The Trip Home

CROSSINGS

Since I last posted, we have completed two crossings--a 40 mile crossing between island chains and the final 50 mile crossing from the tiny cays at the western edge of the Bahamas back to Florida. (Remember--our sailboat only goes an average of 5 mph on a good day). Here are some thoughts about our crossings.

You know it's a rough crossing when

...you feel like you're on a see-saw, operated by an unseen demon who pushes you up and down, back and forth. Then for fun, you are pitched sideways right and left. HOLD ON! This repeats every 60 seconds or so--for 10 hours. To make it extra fun--this happened in the middle of the night.

...the captain puts on a life vest and hooks himself to the life lines just to tuck the main sail back into its cover.

...items seem to JUMP off of shelves and crash on the floor

...the Captain stays up 24+ hours because it's too rough to trust the first mate with the helm

...the Mr Coffee slides across the counter and dumps the fresh pot of coffee into the sink. NO!!!

We ended our trip with some time in the Abaco Islands, starting in Little Harbour. There are luxury beach homes along the coast. We wondered what was at the end of this pathway.

Little Harbour is the home of a foundry and a sculpture gallery of a family of artists who have been here for 60 years. One of the sons operates a popular restaurant called Pete's Pub--where we enjoyed time with friends we met along the way.

Full Moon Party at Pete's Pub with Keith, Lori and Russ.

After several days in Little Harbor, we moved to Hope Town--a lovely village full of shops, rental cottages, and restaurants. It's known for its candy stripe light house that is still operational.

Mardi Gras (foreground) on a mooring ball in Hope Town Harbor

We're back in our marina in Stuart, Florida--packing up the boat, doing laundry, cleaning out the fridge. On our way back to MO, we will stop in Brunswick GA to choose our next marina. We like to explore the coasts. This is my last blog entry for this three month trip, so here are some final thoughts.

Tiny Beautiful Things (title borrowed from the book by Cheryl Strayed):

...a little girl in a laundromat who sat next to me and played games on my iPad. She was most interested in SNOW--what does it feel like? How do you play with it? I showed her pictures of a 10" snowfall at home. She told me about fishing for snapper and grouper right off of the docks and she warned me to never swim at night--because you can't see the SHARKS!

...listening to Norah Jones while eating dinner at sunset with friends.

...turning into a cove and finding an unexpected inland lake with deep water holes that are apple green.

...searching for and finding sea glass on rocky shores

...dolphins in our wake and transparent water over wavy white sand

...the Milky Way threading its way through the constellations

..watching the moon set into a bank of clouds, turning a persimmon orange as it descends to the horizon

...the star Altair--rising and casting a silver beam on the water

..watching sea turtles feeding on grass in the harbor or swimming ahead of me in the reef.

Goodbye until our next trip....