I hate to write this. I don’t want to admit that it’s really over! But we have received a surprising number of emails asking us why we haven’t posted. Thank you, to everyone who emailed. We never knew so many people were following along. Finding out makes it all the harder to stop!
Reason #1. Money.
We were making money while we were cruising, and still able to save a little each year, but we weren't able to put enough away for retirement. LeeAnn and I were worried that if we kept on cruising we would wake up 60 years old with little money and less teeth. So the plan is to go home and get “grown up” jobs. We’ve survived on about $25,000 a year (combined income). So we figure if we get make $50,000 a year, we can save half. In 10 years we should have a lot saved up.
Reason #2. Boat.
We had a great boat - we loved it, fixed it up, and sailed it thousands of miles. There were times I was scared for my life, but it kept us safe and never let us down once. It was our home. However, for long term sailing, we need a boat that can hold more people.... like... uhhh, kids... :)
Reason #3. Babies
We’re comfortable taking on the ocean alone, but when it comes to having babies, we want our parents nearby.
So! Our plan is to spend a few years at home.... like 10. Save up a little money for the future, buy a new boat, have some babies.
Jul 2, 2009
Jun 21, 2009
7 FAQs about Living On A Sailboat
1. How much would you have saved if you used solar panels instead of running a generator every day?
Our boat did not come with a propane stove. Buying a propane stove and everything that it would take to install one (special locker, special hoses, solenoid,) is at least $1,000. Then installing solar would cost at least $1,000. And if we were going to depend completely on solar, we would need a larger battery bank, maybe $200. So a total of $2,200 and that’s a super conservative estimate.
Our generator on the other hand cost $800, and our toaster oven about $80, for a total of $880. To this day, we have not spent $1,000 dollars on gas for the generator. It can run for 8 hours on a single gallon of gas and we use it 2-3 hours a day.
Total cost for solar: $2,200
Total Cost for Generator: $1,880
In the long run, solar and propane really are cheaper. But we low budget, short-term cruisers. Most of our actual cruising is only a few months at a time. The rest of our time is spent at a dock working and saving money. While we are at the dock we just plug the boat in to shore power.
If we were going to go cruising non-stop for 5 years straight, It would make sense to install propane and solar. On my next boat I hope to use that setup.
Using a generator works really well for us. It’s really quiet. At night we turn it on to cook dinner, then leave it on if we decide to watch a movie.
I can’t recommend the Honda EU 2000i highly enough. We’ve had ours since 2005. It’s spent most of it’s life outside. We’ve used it A LOT and I am pretty bad at routine maintenance. It starts up every time, almost always on the first pull. I would buy one again without hesitation. It is definitely worth the price.
*Update Summer 2016:
11 years old and the generator still works GREAT. We spent a month sailing and depended on the generator a lot.
It still runs great, and cosmetically has held up really well. There are some grooves in the plastic around the pull start rope. But really those are my fault for not starting it from the proper angle.
The eco-throttle is also broken. Considering this generator has spent so much of it’s life getting wet, and being in the generally humid boating environment, I forgive the switch for failing. Fortunately the switch died with the eco-throttle “on” so the generator runs on it’s lowest setting power.
The only problem with this is that when you go to use something the draws a lot of power, the generator goes from 0 to 60 and will stall if it hasn’t had enough time to warm up. When this happened in the past I just turned off the eco-throttle so the generator would rev up. Now that the switch it broken, I have to turn on something that will rev up the generator slightly, then turn on whatever is drawing high power. And immediately turn off whatever else I had on to rev the generator up, otherwise it will flip the generators circuit breaker. This is rarely a problem.
2. How did you learn to sail?
I purchased a book from Barnes & Noble that explained the basics. It was actually called “Sailing: The Basics.”
Then I got a small sailboat from my uncle, went down to the lake, and figured it out by trial and error. A month later I bought a 31 foot sailboat and (with some help) sailed it home, 200 miles, from Northern Lake Michigan. I was 19.
Many sailors will try to make you believe that sailing and cruising is harder than it really is. Do not let them scare you. Sailing is easy. Just use your head. Always make sure you have enough room to float, and check the weather before leaving port.
