We were so happy to have friends from Idaho visit us this last week.  It was a fantastic week that went by too quickly.  Bill and Tawny arrived first followed by David and Valerie the next day.  As all you cruisers know, we had sent them a ‘wish list’ of things to bring, ranked in order with the most serious needed items first.  How did Cheetos end up on the top of our list anyway?

I took the dinghy to the dock in Georgetown to pick up the LaVigne’s.  It was such a strange sight to see them standing there.  I asked, “How did you get here?”  Valerie looked at me and said, “On a plane, silly.”  Well, of course on a plane, but to me our journey has been so long (months) and slow (5 knots) that I could not fathom how they just appeared out of nowhere down here.

Both couples brought an extra bag stuffed to the brim with our requests ranging from food to clothing to personal items to a pot holder.  One of my pot holders blew away from me at the grill on the stern of the boat a while back and I could not get to it in time to rescue it.  Thank you Reynolds for sending your beloved, sentimental pot holder.  I will try not to let this one get blown overboard.  Thanks for all the other special items you sent.  They mean a lot to us.

The Cooks, thank you for sending the photo book.  We love it and show it to all of our boat neighbors.  The boys loved seeing pictures of their guinea pigs.  Many thanks again for taking care of the girls while we are gone.  What a commitment!

LaVigne’s, thank you for the Valentine treats, etc.  As always, you are so thoughtful.

Flanders, thanks for all the goodies and for lugging it all along.  We seriously could not do this trip without friends like you.

David, Tawny and Bill in cockpit of Truansea.

Tawny and Valerie studying our Explorer chart of the area while Logan looks on.

Bill, Logan & Cole on the bow. The boys love popping in and out of the v-berth hatch.  Bill also spent an afternoon teaching math.  Thanks Bill!

David taking a turn on the wheel of Truansea from Red Shanks to Sand Dollar with Mark enjoying the company.

Valerie getting ready to snorkel.

Tawny getting ready to make the leap and try snorkeling.

Valerie snorkeling around Truansea.

The girls on our stern getting ready to explore.

Valerie and Tawny relaxing after snorkeling.

One of the many beautiful fish they saw snorkeling.

The hunt is on.

David and Bill with the lobster. It was a team effort of 3 of the guys to get him speared.

David, Logan, Mark and Bill returning from a successful fishing expedition.

The day would not be complete without fried lobster, fish fillets and sushi. Logan made the sushi for our guests. What a great dinner on the boat.

Bill ready for Logan to teach him how to make sushi.

Of course Tawny was drug into the process as well. Bill became an expert sushi maker by the end of the evening. Tawny and I became expert sushi eaters!

David just being David.

David seriously getting ready to cook the lobster in our boat.

The first 3 days they were here, the weather was good so we took full advantage of the nice weather spending time on the boat, snorkeling, fishing, etc.  A strong front blew in the 4th day so we holed up at our favorite protected anchorage while our friends had time to take a guided trip to Staniel to snorkel the grotto, swim with the nurse sharks, see the swimming pigs at Big Majors and see the Iguanas.  Another day they took the water taxi to Stocking Island to hike and spend time on the sound side of the beautiful beach.  We were able to catch up with them on the last day again when the winds died down some.

Would you believe we never took a group picture?  Time goes by so quickly.  We enjoyed every moment we were able to spend with them.  Have a safe trip home.  Again, thank you for all you did for us and all the goodies you brought us!

Fair winds ~ Christine

“Vege… what?” I thought when I first heard our Tazmanian/Australian friend mention his morning breakfast of Vegemite on toast. A couple of days later I heard him mention putting Vegemite in the soup he was making and on his cheese sandwich. He also hosted National Australian Day breakfast on his boat for all of the Australians in the bay with none other than Vegemite toast. Now my curiosity was peaked. I love trying new foods, especially different nationalities.

David comes over for breakfast and coffee some mornings and one morning he brought over his Vegemite. We toasted the bread on the grill, buttered it and David spread a thin layer on top. He emphasized Americans must only put a thin layer on. We were warned not to spread it thick like peanut butter. The paste in the jar is thick and black smelling yeasty and something else I could not identify with. Maybe hoppy? It tasted salty and a little strong or bitter. It probably does not sound too appealing yet, but it was fantastic with morning coffee! I love the stuff! Maybe it is having my family, good company on the boat in a beautiful Bahama anchorage that made it taste so good.

David and me in the cockpit of Truansea enjoying a great breakfast.

The paste was invented in 1922 when the Australian food company Fred Walker & Co. gave Cyril P. Callister the task of developing a spread from the dumped yeast from breweries. Talk about recycling! He came up with a way to extract the liquid and blended salt, onion and celery extracts to form the sticky black paste. It was endorsed by the British Medical Association as being rich in vitamin B, rationed during World War II, included in the Australian Army rations and was used in 9 out of 10 Australian homes.

