April 09 Bahamas

April 17th
Things have been busy the last few weeks. The biggest news is that Marie broke her arm just as we were about to head to Conception Island. She reminds me of that song « no more monkeys jumping on the bed »….She was …uh… »taking a nap », and apparently fell out of her bed. Explaining this at the hospital was frustrating, because no one really believed me. As this happened on the least populated island in the Bahamas (except for the uninhabited islands -Rum Cay which has a population of 100 people), it was, of course, even more of an adventure. They called the two town nurses in who told us that indeed it was really broken (which we had already figured out, by the unnatural angle of the bones in her arm) and that we had done a good job of wrapping it (they even had to use our splint to rewrap it back up because they didn’t have one). We then had to find a flight off the island. Of course, there are only two or three flights a week, and even those aren’t always available, and one had left just a few hours prior to her accident. In addition, it was Easter weekend, which meant that everything was closed from Thursday night until Tuesday morning and that airplane were full, getting families around the islands. As usual, good planning on our part. The people on the island were wonderful, however, and found us a spot on a private plane, which just happened to be going to Nassau the next morning. Marie and I got our first ride in a private plane…It was definitely a nice way to travel. When we arrived at the airport, in the executive lounge, I had a difficult time reaching my insurance to find out who was picking us up, so we didn’t end up getting to the hospital until around 2 pm. We decided to go to the private hospital, because all of the Bahamians warned me to avoid the public hospital, which is much less expensive, but highly understaffed and overcrowded. I spent 5 hours in the hospital and 2300 USD later, we left with a plaster cast. Marie was very well behaved and very brave. We spent the night in Nassau and flew back to Stella Maris, Long Island, the next day. Sébastien and Constance met us in Stella Maris. It was a complicated,, lonely navigation for Sébastien, and he was happy to have us back. It was also our first anniversary of our tenth wedding anniversary, so it was nice to be together. Those who followed the trilogy, know what this means - as we celebrated our wedding three times, we take advantage of all three dates to celebrate each year. Anyway, it was nice to be together and we went to a wonderful restaurant, Two Sisters, in a little community called Burnt Ground. We both ate grilled fish and the girls had grouper fingers, and we were thrilled to have such good food in such a nice ambiance. We left the next day for Georgetown, after spending a little time doing some grocery shopping, and filling up our water and fuel tanks. We arrived in Georgetown in the late afternoon and headed into shore. We found a great grocery store on land and checked Easter service mass times at the Catholic church. We were hoping to find a place to get our alternator repaired and had heard that Georgetown was the place to do that. We therefore decided to stay until Tuesday, when all of the businesses would be open again. We took advantage of being on land to stock up on fresh food, water, fuel and get our laundry cleaned. On Tuesday, we tried to find someone to repair or replace our alternator but we soon realized that it wouldn’t happen on Georgetown. Georgetown is a very small town and not the booming metropolis that the guidebooks make it out to be. There are a few restaurants, and a couple of grocery stores, a number of liquor stores and about 5 churches, but there isn’t a whole lot else to do… We did however, catch up with our friends on Windflower and Micromegas, who came into Georgetown on Tuesday. It was wonderful to see them again, and we were saddened to leave them again the next day. We almost didn’t leave because our propeller alternator had become loose when Sébastien had tried to fix the other alternator and we realized that neither was charging. This would have been a catastrophy, because we would have had no electricity on board. We realized quickly that a cable was loose and that we were fine once it was firmly in place. We went to Farmer’s Cay the first day, but only arrived at 6 pm, because of our late start, so unfortunately, we did not see much. We went on to Staniel Cay the next day. The anchorage was ok, but frankly, I think that it was overrated. Sébastien and Constance went snorkeling in the caves, and enjoyed it. As Marie can’t swim, she and I stayed on the boat and did « girl » stuff. We did, however, meet two French boats. It was nice to see other European boats, because there are so few in this part of the world.

Yesterday, we went to Compass Cay. The navigation was very tricky, but the view was worthwhile. I have rarely seen anything so beautiful. The colors were gorgeous. Today we are in Warderick Wells and the beauty continues. We spent the afternoon hiking on one of the trails and then went to a little social on the beach. Our contribution was birthday cake, which was gobbled up because so few people actually do any real baking. We met a lot of great people who we hope to catch up with again on our travels. We met some Canadians, on Sein Finn, and a number of Americans.



April 21
After leaving Waderick Wells, we went to Shroud Cay, which is also part of the National Park, like Waderick Wells. We were able to navigate with our dingy in the mangrove. It was amazing - beautiful and very quiet. At the end, you reach paradise, with beautiful aqua water and gorgeous, soft white sand.

