May 3-17

Intermission is over.  The lights are blinking.  Please return to your seats for the last act…

Welcome back to the conwaysailors.com blog!  We hope you missed reading our stories.  I missed writing about our adventures, but couldn’t spare the time in our last few weeks on the boat.  We didn’t want to miss a second of the end of our voyage.  And alas, life on land with three small children doesn’t leave a bevy of time for sentimental thoughts…  But after two months back on the hard, I am ready to dive back in.  I have enjoyed knowing that, at least on the web, our Patronus was bobbing happily in the Bahamas and not tied up on the Hudson River.

There are a lot more stories to be told.  We have all of the Bahamas, our trip back to the United States, and 6 more weeks of sailing in the Northeast before our narrative must come to an end.  And, well, I’ll probably keep pontificating after that as well, just to let you know what it’s like to return from such a voyage.  And when we get to that point, I will start writing my book.  When I was just a little girl, I had this feeling that I would write a book someday.  All my life, I have wondered when I would have something to write about.  I finally have my answer and hope to bring our story to others in a unique and inspiring way.  (Plus, I already have a few people who have promised to buy a copy!)

But let’s return to the Bahamas for awhile, shall we?  It’s so lovely there.  Close your eyes and remember our time on Conception Island: the long, crescent beach, untouched by “civilization”.  There are no people here, no buildings, no sign of human life, except for the debris washed up from passing ships.  The water is crystal clear.  In 15 feet of water, you can see the anchor, the shells, and the pretty swirls on the sand from sea creatures crawling along the bottom.  The adults are sitting in the cockpit, enjoying the day.  The children are gliding by in the sailing dinghy.  And the days seem to last forever.  But: dun, dun, dunnnnn!  Bad weather is on the horizon and we must leave this paradise.  Bryson and I dinghy to the beach one last time to gather some sand for our collection and we raise our anchor at 0945…

It is still hard to remember that we had to leave Conception Island before we were ready.  Shortening a stay due to weather had happened only rarely on our trip so far, but this one would haunt me for months.  Conception Island was very special and I longed for more of it.  But this was not the place to be in a storm.  It was safer to be in the Exumas than in remote Conception Island.

 “The ideal cruise requires a good yacht, pleasant company, and a strange coast with plenty of islands and rocks.”  Humphrey Barton, Westward Crossing, Vertue XXXV

Over the next few weeks, Patronus and Anything Goes visited the following ports in the beautiful Exumas, a north-south island chain that lies in the center of the Bahamas:        

• Georgetown, Great Exuma Island
• Rat Cay
• Lee Stocking Island
• Great Iguana Island/Black Rock Settlement
• Staniel Cay
• Compass Cay
• Cambridge Cay
• Warderick Wells

The Exumas really FELT like the Bahamas to us.  The islands are close together, we used eyesight navigation to avoid the reefs and shallow spots, and the perfect white beaches went on and on.  We snorkeled, hiked, swam, fished, and explored to our hearts’ content.  Looking back on the log book, it is impossible to believe that we were in the Exumas for only 13 days.  And by the time you are done looking at all the pictures we took there, you won’t believe it either!

 

May 3-6, Georgetown, Great Exuma Island

Our sad little souls were cheered up a bit on the trip from Conception Island to Georgetown.  First, Kate came along with us and Bryson sailed with Anything Goes, giving Craig a needed dose of testosterone on his girl-filled boat!  (It worked!  They caught more fish!) Kate and Reese laid in the cockpit, arms and legs entangled as they read books, played imagination games, and munched on snacks.  At 1030, we caught a 40” mahi mahi, which certainly cheered Chris up a bunch! (When he and Craig weren’t competing to see how fast their boats could go, they were in a perpetual fishing tournament!)