David told us they ate it as children on their Australian farm and sang the jingle he knew from childhood used to promote Vegemite. It reminded me of how we all know the Oscar Mayer Weiner song. It is produced by Kraft foods.

After expressing my love of Vegemite, David brought over a jar of my very own a couple of mornings later. I was instructed on the ritual that must be followed upon opening a new jar. First you twist the top off breaking the seal, then stick your nose close to the paste in the jar and inhale deeply. It is somewhat like smelling coffee when you open a new can (yes we drink ground, canned coffee on the boat). Then you dip in your pinky finger and get a small amount of the paste on it and lick it off your finger. The jar is christened and ready for use.

Cole’s reaction to it was not the same as mine.

Try it yourself and let me know what you think!  I doubt if it is for sale in many stores, but I do see it on Amazon.  http://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Vegemite-400g-Jar/dp/B002O10K6C

If you have your own obscure food item that you have tried and love, please share it with me.

Fair Winds ~ Christine

Followers of our blog wonder what life is like for a family on a boat.  Being cruisers, we are only sailing a small fraction of the time so our kids are not stuck on a 37 foot boat going stir crazy.  One thing they love to do on the boat which gets some of their energy out is to swing on the bosun’s chair from the spinnaker halyard.

Hammock time is also nice.  They never just lay there and read.  The hammock is always a swinging when they are in it.

Cole is up the mast. Logan in the hammock.

Jumping off the bow of the boat and swimming back to the transom they can do when the current is not strong.

Laundry is a constant battle.  A bucket of fresh water on the front of the boat with a plunger is the best method we have found.  We occasionally make a trip to the laundromat for sheets or if the amount of laundry has gotten away from us.

Cole’s turn to do the laundry.

We also spend lots of time on shore hiking, beach combing, playing on the beach, walking around towns, etc.

Our days are not filled with idle time however.  There is always things to do on a boat, just like home.  We cook all of our meals and have to do all of our dishes by hand which is a process in itself.  The boat needs constant cleaning inside and out.  With four people living on a boat, plus friends coming over, there is always a battle with sand, salt and hair.  It is amazing how much hair we all shed.  it ends up on the floor and in the bilges where it is much more noticeable than in a house.  Everything we use needs to be picked up as soon as we are done with it or life becomes difficult in a hurry.  If we all left our things laying around like books, sunglasses, hats, life jackets, towels, sandals, dry bags, flippers, snorkels, wet swim suits, etc. it would be a complete, unlivable disaster!  Luckily Logan is the ‘pick it up police’ and keeps us all responsible for our things.

School takes a fair amount of our time as well.  Some days we get more done than others.  I am actually looking forward to the upcoming blow to spend a couple of days on the boat getting caught up.  Cruisers host a variety of classes on Chat & Chill beach.  One of the classes Logan & I took was sushi making.  We were both surprised at how easy it is!  Really!  We have been enjoying sushi on the boat ever since.

Logan learning to make sushi on the beach.

Logan & me with the fruits of our labor. Guess what we ate for lunch?

I hate to say it but one thing we have found comforting is the TV.  We do not use it often, but it is nice for us all to kick back and watch a movie from time to time.  Of course, watching a movie is not quite as simple as at home.  After we haul the generator out in the cockpit, plug it into the outlet on the boat and fire it up, flip on the AC power master and the port AC outlets, then we can turn on the TV.  When we do run the generator, this is also the time to charge all devices that we only have a traditional plug-in for such as the laptop, ipad, ipod, cell phones, sat phone and VHF.  We do not have an inverter on our boat so generator time is the time to charge these ‘regular plug in’ devices up.

View of Truansea from the top of our mast.

View of bow of boat from top of mast.

Wish we had time to do more posts but our access to town has been limited due to winter cold fronts coming through.  When we do have a few days of calm, we are filling up the water tanks on our boat, getting groceries, etc.  We also take these days to enjoy snorkeling, spear fishing and exploring the islands.  This afternoon another front is coming in and we are in for 25-30 knot winds tonight at 20-25 knot winds the following 3-4 days.   We are in a snug anchorage at Red Shanks, just south of George Town.

Fair winds ~ Christine

01/18/13 We arrived in Georgetown!  Our goal for this year was to make it to Georgetown, Great Exuma Island and we did it. Of course, plans are written in sand in the sailing world and you never know from day-to-day what the weather may bring, what may need fixing on the boat, etc.  That’s half the adventure, right?  Truansea has been taking us on this trip without more than normal wear and tear boat repairs.  Hookie, our little Zodiac dinghy (which is like our car) has also been doing great.  We had to hoist the outboard into the cockpit a couple of times for repairs and a new prop, but she has been doing a great job taking us snorkeling, beach combing, water runs, trips to town, etc.

