4/21/15 Tuesday I have thought about recording my thoughts and experiences several times on this trip but have been doing other things that took my time. Then the thought would hit me "who really cares about taking the time to read this anyway?" Well at this point, it's about me. I need to keep a timeline journal of what is going on and to help me mentally process my emotions. So I am going to go back and hit on the dates and major events of the past 2 ½ weeks (probably without a lot of emotions expressed but I've had them):
• April 3rd Friday Left St. Petersburg, Florida after close to 3 years there. Loved living there, great city with lots of things to do and friends to hang out with, hence no kitty savings account. Thanks to Deb and Tim for taking us to Munch's, my favorite restaurant for David's favorite ribs. We left with so many big things done on the boat but so many little things still to be done. (If we would have waited for it all to be done we would have still been sitting there). We made it to Sarasota Bay and dropped the anchor, busted out the folding chairs and toasted our first night with champagne, again thanks to Deb and Tim.






• April 4-5 Went to Long Boat Key Club Marina for 2 nights. It was wonderful to spend some time and say goodbye to David's family. Barbara designed a boat logo and had shirts and hats made for us. It was such a surprise to see the family dressed in them on the back of the boat. What a great going away gift! We went to a cookout at Roy and Dorothy's with Carol and Bob there, along with John's family. Sunday was Easter buffet where I put on the feed bag and had a dozen oysters on the half shell and tons of other delicious foods.



• April 6-9 John joined us on the boat for the trip to the Bahamas. We left Sarasota and sailed all night. During the day David usually is at the helm and we take turns taking a nap. At night we started our 3 hour watch routine (I had 9-12 midnight, David did 12-3 and I was back on 3-6). Below is what I wrote on a day watch on April 7:
Hobby Horsing through the water is a core workout. The pelvis slides from underneath your trunk as you lunge forward, backward, sideways and circular. Heel angle mounted on the bulkhead in cockpit is 5-15 degrees. Shadows pitch, roll and yawl as well. Noises of creaking mainsheet attached to the boom and water crashing against the boat and over the bow. Wind is 20 mph apparent and 13 true and moving through the water at 5-7 knots. I'm sitting in the cockpit behind the wheel with an inflatable life jacket, hat with a lid latch, prescription glasses with a granny neck strap, shorts and a tie dyed shirt. I am semi nauseous. On my scale of 1-10, I'm a 4 but I was a 7 at one point earlier in the night AND YET the sun is shining, the water is a teal blue and glistening down the path of the sunshine. The sky is variegated with light blue on the edges and gets to a medium blue straight overhead. The sun is warm on the body. Air is refreshing with the infrequent sniff of diesel fuel. Even the motor droning noise is still peaceful at 1700 rpms. What is my prominent thought? Gratitude to God for the experience. I am alive, alert and bombarded with the input from all the senses (forgot to include the occasional sips of water). I have so much to be thankful for-health, family, friends, this boat and on it goes. But I only have ONE for which to be thankful-God. Thank you God from whom all blessing flow. Like the words of Andre Crouch song, "I just want to thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord!"
The original plan was to head to Marathon across Florida Bay, however the weather was not cooperating so we went to Key West instead (not a bad place to end up after an overnight trip). We celebrated John's birthday, collected boat parts and fishing lures then walked around the town for a couple days. (At this point, you should be asking why boat parts and fishing lures? Well that is because it is a boat and things break AND fish take our lures). The weather was still not cooperating with a passage to the Bahamas and John's plane reservation back from there was an issue. He decided to pass on the boat trip and made arrangements to drive back. We hugged him goodbye and decided to leave the marina for an anchorage. Leaving that marina was very scary with a wide boat in tight quarters in big winds but David did it without hitting anything.





• April 10-12 We left for Bimini on an overnight trip and crossed the Gulf Stream. Still issues with the wind direction so motored with the main sail out most of the time. We were doing our first international venture in our boat after 3 ½ years of getting her ready! Exciting stuff and hundreds of flying fish to boot. We went to Weech's Marina and David cleared into Customs. I had to stay on the boat since only the "Captain" can leave the boat to do so. $300 later and he hoisted the Bahama flag making us legal. Some friends from St Petersburg, Wendy and Doug and other friends from Sarasota, David and his son, David (too many Davids in one spot) had arrived on their respective boats. After some socializing with them and exploring Bimini, it was time to plan the next leg of the journey.



