WORDS: Coming to a blog near you!

I think the Captain wants to divorce me now that he realizes that I don't always follow through with what I start...  However, that would require him following through with paperwork and other such detail-oriented nuisances, so I am - thankfully - safely married!  He does, though, keep asking when I am going to post another blog post for all my Dear Readers out there who have no clue what all we've been through the last few months.

So, here I am, updating the blog by promising to update the blog soon!  How's that for an update?!  Pretty lame, I know.

Short-short(!) version:  We ran into frustrating problems throughout our months in the Caribbean that included broken boat parts, running out of money, and storms that kept us in places much longer than we wanted to be there.  We did get to see the Turks & Caicos Islands and spent about a month and half in the Dominican Republic.  We sailed for 11 days to get back to Florida, had more boat part issues, and enjoyed seeing old friends.  We hit our first sandbar, made our first "Mayday" call to the Coast Guard, and hard our first warm shower in two months once we made it to the northern part of Florida.  Now, we are in south Alabama with Rob working on a 110-foot boat and me trying to find a career in Mobile.

I promise to make this much prettier, much more detailed, and an overall better read in the upcoming weeks, Dear Reader!  Also, because my mom kicks so much butt and gave me an AWESOME camera for my birthday, look forward to some beautiful photos from the DR!  They ARE coming... they are!

From Indian Pass, Florida - an unexpected stop.

I do apologize to you all.  No excuses.  Well, except for the excuse that most of you know me and know that I'll get around to it...  Eventually...

Fuses, Sting Rays, Cat People, and Fireworks – What a Day!

Doldrums: When the ocean meets the sky and
you honestly cannot distinguish between the two.

The Captain and I were excited to move on down the Exumas with their promise of abundant sea life and exciting corals, so even with the ever-so-slight breath of wind on the air, we decided to pull up anchor and get under way.  After a tense moment of navigating a coral-lined channel, we hoisted the sails and waited for that exciting moment every sailor loves: when the wind fills the sails and you can feel the boat lean just slightly to the side as free energy starts to push you toward your next destination.  Unfortunately, no matter which way I turned the wheel, no matter how much we asked the Wind Gods, no matter how much we blew into the sails, we weren’t moving.  The doldrums is a common phrase in modern language that originally comes from sailing terminology; it’s that point where your boat is just not going to move because there is not a lick of wind to move you!

Nurse Sharks Aplenty

Borrowed from: marinas.com

The Wednesday after Mother’s Day showed up on the weather websites as our last day of decent wind for at least a week, so we reluctantly left the Island School area to get to our next port of call: Highbourne Cay at the northern part of the Exumas.  We left at the break of dawn and experienced what I see as our most perfect sailing day to date!  The winds were blowing steady at a speed that was high enough to get us where we were heading, but low enough to stay safe (for you sailor-types, we had a good beam reach of 12-16 knot wind all day coming from our port side) and coming from the perfect direction to push us oh-so-gently to our northwestern destination (if only every day could be so easy!).  As we were making yet another sizable jump (32 miles) to enter into an unknown area with sharp rock edges and coral heads around, we were happy to make the journey quickly enough to have us drinking a glass of wine with the anchor down and the sails stowed by 5:00 in the evening!

South Eleuthera - The Bahamas’ First Settlement

After leaving Hatchet Bay, our next stop was in the first settlement of the Bahamas: Governor’s Harbour.  This sleepy little town has almost as many white people as black it would seem due mostly to people who were leaving governments and slavery laws they did not agree with.  The first night there, we stumbled into the elementary school’s variety show because I was beckoned off the boat by the smell of grilling chicken (which was not as good as the jerk chicken found in Jamaica, but still good) and the sounds of large stacks of speakers.  We were entertained by the school kids performing songs, poetry readings, and choreographed dance routines; however, I was more fascinated by all the white faces and blond hair I was seeing than by the kids whose voices were turned up to ear-splitting levels on the sound system.