It has been a while since I have been able to make an update, and I need to go back to January 2nd to get caught up.

01/02/13  through 01/14/13  We stayed in Black Point longer than we anticipated due to the winds either being too strong (18-25 knots) or from the wrong direction (south/southeast).

Truansea at anchor in Black Point. It is the blue hulled boat in the middle of the picture.

The forecast for the week was for even stronger winds south of us and we wanted a weather window open long enough for us to enjoy some of the islands on our way south to Georgetown.  We plan on spending 1-2 months in Georgetown waiting for calmer spring weather to start making our way back up the Exumas, possibly Cat Cay, Abacos, Berry Islands, etc. before crossing the Gulf Stream back to Florida the beginning of June.

The remoras have taken a liking to our boat. The first time I saw them swimming around, I thought they were sharks. Needless to say, every time I get off Truasea and into the water, I look all around the boat to see what else may be waiting for me. At least they are doing a job down there, sucking algae off the bottom of the boat.

Logan and Cole with their friend Nic from s/v Southern Bound on the beach at Black Point.

One of our boat neighbors, Steve on s/v Slow Flight has scuba gear and offered to put a new anode on our prop. I have never scuba dived before and he offered to give me a quick course and try it out. I never pass up a chance to try something new. It was great to be able to give it a try. Thanks Steve!

I’m a 10-15 knot wind girl kind of girl and apparently that is what a lot of other people’s comfort zone is.  There are 35 other boats in the anchorage and most of them are also headed to Georgetown.  If the winds are forecasted 10-15 and end up blowing 20, which happens sometimes, I’m still comfortable.  If they are forecasted 15-20 and blow 25, I’m not a happy sailor.

Cole studying a starfish.

We were invited by Ida, who owns the laundromat, to go to their annual Christmas church dinner. They have it after Christmas since many families go to Nassau during school break. We were the only cruisers to attend and they made us feel very welcome. The older women all sat at the tables and the younger women served them. Then the children lined up and were all served where they scattered everywhere to find a spot to eat, then the men were served and lastly the younger women ate. It was a fantastic meal of pork, turkey, rice with beans, cole slaw, crab pasta salad and macaroni and cheese.

On 01/04/13 we did one overnight trip just south of Black Point to Hetty’s Land on Great Guana Cay with a few other boats to snorkel, fish, beach comb and hike.  The anchorage was not very protected and after a night of rocking and rolling on the hook we all headed back to Black Point.

Mark at picnic table behind laundromat catching up on emails.

Castle house outside of Black Point that we hiked to a couple of times.

Logan on one of our beach exploration days. I found my first hamburger bean this day!

Cole with bow & arrow he made on the beach.

Catching a ride on the way back from the castle. I used to ride in the back of a pickup all the time as a kid. This was the boys first time doing this!

01/14/13  The forecast is east winds at 12k increasing to 15k in the afternoon and 15-20k in the evening so we made a break for it, along with everyone else in the harbor.  It was the best sailing day we have had so far on this trip.  We sailed along at 5.2 to 6.3 knots and arrived at Cave Cay at 1345.  Cave Cay is private so we enjoyed some snorkeling time and a nice, quiet night at anchor.

Mark enjoying a great day of sailing.

01/15/13  Today brought a forecast of straight east 90 degree winds at 12-15k so we set sail for Little Darby Island where our friend David on s/v Mist has been anchored for a couple of weeks.  This is the first anchorage where you need to put out two anchors due to limited swing space.  We have not had to use two anchors yet so this was a great learning opportunity.  We put out our primary, a Rocna, then the Foretress.  We have a third anchor as well, a Delta (Mark tells me you can never have enough anchors on a boat).

Starboard side of Truansea with the usual rail stuff.

Port side of Truansea with the laundry hanging to dry.

What cruising kids do without computer games, Wii’s, etc. Cole built this on a rather windy night which means the boat was rolling around. The house fell many times before he was able to complete it. Two seconds later and boat rocked and the house of cards collapsed!

The second day here we were exploring snorkeling places and Mark slowed Hookie down as we neared a black spot.  Black spots are generally coral heads and are easy to spot, especially if you are standing up in the dinghy.  It was a small spot so we were not sure how good it would be so just Mark stuck his head in the water to take a look before we deployed the anchor.  His head popped back up and said, “You’ve got to see this!”  The boys dropped the anchor and Mark plunged overboard.  We all quickly followed suit.  I started laughing underwater when I saw it and my mask filled with water.  I cleared it out and dove again.  If anyone knows how this grand piano metal sculpture with a mermaid at the bench ended up under the sea on the west side of Musha Cay, please let us know.  I could look it up on the internet but it would be more fun to hear from you followers as to its history.

