Compass Cay Marina during the march break . . . Where did the boats come from?
I’ve never seen this marina so full. We were all so amazed, since we’re used to being isolated out here, that our friend climbed to the top of the mast and took this photo.
Mattina is in the bottom corner, tucked between some very large boats.
Lots of fun on the docks . . .
All this happened after we were the only boats docked at Highbourne Cay Marina.
I fell in the ocean, right off the back of the boat! How humiliating.
My human friend, Debi, drove her dinghy to the back of our boat to pick me up for yoga. I should have known something weird was going on when Kristina didn’t put my harness on me. You can see it in the photo below. She makes me wear it, so IF I fall overboard, she can easily pick me up.
Well, I guess she forgot to put it one me.
This is the harness I should have been wearing!
Debi arrives and I get a bit excited.
“Hello,” I bark.
Debi drives close to the back of the boat and ties up. Kristina is ready with her yoga gear.
“Not today,” Kristina says. “There are wild pigs on the beach. You have to stay on board.”
I whip my head around to face Debi and she confirms the bad news. I turn too quickly and start to fall.
“Oh Oh,” I bark, but no one grabs me.
My paws slip off the first step.
“Help me,” I bark.”
I’m now on the second step and the third is not far away. Before I can let out my third bark, I’m in the water.
I know I can’t get on the back step by myself so I head to shore. Lucky for me, I’m pretty slow at the dog paddle and don’t get far.
Debi pushes off the stern and drives beside me. I’m a smart dog and turn to face her.
No here comes the problem. I’m not wearing my harness. The dingy tubes are two feet out of the water, and Debi has nothing to grab on to. She reaches under my armpits and struggles me aboard.
She’s soaked, I’m soaked, but at least I’m aboard.
As we travel through the Exuma islands, we get a lot of this . . .
Bubble Baths at Compass Cay
But not a lot of internet.
I can blog ahead of time and upload my posts — as long as I’m organized.
I can usually find a connection that’s strong enough to support an email connection, but not strong enough to post or reply to comments.
I love to get comments on my blog, and I try to respond to each one, so I have to say it can be frustrating when I receive a comment via email, know it’s on my blog and I can’t respond.
I guess like many, I’ve become accustomed to the immediacy of our lives and when I don’t have it, I feel disconnected.
Then I remember where I am and what I’m doing and laugh at myself. Life is pretty good in the Bahamas.
I have lots of friends, but sometimes they disappear. Where do they go? Do they live on sailboats too?
Take Piper for example. I met her the same day I met my owners. She has different owners and she has an attitude.
Piper is a border terrier, and she’s cute, but really, look at her whispering in my ear. She told me her owners were nicer than mine. Ha! I don’t think so. We’d only been with them for five hours, so how could she know?
I’ve travelled across Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. I don’t think she’s done that.
I’m with my owners most of the time. I get walked at least twice a day and sometime more. I get real meat added to my dog food.
I may have to live on the sailboat, but she has to live in a backyard. So I ask you, aren’t my owners nicer?
I spent 5 weeks with Piper this summer, and we went camping together, with both our owners, so I have to admit hers are pretty nice too. Piper still has an attitude, but she quickly learned Kristina spoils all dogs and settled right in with us.
“Bond, James Bond,” my husband, Matt, said. It was our first ever cockpit happy hour and we’d anchored our charter boat amongst several mushroom-shaped islands. The day started in Phuket, Thailand and ended . . . with a dream.
I raised my eyebrow at him, thinking he was trying to be as cool as his drink. “What are you talking about?”
“Right there.” He pointed with his glass. “James Bond Island, from the movie ‘The Man With the Golden Gun.’”
I turned and looked. Near the closest of the limestone islands, I saw something more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of Bond, but a sailboat with San Francisco written across her stern caught my eye. She was anchoring right next to us.
“How did that boat get to Thailand?” I asked.
“They’re cruisers.”
“What do you mean, cruisers?” The answer changed my life.
“They live on board their boat and are sailing around the world.”
“People really do that?” I looked him in the eye with genuine curiosity. I had never read a sailing magazine, had no idea the cruising lifestyle existed, and more importantly did not realize it was my dream. “Honey, why can’t we go cruising?”