We arrived yesterday, April 20th, in Nassau and its nice to be back in civilisation. Its also a little daunting, as we have been away from city life for so long. We need to get used to being with people again. For the last month, we have been with very few people and spent most of our time in anchorages in the little cocoon that our boat has become. The Far Bahamas that we started in here, as well as the Exumas islands, are far from civilisation. Some of the islands have no inhabitants…others as few as one or two hundred. Sometimes it has been hard, because modern comforts such as internet and cell phone service are not a given. Neither are fresh fruits and vegetables or fresh meat. Some of the grocery stores that we’ve been in consist of one room the size of my living room. One even had live goats and chickens running around in the back yard, that you could hear and see through the screen door. You can usually only buy canned and dry goods in stores such as this. The few vegetables you see are sometimes for sale, but sometimes just the family’s personal stock, as they use the refrigerator which is in the store. It is hard to detect the difference. Being used to modern comforts, this can sometimes be disarming. However, now that I’m back in civilisation, I miss it. The Bahamas are amazing. I am finally starting to get over my boat culture shock (I know, it’s about time….) and getting a little worried about returning to real life. I think that being in the states will help, and it’s probably good that we are going though the states and going to large cities, as that will help with some of the culture shock we will have when we return. This year has really changed us all. Its funny because not too long ago, we were asking ourselves if we are really getting everything we can out of this year. The answer is yes and no. Partially because we like our modern comforts and because living on a boat is more complicated in terms of modern comforts, we’ve possibly missed some of the enjoyment of this year. But I think that it has been a very rich experience for us and will continue to be so. We are getting to know ourselves, and each other much better. I certainly didn’t think that I could handle being with my children 24/7 and actually it’s not too bad. There are days when it’s tough for us and for them, but its actually going much better than I thought. I also realize that despite the fact that I am really not meant to be a teacher, that I have actually taught a lot to my children this year (including how to speak in English fluently and how to start reading in French). That is a big accomplishment. They have taught me things too, like how to take the time to look at the fish swimming around the boat, or the pretty flower or lizard on the path, and how to see things again that I usually « don‘t« have or take the time to appreciate. The relationship we have with our children has also changed. We realize that Marie and Constance are indeed becoming « big girls »….our babies are growing up and its scary but its exciting too, and I’m so glad that I had this year away from everything to really enjoy the time I spend with them. No stress, no harried schedules, just quality time. I’ve also become a much better sailor and although I still have a lot to learn, I have much better reflexes than I did at the beginning of the trip and I can finally share some of the passion that Sébastien does for sailing. I can officially now say that I am hooked on sailing. It depends on the day whether I love it or I hate it, but it is now in my blood. I can’t believe that I’m admitting this on paper, but most people probably aren’t surprised given that I am the one that decided that spending a year on the boat was a good idea. I think that this year has also taught me to be happy with what I have and that « stuff » won’t necessarily make me happy (even though I still really like stuff). I look at the people that we meet who live on these islands. They don’t have lots of stuff, but they do have family, friends and their faith and they are truly happy. I think that we can all learn from that.


April 26th
Today, we are in the Berry Islands in Great Harbour. While eating dinner, we met the lead singer of the beach boys, Bruce Johnston. A very nice guy. We also met three of his friends including one who has also sung with him, John Day, and Caroline, his girlfriend. They both spoke French…it was fun to speak French again. Perhaps we will see one or all of them again. As I said, we are currently in the Berry islands. Yesterday, we were in Chub Cay. Not very tourist friendly. Signs all over basically telling us to go away. There isn’t even an official dingy dock and the marina doesn’t really welcome outsiders. The Bahamians, as usual, were wonderful, but we didn’t even meet many of them. Today we are in Great Harbor and this island has much more promise than Chub Cay, which is good because after our trip today, we are ready to take a little break. We averaged 3 knots, and sometimes fell to 1.5 knots, because of the winds and currents which were against us. Poor Sébastien was just horrified, and frankly the thought of doing another 60 miles like that (at between 1.5 -3 miles an hour) is beyond my fathoming…., so we are going to wait a day. Afterwards, we will head onto Grand Bahama and then to Florida. Florida is my light at the end of this tunnel. The last few weeks in the Bahamas have been great, but I’m ready to move on. This area is only for sport fishing, and so we are not really in our element. The cruising is not that great and the islands don’t have much on them for cruisers. Tonight was an adventure, because after our dinner, we had to get back in our dingy. We of course were completely lost in the mangrove leading up to the marina, because we had come during daylight and high tide, when it was already confusing. Of course, on the way back, in the dark, the dingy motor also stopped working for awhile, and we had to row over to shore (I am getting a little better at rowing, thanks to the dingy…). Sébastien was able to repair it and then we were back on our way…but we weren’t sure where to, as we couldn’t seem to find the exit to get out of the mangrove. It took us awhile (and I was trying to figure how we were all going to sleep in the dingy, without the girls getting sick and Marie getting her cast wet), but we finally got back to the boat. I informed Sébastien that the next time he suggested going out to dinner that I would not be going…. Living in the boat is a daily adventure. I just finished reading the Zahir from Paolo Cohelo. It’s a strange book, but one of the lessons is interesting. It tells you to not spend time worrying about who you were but instead to concentrate on who you are and who you want to be . Basically, you need to not let the past hold you down from accomplishing what you want in the future and that you shouldn’t have regrets about your past…because you can’t do anything about it….you can only change the future. It kind of goes with the philosophy of this year for us. This year has not always been perfect or easy, but we will never regret having decided to do it. The rewards have been much greater than the inconvenience, and as a quote that one of my friends sent me from Mark Twain said, « In 20 years, you won’t regret what you have done, only what you haven’t done ». Life is short and so is this year, so we are trying to get as much as possible out of it.