#sailing Oops. Dropped my snorkel.
The Aquarium is located in the Exuma island chain of the Bahamas and is a spectacular place to snorkel. It’s in a protected area, a land and sea park, making it a must see if you are cruising these islands.
This is a no take zone, meaning no spear fishing, lobster or conch hunting. We had to dig into our freezer for dinner, but the snorkelling was worth it.
#sailing #dogs
Sailing with dogs is sandy business if you like to go to the beach. Farley, our wheaten terrier, is the colour of sand, and maybe we should have called him Sandy.
He loves to dig a hole and hide in it. He’ll sit perfectly still and make us play the Where’s Farley game. I think he might actually be making fun of us, but who knows?
If you’re thinking of cruising with a dog, an outside freshwater hose is a must. Ours is on the back step of our catamaran. Farley gets a rinse before he’s allowed passed the stairs. Then he gets a rub down with a towel. That’s the other item we brought . . . Farley has his own set of towels. One more little thing to keep us all happy.
#sailing The Bahamian waters are crystal clear and make viewing sea life easy.
This beautiful spotted eagle ray swam along side our Lagoon 380 at slow speed. I was so excited that I had time to get my camera and snap this photo. The water is nine feet deep here, but it looks like we are about to go aground.
#sailing Part of the fun of cruising for the winter is the wildlife. This sea turtle swam right past our catamaran.
The dog barks frantically, telling something is amiss. I guess he’s not sure what’s in the water and so close to our boat.
There are many great cruising blogs out there. Our friends, Wayne and Sharon, are travelling on their boat, My Sharona. Their blog highlights the joys of cruising. Sharon is a talented photographer and her photos are definitely worth checking out. Enjoy!
Monday is usually a day I blog about writing #sailing But we’ve arrived in the Bahamas.
Farley represents how we feel.
We left the Florida coast at 4 AM and arrived in Lucaya, Grand Bahamas at 3:30 PM.
Crossing the Gulf Stream was a little rougher than we expected, but we had enough wind to motor sail. We would have preferred no motor, but were happy having the main and genoa up to boost us along.
The window to cross was short and closed up behind us. We are now waiting in Lucaya at the Sunrise Resort and Marina for the wind to settle down and let us move further south. It’s a great place to get some writing done.
After this we island hop, so internet access could get a little sketchy.
Farley looks how I feel after trying to shop for six months. #sailing The hard part comes after getting back to the boat. After loading the provisions into our dingy, we to lift it onto Mattina.
Then the fun begins. We open all cabinets and storage areas and play the game for figuring out where to store everything.
Farley is left with a corner to sleep in the cockpit. Behind him you can see our cockpit cushions, shoved out of the way, so we can access spots for oil, cleaners, etc.
The question. Why is the dog exhausted when we did all the work?
So who says my wheaten terrier is spoiled? #sailing Here he sits with his high-end pet food, Orijen, waiting patiently to eat.
Today, Farley and I went shopping. This mound will get him through till the spring. He even got to pick his own treat. Of course he chose a Bully Strap. While I loaded the car, he ate his treat in the pet store.
Dog food in the Bahamas can be expensive and the choice limited. I buy the smaller bags to reduce the risk of spoilage. If I lose one bag, that’s okay.
The smaller bags are easier to store on a sailboat. We just have to remember where we store them. After six months, it’s easy to forget.
My lucky dog.
As we get ready to head offshore we test all our equipment. #writetip Before you send your manuscript off to an agent or publisher, you should test it too. I can’t imagine going to sea unprepared or unsure that everything, and I mean everything, is working. Here we are testing bring the sail up and down, repeatedly.
I use several test people at different stages of my novel. I have a two very important test phases.
One is at first draft. Here you need a test reader that will work with you chapter by chapter and tell you what they like and what they don’t like.
Two is at the final stage before sending. Here you need a reader that has an amazing eye for detail. This is the person that will proofread for you. The one that will find all the typos your eye can no longer see.
If I’ve significantly changed a scene from when one of my experts read it, I will ask them to read one more time. This is asking a lot, but I want to make sure I didn’t inadvertently put in a technical error.
I’m sure there are many ways to do this, but this is what works for me.
Do we really need to eat this much? #sailing #writetip
I think I’ve turned into a spreadsheet junky.
I have just reached a first draft of my third novel. Now I study the spreadsheet I created as I was writing the novel, decide at the best order of scenes, where the chapter breaks should be, do I have enough scenes with the main characters, etc.
As if my head wasn’t exploding with details, but I was feeling so productive and decided it was time to do some provisioning. So out came spreadsheet number two. After two years of updating this spreadsheet, I know exactly how much food we eat.
Every season, I write down when we run out of food or if we have left overs at the end of the season. It’s getting pretty accurate. During the season I add lines if there is something we were missing. Last year, I didn’t bring enough honey. One little bottle. What was I thinking? I love honey.
Today it’s back to my writing spreadsheet and the hard work of editing that first draft.
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