wallaceleris-blog

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Statistics

We traveled 7,000 nm.

The trip was 312 days long.

We spent 34 nights at sea on passages.

We spent 73 nights in marinas.

205 nights were spent at anchor or moorings.

We made 6,800 gallons of fresh water.

We visited 18 countries/territories.

We crossed the Gulf Stream 6 times.

Best 24hr run - 206 nm

Worst 24hr run - 55 nm

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Epilogue - tattoos

To commemorate our trip, Jack and I designed a tattoo.  Apparently, in the British Navy, for every 5,000 nm sailed, sailors would get a barn swallow tattooed.  It is also a sign of the hope that a sailor will return to their home safely, and a symbol of love, loyalty, and family.  We sailed around 7,000 nm, so the tattoo design is a barn swallow, outlined by the shape of the path we traveled.  We got them done by Benji, an artist at a studio in Norwalk.  We convinced Mom and Dad to get them as well!  Dad and Jack got them on their shoulder blades, Mom and I got them on our ribs.

Dad’s completed tattoo, with Benji (you can spot me and Jack in the mirror).

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Staten Island to Home (7/20 - 7/22)

Early that same morning, Nana Helen and Poppy Joe picked up Jack and me.  We ate donuts as we drove to Staten Island.  We stopped at Ann Marie’s house to pick her up, and then we all went to meet up with Mom and Dad.  We took the launch out to show Ann Marie the boat, then we all went to shore to have lunch.  We had lunch at an Italian restaurant on the water, wandered around the island, (seeing all the damage from Hurricane Sandy).  Then Ann Marie showed us her yacht club.  

Richmond County Yacht Club, recovering from Sandy (with Nana and Ann Marie).

We went back to the boat, had some snack and drinks, and then Nana, Poppy, and Ann Marie went back to shore.  There was a beautiful sunset that night.

Sunset in Great Kills Harbor

The next morning, we left Great Kills Harbor, passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and entered New York Harbor.  The previous day, Dad had confirmed the proper way to time transiting the East River with various locals, so we had a schedule to keep that ensured we had favorable current for the whole journey!  

Approaching Manhattan.

While sight-seeing at the Statue of Liberty, the Staten Island Ferry had crept up right behind us.  It honked at us to clear the way.  

Sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty!

Then we crossed under Brooklyn Bridge and made our way up the East River.  It was really cool to see the city from the water.

Crossing under the Brooklyn Bridge.

When rounding the corner at Hell Gate, we almost got run over by an oil barge, that was taking up nearly the entire width of the river, all the while going nearly 12 kts over the ground, due to the strong current.

Insane current in the East River.

Next, we motored by Rikers Island, trying to figure out where Poppy Joe used to live - more specifically, which coves were home to his “Creature of the Black Lagoon” stories from his childhood.

Eventually, we passed under the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges, past SUNY Maritime, where we took our Safety at Sea course prior to embarking on this journey.

We finally passed Execution Rock and returned back to the body of water where we began our adventure, nearly one year prior - the Long Island Sound.

We sailed to Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, in Oyster Bay, and picked up a mooring for the night.  Mom made tacos, and we had one last overnight on the boat as the four of us.

The next morning we headed back to Southport Harbor.  It was blowing hard out of the east with large chop.  Ironically, it was one of the roughest legs of our entire journey.  In classic fashion, we forgot to tell our family what time we were returning to Southport Harbor, so we just went back to our mooring and luckily Auntie Wendy was able to come pick us up.  

Returning to Southport Harbor.

And just like that, we had finally come full circle!

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Annapolis to Staten Island (7/18 - 7/20)

Once we got word that the engine was fixed, Mom and Dad drove the rental car back down to Annapolis.  When they got there, they couldn’t find the boat.  IT had been moved to a new slip - next to another Bavaria!  Dad’s college friend, Luke Wimer, joined them one night for pizza and beer on the boat.  

Pizza and beer with Luke.

