I find it so bizarre that the general expectation of sailing is to have carefree, easy-going days letting the winds effortlessly carry you along. It is not news to me that sailing is often the exact opposite of that image. Most days unfortunately bring challenges and great discomfort both physically and mentally. The ‘magic’ of sailing though also brings us days so perfect in every way. Numerous times on this trip I have fallen in and out of love with what we are doing. It seems only recently more ‘magic’ days are finding us.

I am writing this from Nassau, Bahamas with turquoise waters beneath Starship’s keel. My last blog was Christmas Day so I have a ton to share from the last six weeks.

The days following Christmas were spent enjoying our time with our oldest son, Alex. Our boys did some fishing and we all worked towards getting the boat ready for our passage from St. Petersburg to Key West. Just to add a bit of chaos to our lives, a beautiful 54-foot Moody in the marina caught our attention. It was for sale and the gorgeous, spacious design of it was absolutely a dream! It was priced high for its condition though as it needed work. We truly are happy on Starship but we lack space for storage. That Moody with its centre cockpit and 7-foot keel also could’ve allowed me to build back my desire to cross oceans. That desire got knocked down for me after our passage from Pensacola to Tampa Bay – you can read about it in my previous blog I posted on Christmas Day. I am just not sure I want to do it on Starship anymore. Anyways, we did put in a low-ball offer on the Moody but the seller did not bite. That was too bad but on December 30, with our transmission fixed and the boat provisioned, the four of us began our passage to Key West.

Doing our best to time our weather window, we left Tampa Bay before sunset. It was, all in all, a smooth passage and we had a great time together! It was family time I will cherish forever. A highlight from the first day was having a big pod of dolphins swimming off our bow! Dylan has experienced it several times but I was thrilled that Alex got to see that! By the time midnight on New Year’s Eve found us, it was just Alex and I on watch with calm seas and a sky full of stars above us. It was wonderful and I will never forget that New Year’s Eve! We talked about so much together and at times would spot fireworks going off on distant shores. 2024 is bringing Alex a huge change in his life. This year he will be graduating from the Coast Guard College and starting his career in British Columbia, Canada as a Marine Engineer Officer. We are so proud of him. For us, 2024 will bring more adventures as we continue our Big Trip.

As nice as that evening was, things changed at about 2:00 AM. By then Alex had gone to sleep down below and I was really starting to look forward to doing the same. As I was briefing Jason on my watch, we saw a friggin’ crab pod! We were so far off shore but now had to be on high alert! Crab pods are small, round floats that are tied to a metal crab cages anchored somehow to the sea floor. With the calm winds, we were under motor so wrapping a pod with our prop could’ve been a very big deal. We had to get Alex up on deck and from 2:00 AM to sunrise we had a spotlight off the bow and would shout navigational instructions back to the helmsman as we carefully meandered our way through the aggrivating minefield. I was so exhausted. Jason finally insisted that I rest so I laid down in the cockpit and slept hard. When I awoke Key West was in our sights! We dropped the hook in our anchorage at about noon on New Year’s Day.

The next few days were a blast as the four of us enjoyed the sights, sounds, shopping and yummy eats Key West had to offer. Jason and I enjoyed Key West so much when we were there years ago with our sailing friends Wolfe and Lu. It was exciting for us to be there again to enjoy it with our boys!

The day before Alex’s flight back to Nova Scotia, we were thrilled to connect with a lovely family we met during our time in Chicago – Captain Will, Laura and their two kids Kia and Ava. Together the eight of us went for pictures at the famous Southernmost Point Bouy followed by a stop for drinks and lunch. From there we walked down to do a self guided tour of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Ingham Maritime. It was awesome doing that with Alex as he pointed out different systems and all that was very familiar to him. After that we parted ways as Captain Will and his family had about a two-hour drive back to their resort.

Enjoying our precious last evening with Alex, we treated ourselves to dinner at a dockside restaurant. After we finished our food, we took our drinks to a table closer to the stage to enjoy the live music for awhile. It was such a nice evening together!

The alarm went off very early the next morning. Alex gave sleepy Dylan a big kiss and hug good-bye before Jas and I dinghied him to shore to catch his Uber to the airport. It’s always so hard to say goodbye to him but we will always cherish that amazing and unique Christmas and New Year’s together.

The days that followed his departure were spent by keeping busy as we awaited our weather window to continue on. We felt secure in our anchorage until a morning storm hit. The heat and humidity the last few days was insane so the storm came as no surprise. First came the torrential downpour. I took the opportunity to strip down, soap up and do a rain shower up on deck! It was great and so refreshing after the heat we had been enduring! A little while later the winds filled in and we dragged anchor! When Jas brought the anchor up it was covered in seagrass so it’s no wonder it did not reset itself. With the storm continuing its strength, we quickly weighed our options and decided to grab a ball in the mooring field beside us. In the big winds and waves, it was difficult task but by about 3:00 that afternoon we were securely attached to a mooring ball and could all begin to relax again. We were there another three days and were excited to see our friends Gavin and Lisa on Sol Maria take a ball not far from us. They had their daughter, Shae, visiting and we were invited over for a fun dinner evening with them on their gorgeous catamaran.