3. Was it difficult finding jobs while cruising?
When we needed to work, we would stop and get normal jobs. This was part of the adventure. When we are cruising we pass through a lot of places very quickly. Very often all we see is the grocery store and laundromat. Honestly the traveling part of cruising kinda sucks.
When you stop to get a job, you make friends you would have otherwise never met. You see parts of the city, and get to enjoy things other cruisers don't. I loved living and working in Charleston. I didn't want to leave.
When cruising we have cleaned boat bottoms for extra cash. I've also done boat deliveries. It’s not steady income.
4. Are there costs involved with going through the locks?
Yes. Most locks charge a fee. The Panama Canal has a fee. The Erie Canal normally has a fee, but for a few years (including when we went though) it was free.
5. What type of paperwork is required to go cruising?
You need a passport. The boat doesn’t technically need anything. Normally boats are registered to the state, but if you are traveling, which state would you register to? You can document the boat federally with the coast guard, but there is no requirement to do so.
6. Were you able to keep frozen meats?
Every boat has a different refrigeration situation. Theoretically, we could freeze meat by turning our entire fridge into a freezer. That means frozen vegetables, frozen deli meat, frozen cheese, etc. So for the most part we only had fresh meat.
We would like to have a freezer for our next boat, but keep in mind, having a freezer means higher demand for electricity. That means a larger battery bank and running the generator longer to charge it. Or if we have solar panels we might have to add an extra panel, just to account for the freezer. Well worth it if we have the budget.
7. How can you afford to go sailing at such a young age?
Starting really young gave us a major advantage. We both still lived with our parents, so we could save most of our income. Neither of us had any debt.
Once we moved onto the boat, we didn’t have the typical land-based expenses. No cable, wifi, gas, or electric bill. We've always got jobs near the marinas where we lived and we road bikes to get to them, so that means we have no car payments, fuel, maintenance, or insurance to worry about.
Riding your bike to work is a great way to get exercise, and to de-stress from a hard day at work. Riding your bike in the rain is a great way to get in touch with your inner child! No adult in their right mind would go riding in the rain, or splash through puddles, but I’ve had a good excuse and a blast doing it. If you ever want to have some fun, ride your bike in the rain.
A lot of people told us, “Go Now” So we went. We didn’t worry about having the best boat, or the newest gadget. We figured out what we needed to get to the boat South. Then we looked at what we needed to get to the Bahamas. I thought about what sailors needed to go sailing 50 or 60 years ago. Figure out the bare minimums you need to go sailing now... and then go. It's that simple.
Our boat did not come with a propane stove. Buying a propane stove and everything that it would take to install one (special locker, special hoses, solenoid,) is at least $1,000. Then installing solar would cost at least $1,000. And if we were going to depend completely on solar, we would need a larger battery bank, maybe $200. So a total of $2,200 and that’s a super conservative estimate.
Our generator on the other hand cost $800, and our toaster oven about $80, for a total of $880. To this day, we have not spent $1,000 dollars on gas for the generator. It can run for 8 hours on a single gallon of gas and we use it 2-3 hours a day.
Total cost for solar: $2,200
Total Cost for Generator: $1,880
In the long run, solar and propane really are cheaper. But we low budget, short-term cruisers. Most of our actual cruising is only a few months at a time. The rest of our time is spent at a dock working and saving money. While we are at the dock we just plug the boat in to shore power.
If we were going to go cruising non-stop for 5 years straight, It would make sense to install propane and solar. On my next boat I hope to use that setup.
Using a generator works really well for us. It’s really quiet. At night we turn it on to cook dinner, then leave it on if we decide to watch a movie.
I can’t recommend the Honda EU 2000i highly enough. We’ve had ours since 2005. It’s spent most of it’s life outside. We’ve used it A LOT and I am pretty bad at routine maintenance. It starts up every time, almost always on the first pull. I would buy one again without hesitation. It is definitely worth the price.
*Update Summer 2016:
11 years old and the generator still works GREAT. We spent a month sailing and depended on the generator a lot.