The next day they prepared the boat so the two of them could sail it alone from Annapolis to Staten Island.  They provisioned, filled the water and fuel tanks, and left the dock in the early afternoon.  They had intended to leave earlier, but once they cast off the lines, they discovered that the new slip was too narrow for the boat.  The hull got wedged in with the fenders and they couldn’t back it out.  Once they solved that issue, they were on their way up the Chesapeake Bay towards the C&D (Chesapeake and Delaware) Canal.  

Maneuvering around a large cargo ship in the Chesapeake.

At the end of their first day, after confirming with local fishermen that it was okay to stay there overnight, they anchored in Veazey Cove off the Elk River.  The next morning, they continued on their way through the C&D Canal, and exited into the Delaware River, heading towards Cape May, NJ.  

Staying overnight at Veazey Cove.

On the Delaware River.

Crazy current in the Delaware River.

They gave the shipping lanes and Avalon Shoal off Cape May a very wide berth as they headed into the Atlantic and up the coast of New Jersey, towards Staten Island.  Mom and Dad took turns sailing through the night, and entered New York Harbor in the early morning.  They picked up a mooring in Great Kills Harbor in Staten Island, thanks to Nana Helen’s cousin, Ann Marie.  

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Transitioning...

We arrived back home on Thursday June 22nd, and were lucky to get to have dinner with almost our entire family that night.  We also got to see Belmont again for the first time since we left!

The last few weeks have been a little hectic.  The man who rented our house while we were gone had yet to move out, so when we came back to Fairfield we had to live in our aunt and uncle’s house.

After two years of moving and packing (from Larbert Road to Alma Drive to the boat), we’ve gotten really efficient.  As soon our renter moved out we started cleaning and unpacking, and within two or three days we were practically moved back into our house.  

Some of our furniture and belongings are still spread out between various relatives’ houses, our house in Vermont, and the boat, but besides a few odds and ends we are basically settled in again.

Mom and Dad took another trip back to Annapolis last week to meet up with the mechanic, Dick Vosbury.  He took the engine apart to fix the cylinders, and in doing so he discovered that we also had a broken camshaft.

The engine should be fixed by this coming Wednesday, when the fuel injectors arrive.  At some point after that we will drive back to Annapolis for the last time and bring Celeris back to Pequot Harbor.

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Annapolis (6/18 - 6/22)

Although we were all a little upset that we hadn’t gotten to see any other US cities (we were hoping to be able to visit St. Augustine, Savannah, and Charleston), if we hadn’t had engine troubles we never would have gone up the Chesapeake, and we all really enjoyed our time in Annapolis.

We got to Burt Jabin’s really late on the 18th, so we all slept in and rested the next day.  That evening we met up with James Murphy (a family friend who is a midshipman at the Naval Academy) at a restaurant in downtown Annapolis.  After dinner he gave Jack a tour of the campus.

The following day we all slept in again.  That evening we had cocktails with David and Susan, a couple who lived on the boat that was tied to the dock opposite ours.  After cocktails we got a pizza delivered to the boat and watched a movie (Jack and I love shore power...).

By Wednesday we still hadn’t heard back from the mechanic, so Dad and Jack got a rental car and we started packing bags to go home.  I had already missed a week of work, Jack had junior sailing starting the following Monday, and Dad had to work as well, so we couldn’t wait around for the mechanic anymore.

However, just as we were about to start putting stuff in the car the mechanic called.  He said he could come the following morning.  We put the packing on hold, hopped in the rental car, and went into Annapolis for dinner.

The next morning the mechanic came, determined that we had blown the head gasket which was why there was no compression in two of the four cylinders.

When he was done inspecting the engine we packed up the car and drove back home!

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How we ended up in Annapolis

When Chad, the mechanic from Man-O-War, told us that nobody in the Bahamas would be able to fix our engine for us, Dad immediately turned to Google.

Google had saved us when our engine broke back in April, and it did it again.  He found a whole bunch of mechanics who worked out of marinas on rivers all over the east coast.  However, without an engine going up a river wasn’t a possibility.  Dad had gone through the Chesapeake before, when he did the Annapolis-Newport Race a few years ago, so he felt comfortable sailing up there.  That narrowed down our options a bit.