The next morning it was time for us to continue along the Florida Keys as we made our way to the Bahamas. Unfortunately, our sail from Key West to Ram Rod Cay was kinda miserable for me. I woke up with a bad, mystery pain in my lower left rib. It hurt to move which really sucks when you live on a boat. Adding to the day were frustrating winds and navigating yet another minefield of crab pods. My apologies to my crew for my very bad mood that day…and, unfortunatley, the next day too. Our experience anchoring in Ram Rod Cay was another challenge. Chasing daylight, we arrived around 6:00 PM. To avoid shallows we had to take a very long path to get into the anchorage. The anchorage had so little depth. Anchored in only six feet of water, we analyzed where we were in the tide cycle and don’t know how we did not end up on the bottom overnight. We were happy to pull anchor that next morning but we had another challenging day ahead of us. The whole day was spent navigating damn crab pods again as we made our way to Marathon. I was also still in pain so by the time we got to our anchorage I was pretty much done. We made our way to the shelter of the mangroves that we were familiar with from our travels with Wolfe and Lu. We had planned to be there a week but due to weather and some big boat projects, we actually were there sixteen days. That allowed us to settle into the friendly, liveaboard community of Marathon. Every morning, starting at 9:00, there was a VHF radio broadcast called Cruiser’s Net. Mediated by a host, the one-hour sessions always followed the same schedule; weather, introduction of new boats, goodbye to boats departing, announcement of upcoming activities (ie. the weekly happy hour event, pickle ball, yoga, etc.) and buy/sell/trade. Each broadcast was closed out by jokes and trivia. We met some wonderful people in Marathon and Dylan had a ton of kids to run around with. The heat and humidity got pretty intense during our stay so many days Dylan and I would dingy to the marina to do his schooling. Dylan also liked that the marina always had $2 ice creams for sale!

While Dylan and I enjoyed the breezy comforts of doing school at the marina, Jas was sweating it out back on the boat. In Marathon, he not only installed four new lithium batteries but he also got our wonderful water maker installed! As you can imagine, power and water are two very important systems onboard that go hand in hand. I am still in awe that we can make our own water! It is such a game changer for life on a boat when it comes to showering, dishes, cooking and laundry! Wahoo!

Being in the mangroves provided us shelter from big winds but it also had its downfalls. The biting noseeums were awful. My legs will take weeks to heal from the bug bites. Many days I would take antiallergy medication in order to manage the unbearable itch. Hmmm…should I also tell you all about the rats? Okay, I guess I need to now. Fortunately, we did not see any but we were warned to take extra precautions. In the mangroves, boats drop their anchor off the bow and run stern lines to the shrubs. It seems that those stern lines also double as highways for rats to use to climb aboard. Yuck! We were advised to get two big pail lids, drill a hole in the middle of them and put them on the lines as deflectors. We also were very careful to never have any food or garbage in the cockpit. Starship was not visited by rats I am happy to report!

Shortly before we left Marathon, we had visitors from Winnipeg on Starship! Back home, Jason had worked with a guy named Darren. He and his wife, Dorothy, were in the area. We connected for breakfast at the local IHOP and after that we brought them back to Starship to continue our visit. They were wonderful to spend time with and we hope to keep in touch!

With the weather window open, big projects done, laundry cleaned and the fridge full of fresh food, we were ready for our big trip to Bimini! After careful analysis of multiple weather models, we pulled anchor on Saturday, January 27. I was happy that my mystery rib pain resolved itself but, of course, nothing is ever easy with sailing. Before we were able to enjoy settling into our crossing, we had to deal with a dead starter battery and me helming us into shallows. It took four good Samaritans pushing us with their dinghies to get us unstuck. Eventually we had our stressful morning behind us and our bow finally pointed towards Bimini as we settled into our roughly 24-hour passage. Through Facebook, we were delighted to connect with Alex and Ronda (and doggo, Luna) on their lovely catamaran, Morning Side. They also were doing the crossing to Bimini. Here was our next ‘fast friends’ experience! They are wonderful and we had a great time sharing meals, laughs and experiences with them for four days!

After checking in with customs in Bimini, both boats planned to travel down to Honeymoon Harbour. Once we got there we realized the winds were just not going to work for that anchorage. Alex took the lead on taking us on down to a well sheltered anchorage called Dollar Harbour as the winds really came up. We anchored between the shore and shallows and enjoyed swimming and snorkelling for the rest of the day before both boats connected for dinner. Later that night, the winds were really cranking. We decided to put out a secondary anchor and it’s a good thing we did. That began a long night of anchor watch for Jason and I. At some point the winds shifted us completely off our primary anchor and onto the secondary. Would it hold us? The thing is, with the wind now blowing offshore towards the shallows, we both knew there would be very little time to react should the anchor let go. We both put clothes on and moved our pillows to the middle area as we listened and waited. At times we each drifted in and out of sleep but I do remember watching for the moon through the midship hatch. As long as I could see the moon through that hatch above me, I knew the boat was not dragging. Morning came and all was well. Those nights are so rare but they do happen. The morning sun washed the stress away as we sipped our coffees and looked ahead to where the next day would take us.