The entrance to Georgetown required a bit of eyesight navigation, so I stood on the bow for more than an hour, enjoying the nine thousand shades of blue and staring at a house on the shore as we got closer and closer.  I’m not sure why it caught my eye, but I couldn’t wait to get closer.  When we passed it, I realized that it reminded me of home, of New England architecture.  It was a nostalgic moment.  I tried to hold on to it, and put it in my pocket as another thing I could look forward to when our voyage was forced to come to a close.

We found a snug place to stop, by the Moss Cays, and lowered the anchor.  Rumble, rumble, stop!  Hmmm.  It’s not that deep here, is it?  Our depth sounder has the fantastic attribute of crapping out once we get to 7 feet.  You know.  Exactly when we need it to work.  When I dove on the anchor to check on things, I had to take this picture.  We are about an inch above the ground!

Our first day in Georgetown was fun.  A boat named Skylark dinghied over to Anything Goes and gave them fresh swordfish!  The couple had just caught it and it was way too much for them to eat, so they shared it.  That’s the type of thing that makes the boating community feel so safe and welcoming.  Everyone is out for the good of each other.  Seeing others happy truly adds to one’s own happiness.  Wouldn’t it be something if that approach were taken everywhere?

We had heard about the strong boating community in Georgetown and were eager to listen to the Cruiser’s Net to check it out.  The Cruiser’s Net is a daily broadcast on the VHF radio.  It is run by a volunteer (apparently a very coveted job, and a source for some local politics).  The program runs about 20 minutes and allows announcements from fellow cruisers on topics such as Weather, Arrivals and Departures, Social Gatherings, Buying/Selling, and other announcements of interest to boaters.  It is run efficiently with a very definite protocol (almost militant, with not much room for error).  My heart was racing when I hailed the operator to announce the arrival of Patronus to the area.  Phew!  Apparently I spoke at the right time because I didn’t get chastised like some of the other poor sailors.  We listened to announcements for carpooling to the airport, yoga on the beach, and heard that there would be a cultural talk at the Chat n’ Chill Bar after the Sunday barbecue.  Hmm….  This all sounded kind of interesting.  Like our own Julie McCoy broadcasting on channel 72 every morning!

We dinghied into town to check out the scene.  We went to the “supermarket”, which was called Shoprite (our local supermarket in NJ is called Shoprite.  That is where the similarities ended).  We also checked out the straw market and found the laundry.  The straw market is a small, covered building with vendors set up inside.  The women basket makers are a unique and amazing group.

Working with straw has been passed down from generation to generation in the Bahamas and goes back to the original settlers from the colonies.  It was amazing to watch their fingers fly as they “braided” seven or more strands of straw into a “plait”, which would later be used to create mats, baskets, and more.  This artwork is physically demanding on the back, neck, hands, and eyes.  We met a young girl who was running the family booth for her grandmother.  I asked her if she was learning straw-work, but she said she had respiratory problems from the bits and pieces of dust that flew off the straw and had to stop.  I hadn’t thought of that.

Georgetown was the biggest “town” we had visited in a while.  It was a two street show, but had a number of shops that catered to the boating crowd.  Georgetown is at the southern end of the Exumas.  For cruisers sailing south, it is a gathering place for mustering up the courage to sail to the Caribbean.  Between the beauty of the Bahamas and the daunting passage south, many sailors choose to just stay put in Georgetown, enjoying the company of fellow boaters and sometimes letting their anchor lie until it is time to head back north for hurricane season.  We got to Georgetown from the south, so no big passage lay before us.  We enjoyed our time there, but we knew that the best of the Exumas lay ahead.