He made a list of Volvo mechanics in the Chesapeake, and decided to call a shop that was founded in the same year that he was born (he needed some sort of reason to pick one mechanic over another...).

That mechanic said that he couldn’t help us, so he recommended that we get in touch with Dick Vosbury (another mechanic who had made Dad’s list).  So essentially our decision to go to Annapolis was based equal parts on arbitrary decisions and on logic.

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Man-O-War to Annapolis (6/12 - 6/18)

The trip from Man-O-War to Annapolis was so long. For the duration of the trip we were sailing either downwind or on a broad reach, so we weren’t going all that fast. We did, however, finally figure out how best to set up the spinnaker gear and how to set up the whisker pole.

Using the whisker pole to sail wing-on-wing.

For the first few days the wind was light, so we were only averaging about 1 or 2 kts of boat speed. We were only making about 60 miles each day, which was frustrating.

Towards the middle of the week the wind picked up.  We had about 20 kts of wind; when it filled in we all got really excited.  We looked at the chart plotter to check our speed over the ground, expecting to find ourselves going 6 or 7 kts.  We were only going 3 kts.  Apparently, we had sailed into a really strong countercurrent on the edge of the Gulf Stream.  That was almost more frustrating than going slowly due to the lack of wind, because we were still going incredibly slow but with the wind and waves we couldn’t use the autopilot anymore.

Luckily we were only in that countercurrent for about 20 hours, and after exiting it we entered the Gulf Stream and got a huge boost of speed due to the favorable current; we were going 12 kts over the ground.

For the entire passage there were scattered squalls and thunderstorms, which were difficult to dodge since we had no engine.  Most of them didn’t have much wind, but there was always tons of lighting (which, when you are a 70 ft tall metal pole all alone in the ocean, is not a good thing).  Every time we saw lightning we would put all of our laptops, phones, the radio, and the satellite phone in the oven (a makeshift Faraday cage) so that if we did get struck and lost our instruments we could still navigate using a phone.  It was pretty stressful, especially at night.  In the dark the lighting just reflected off of all of the clouds, making it hard to tell where the storm really was and whether or not it would hit us.

Storing all of our electronics in the oven.

We went through one pretty rough squall/thunderstorm while sailing through the Bermuda Triangle.  It was around 2 am, and the wind picked up to 40 kts.  As we were quickly shortening the sails the wind shifted and made the main flog, which ripped the preventer on the boom.  That was the worst we encountered during the passage, which is pretty good, considering that it was the Bermuda Triangle.

The last few days were really, really rolly, which was not enjoyable.  We could barely walk around down below without falling over.  At that point we were also starting to get really sick of the passage, so the rolling was even more unpleasant (although Dad will say otherwise…apparently he loved every minute of it).

On the night of the 17th we were finally close enough to shore to get cellular data and to see the lights of the US mainland.  We crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at around 1:30 am, just as a 400 ft container ship was overtaking us (it probably passed within 50 yds to our port side).

Father’s Day marked the last day of the passage.  At 11:30 pm we had made it to Annapolis.  Sea Tow came out and met us at the entrance of Back Creek and towed us up the river to Bert Jabin’s Boat Yard.  We tied up to a service dock, and I don’t think any of us had ever appreciated being connected to land more than we did at that moment.  After a week in the ocean, sleeping a full night in our own beds on a still boat was luxurious.

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Man-O-War Cay (5/29 - 6/12)

Upon arriving we temporarily anchored between Marsh Harbor and Man-O-War Cay so that we could eat something and rest.  Then Dad got in touch with the mechanic.  Luckily he was able to come the following morning.

He works on Man-O-War Cay, so at around 4pm we pulled up the anchor, set the jib, and slowly meandered over between Dickies Cay and Man-O-War Cay so that we would be ready for him early the next day.  We are getting really good at anchoring without an engine!

The following morning Chad came to look at the engine and discovered that two of the fuel injectors didn’t seem to be working.  While he took them back to his shop to soak them we went into town.

Man-O-War Harbor.

Man-O-War is a really cute island.  The small concrete roads are only wide enough for golf carts to drive on, and all of the little clapboard houses are painted pastel colors.  We walked down the main street and checked out some of the local shops. Then Chad called.

