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.
“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.
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.
If you’re getting the feeling there are endless ways to keep fit while sailing around the Bahamas, you’re getting the right feeling. This week’s suggestion: Swimming laps.
It’s hard to take a photo of myself swimming laps, so I thought I’d show you the water I swim in.
Things to consider:
The water temperature is around 73 degrees Fahrenheit, which can cool a body down, so I wear wetsuit shorts and a rash guard. I find a full wet suit too restrictive for swimming laps, and the rash guard prevents sunburn.
Since there are sharks in the area, I don’t swim at dawn, dusk or in murky water, and I don’t splash around as if I were a fish in distress.
I don’t wear anything shiny in case a barracuda is sharing my water space.
I either swim with a buddy or have a partner follow me in a kayak to reduce the risk of a dinghy hitting me.
Salt water is hard on the swim goggles, so I bring several pairs to last me the season.
It’s a great way to keep fit if we’re in an area that doesn’t have a beach good for running.
If you’ve been reading you may have noticed I like variety in exercise. There are so many ways to keep fit while sailing, and I intend to try as many way as I can.
Kayaking is one of my favourites. There are many types of kayaks. I chose mine because it was large enough for Farley, my wheaten terrier, to fit in. He sits in the cockpit, sort of half on my lap and half on the kayak floor. He adds an extra 42 pounds to the adventure, but I figure it’ll only make my arms stronger.
Other than keeping you fit, a kayak provides:
– a second car
– a way to have fun with you dog
– something to do while being social with your friends
– a vehicle to take you exploring
Let me know how you keep fit while living on your sailboat.
So many ways to keep fit while cruising – so little time 🙂
If you want to keep fit while sailing either you must sail in crazy weather or you must find other things to do. Me I choose to sail in favourable conditions where I don’t have to exert myself in dangerous situations, so that means I must find other ways to stay in shape.
Hanging out with active friends, all who have different interests, is the best way to find things to do. There’s always someone around to push the gang to get moving.
So this week, the activity to keep fit: Spear fishing for lobster.
I’ll just say outright, I really suck at this. In fact I’ve never caught a lobster. My spear likes to head for the sand and rest on the bottom. My husband and friends all seem to have the skill required.
It doesn’t matter. I can still swim and search. Swimming with fins is great for the calves and quads. Diving until you think you’re lungs will explode is great for the cardio. The adrenaline rush when you think you see a shark . . . enough said about that.
The salt water bleaches your hair, the mask strap breaks it and the wind tangles it, but hey, you can’t have everything.
I’ve been writing about how to keep fit while cruising. But what if we’re done with exercise for the day?
When the winds are too low to go windsurfing and it’s too hot for beach yoga or beach running, a little deep sea fishing goes a long way to keep us entertained and fed. Nothing like a sea of flat water and a little breeze to make fishing a fun experience.
Here we caught a wahoo, and you can see by the size of it, it fed our whole gang.
When we checked into the Bahamas, we received a fishing license as part of our cruising permit, allowing us to fish in the Bahamian waters. We make sure we know what we are allowed to catch and what is in season, and only catch what we can eat.
Sometimes it’s just too windy to do anything but give in and take up a wind sport. Running or yoga on the beach is not fun when sand is blasting in your face.
Two good choices for a cruiser are windsurfing or kiting. Both are portable sports, in need of wind and a place to launch.
My husband and I windsurf. Many of our friends kiteboard. Both sports provide enough exercise to add to the overall fitness program and are exciting.
We often windsurf and kite at the same beach, making the atmosphere festive.
We all have dinghies and each are used for chase/rescue boats. Although I shouldn’t say rescue, it’s really a courtesy pickup if you can’t sail back to the beach.
Once in while, one of us has to do the walk of shame, and walk the board back to the launch spot. We’ve all done it, and it’s better than needing the courtesy pickup.
I don’t know if this happens to others, but when I’m writing my entire brain focuses on what I’m doing, and it tunes out ‘real life.’
This can be a problem while writing and living on a sailboat.
It’s shocking, I know, but sometimes I have responsibilities on the sailboat. My husband, Matt, could be off windsurfing, playing volleyball, or spear fishing, and I’m on the boat writing.
I might need to turn off the water maker when the tanks are full, turn of the generator when the batteries are charged, or re-angle the solar panels when the sun moves – which it has a tendency to do during the day.
Matt learned that when I’m writing, there is a slight chance I could forget my duties. And yes, he learned from experience. His solution: he sets an alarm.
Now you’d thing that would be enough, but it’s not. He leaves me a note for what the alarm means.
I’ve learned to read the note as soon as the alarm goes off and attend to the task right away. If I sit back and start writing without doing what I was supposed to do, there’s a good chance I forget.
Sometimes the boat needs take precedence over writing, but I still love to write while I’m on my catamaran.
Kristina Stanley 