That night, we had tuna.  Again.  We loved to joke about eating fish over and over.  It never got old.  We all loved the tuna, mahi mahi, cero, and wahoo that we had been catching.  It was fresh as could be and felt so clean and healthy and light in our bodies.  We sat with Wendy and Craig on Anything Goes while the kids played on Patronus.  We finally had a chance to plan the rest of our time in the Bahamas, poring over charts and guidebooks (Wendy and I voted to take a quick sail by Johnny Depp’s private island, but were overruled.  The boys suggested sailing miles out of the way and leaving at ridiculously early hours in order to fish.  They were also overruled).  And then a nearby boat expressed interest in buying Anything Goes, so the first real conversations about returning home scared us into pouring more rum…

My Bahamas resolutions were to swim and meditate every day.  So far, so good.  The sharks hadn’t stopped me, and neither was the silence of meditation.  I swam in the beautiful water each day and felt gratitude for the ability to jump into the ocean from my back steps.  At night, I ended each day listening to a guided meditation by Deepak Chopra (https://chopracentermeditation.com/).  I slept better and the days seemed golden and sparkly.

Our final day in Georgetown was one of those days that was especially golden and sparkly.  We had pancakes for breakfast and listened to the Cruiser’s Net.  After a second listen, I decided that we were way too adventurous and independent to be pulled into the safety of the Georgetown community.  It sounded wonderful for the right type of sailor, but we are movers and shakers.  Our goal was to see and do and explore.  To meet new people, try new things, and see the world.  Even three days in one place was starting to feel too long.  But perhaps we were just becoming conscious of the fact that it was May.  And Hurricane Season was fast approaching.

 

 

After breakfast, we took the dinghies to the pretty, crescent-shaped Sand Dollar Beach, and had a lovely walk.  The kids dug up sand dollars with their toes. Porter and Olivia seemed like wild children, running with driftwood “spears” and climbing on rocks.  The other girls walked shoulder to shoulder, giggling and splashing in the surf.  Wendy and I took it all in.  I remember pausing to notice how taking six children to the beach was so easy.  We had all just jumped into our dinghies and zoomed off.  Wendy and I were old pros at anchoring the dinghies just beyond the breaking waves.  I was aware of the unique qualities that she and I share.  We were living an extraordinary life, and we were finding the courage, ability, and positive attitude to meet the challenges that arose from it.  As mothers, we were finding the ability to be fiercely protective of our children while allowing them the independence to find their own way and have FUN!

 

Around a bend in the beach, we found another mother.  She was just as fiercely protective of her child.  She was a beautifully colored crab and she held her baby in her claws as gently as you can with, well, claws.  I can’t remember why or how we nudged her with a flip flop (it is possibly maybe sort of kind of having to do with getting a picture, but I’m sure we wouldn’t have done anything like that just to get a photo!), but somehow she and her baby got separated.  Wendy and I started flipping out, yelling and pointing to the baby.  As if the crab was looking up at us for directions.  We finally got them back together and the mom looked PISSED.  We snuck away, promising to be kinder to wildlife in the future, and knowing full well that we would have the same primitive, gut-level reaction if anyone tried to separate us from our children.

After a bit more fun on the beach, we zoomed over to the Chat n’ Chill for their Sunday barbecue and listened to the cultural talk, which was excellent.  The gentleman who spoke discussed the role of folktales in Bahamian culture.  He read several folk tales to the children and spoke eloquently about Bahamian history. 

Afterwards, we met a lovely couple from Montana.  They hadn’t yet made it down to the Caribbean so we exchanged stories and they promised to check out our website when they were ready to take the leap down south.  The kids then ran off to play volleyball, swing from trees, swim in the water, and hang out in a tree house with some of the local children.  Once again, I was feeling grateful for the opportunity to allow our children to be in situations where they could gain confidence in walking up to other kids and introducing themselves, despite the fact that they come from different worlds, speak almost a different language, live very different lives, and even look very different.

 

That night was a rare movie night.  The adults watched Big Fish on AG and the kids watched Aquamarine on Patronus.  It was a lovely way to end a bustling day in the Exumas.

 

 

The entire Exuma chain lies ahead, so stay tuned for our very short stay at Rat Cay and our even shorter stay on Lee Stocking Island.  Thank you so very much for coming back to visit with us!  I am grateful for your continued support.  While you are waiting for the next post, remember this:  We all have….