We met him back at the boat to test the fuel injectors, but unfortunately they still didn’t work.  He said he’d give them to a friend who is a mechanic in Marsh Harbor.  After he left we went back into town to get dinner at Dock and Dine, a small restaurant on the Man-O-War Marina’s dock.

Dinner at Dock and Dine.

The following day we got bad news from Chad’s friend; he said the fuel injectors were shot.  While we waited to hear back from him about acquiring new ones we walked around town and went back to Dock and Dine for lunch.

That evening we got even more awful news; Chris Parker (our weather router) said that we wouldn’t have a safe weather window to get back to the US for at least two weeks.

The next morning Chad came to look at the engine again.  He switched the fuel injectors around and deteremined that it wasn’t the fuel injectors, but the injector pump that was broken.

Before Chad left he towed our boat downwind to a more protected anchorage, where the Riellys (from Allegro) had just anchored.  We went over to their boat after dinner that evening to have cocktails and tell them about our issues.

Chad giving us a tow.

A few days later Chad came over to tow us into the harbor.  He had a spot for us on the docks at Edwin’s Boatyard.  As if all of his help wasn’t enough, he also invited us over to his house to have conch with his family.  Jack and I were hanging out with the Reillys, so only Mom and Dad went. They met most of his extended family as well as his wife and kids.  They tried conch ceviche, and Chad’s daughter even got Mom to eat the pistol (which is just a fancy term for a conch’s penis).  We were all so grateful for Chad’s help and hospitality.

After picking up their German friend, Simone (who’s my age), from Marsh Harbor, the Reillys moved their boat to a mooring in the harbor.  Jack and I spent a lot of time with the Reillys.  We’d go to the beach, play soccer, go swimming, get ice cream, explore the island, and stay up late watching movies and talking.  Having them around made being stuck in Man-O-War much more fun.

Mom and Dad spent the days making plans for our return home, shopping at the little market up the hill, relaxing (as much as they could given the circumstances) and reading.

One day the Reillys offered to take us to Marsh Harbor to go grocery shopping (since Allegro has a functioning engine).  We dinghied over to their boat that morning and motored across the Sea of Abaco.  We anchored a ways off shore so that they could make water while we went shopping, and then took a long dinghy ride into the harbor.

We walked around town, went to the supermarket, found a restaurant to get takeout sandwiches for lunch, and then ate on the dinghy dock while we waited for a ride back to Allegro. Then we went back to Man-O-War. It was a fun day, and it was really nice of the Reillys to let us join them.

Weather-wise every day in Man-O-War was pretty much the same.  The mornings would be drizzly and cloudy, it was unbearably hot and humid during the day with pop-up thunderstorms, and at night there would be pretty violent thunderstorms.

On Friday the 9th the Riellys left to explore the rest of the Abacos with Simone.  We spent the 10th on the boat, but on the 11th it was finally sunny, so Jack and I went to the beach. We went back to the boat for lunch, and then walked back with Mom and Dad to have one final beach day before leaving the tropics for good.  

Our last tropical beach day.

On the 12th Chad towed us out of the harbor, and then we started on our sail to Annapolis, Maryland.

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Eleuthera to the Abacos (5/28 - 5/29)

We managed to pull up the anchor by towing the boat with the dinghy (you never want to pull the full weight of the boat forward using the windlass).  I steered, Mom controlled the jib, Jack controlled the windlass, and Dad drove the dinghy.  As Dad pulled the boat forward with the dinghy, Jack pulled in the slack on the anchor chain.  Once the anchor was up Mom unfurled and trimmed the jib and I bore off onto port tack. Then Dad had to chase us down in the dinghy (we couldn’t stop and risk getting stuck in irons, because we would have drifted downwind and crashed into Allegro).

The winds were very light and we had to sail downwind to get to the Abacos, so we didn’t go very fast. We put up our gennaker for the first time since leaving the Long Island Sound (it’s always been too windy to use it), and even with that up and the full main we only averaged 3.5 kts.  

Using the gennaker for the first time!