It still runs great, and cosmetically has held up really well. There are some grooves in the plastic around the pull start rope. But really those are my fault for not starting it from the proper angle.
The eco-throttle is also broken. Considering this generator has spent so much of it’s life getting wet, and being in the generally humid boating environment, I forgive the switch for failing. Fortunately the switch died with the eco-throttle “on” so the generator runs on it’s lowest setting power.
The only problem with this is that when you go to use something the draws a lot of power, the generator goes from 0 to 60 and will stall if it hasn’t had enough time to warm up. When this happened in the past I just turned off the eco-throttle so the generator would rev up. Now that the switch it broken, I have to turn on something that will rev up the generator slightly, then turn on whatever is drawing high power. And immediately turn off whatever else I had on to rev the generator up, otherwise it will flip the generators circuit breaker. This is rarely a problem.
2. How did you learn to sail?
I purchased a book from Barnes & Noble that explained the basics. It was actually called “Sailing: The Basics.”
Then I got a small sailboat from my uncle, went down to the lake, and figured it out by trial and error. A month later I bought a 31 foot sailboat and (with some help) sailed it home, 200 miles, from Northern Lake Michigan. I was 19.
Many sailors will try to make you believe that sailing and cruising is harder than it really is. Do not let them scare you. Sailing is easy. Just use your head. Always make sure you have enough room to float, and check the weather before leaving port.
3. Was it difficult finding jobs while cruising?
When we needed to work, we would stop and get normal jobs. This was part of the adventure. When we are cruising we pass through a lot of places very quickly. Very often all we see is the grocery store and laundromat. Honestly the traveling part of cruising kinda sucks.
When you stop to get a job, you make friends you would have otherwise never met. You see parts of the city, and get to enjoy things other cruisers don't. I loved living and working in Charleston. I didn't want to leave.
When cruising we have cleaned boat bottoms for extra cash. I've also done boat deliveries. It’s not steady income.
4. Are there costs involved with going through the locks?
Yes. Most locks charge a fee. The Panama Canal has a fee. The Erie Canal normally has a fee, but for a few years (including when we went though) it was free.
5. What type of paperwork is required to go cruising?
You need a passport. The boat doesn’t technically need anything. Normally boats are registered to the state, but if you are traveling, which state would you register to? You can document the boat federally with the coast guard, but there is no requirement to do so.
6. Were you able to keep frozen meats?
Every boat has a different refrigeration situation. Theoretically, we could freeze meat by turning our entire fridge into a freezer. That means frozen vegetables, frozen deli meat, frozen cheese, etc. So for the most part we only had fresh meat.
We would like to have a freezer for our next boat, but keep in mind, having a freezer means higher demand for electricity. That means a larger battery bank and running the generator longer to charge it. Or if we have solar panels we might have to add an extra panel, just to account for the freezer. Well worth it if we have the budget.
7. How can you afford to go sailing at such a young age?
Starting really young gave us a major advantage. We both still lived with our parents, so we could save most of our income. Neither of us had any debt.
Once we moved onto the boat, we didn’t have the typical land-based expenses. No cable, wifi, gas, or electric bill. We've always got jobs near the marinas where we lived and we road bikes to get to them, so that means we have no car payments, fuel, maintenance, or insurance to worry about.
Riding your bike to work is a great way to get exercise, and to de-stress from a hard day at work. Riding your bike in the rain is a great way to get in touch with your inner child! No adult in their right mind would go riding in the rain, or splash through puddles, but I’ve had a good excuse and a blast doing it. If you ever want to have some fun, ride your bike in the rain.
A lot of people told us, “Go Now” So we went. We didn’t worry about having the best boat, or the newest gadget. We figured out what we needed to get to the boat South. Then we looked at what we needed to get to the Bahamas. I thought about what sailors needed to go sailing 50 or 60 years ago. Figure out the bare minimums you need to go sailing now... and then go. It's that simple.
Jun 10, 2009
The Reality of Sailing
Some people say to us “when you are going to coming back to reality?” My cruising friend, Gary, sent me the following passage in response to the question:
Those who see sailing as an escape from reality have got their
understanding of both sailing and reality completely backwards.