Christine diving with the mermaid at grand piano underwater sculpture off west side Musha Cay.

Mermaid at grand piano.

The sculpture is spectacular and is not in any of the guide books that we know of.  We passed the word on to all our other cruiser friends to check it out.  No one else had ever heard of it.   David Copperfield owns Musha Island and Jonny Depp, Nicholas Cage, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill own islands close by here.  Steven Spielberg’s mega yacht is also anchored not too far away and Tom Waits was spotted on Staniel Cay.  There is only one musician I have ever wished I could meet or see live and that is Tom Waits.  I can not believe I was so close and never got to see him!  Aargh!  Anyway, I am guessing one of these people commissioned the sculpture.

There were some nice calm, slack times at Darby and our kids and Southern Bounds kids enjoyed a little freedom rowing around.

Cole knows how to enjoy a ride!

We were treated to the first rain of any quantity at Darby.  It was a gentle, long rain.  Everyone got on the decks of their boats and showered first.  We had not experienced a rain yet and had not prepared how to catch the excess water.  The rain stopped and at least we were all clean and rinsed.  Another cloud was coming our way so we got out brushes to wash the salt off the deck, washed out the dinghy and had a few plans on catching as much rain water as we could.  The next rain was another nice, long one and we caught enough water to do the laundry and wash the rest of the boat which had become quite covered in salt crystals.

Collecting rain water. You can see Logan has a vested interest in getting enough water to finish washing the shampoo out of his hair.

Big Darby and Little Darby have some interesting history which I will let you look up if you choose.  We enjoyed hiking and beach time there.

Tight anchorage at Little Darby. Everyone has 2 anchors out.  These are our friends on Southern Bound.

Castle on Darby which has long since been abandoned.

Inside the castle at Darby.

Cave near the castle where livestock was kept. There is a natural stone fence out the back side of the cave which naturally fenced in about an acre of land.

Century plant along the trail.  Can anyone spot the tree frog on one of the stalks?

Cactus along the trail behind the castle.

We have seen a few sea turtles snorkeling but this is the first one we have been able to get a picture of.

Another boat neighbor in the anchorage.

The beaches are beautiful on every island and unfortunately they are all also covered in trash. Plastic is on every beach we have been to. Some of the trash is rather horrifying!

We caught a few conch here and have always struggled to clean them.  Some local guys passed through and I asked if they would show me how to do it more efficiently.

Christine getting a conch cleaning lesson from the locals.

01/17/13 The weather window is wide open and we will say good-bye to Little Darby and head to Emerald Bay tomorrow or possibly go all the way to Georgetown.

01/18/13  We left the anchorage at 7am with our friends on s/v Southern Bound and headed out Rudder Cut to the sound side.  We have stayed on the Banks side of the Exumas where it is more protected on every sail except for one day back on 12/28/12 when we had a calm day.  At Rudder Cut, most sailboats must cross over to the sound side to get to Georgetown.  The banks side becomes too shallow and has lots of reefs and coral heads.  We could count 30 masts around us all day as us cruisers took advantage of the weather window and sailed south.  We put out a fishing line and mid-morning I heard the tell-tale zinging sound behind me of a fish on.  The boys took turns reeling it in and they caught our first barracuda.

Logan taking his turn reeling the barracuda in while I sail.

Now how do you release him without getting bit? With a very long-handled pliers!

We arrived in Elizabeth Harbor where George Town is located at 2pm.  The harbor is big and there are lots of sailboats anchored in the various protected areas along with a few trawlers.  It is truly a community here.

We set anchor near volleyball beach. This is a view of the boats out our ‘back door’.

We are excited to be here, settle in for a while and are looking forward to exploring the area.

Our first trip to town involved getting some parts, stocking up on water and getting some fresh food.

One of our first stops was to Exuma Parts to get some spare engine belts.

Inside the store. It is a treasure trove.

Otherwise, we have been exploring on Stocking Island side, enjoying the beaches and hiking.

Sound side where a blue hole comes out.

Fish abound in blue hole.

View of one of the anchorages from the top of monument hill.

Christine and Mark on monument hill.

The ‘cruising kids’ hiking for the day.

We have boat friends over often or go to other people’s boats. We enjoy everyone’s company.

Cole, Nic and Logan.

January 30th and we are in swimsuits. In fact, we have worn nothing but swimsuits since September!

Fair Winds ~ Christine