Monday 31 December 2018

Happy New Year, 2019!


Well – it’s been quite a week! Our lack of refrigeration continues, despite efforts from Jeff and fellow cruisers to remedy the situation. We’re still waiting for our friend, David, to arrive from Florida with the part to be replaced, but he’s been thwarted by consistently strong winds – making the Gulf crossing impossible.

The upside is that we’ve, for the first time in 5 years, had a chance to visit many different beaches in Elizabeth Harbour – each with its own special charm. And we’re meeting dozens of fellow cruisers, who are also prevented from sailing away by the weather.

We started out in Red Shanks – a calm, well-protected harbour about an hour outside of George Town. There we met another couple who became friends, and we spent many lovely hours with them walking the tiny perfect beach, toasting each other at “sundowners” on our two boats, and generally “chillin”. We saw dolphin and sea turtles from our dinghy cruises around the harbour and enjoyed beautiful sunsets from Sea Change, celebrated by the blowing of my conch “horn” (I'm improving daily).

In contrast to the peacefulness of Red Shanks, we then returned to the George Town area for laundry, groceries, water and ice for the fridge, and began a round of beach parties to celebrate Christmas and then New Year. Two separate New Year’s Eve beach parties included fires, drumming and dancing, conch-blowing and lots of good pot-luck food. Last night’s even featured a well-put together ritual to welcome the New Year!

Finally, we continue to make progress with boat issues – all getting resolved (apart from the fridge so far). So we’re ringing in 2019 feeling grateful to be here, determined to “pay forward” the loving kindness of everyone we meet, and wishing our friends and family back home the best of everything life has to offer. Happy New Year!





















  

Wednesday 26 December 2018

A Bahamas Christmas day


Our Christmas day, December 25th, 2018, aboard Sea Change

7:45 – awakened to listen to the sailor’s net at 8:00, with an announcement that the planned Christmas pot-luck should be held on individual large boats, as the beach and picnic table were soaking wet from the morning rain. We used our VHF radio to contact Kate and Alex on their 58 foot catamaran where they were hosting our party, to confirm our planned arrival at 1:00 pm. Then we had French toast and bacon for breakfast and opened a few gifts (a special towel holder from One of a Kind, a music CD, several DVD movies and a lovely angel fish fridge magnet).

9:00 – I made a huge bean salad and a bottle of Bahama Mamas to take to the pot luck, along with the fresh cranberry sauce I made yesterday. Recipe for Bahama Mamas: 1 part of two kinds of rum – coconut and regular, 3 parts mix of orange and pineapple juice, a little grenadine for colour – yum-m.

10-12:30 –hung out, worked on the boat, showered and dressed in our best shorts J.

12:30 – braved huge waves in the dinghy to Sanddollar Beach, where Aquabob was anchored. Celebrated in the company of about 11 other people with an amazing pot luck lunch – including sliced turkey, fresh mahi mahi fish caught by our hosts, fresh-baked foccacia, and tons of wonderful salads. The hosts’ three year old, Alexander, was the hit of the party.

3:30 – back to the boat for tea and a rest. Jeff finished installing a fan for the galley (my hero!), and we ended the day with a bar-b-qued chicken dinner and a movie – Miracle on 34th Street, of course.
It was a beautiful Christmas day. We missed our loved ones – but spoke to everyone Christmas eve day, and all is well in the land of ice and snow.
















Monday 24 December 2018

The Other Side of the Story


For those of you who think that we’re living the dream – here’s the nightmare side of the story. Though we arrived to all main systems on Sea Change dysfunctional, my captain and I were able to restore plumbing, sewage, and refrigeration – at least, temporarily (everything’s temporary on a boat).
But now, we have a tiny but smelly leak in the sewage system, the VHF radio is functioning intermittently, the hand-held radio is dead, and the refrigeration is kaput, after we smelled a burning odour coming from its motor, and turned it off completely. So we’re in the process of cooking all the fresh meat in the freezer until we can get some ice later today. A friend is bringing us a part for the fridge from Florida – but not for a week or two.

Meanwhile the weather has turned mean, predicted to last until next weekend – cloudy, rainy, too windy – rough waves even in the harbour. We’re going to try to get back to George Town and beat the rain to get ice before everything closes up until Dec. 27th.

But it’s New Year’s Eve day, and our 34th anniversary, and tomorrow is Christmas – so we’re planning to celebrate despite it all – with warmish champagne and lobster tails for dinner tonight, and a pot-luck lunch on the beach tomorrow. It’s still better in the Bahamas 😎 – though we’re definitely tested on this theory at times! Happy holidays to all of you, whatever you’re celebrating, and best wishes for a healthy happy New Year!










Friday 21 December 2018

A New Adventure Begins!


It’s been 6 days since we left Toronto – with a smooth flight in first class, no less! That’s all Aeroplan had available, so we reluctantly accepted it J. That put us first in line at customs, and a good thing, too, as they made us unpack all of our three huge duffel bags and a box – boat stuff is always suspicious, for some reason.

For the past four days we’ve been cleaning the boat from stem to stern (lots of mold this year) and repairing the toilet, the water pump and the fridge – none of which were working upon our arrival. A friend helped with the fridge by applying a piece of tin foil to the disintegrating fuse holder – to be replaced soon!

Finally, on the day before yesterday, sporting many sand flea bites from the windless hurricane hole, we slipped our mooring at about 2:00 pm, and motored over to our favourite bar on Stocking Island for a celebratory beer and Pina Colada. We couldn’t miss a visit with the sting rays who hang around the conch hut waiting for handouts – one startled me by rubbing against my leg from behind like a cat! Then we ordered fresh conch salads to go for dinner, dinghied back to Sea Change, motored across the Bay to be sheltered from the predicted strong winds, and after three attempts at anchoring in very shallow water, settled in to watch our first gorgeous Bahamas sunset of the season, with dinner on deck.

Yesterday we motored into the Exuma Yacht Club and took a slip on the dock to top up our water and provision for the next few days. A Santa Claus visit and great bar-b-que dinner at Club Peace and Plenty ended our day in style, under the Winter solstice full moon (today).

It looks like we’ll be here in Georgetown for Christmas – with an invitation to a pot-luck lunch on the beach on Christmas day. Meanwhile, still lots to do before we set sail for points North!













Sunday 4 March 2018

All Good Things Must Come to an End


It’s hard to believe that 2.5 months have gone by since we launched Sea Change in Titusville, Florida. It’s been quite a trip!

The last two days in George Town have been recuperation time, and an opportunity to enjoy the sailing regatta which began two days before our arrival here. We reconnected with friends from The Land and Sea Park – Georgie, Larry and their 22-year-old daughter Alysha on Cabernet – here on Exuma for the first time.

Yesterday, I attended the variety show, which attracts talent from both the sailing and the local community – amazingly good performances (especially the locals!). I tried my hand in a conch-blowing contest – didn’t win but felt good about the effort. The winner blew his conch for 38 seconds – that’s a lot of hot air!!

Today, I took the Cabernet crew on their first hike up Monument Hill, and down to the dramatic crashing waves on the ocean beach below. There we had a picnic lunch, sheltered from the howling wind by huge rock formations. It's always fun to show people around what feels like our other home. Jeff chose to stay aboard and rest.

A visit to “Chat and Chill” on Stocking Island for their weekly pig roast on the beach ended the day today. Tomorrow we begin to close up the boat for another year – so this will likely be my last post for this trip. It’s been quite a ride – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these posts as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Until next year …