Sailing is not an escape, but a return to and a confrontation of a reality
from which modern civilization is itself an escape.
For centuries, humans suffered from the reality of an earth that was too dark or too hot or too cold for his comfort, and to escape this we invented complex systems of lighting, heating and air conditioning. Sailing returns us to the realities of dark and heat and cold.
Modern civilization has found radio, TV, movies, nightclubs and a huge variety of mechanized entertainment to titillate our senses and help us escape from the apparent boredom of the earth and the sun and wind and stars.
Sailing returns to these ancient realities.
-Robert Prisig
Those who see sailing as an escape from reality have got their
understanding of both sailing and reality completely backwards.
Sailing is not an escape, but a return to and a confrontation of a reality
from which modern civilization is itself an escape.
For centuries, humans suffered from the reality of an earth that was too dark or too hot or too cold for his comfort, and to escape this we invented complex systems of lighting, heating and air conditioning. Sailing returns us to the realities of dark and heat and cold.
Modern civilization has found radio, TV, movies, nightclubs and a huge variety of mechanized entertainment to titillate our senses and help us escape from the apparent boredom of the earth and the sun and wind and stars.
Sailing returns to these ancient realities.
-Robert Prisig
May 7, 2009
Manatees in St. Augustine, Florida
We were working on the boat today and it was incredibly hot. I turned on the hose to get my hair wet, and suddenly a huge mass surfaced out of the water. I started yelling to LeeAnn "Come out! Come out there are manatees!!”
It turns out manatees really really like freshwater. Apparently it’s a mystery why manatees like freshwater so much. But they swim up freshwater rivers, and hang out around fresh underwater springs.
They would suck the hose into their mouths and drink off it like a bottle.
There were 5 total, including one baby.
The manatees stuck around for over an hour while we fed them water. Then we stopped giving them water and they still wouldn't leave!
It turns out manatees really really like freshwater. Apparently it’s a mystery why manatees like freshwater so much. But they swim up freshwater rivers, and hang out around fresh underwater springs. They would suck the hose into their mouths and drink off it like a bottle.
There were 5 total, including one baby.
The manatees stuck around for over an hour while we fed them water. Then we stopped giving them water and they still wouldn't leave!
May 5, 2009
A Cat On A Sailboat
This is Sushi.
Sushi is a cool cat.
Sushi was born in New York State, but has traveled to three countries and eight different states.
Sushi has sailed about fifteen hundred miles.
She would get seasick when she was a kitten, but seems to have grown out of it these days.
The boat is a big playground. She has ventured onto the dock a few times, but for the most part stays on the boat like a good cat.
Sushi likes dinghy rides.
Sushi is very interested in the water, she loves to watch it and paw at it, but like the stereotypical cat, she hates to be submerged in it! She doesn't like seafood, but dolphins are an endeless fascination to her.
Mostly she is just a lazy cat.
As far as dealing with the boat and the water, we got her when she was only a few months old... so she really doesn't know anything different. She is curious about the water She likes to go out in the rain. She likes to sit our on deck.
Sushi is a cool cat.
Sushi was born in New York State, but has traveled to three countries and eight different states.
Sushi has sailed about fifteen hundred miles.
She would get seasick when she was a kitten, but seems to have grown out of it these days.
The boat is a big playground. She has ventured onto the dock a few times, but for the most part stays on the boat like a good cat.
Sushi likes dinghy rides.
Sushi is very interested in the water, she loves to watch it and paw at it, but like the stereotypical cat, she hates to be submerged in it! She doesn't like seafood, but dolphins are an endeless fascination to her.
Mostly she is just a lazy cat.
As far as dealing with the boat and the water, we got her when she was only a few months old... so she really doesn't know anything different. She is curious about the water She likes to go out in the rain. She likes to sit our on deck.
Apr 29, 2009
Fire in the boat!!
We’re on our way out of the Bahamas. We can count our time left in days. Very few days. I’ve been almost numb to it. Maybe sleep walking would be an appropriate description. I suppose it is one of those things you would rather just not think about.
