5 Weeks In

It’s crazy we’ve been living the sailing life for over 5 weeks already. Since crossing into the Bahamas we’ve had a great time. I think we’ve evolved to not feeling a marina is necessary when strong winds are coming, we have done pretty well finding harbors and safe spots.

We had two nights that were tough, both times we anchored in gorgeous spots but in the middle of the night winds hit and the boat got close rocks so we had to pull up anchor and move at dark. Not so fun when there’s screaming and stress!! Marinas get very expensive but are nice when we need water or need to do laundry.

Speaking of laundry 🤨, we’ve tried doing it in a bucket with a plunger but the clothes still have a musty odor. We spent $50 for a Bahamian to do three loads of laundry in Governors Harbour. We had someone do it in Bimini for only $6 a load. Even at marinas it’s around $5 to wash and another $5 to dry your own laundry. Our broker showed me a washer she’s had clients happy with for around $500, you wash then line dry the clothes outside. I think we will look into getting one when we get to Puerto Rico. Once we arrive there we will also stock up on provisions at Costco, they have three there!

We bought way to many frozen vegetables and random frozen things. Our compressor for our freezer went out this morning so we either have to get a new one or convert ours to 12 volt. That was quite a blow as we spent a few thousand dollars getting it worked on before we left. We bought a dometic freezer off Facebook market place in Fort Lauderdale that is saving our meat and a few other necessities (cheese). When we stock up again it’ll be on lots of cartons of milk, cereals, and a few things the kids can cook themselves. I didn’t want pizza, ramen, etc. on the boat but cooking a full meal and cleaning up 3-4 times a day is getting old. Derek and I are the only ones that wash the dishes because we are afraid the kids will use to much water and we will run out. They each do a chore everyday but Sunday and we pay them $1 a day. I try to do a deep clean Sunday on some part of the boat, we’ve still got lots of things to get settled.

The kids are doing ok with their school. Jaggers is pretty hard and requires Derek and I to help him, doing school this way is preparing him for college being thats it’s so independent. Each biology lesson has a lab, unlike in a classroom at school he has to find all the pieces of the project, put it together then do the lab and report on it by himself and not with a group! It’s a lot more than he is use to. Jett and Julia are doing math and reading a lot. There is lots of complaining and arguing during school and it gets stressful. I think it’s definitely the hardest part of sailing.

So far we’ve been to Bimini, the Berry Islands (the best fishing we’ve had!), Spanish Wells, Harbour Island, Governors Harbour. We visited the Iguanas at Allan Cay this morning and are making 8 knots with our jib heading towards Norman Cay. The wind is blowing 25 knots, I’m ready for it to lay!

My mom, sister and mother in law come see us in Georgetown the 23rd, we are looking forward to seeing them!