If our motor was working it would have only taken us 10 hours to get there.  Instead we slowly sailed through the night and made it there 24 hours later.

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Spanish Wells, Eleuthera (5/24 - 5/28)

As we motor-sailed to Eleuthera we ate the coconut bread that Mrs. Reilly had baked us for breakfast (they have a machete on board, so she made it with coconut that Conrad, Dan, and Zach had found on the beach).  On the way there we had to navigate around some coral heads, but they were fairly easy to see (dark purple spots in the otherwise turquoise water), so we didn’t need anyone on the bow.

Sailing to Eleuthera.

Just after lunchtime the engine started making really strange noises.  It was losing power, vibrating, and smoking at lower rpms, so we shut it off and sailed the rest of the way there.  Luckily it was fairly windy (12 – 15 kts), so we made it there before sunset.

Since we couldn’t use our engine, we weren’t able to safely navigate the coral near Spanish Wells. We anchored nearby just off of Lobster Cay.  Dad suspected that there was something caught on the prop, so as soon as the anchor had caught he hopped in the water to take a look; there was nothing there.  He got out and inspected everything on the engine: he checked the motor mounts, the bolts in the propeller shaft, and he changed the fuel filters.  Since all of that was fine he suspected that we got bad gas at Lyford Cay and the fuel filters overflowed.

We spent three days anchored off of Lobster Cay.  Dad and Jack dinghied to Spanish Wells to buy groceries as well as to some of the nearby flats so that Jack could go fly fishing.  Mom and I stayed on the boat and read, a lot.

On the 27th we saw the Reillys motoring by to head to Spanish Wells, so we hailed them on the radio.  They anchored next to us.  Shortly after they anchored a huge thunderstorm blew through.  While Dad was looking at the horizon he noticed a greyish, hazy, bowl-shaped cloud forming.  It turned into a huge waterspout that started coming directly towards us.  It didn’t get very windy, but it was pouring and we had no engine to allow us to get out of the path of the waterspout.  Thankfully it disintegrated before hitting us.

While we were anchored there Dad was able to get in touch with some mechanics in the Abacos who could hopefully fix the engine, so the next day we left for the Abacos.

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Shroud Cay (5/21 - 5/24)

Shroud Cay was about a five hour’s sail north of Big Major’s Spot.  It is an uninhabited island in the Exuma Marine Park.  The Reillys had been there before, so they told us to anchor in the norther anchorage.  It was a little shallow for us (at low tide it was only 4.7 ft deep and our keel was bumping the bottom), but the bottom was sandy so it didn’t do any damage.

After we were all settled, the nine of us dinghied through the maze of shallow rivers through the mangroves which make up the interior of the island.  On the other side there is a really nice beach.  The sand is white and the same consistency of flour, and the water is the most beautiful, clear water that we have seen during our entire trip. The water is no more than waist deep for at least a quarter of a mile offshore, so it is warm and great for swimming in.  The current at the mouth of the river is also fun to swim in.  Over time the ingoing and outgoing currents have dredged a deep channel where the river feeds into the ocean, so although it is only about 35 ft wide, it quickly drops off to be 15 to 20 ft deep.  The current is strong, but there is a backeddy so we just let it carry us in circles.  We went back to our boats just before sunset, and after dinner Jack and I dinghied over to Allegro to hang out with Conrad, Dan, and Zach.

The beautiful beach at Shroud Cay.

The mouth of the river through the mangroves.

The next morning we packed a picnic and went back to the beach.  The mangrove rivers serve as nurseries for the marine life, so on the dinghy ride there we saw some baby sea turtles and a baby shark.  Besides the four of us there were only two other people there, but they left shortly after we arrived and we had the whole beach to ourselves.  Mom had packed a picnic lunch and we brought our beach umbrella, so we made a little setup at the base of the coral cliffs.  

Mom and Dad at the beach in Shroud Cay.

Conrad, Dan, and Zach dinghied over shortly after we arrived.  Jack played football with them while Mom and I read and Dad paced around at the water’s edge (he gets really bored whenever we spend more than 30 minutes at a beach).