Apr 28, 2009
Sailing to Hope Town and Guana Cay
 |
| The lighthouse at Hope Town. |
We only stayed a day or two in Hope Town. Just long enough to climb to the top of the light house. While in Hope Town we met a cool girl named Ashley. She is a little quirky, but very genuine and nice. If you’ve ever read Harry Potter you can imagine Ashley as Luna Lovegood. I mean that as a compliment. Luna is awesome, and so is Ashley.
We struck up a friendship right away. She is one of the very few people we have met who in the Bahamas who is even remotely close to our own age. We made plans for all of us to sail to Guana Cay for the pig roast at a bar called “Nippers”.
Nippers is everything you would expect from a cliché 80’s movie with a setting in the Caribbean. A big outside deck bar with about 3 different levels. The tallest level being a big gazebo where the really sleazy guys can go to get a look down the shirts of the girls walking below.
Everything is painted pastel colors. There are two pools on different levels that are connected by a flight waterfall stairs. There are brightly colored umbrellas everywhere that were made out of the same plastic material used to make pom poms for high school cheerleaders. Women walk around in high hipped neon bikinis, again straight out of the 80’s. All the men are shirtless, as well as brainless, but they have big muscles so that must count for something.
We struck up a friendship right away. She is one of the very few people we have met who in the Bahamas who is even remotely close to our own age. We made plans for all of us to sail to Guana Cay for the pig roast at a bar called “Nippers”.
Nippers is everything you would expect from a cliché 80’s movie with a setting in the Caribbean. A big outside deck bar with about 3 different levels. The tallest level being a big gazebo where the really sleazy guys can go to get a look down the shirts of the girls walking below.
Everything is painted pastel colors. There are two pools on different levels that are connected by a flight waterfall stairs. There are brightly colored umbrellas everywhere that were made out of the same plastic material used to make pom poms for high school cheerleaders. Women walk around in high hipped neon bikinis, again straight out of the 80’s. All the men are shirtless, as well as brainless, but they have big muscles so that must count for something.
Men out numbered women by 10 to 1... I must admit I felt like a rock star walking in with two women! I was behind the girls as we came up the boardwalk and I watched all the heads turn. The guys don’t even try to hide it, and I even hear one them yell to a friend and point!
We dance, and have a good time. Then left for another bar where the party quickly died and everyone left. I felt lucky to have made it through the night with out getting attacked by a drunken buffoon on a testosterone high.
The sun went down incredibly fast, and before I knew it the sky was black. We went back to Lee or Ashley’s boat and played guitars and sang songs until late in the night.
We dance, and have a good time. Then left for another bar where the party quickly died and everyone left. I felt lucky to have made it through the night with out getting attacked by a drunken buffoon on a testosterone high.The sun went down incredibly fast, and before I knew it the sky was black. We went back to Lee or Ashley’s boat and played guitars and sang songs until late in the night.
 |
| Lee teaching LeeAnn how to preform reconstructive surgery on our main sail. |
Apr 18, 2009
Sailing to Eleuthera, Alice Town, Hatchet Bay Caves
We left the Exumas and sailed to Rock Sound in Eleuthera. Stayed one night and then left for Alice Town to catch up with Lee.
The sail to Alice Town was really rough. Very large, very steep waves. Too big for the autopilot so I steered by hand the whole way. I was really impressed with how we handled the conditions. Being in waves this large in 2007 would have terrified us. We’ve come a long way.
We entrance to Alice Town/Hatchet Bay is really narrow, and very tall. As we approached the waypoint for the entrance, I couldn’t see any gap in the rock cliff. We had strong winds and large following seas, and I started to get really nervous. Closer and closer, but no gap.
I started thinking about back up plans. Where else we could go. Then finally I saw a gap. The waves rocked us far over from side to side. We felt nervous that the mast was going to hit the rock cliff. But really it wasn’t as close as it looked.
Once through the cut, the weather was completely different. We were protected from both the wind and the waves behind the high rock cliff. It was a beautiful day.
