Time with family is like a treasure chest. Their laughter is diamonds, shining brilliantly and making the world sparkle. Their love is gold, warming the heart and holding value even during the toughest times. Their humor and presence are silver, the decorative lining that brings a smile to your face, joy to your heart, and brings wealth to your soul – Alison Gieschen
If there is one prevailing theme in liveaboard sailing it is the lack of respect nature has for your personal schedule. If you need to sail south, you can be sure the wind will be coming from that direction. When you hold yourself to deadlines, you can be sure Mother Nature will slap you in the face with inclement weather just to remind you that you are… not in charge. Her beauty is boundless and when she is pleased, the fair winds, calm seas, and wildlife she has to show you will certainly blow you away. But test your will against hers and forget who is really in charge and she will bite you in the ass. The lesson we have learned, the hard way, is that once you move aboard a boat if you want to go somewhere in a hurry you more than likely will not succeed.
To recap our experience to date since moving aboard and heading out the end of October 2017, our expectations of where we think we should be versus where we end up, have been vastly different. Plan A. Our first goal was to make the Caribbean 1500 Rally from Norfolk to the British Virgin Islands. While we did make it down the coast to Norfolk for the beginning of the rally, we didn’t successfully cross with the fleet. Instead, we holed up in Beaufort, NC and made repairs due to the storm damage we took when we tried to cross with a narrow weather window that slammed shut rather violently.
Plan B. Our children were scheduled to fly into the Virgin Islands and meet us for Christmas. We no longer had time to get there with all the fluky weather so we decided to head to the Bahamas, a much closer destination. Our children rerouted their flights to Nassau and we set sail south, winds, of course, blowing directly from where we needed to go. This is not only unproductive when you are trying to sail, but throw in some strong winds and heavy seas and we had some very unpleasant conditions. While our timeline was to cross the Gulf Stream and arrive in Nassau in time for our children’s flight arrivals, Mother Nature scoffed at our trivial plans.
Plan C. Reroute all flights to Fort Lauderdale and pray that we get there in time to pick up our children. Our progress down the coast was slow and the distances that seemed doable in a couple of days stretched longer for one reason or another. Our son, Derek, arrived in Ft. Lauderdale a few hours before us and our daughter Katie and son-in-law Sean arrived later that same day. Finally, we had achieved an arrival in an almost timely manner. Family joyfully reunited, we could now take our time to some degree as we had from December 20th to December 28th to get from Florida back to Nassau to catch Derek and Sean’s return flight. Katie would be spending an additional week with us before flying out of Nassau.
Having been schooled in what not to do, we set a leisurely course to cross the Gulf Stream and get to the closest island to Florida from our location, the lovely island of Bimini. During the crossing, the boys were in heaven as they reeled in several large and delicious Mahi, Tuna and other game fish. From Bimini, we traveled to a small uninhabited Whale Cay to spend Christmas Day. This was where we caught our first lobsters, 10 to be exact, followed by lobster eggs Benedict for breakfast the next morning. I managed to prepare a Christmas feast of Cornish Game hens in my Wonderbag (a slow cooking bag that uses no electricity) complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade sourdough bread and green bean casserole. Two days later, we made it to Chub Cay in time for my birthday. This beauty of this island would have made any visit special, but it will be one of my most memorable birthdays ever.
The week of family bonding, adventures and antics are too numerous to describe. It was for Dan and I a sweet reward for all we have been through to get to this point in our lives. We are finally here, made it to another country alive and in one piece, and watched the joy and amazement on our children’s faces as they got to experience paradise on a sailboat. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, it is best to show you, rather than tell you, about our first week with family aboard our home on the ocean. The Bahamas were where we were meant to be, and our Christmas with our kids could not have been more magical or delightful. It truly makes all we have been through worth the effort. We have more adventures on the horizon as we return Katie to the airport the first week of January, and then pick up our oldest child, Philip, his wife Shelby and our adorable grandbaby, Orion. Enjoy the show! Click on the link below,