After the Reillys left we went for a swim and floated in the current at the mouth of the river.  Then we went back to the boat so that Dad could make water.  

As soon as we got back to the boat, Conrad dinghied over to pick Jack and me up.  The three of us dinghed three miles north to Norman’s Cay where we went snorkeling at the wreck of a drug runner’s airplane.  When we returned to our boats we picked up Zach and the Reilly’s dog, Reagan, and dinghied back through the mangroves to spend some more time at the beach.  That evening, after dinner, we all went to Allegro to spend time with the Reillys.

The following afternoon Jack went to Norman Island to go spearfishing with Dan and Conrad.  Mom, Dad, and I dinghied back through the mangroves to the beach.  It is the most beautiful beach we have ever been to (now that we are nearing the end of the trip I can say that definitively), so we wanted to go back and experience it one more time.  We went for a quick swim, floated in the current, and then dinghied back to our boat.

However, instead of taking the normal route back, this time we went down a different tributary to see where it would lead us.  We wound down the rivers for what seemed like miles and got all turned around.  We did see a lot of cool things though, like baby sea turtles, blue holes, and drained salt flats (since it was low tide). Eventually we popped out in the southern anchorage.

That evening we had the Reillys over for sundowners.  Jack, Conrad, and Dan were still out fishing, so we just started without them.  They came back just before sunset with a tiger grouper, an ocean triggerfish, and a snapper.  They picked up Zach and went back to Allegro to fillet them before coming back to our boat.

When they came back, Jack told us about a barracuda that had attacked him while they were fishing.  He thinks it might have been attracted to either the GoPro or his spear, since they’re both shiny.  He said it started to swim after him, so he swam as quickly as he could to the dinghy.  Luckily it didn’t get him, but it did bite two big holes through one of his fins.

The next morning we woke up early and left for Spanish Wells, Eleuthera.  The Reillys were also leaving for Eleuthera, however they were heading to the southernmost tip of the island.

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Big Majors Spot (5/15 - 5/21)

We motored to Big Majors Spot, and anchored right before a huge squall blew through.  As soon as it hit the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees and the wind picked up to a sustained 30 kts.  It also started to rain.  The combination of the cold wind and rain felt really nice after days of unbearable heat and humidity.

Dad watching the storm approach.

After the squall passed, Mom and I made no-see-um screens out of tulle and Velcro that we had bought at home. We also contacted the Giffords, a family that Mom and Dad had met at one of the Seven Sea’s Cruising Association meetings they went to.  

The Giffords have been sailing around the world with their three kids for the last nine years and are about to complete their circumnavigation. They were also in Big Majors Spot, so we made plans to spend time with them.

The next morning, Jack and I dinghied over to the pig beach.  It is exactly what the name implies, a beach inhabited by pigs.  It’s a big tourist attraction down here.  We spent some time playing with the pigs, and then we went back to the boat and the four of us headed over to Totem (the Gifford’s boat).

Jack feeding cantaloupe to one of the pigs.

We sat in the cockpit on Totem and talked to Mrs. Gifford, Niall, Mairen, and Siobhan.  Mr. Gifford was away and didn’t come back for a few days.

While we were back at our boat, the Reillys, a family from Newton, stopped by to introduce themselves. Their youngest son (they have three) had Jack’s guitar teacher as his music teacher in school.  Jack’s guitar teacher had put us in touch, so we had emailed with them a bit in the fall.  They have been spending this year cruising the Bahamas on their catamaran, Allegro.  When they found out that we were here as well as the Giffords they moved their boat from Staniel Cay to Big Majors Spot.

That afternoon Jack and I went to the beach and played soccer with Niall, Mairen, Siobhan, Conrad, Dan, and Zach.  There was a potluck dinner at one of the beaches later that evening, and all of the cruisers in the bay were invited.  After playing soccer and swimming we all dinghied back to our boats to get our parents. Then we met up at the potluck dinner.

Potluck dinner on Pirate Beach.