We rafted up to Lee, met his friend/crew who had flown in to help sail his boat. Then we set about cleaning up our boat. A lot of things had fallen during out bumpy ride from Rock Sound. We told Lee and Trey how rough it was outside. They found it hard to believe. It was so calm in the anchorage.
Lee told us about some caves he wanted to visit. Sounded cool. We didn’t really know where they were. Eleuthera is really narrow, so we really only had to options when in comes to directions to travel in.
We walked and walked, and then came to this two track with a broken down sign. We walked down the two track and then found a hole in the ground, with some steps carved out of the rock. There was nothing really official about it.
These caves were totally awesome. Like nothing we’d ever seen before. The caves have at least two exits with over a mile of twisting passages that span at least three levels. The lowest level is full of water, deep mud, pits, fragile formations, and low passages which barely clear the surface of the water which rises and falls with the tides.
There is no way I would get in that water. Who know what kind of creepy sea monster is lurking down there. In fact, the water is home to several tiny sea creatures which are found nowhere else on earth. Including the ostracods Danielopolina bahamensis and Deeveya jillae, the copepods Speleoithona eleutherensis, and Troglocyclops janstocki. There were also hundreds of bats.
We took our time walking through the cave. Taking pictures. Carefully exploring little offshoots. And then we came to the other entrance where we climbed out and walked back home.
Bats!
The sail to Alice Town was really rough. Very large, very steep waves. Too big for the autopilot so I steered by hand the whole way. I was really impressed with how we handled the conditions. Being in waves this large in 2007 would have terrified us. We’ve come a long way.
We entrance to Alice Town/Hatchet Bay is really narrow, and very tall. As we approached the waypoint for the entrance, I couldn’t see any gap in the rock cliff. We had strong winds and large following seas, and I started to get really nervous. Closer and closer, but no gap.
I started thinking about back up plans. Where else we could go. Then finally I saw a gap. The waves rocked us far over from side to side. We felt nervous that the mast was going to hit the rock cliff. But really it wasn’t as close as it looked.
Once through the cut, the weather was completely different. We were protected from both the wind and the waves behind the high rock cliff. It was a beautiful day.
We rafted up to Lee, met his friend/crew who had flown in to help sail his boat. Then we set about cleaning up our boat. A lot of things had fallen during out bumpy ride from Rock Sound. We told Lee and Trey how rough it was outside. They found it hard to believe. It was so calm in the anchorage.
Lee told us about some caves he wanted to visit. Sounded cool. We didn’t really know where they were. Eleuthera is really narrow, so we really only had to options when in comes to directions to travel in.
We walked and walked, and then came to this two track with a broken down sign. We walked down the two track and then found a hole in the ground, with some steps carved out of the rock. There was nothing really official about it.
These caves were totally awesome. Like nothing we’d ever seen before. The caves have at least two exits with over a mile of twisting passages that span at least three levels. The lowest level is full of water, deep mud, pits, fragile formations, and low passages which barely clear the surface of the water which rises and falls with the tides.
There is no way I would get in that water. Who know what kind of creepy sea monster is lurking down there. In fact, the water is home to several tiny sea creatures which are found nowhere else on earth. Including the ostracods Danielopolina bahamensis and Deeveya jillae, the copepods Speleoithona eleutherensis, and Troglocyclops janstocki. There were also hundreds of bats.
We took our time walking through the cave. Taking pictures. Carefully exploring little offshoots. And then we came to the other entrance where we climbed out and walked back home.
Bats!
Apr 11, 2009
Apr 6, 2009
Sailing to the Jumentos
The Jumentos - Almost completely uninhabited, there is only one little
settlement which is located less than 100 miles from Cuba. These islands
are considered remote even by Bahamian standards and few cruisers visit
the Jumentos chain. The spear fishing and lobstering are pretty
amazing, the primary drawback is that the Jumentos are shark breeding
grounds.
Beach fire with our buddies from Miakoda and Side by Side
Trigger fish for dinner!!
