August 25th marked our six month wedding anniversary. We are now an old married couple 🙂 It’s hard for us to believe that it has only been six months. Sure we spend a lot of time together, but I think it has more to do with the fact that we have come so far in those six months – physically and emotionally. A lot of people ask what it is we do all day living on a sailboat. Some days are more eventful than others but Sunday the 25th was a memorable one so I’ll use it as an example.
High up that is. Cat Island in the central Bahamas is home to the highest point of all the Bahamian islands – a whopping 206 feet!!! Challenge accepted. Logan and I threw up the sails and set a course to explore another island last Thursday. The 40 mile sail across the Exuma Sound was packed with firsts for us as sailors.
Logan, Stella Blue, Princess Ding-a-ling and I are still calling Georgetown, Bahamas home these days. So much for this being a two week stop – we have been here since June 29th! We found ourselves in a tricky situation where we wanted to leave to head south/east as soon as the weather cooperated, but we had to buy plane tickets to head back to the states for a few days to attend a memorial service for Logan’s grandpa at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. One morning we just decided to bite the bullet and fly out of Georgetown (of course a weather window presented itself as soon as we made that commitment!). We just got back home yesterday and have once again set our sights on the weather. Now that August has arrived, we are really in the meat of hurricane season – the majority of the storms develop in August and September. Since we feel that this is a secure place to be if a major storm hits, we won’t leave until we can make the passage all the way to the Domincan Republic. There aren’t any secure “hurricane holes” between here and there, so we will be cautious and patient even though we are both feeling the urge to pick up anchor and get back into the unknown. In the meantime, we have been adventuring around – here are a few of the highlights:
We’ve settled comfortably into life here in Georgetown. It’s a wonderful place abound with supplies, beautiful water and beaches, and great people (both the locals and the cruisers). Since we arrived a week ago we have, as usual, done A LOT. Sunday night I woke up about three in the morning with NASCAR brain. I couldn’t slow her down so I put together The List — a boat project to do list.
WE MADE IT! We started hearing about the cruisers’ mecca of Georgetown when we were back in Marathon, FL. We finally arrived yesterday and it doesn’t disappoint.
Wow – I can’t believe it has been 3 weeks since our last post. Time flies when you are off adventuring 🙂
We got back to Nassau a couple days ago after vacationing with my family in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for 2 weeks. It was 2 weeks of wedding festivities, exploring volcanic islands, rum punch, queasy ferry rides, fresh produce shopping, and family love.
The Exumas is a chain of islands in the Bahamas – it’s about 130 miles long and consists of 360 islands or cays. Some are inhabited, some not, but ALL of them make up a giant playground for cruisers. For our two week trip, we decided to head south to Staniel Cay and island hop our way back up to Nassau. Our trip included stops at: Rose Island, Allen’s Cay, Hawksbill Cay, Staniel Cay, Compass Cay, Warderick Wells Cay and Highbourne Cay.
Since our last post in Bimini we have done a ton. We left early early Tuesday morning from Bimini en route for Bird Cay. We had 90 miles to go and we weren’t gonna get much help from the wind. It was a very long uneventful sail. At the end of it we arrived at Bird Cay dropped the hook, ate some dinner, played some Phase 10, and laid down for a looong deep deep sleep.
Logan and I woke up in Bimini, The Bahamas. We did it. We got off our old friend, mooring ball O1 and headed northeast to paradise Saturday morning.
Logan and Gillian in the Cockpit
Last week we had a rap on the hull. I came out and said hello and met our new friend Josh Knox on S/V Kuhela. Josh is a young Australian guy who flew over in February to buy a boat and take it back home. He came over to us because he couldn’t believe his eyes when he entered Boot Key Harbor and saw SB’s memorable blue grey hull. He had been in contact with Baxter and Molly to buy Stella Blue at the same time we were! Josh is on a 3-5 year trip back to Australia in his Downeaster 38. This is his first boat too and we have been able to regale each other with tales (read mistakes) of our first two months of boat ownership. Hopefully we’ll run into him again some time in the future…it really is a small world as we’ve found out.