The next morning Mom and I joined some of the other cruisers for a morning exercise class on the beach. When that was over we went back to the boat to rest.  While I was on the bow reading, one of the guys from the German boat that was anchored to port of us came over on his paddleboard.  He invited Jack and I to come to Thunderball Grotto with them later that afternoon to go snorkeling.

A few hours later Jack and I headed over to their boat to pick them up.  There are seven of them on their tiny boat, so we split between our two dinghies.  Three of the guys (they are between ages 20 and 27) started a trip which they called Seasick Sailing (their website is seasicksailing.com).  They want to show people that you don’t need to be rich to cruise.  They had very little money, but they managed to buy a small, old boat, and they have spent the year sailing it from Europe, across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean and Bahamas, and now they are on their way to Central America.  When we met them they had three friends visiting as well as a photographer who was making a short film about their trip.

The grotto is famous because a part of the James Bond movie, Thunderball, was filmed there.  It is a really beautiful place to snorkel.  We dove through a submerged tunnel which opened up into a cave.  The water in there was probably around 15 ft deep and filled with dense schools of fish. There are holes in the ceiling of the cave, and the shafts of sunlight that stream through throw really beautiful patterns of light on the water.

Snorkeling with the Germans in Thunderball Grotto.

We stayed for a while so that the photographer could get some footage of the three guys snorkeling, and then we went back to our boats.

That evening all of the parents gathered on our boat for cocktails while Niall, Mairen, Siobhan, Conrad, Dan, Zack, Jack, and I met on the beach to play soccer.  We also started a fire in the firepit and roasted marshmallows. Two other kids, Will and Madeline, joined us (they were a bit younger than the rest of us).  They grew up in Annapolis, but for the last two years they have sailed their boat from France, through the Mediterranean, and now they are working their way through the Caribbean.  When it started to rain we quickly put out the fire and dinghied to Allegro, where we spent the rest of the night playing cards.

The following afternoon Mom, Dad, and I dinghied to Staniel Cay to go to the grocery stores (Jack stayed on board to do schoolwork).  There are two stores on the island; people refer to them as the Pink Store and the Blue Store.  Both are basically just garages attached to peoples’ houses.  The ship had yet to come to restock them, so there wasn’t much available.

Heading to the pink and blue stores on Staniel Cay.

That evening Jack and I headed over to Allegro to spend more time with the Reillys and the Giffords.

Jack and I also spent the next day with the Giffords and Reillys.  In the morning the eight of us went to the pig beach and then to the bigger beach to play soccer.  After lunch we all met up again, dinghied through the cut, and spent the afternoon spearfishing.  

On our way to the beach with the Giffords.

The next morning we woke up early to go to Thunderball Grotto as a family.  When we came back we moved the boat closer to Allegro and Totem, since a mega yacht filled with obnoxious 20-year-olds anchored next to us.  They started blasting rap, and then they put out two inflatable waterslides, a water trampoline, and two jet skis.

Snorkeling in the grotto as a family.

After relocating, Dad and I went back to Staniel Cay to drop off our trash at the dump, get more groceries, and to fill up our gas can (gas here is $5 per gallon!).  While we were motoring by the docks at Staniel Cay Yacht Club, we noticed a massive group of nurse sharks circling at the transom of a big fishing boat.  The men on the boat were filleting the maji they had caught that day and throwing chunks of meat, buckets of blood, and fish carcasses into the water.  The sharks were going crazy (there were at least 30 of them), so Dad and I stopped to watch for a while.

When we returned to the boat Mom and Dad went kayaking (it’s the first time we have taken them off of the deck since St. Maarten), and Jack and I went to the beach to play football with the Reillys and the Giffords.  There was another potluck dinner on the beach that evening, and after dinner we all went to Allegro (the parents had cocktails in the cockpit and the eight of us had cake in the salon).

Hanging out on Allegro.  Left to right: Zach, Dan, Siobhan, Niall, Mairen, me, Jack, and Conrad.

Left to right: Mr. Reilly, Dad, Mom, Mr. Gifford.

The following morning we left for Shroud Cay with the Reillys.  We tried to convince Totem to join us, but they need to start heading south to get to Grenada before hurricane season.  We are all really glad that we got to meet the Giffords and hear all about their world travels.  They are a really cool family!