White cliffs on Water Cay:
My monster Nassau Grouper:
To get to the Jumentos, we first had to make it through Hog Cay Cut. The tricky part about that is the cut only carries 0.9 meters (a bit less than 3 feet) at low tide. Our boat needs a little over 5 feet to float. The tides here usually fluctuate about 2.5 feet. So we had ½ a foot of wiggle room, assuming we didn’t find any rocks or mounds of sand that measured over .5 feet.
My monster Nassau Grouper:
We arrived at the cut about 20 minutes before high tide. The weather was perfect. Sunny, and hardly any wind. There were hundreds of coral fans and fish in the cut. We also saw a school of about 6 stingrays. I watched the numbers on the depth sounder drop and drop and drop until they finally bottomed out at 5.4 feet. That was as low as it got, and we made it through with no issues.
From Hog Cay we had a great sail down to Water Cay. Mental rolling waves, just the right amount of wind, warm sun, one of those days that most people would generally consider “perfect.”
Water cay is very long and narrow. Most of the island is made up of shear white cliffs. All very beautiful. We had a few sharks (the Jumentos are also know for the large number of sharks that come to breed in the shallow water) and barracudas swimming around the boats waiting for us to throw in some food.
The next morning we got up early to get the best of the last day of lobster season. We got skunked, only found 1! We settled for fresh fish and one lobster tail that day. As luck would have it, we later found all sorts of monster lobsters at the Cays further south that we traveled to… but it didn’t bother us too much that we couldn’t spear them. Our friends from Side by Side had been in the Jumentos for a while and had gathered up enough lobsters to share.
In general, the Jumentos were amazing. Beautiful untouched reefs, secluded beaches (wink wink), unbelievably clear water, tons of fish to be had for dinner…. I could go on and on. Despite all of this, we found it very hard to get comfortable.
Things were perfect. Too perfect. It was like that book “The Beach” (later made into a bad movie, read the book) where the island starts out as a paradise and ends up as a nightmare. LeeAnn and I both felt this way, but we told ourselves: “that’s childish and silly, let’s just relax, what could go wrong?”
We spent the next few days traveling south, and enjoying ourselves. We settled into a nice little routine. I would get up in the morning around 8:30 and read for a while. Around 11:00 AM we would go diving for dinner. Come back around 4:00 and clean our catch. Dinner around was 5:00 or 6:00. Everyone would eat together. And that’s how it was pretty much everyday. The girls had their own routine. Swimming an exploring the islands. Combing the beach for shells. That kind of stuff.
One of the things we disliked about the Jumentos was the lack of protected anchorages. There just aren’t any. Fortunately the weather patterns in the Bahamas are fairly predictable and we knew the wind would continue coming out of the East until a cold front passed though. Cold fronts bring several days of strong winds from the north. We definitely didn’t want to get caught in the Jumentos during a cold front.
Ocean swells constantly rolled through. Typically hitting us broadside making the boat extremely rocky and uncomfortable at anchor.
Then there was the lack of fresh water. Both of the catamarans we were traveling with had water makers and said they would give us water to drink, but it just didn’t feel good being dependent on someone like that.
I also had a slight concern about the potential danger of being in such a remote area. We were in “yachts” and we would be extremely easy targets. We saw some local conch fishermen once, and we would sometimes see high speed boats during the day. It was clear they weren’t cruisers. It was not clear if these boats were from Duncan Town, a very small settlement at the very end of the Jumentos Chain, or if they were boats coming from the next island to the south: Cuba.
We probably had nothing to worry about. But I still thought twice about turning on our anchor light at night.
One night I had a vivid nightmare about a freak storm coming out of no where and washing our boat up on the rocks. I normally don’t have dreams. I certainly don’t believe they foretell the future or anything, but the next morning LeeAnn and I decided to head north.
We got a lazy start and only made it about 20 miles up the Jumentos chain before we stopped for the night. There was hardly any wind, and I was really excited for a good nights rest. I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
We got up early the next day and made it to Hog Cay Cut. It was a very good feeling when we made it through the cut. I felt like a kid who had just gotten away with something. I breathed a sigh of relief.
An island to ourselves:
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