That was the moment I first heard the ‘Call of the Sea’. It occurred aboard Sweet Robin, a Jeanneau 39 chartered by friends out of Phuket. We were the ‘crew’, invited along to help do a bit of sailing and a lot of living. It was day one of our fourteen day charter, and our attitudes were already changing. After a delicious cockpit dinner of jumbo Thai prawns washed down with a Singa Gold beer, I repeated my question, “why can’t we go cruising?”
Over the next thirteen days we accidentally anchored in a ferry channel, swam to a rustic hut on an expansive white beach for the best ever sweet and sour fish, tried to barbeque while waves splashed into the cockpit, sailed out of sight of land without a GPS, and spent a very bouncy night on a lee shore. We had a moment of panic when the six-year-old on board yelled from below, “is there supposed to be this much water in here?” Relief followed as we tracked down the leak in the head. Through it all, the dream took hold.
We returned to living as expatriates in Tokyo and would be there another couple of years. I avidly read about other people’s sailing adventures and the world of cruising. Halfway through our next assignment in Germany we committed to each other that we would make the dream happen.
We took a ‘Learn to Bareboat” course in the Florida Keys and chartered in the BVIs and in Turkey. In 1999 we bought Allura, a Niagara 42 sloop, built in St. Catherine’s, Ontario.
Allura
We spent the summer on Lake Ontario learning to sail Allura and headed south in September with all other Canadian boats. We made it to Georgetown, Bahamas, just in time to celebrate the millennium with all our new cruising friends. After two seasons exploring the Bahamas, we sailed to Bonaire and ended up in Aruba for a year of windsurfing. In 2003 we cruised back to the Chesapeake, sold Allura and returned, for a while, to land life.
Now we are on Mattina, and love her just as much as Allura.
I kept the photo of the boat from San Francisco to remind us that dreams do come true, and I often wonder what that family is doing now.
Some days it’s just to hot to bear, and other days, I love the cool weather. The cold front passed through and we’re back to high temperatures.
The first thing that happens is my owner cuts my hairs. She’s always worried about me overheating, I just wish she’d taken classes on how to groom a Wheaten Terrier. I need to look my best when I head to the beach to meet the girls.
I don’t like to swim in water over my head, but there’s nothing like a cool walk in the water. So I have a little sand on my face. What’s the big deal? This shot was taken before Kristina ‘groomed’ me. I’m too embarrassed to post the after shot.
Every sailboat needs repairs or maintenance sometime. A small event like sail tape coming loose on a spreader means a trip up the mast.
When sailing the in Bahamas, there are enough calm days to ascend the mast in safety. This weather came right before a cold front.
Safety being the key. The work has to be done, but it doesn’t have to be dangerous. A good harness and bosuns chair, two halyards, two people manning the halyards, tools tied to the belt, and up you go.
Water, water everywhere . . . and not where I want it to be. An innocent little glass of water and presto – no more Macbook.
If you’re reading my blog, you know I’m living on a sailboat and nowhere near a store or something as luxurious as a Mac store, so when I spilled a glass of water on my Mac it brought tears to my eyes.
I shut down, ripped out the battery and hoped for the best. Days later, I’m not having any luck.
After the terror subsided, I remembered I made a back up the day before (phew), and that my husband loves me. The second is a very important point. When I asked if I could have his computer for the rest of the season, he happily said yes. He would use the tablet. Again phew.
We have backup equipment on the boat for almost every part, and I’m very happy that this extended to a backup device for my Mac and an extra computer.
It’s not all sunshine and warmth in the Bahamas, although you might think it is when looking at the photos I post.
The clouds roll in, the temperature drops, and we have to get out the warm clothes. Then it’s time to switch from water activities to land activities and take the dogs hiking.
We don’t go in the water, but the dogs do. On this hike, Jasper, the springer spaniel, was stung by a spotted eagle ray. Really it was his own fault, since he picked it up. The ray escaped unhurt, but Jasper needed treatment, and I think it was painful.
But back to cold fronts, the wind clocks around so it can be hard to find a protected anchorage. When the trade winds blow and the wind comes from one direction, it’s easy to drop the hook in a safe place.
When the wind is going to come from more than one directions, most annoying at night, it’s more of a challenge to hide. Sometimes we just have to suck it up and take the wind and waves, but usually we can tuck in and be mostly protected.
On the good side, rain can come with a cold front, and it’s a free boat wash for us.
