sailing

Dingy Dogs

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

#dogs

Does your dog like to travel in fast moving boats? Ours does.

Farley, the wheaten terrier, likes to lean over the side. Jasper, the springer spaniel, likes to be up front. They always choose the same place and I have no idea why.

Walking the dog while living on a sailboat means getting in the dingy. When the weather is rough or it’s raining, it might not be too fun. Most of the time it’s great. Training your dog its on the boat makes life easier, but they still like the ride to shore.

Bahamas welcomes pets and the process for clearing in is easy. It’s just too much fun having a dog here.

Hermit Crab

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#sea life

This Hermit Crab can live 30 to 70 years. It can become a large as a coconut. It lives in a shell, and honestly, I find it a bit creepy.

The joys of cruising provide many opportunities to find creepy, crawly creature.  This one was crossing our hiking path and I couldn’t resist taking a photo, that is after I convinced my niece to pick up the creature.

Footprints In The Sand

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

 #dogs #sailing

My 3-year-old Wheaten Terrier, Farley, gets to run on the beach each morning. He likes the 5K he covers without being on a leash.

Stocking Island in the Bahamas is the best beach I’ve found for running. At low tide, the sand is hard and sort of flat. Flat enough to run, anyway.

It’s a great place to exercise your dog if he/she has been on the boat for too many hours.

Cruisers bring all kinds of dogs to the Bahamas. I’ve seen a tiny, little fluffy girl about the size of a slipper (no idea what it was) to a Malamute. Most dogs we meet are used to being off leash and play well with other dogs.

If I could read his mind, I think my dog would tell me he prefers the freedom of the Bahamas to the amount of time he has to spend on a leash a home.

Beach Parties

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment

#sailing Cold weather doesn’t deter a good gathering on the beach.

When cruising, the dingy becomes our car. The shoreline becomes the parking lot. The beach becomes the bar.

Happy Hour is a popular activity, but sometimes there are too many of us to meet on a boat, hence the beach!

Dogs are welcome and can roam free.

But be careful – you might get wet feet getting to your car!

Curious Jasper

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#dogs #sailing How many ways can you entertain your dog while cruising? Jasper came spear fishing with us and used his skills to search for lobster.

The lookie bucket has a bottom made of plexiglass and gives us a great view of the sea bottom. Some of us don’t like to get in the water unless there is something interesting to look at.

The bucket is an essential tool on all cruising boats and is easy to make. Well, I think it was easy because my husband made it. We use it to check our anchor if neither of us wants to swim on it. A good night’s sleep depends on the set of the anchor!

Jasper thinks he’s being a big help, although we’re not sure what he’s actually contributing here except to make us laugh.

Check out DogLeaderMysteries if you like to see photos of dogs. There are some fun one’s every Friday on DogLeaderMysteries.

Guests on a Cruising Catamaran

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

#Sailing  Keeping guests entertained is easy on a catamaran, especially it the guests are adventurous. This was the first time spearfishing for our guests and they loved it. Not only was it an adventure – they brought home dinner. Lucky for us we had an excellent chef visiting too.

Other things to do with your guests . . . beach walking, playing the surf, swimming, kayaking, windsurfing, shell collecting . . .  You get the gist of it.

Happy Spearfishing!

Tides and Cruising

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments
Sand Dollar Beach, Bahamas

#Sailing

This is what happens when we don’t pay attention to the tides.

The tides affect our lives every day on a cruising boat. Our Lagoon 380 draws 4’. It’s a shallow draft that’s great for tucking into anchorages in the Bahamas, but we still need to know what the tides are doing when we anchor.

Anchoring at low tide is great because we always know there will be enough water below our keels. At any other point in the tide cycle we need to make sure the water will be deep enough at low tide. This includes knowing the water within our swing range. A middle of the night squall can swing the boat 180 degrees and there better be enough water. I don’t know why, but squalls always seem to hit in the middle of the night.

Sailing through cuts is another time the tides are important. Wind against current is a bad thing in a narrow cut.

Back to the dingy . . . does my husband actually think he is going somewhere in the beached dingy?

Dogs and Sharks

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments
Nurse Sharks

#dogs #sailing

Dogs can be curious creatures, but sometimes it’s not in their best interest to engage with sea life.

The nurse sharks are keeping a close eye on the fish cleaning that we are doing near by. Jasper, the springer spaniel, is keeping a close eye on the nurse sharks.

If your dog likes to jump off docks, this might be a good time to have him on a leash. Ours are just curious and stay out of the water.

Nurse sharks are gentle creatures, and some of our group actually swam with them. I guarded the dogs, you know . . . just in case they needed guarding.

Cruising and Exercising

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 1 Comment
Stocking Island, Bahamas

#sailing

Keeping fit while cruising is sometimes a challenge. If you’re a runner, you can find beach in the Bahamas that will fill your need to run.

The photo is of my favourite beach on Stocking Island. It’s 2.5 K each way, meaning I can get in a 5K run. (10K if I’m feeling ambitious and the tides are right.)

The tides are a factor when choosing what time to run. Low tide is the best. High tide is a slog. But everyday the beach has a different surface so it’s like getting new workout equipment at the gym.

Ankles and knees can be a concern on the angled slope, but the calves really get a workout.

Typical of this beach, there is no one on it. It is one of my favourite spots in the Bahamas.

The little dot beside us is my wheaten terrier, Farley. He loves an off-leash beach run.

Related articles and other ways to keep fit . . .

Writing or Laundry

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments
Farley hinting it's time to do the laundry

#writing #sailing

Why is it that when something is hard to write, doing the laundry becomes imperative? Since I live on a sailboat, laundry can be an adventure on its own.

I can do the laundry by hand (not my favourite).

I can go to a laundry mat.

I can drop my laundry off at a laundry service.

The last two are harder than you might think. First the laundry has to be bagged and loaded into a dingy. Then I have to drive the dingy to shore (where I am currently anchored this is across a couple of miles of open water).

The next challenge is to carry the laundry across a dock and through town, avoiding the local dogs and fast moving cars that drive on the left side of the street.

Phew! Made it. The drop off is my favourite. Somehow it takes a long time to get the laundry done, but it certainly helps me procrastinate.