016

    We are a baby boat in this Marina!

An unexpected reward for our great passage is a beautiful stay at the Blue Haven Marina & Resort. 

I'm working on this blog poolside while the girls explore.  We are just minutes from the third largest reef system in the world.  The sun is out and the breeze is blowing!  

    We love the crew on Dream Catcher, Dean & Kim, our travel buddies and great friends.

    The guys eyeing the 80'+ catamaran that is anchored in our bay.

I think I could stay here forever or at least longer than our week long cruising permit will allow but there is more out there to be seen and I have to find out if we can ace this passage thing :)

Things learned this week aboard:

Expect the unexpected!  Whether it's the surprise gift of a guide book being passed on, fishing tips from a pro accompanied by a new lure, or a weather window opening (or closing) among your best laid plans; expect the unexpected and be flexible.  Just because something doesn't go the way you planned, doesn't mean it didn't work out for the best.  And who wants to be so rigid and locked into the way things are "supposed to be" that you miss an unexpected adventure waiting around the corner!

My PaigeE Paige has been missing her friends back home.  We are thankful for wifi so she could chat with her besties!  We love and miss you Maggie, Mia, & Olivia.  Thanks for making my girl's week!

Up next: another long passage. Will we make it?  We can hardly wait to find out ;)

16. Vacation Week in Turks & Caicos

13 & 14. Swimming Pigs / Crazy Kids!

Oh, to fit two weeks worth of excitement into one blog :)   

One of my favorite parts of the week is when I look back over all the pictures to help me decide what to write about, I’m always surprised at all we’ve squeezed into one (or two) week’s time!  

We last left you waiting to experience Rocky Dundas.  It did not disappoint!

Rocky Dundas is a hollowed out rock island that you can slip into at low tide to explore the cave formation.  It is pretty cool but the surge inside can be strong.  We got some amazing pictures but it wasn't without a few heart palpitations :)

We also heard about a sweet little pool called Rachel’s Bubble Bath.  

It is a cove that backs up to the ocean and when the waves roll in they are forced over the rock wall, making the pool foam and bubble like a natural bubble bath.  

It is a sweet little secret place that isn’t even on the charts and is just passed around by word of mouth.  

Our next stop was Staniel Cay.  

It is probably the most well known of the Exumas.  

We anchored between Big & Little Majors and we're happy to wake to the sound of the wild roosters, even if it was 4:30am.  

One of the main attractions of Staniel is the swimming pigs.  It was something on our checklist of “Bahama to do’s” but it was much more fun than I had anticipated.  

The pigs are huge & they swim up to anyone they think will feed them.  Most of them are really gentle and I can't imagine anywhere else that you can interact with them in this way.

    The girls loved finding a little piglet in the brush to love on.

Thunderball Grotto is the best snorkeling we have experienced!  Paige is getting more comfortable in the water and even swam in on her own and was greeted by hundreds of fish of all colors and sizes. 

We both agreed it was so amazing we would love to go back again!  

With a weather system pushing in fast and us needing to find a better anchorage and protection, we moved to Black Point Settlement.  It is a quaint community on Great Guana Cay with just over 300 locals.  They love the cruising community and offer up great amenities like laundry facilities, free wifi at some local restaurants, provisions available when the boat comes in and even homemade Bahimian coconut bread.   The locals are so friendly and welcoming, it is a tight-knit community where everyone is family.  At 9pm the light turns off at the basketball court and all the kids run home.  It is what I imagine life in the 1950s was like, when it was safe to walk the streets at night and you didn't worry about where your kids where.  

We had our first official sundowners with friends from 5 different boats also in our anchorage (Sojourner, Dream Catcher, Radio Waves, Panta Reigh, Godspeed), on our own private beach, under the full moon.  

We had a blast cheering on the Black Point basketball team to victory in their annual game against their rivals, Staniel Cay.  

The kids had fun playing with all the local kids at the beach.  

We had a beautiful Easter celebration with the small community church 

and enjoyed an amazing lunch with our new friends aboard Take Two- family with 5 kids all around the girls’ ages, so all the fun they could handle!

I even learned to make bread!  My sweet new friend, Tonya from Take Two, didn't know what she signed up for when she agreed to teach me :)  Items made from scratch in my kitchen are few and far between but we were a success.  Everyone onboard was a huge fan of my homemade pizza!

And Andrew finally got to kite for an afternoon.

    We didn't bring the camera but this is our best interpretation of the fun :)

After almost a week with the Black Point Settlement, it was time to move on.  We used a beautiful weather window to head south with 2 other boats, Godspeed & MeNorah.  We didn't expect to whip into rescue mode but when MeNora’s engine went down, we threw out the tow rope and helped them to safety.  

After making sure Will, Raven & MeNorah were safely settled, we moved on to our beautiful anchorage for the night with our own private cave off of Rudder Cay.

We snorkeled the mermaid & piano statue 

and found an amazing reef that looked like a bustling fish city complete with turtle, shark, angel fish, a huge puffer, topped off with an osprey who was mad that we came so close to his rock!  But our favorite part of our stay in Rudder Cay was Howell Hole, our own little cave.

Now we are enjoying a few Marina days.  That means unlimited showers, great washing machines, a pool to cool off in and bugs!  The no-see-ems and flies are horrific this close to land, we’ve been spoiled being at anchor.  But we are having a great time hanging with old friends.

And meeting new ones.

Literally the only picture I have of the girls with their new friends from MikBeth because we never saw them!

Andrew has tackled many of the projects still remaining.

     Sail construction

    Boat cleaning - we took over the dock!

    Testing the solar panel placement before install.

And we are preparing for our longest passage to date to cross to the Turks & Caicos.  

Things learned this week:

Perspective!  We have had some significant perspective shifts in the short 3 months of living aboard.  

1.  Remember me complaining about being hot?  It is amazing how your body acclimates to the heat.  You appreciate the suttle difference the shade of a tree creates, when the sea breeze picks up or being able to jump out your front door into a sea of blue!

2.  Free flowing water is so nice :) I knew we would be conservative on the boat because you can only carry so much fresh water and it really hasn't been that difficult.  But oh how refreshing a long shower can be!

3.  We are quick to make friends.  Back home the girls (mostly Paige) would maybe be a little timid at first with strangers, even though she is very friendly.  But when you may only have a day or two with friends aboard another boat, you don't waste time being shy.  It is great to watch them just jump in and enjoy every moment they have together!

4.  Manners are slowly dying, and they shouldn't.  It was such a pleasant surprise when all the children at Black Point were so respectful when speaking to adults and each other, and it shined a huge light on a weak spot in America.  I'm having to remind my girls to use "please" and "thank you", especially with each other.  But, as the bible says, "A kind word turns away wrath."  So we are working diligently to get our politeness back in full swing.

5.  The price of goods is a bit shocking on the budget.  Even more surprising is what I'm willing to pay for, even if it is outrageous.  Sometimes you just have to have some Simply Orange OJ and the $9 price tag for the small bottle doesn't even deter you!  Oh well, it's only money, right?

Next week's blog may come to you from a new country for us, so keep your fingers crossed for good weather and we will do our best to keep you updated!

15. New Stamp in the Passport - Turks & Caicos