Alex had something pretty awesome on his ‘life bucket list’! He wanted to anchor for a night on Mackie Shoal located about half way between Bimini and the Berry Islands. Mackie Shoal is nothing but a sand shoal in about six to twelve feet of water. There is absolutely zero protection from weather so you can only anchor there when there is no wind forecasted. We did it! We had a perfect night anchored there in the wide open with no wind! We swam, snorkeled and watched a spectacular sunset with them before enjoying another delightful meal together. It is an experience we will never forget and we are very thankful for connecting with them so we could do that. We would’ve sailed right past it on our own.

From Mackie Shoal, our two boats had a great downwind sail to Chubb Cay and the next morning we sadly parted ways with our friends on Morning Side. We said our good-byes hoping to see them again but knowing we may not. Our sail to Nassau from Chubb was a bit heavier than expected. It was a welcomed distraction when we caught our first ever mahi mahi about half way to Nassau! We enjoyed it for dinner that night cooked up with garlic, butter and lemon. We still have tons to look forward to in the freezer.

When we arrived in Nassau, we chose an anchorage that was conveniently located close to shops for provisioning but it is right off the main channel. Reading many reviews and researching anchorage options here, we knew it was going to be a very busy anchorage. We were just down from the cruise ship docks and there were many ‘music blaring, fast paced’ tour boats ripping around. The good seemed to outweigh the bad so we found it to be a good choice. One task to accomplish was purchasing a new outboard motor for our dinghy. That was exciting! It replaced our forty year old one that Jason just couldn’t get running smoothly anymore. Our dinghy is such a priority for both safety and convenience. It is pretty much our ‘car’. It’s important to have a good, reliable motor on it. Two interesting things happened in our process of getting the new outboard. First of all, as we set out, we were flagged down by a few guys on a huge freighter. Their live chicken had escaped overboard and was making a break for it across the channel. They asked us to go get it for them. Really? Okay, why not! Boy could that thing swim! Maybe she had been planning her escape for weeks and here we come to ruin her plan! After a few attempts, Jason was finally successful in scooping her up. The guys happily lowered a net down for us to put her in. They were thrilled we could help them out.

The second interesting thing that happened that day was our trade for the old motor! It did still run but we really would’ve had a heck of a time selling it here. We were content with the idea of donating it to someone. We flagged down some guys on a Bahama skiff and offered it to them. They were delighted and offered us a bucket of small but very meaty lobster tails! Deal! That night we used them to make yummy, creamy, lobster macaroni.

As happy as we were in our anchorage, today we moved into a marina to wait out a blow. There is a system going over us that is predicted to bring winds gusting towards 40 knots. It is likely that we’d be just fine on our anchor but I felt strongly that we move into a marina instead. Unfortunately, the cost of the two days’ stay is quite a hit to our budget. We need to stay in the Nassau area for a few very good reasons! I believe I mentioned this in a previous blog but tomorrow our cousins Kevin, Tessa and their daughter, Lily, will be here! They will be in an Airbnb for a week and we are so excited to see them soon! Together we hope the weather cooperates for us to take them sailing and snorkelling a few times. When they fly back to Winnipeg, they are taking Dylan with them. That same day we have two close friends, Dale and Jennifer, joining us on Starship for two weeks. Being new to sailing, we don’t plan to go far from Nassau with them but hope to do some nearby island hopping. We are so excited that February will be full of family and friends. We are excited for Dylan too as he’s so pumped to go home to Winnipeg for a bit. As soon as he’s back, the three of us will leave Nassau and start down the Exumas island chain. We are also hoping by then we may have some of our ‘river friends’ catch up to us! We are excited that they soon should be arriving in the Bahamas!

• Surprise – they have resolved their mechanical issues and are right now making their way down the Gulf of Mexico!
• Saga / LaFronda / Fika – last we heard, all three boats are in Key West!

Unfortunately, Brian on Wandering Winnie, is laid up for a bit. He had a major rudder malfunction and last we heard he is in Destin, Florida awaiting getting that fixed. We hope he will be on the move again soon.

I believe that brings you all up to speed! I have to admit that in the last six weeks I have had my struggles. I get very anxious at times and that really wears me down. It is so unfortunate that this lifestyle presents so many challenges. We have had many more marina stays than planned that have really kicked our budget. We truly hope that going forward we can avoid marinas so that we can start staying on budget again so that we do not have to be put in a position where we need to shorten our three year trip. Other than that, things are getting better, Jas has boat systems working well, we just bought a hot spot for internet onboard, we are enjoying much anticipated beach days… but I do get very scared at times though. I fear one of us falling overboard despite us using our tethers. I worry about weather pushing our home onto lee shores. I fret about the boom accidentally coming across strongly and hitting one of us in the head. For all these fears, we do what we can to mitigate the risks. Still my anxiety gets the better of me at times. As I wrote at the beginning of this blog, I am often falling in and out of love for what we are doing. Right now, I am in love with it and tonight that’s enough for me.