• April 13-16 Our good friends, Ric and Sherry, had left St. Petersburg in mid-February and were in the Berry Islands so that was the destination. Another overnight sail with another lost fishing lure and more boat projects. We ended up at Bird Cay anchorage, our first "international anchorage!" I was driving the boat while David deployed the anchor, which worked pretty well. It was awesome to get back together with our friends, as they had been our marina mates for the past year and planned cruising partners to parts unknown. They coined the phrase "sync your stink" since showers are not an everyday occurrence on a boat. By this time, they had perfected the art of collecting, cleaning and preparing conch in various culinary ways. They took us "conching" and shared the meal with us. What a sense of satisfaction to be able to sustain yourself on food from the ocean (no fish yet though).

• April 17-19 Goodbye Berry Islands, hello New Providence. First night, we anchored at Rose Island-very rolly night with little sleep. We went conching again and this time I did the cooking. We are pros at it now! We snorkeled on a reef with beautiful fish several feet away. Moved to a marina for 2 nights and took care of some business to find a laundromat and buy more boat parts, fishing lures and groceries. We did sightseeing of Nassau. David practiced his skills of driving on the left side of the road.


• April 20-21 It was Sherry's birthday (OK, she is 49 and the youngest of us), so she picked out the next destination of Eleuthera. David cooked her a cake and I fixed a taco dinner (I can only make it for 2 weeks without Mexican food). We are anchored at Current Town. We found Wi-Fi connection at the small town's small library.


OK so I made it to present day and I have 3 points to make. Overall these last two weeks have felt like a busy vacation. After 30 years as an Occupational Therapist and now considering myself to be "semi-retired", it is an adjustment of time management. David actually removed my wrist watch but after 2 days and a sunburned strip on my left forearm, I found it and put it back on. Just that was emotional!
Second thing is the money--not enough of it is the only problem. This is a great boat with a lot of great stuff on it but several things have broken. David has done some of the repairs but other things like a staysail furler and radar dome are still financial obstacles to be tackled. David and I take turns on lamenting about the nonexistent "budget" with the possibility of me returning to work sooner than the projected September timeframe--like next week timeframe!
The third and most important is the relational issue. I am with this man 24/7 now! (I just had to stop and laugh because that just slipped right out onto the screen and probably should have remained as an inside thought). He is in his element here-sailing, navigating, fixing things- and I am a bit out of mine. I have never referred to myself as a "sailor." I am on a learning curve with all this. I have coined the term "The only difference between 'kissy' and 'pissy' is 4 letters" (of the alphabet-get it?-l,m,n,o- or love, hate or other 4 letter words you can imagine). The reason I have coined this phrase is it is a very short distance for me right now between the 2 words. I can be my sweet southern self or I can be my unsweet southern self! Earlier I told you writing this out was for my benefit and it has been beneficial for my psyche to sit still for the last 3 hours. Time for bed now with a new destination on the horizon. Goodnight.

April 22-29 Eleuthera, my favorite group of islands so far. We went from Current Island to Royal Island to Spanish Wells. There we stopped long enough for things to stop feeling like a vacation and start feeling like "day to day life." Spanish Wells was my favorite stop with everyone being so friendly. Enroute, I caught me my first fish-a barracuda that we released since they are not suggested to be eaten for fear of ciguatera. We are now at Harbor Island. Yesterday we rented a golf cart to tour the island and I got photos of the "world famous pink sand beaches." We ate these great conch salads prepared as we watched.





April 30 I have spent AAALLLLL day doing this blog. It has been a huge learning curve to get my thoughts and photos in here. A Marriage Counselor was needed at times. It helped when David said "I'm no an expert at this and I don't know anymore than you do about how to do this!" (I always think he is an expert in everything). Well I'm pleased with it overall. Sorry about the longness of a monthly post. Will not let that happen again to you or me. Stay tuned for May.