Saying goodbye to the Giffords as we left Big Majors Spot.

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Hawksbill Cay (5/14 - 5/15)

Hawksbill Cay was directly upwind from Highbourne Cay, so we had to motor the whole way there.  As we approached the island in the afternoon, Jack hopped onto the bow to guide us around the coral heads.  Hawksbill Cay is part of the Exuma Marine Park, so we picked up one of the park moorings.  We were the only boat there.

After we were settled we had lunch while waiting for a thunderstorm to blow by, and then Dad and Jack briefly went for a swim.  They were trying to inspect the mooring, but a massive barracuda swam at them and blocked their way.  They said it was the biggest one they have seen yet, so they quickly got out of the water.

It was Mother’s Day that day, so I made dinner and dessert that evening.  Unfortunately, once again, the boat filled up with no-see-ums, so the rest of the night was hot and miserable (sleeping with the hatches closed and no air conditioning was not fun).

The following morning we left for Big Majors Spot, which is just north of Staniel Cay.

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Highbourne Cay (5/13 - 5/14)

Highbourne Cay is a private island, so we couldn’t go ashore without paying a fee.  We just stayed on the boat instead.  Jack and I did some snorkeling (there wasn’t much to see), and then we had dinner, watched the sunset, and went to bed early.

We left at around 11 am the following day to head to Hawksbill Cay.

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Lyford Cay, New Providence (5/12 - 5/13)

Lyford Cay is a private island, and only really rich people have vacation houses there (like Sean Connery and the Prince of Monaco).  Therefore, the marina facilities were incredible. They had a gym and game room (which we took advantage of), and really nice showers.

We all took long, hot showers, and then we got a delicious, albeit expensive, dinner at the Captain’s Table (the marnia’s restaurant).  The marina also had strong wifi, so we all watched Netflix when we returned to the boat.

The next morning Mom and I each took one last real shower before we left our slip.  We stopped at the fuel dock to fill up on diesel, and then we sailed to Highbourne Cay.

It was blowing 20+ kts and choppy, and we had to sail over the White Bank (shallow waters studded with coral heads).  Jack, Dad, and I rotated taking shifts on the bow to steer us around the coral heads.  Due to the weather, being on the bow wasn’t very pleasant; whoever was up there was constantly getting drenched with spray.

We made it to Highborne Cay at around 5 pm.

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Bimini to Lyford Cay, New Providence (5/11 - 5/12)

The trip from South Bimini to Lyford Cay might be my favorite passage of our entire trip.  As we pulled out of the marina there was absolutely no wind. The water was crystal clear, glassy, and the most beautiful shade of turquoise.  It was so clear that even in 120 ft of water, Jack and I could see straight to the bottom.  We sat on the bow and looked at all of the coral and fish that we were sailing on top of; it was like snorkeling without being in the water.

In the afternoon, as we were sailing over the Great Bahama bank, we saw a small pod of dolphins swimming towards us.  Dad shut off the engine, Jack dropped the anchor, and I quickly hopped off of the transom and into the water (we had our masks and fins out just for this reason).

I swam towards the dolphins and they swam towards me.  The water was only 10 ft deep, so their tails kicked up the sand as they swam.  That decreased the visibility a bit, but I was able to catch the eye of one of the smaller dolphins in the pod as it swam only 10 ft away from me.  It was incredible.  Unfortunately, by the time Jack was done with the anchor the pod had swum away.  We tried to attract their attention to get them to turn around, but they didn’t.

We motored on autopilot for the whole day, and just before sunset we dropped the anchor.  Since we were on the Great Bahama Bank, the water was shallow enough (it never really got above 15 ft) to spend the night in what was basically the middle of the ocean.  We couldn’t see land or any other boats; we were just anchored alone in the middle of a turquoise sea.  We watched a beautiful sunset and got to watch the full moon rise.  It was a great night.

Anchored alone for the night on the Great Bahama Bank.

The next morning there was a bit of wind, so we were able to motor-sail the rest of the way to Lyford Cay. We made it there by around 5 pm and tied up to a slip in the marina.