Thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Ormond Beach, Florida. Taken by Jason Weingart.*

I’ve been thinking about this post for a year now and I still am not sure I can properly convey my experience the night that we sailed back from the Bahamas. After pulling into Grand Cay and taking stock of the up-coming weather, Dan and I quickly realized that we needed to make a choice quickly. That night and the next day were expected to be calm sailing and low waves for the crossing back to Florida but after that we were seeing 2 solid weeks of high wind and waves. We made the decision to head out at once to get back to the States and pulled up anchor before we ever set foot on the island.

We set our course for the Fort Pierce inlet, had some dinner and settled-in for a long night of motoring. The water was glassy and there was not a hint of wind from any direction. Dan took the first watch while I put Carter to bed and tried to get a couple hours of sleep in spite of the rumbling engine. When I woke up and went out, I could tell right away that Dan was not happy. A huge line of thunderclouds had appeared on the swiftly-disappearing horizon.

Typically, Dan loves watching a storm (evidenced by our pictures and video from the inside of a tropical storm at anchor) but the idea of getting struck by lightning in the middle of nowhere on a windless night was really starting to worry him. However, as we were too far from land to outrun the storm or anchor, the only real option was to keep moving and hope that we weren’t struck. (If we had been, we did have back-ups by means of secondary GPS items and physical charts, but we still weren’t relishing the idea of replacing all of our charts or especially the possibility of the engine dying in a strike and stranding us until the wind picked back up.) Dan went down to try to sleep after I assured him that I would wake him if anything serious happened.

Being on a boat at night is very different than during the day. The only light was from the stars and our running lights. The water was still glassy and the wind hadn’t picked-up. It was as if nothing in the world existed in that moment other than our boat and the water. And then came the lightning.

It’s hard for me to put into words the majesty of those few hours I spent watching the storms. One moment, everything was blackness, the entire world consumed by the inky shroud of night and in a single instant the entire sky would be lit up to reveal a monstrous wall of towering clouds stretching the entire width of the horizon in front of us. The dance of lightning strikes jumping from one cloud to another and down to the water’s surface was breath-taking, awe-inspiring, and terrifying all at once. At that moment, more than any other in my life, I was overpowered with reverence for the forces on this planet and the One who created them.

We eventually made it through with no damage to ourselves or our boat by early the next morning and motored through the rest of a calm day to safely enter Fort Pierce inlet, our trip to the Bahamas officially complete. However, those few hours touched my soul in a way that I am pretty confident I will never forget.

*While I was too in awe (and afraid of ruining our camera in the pouring rain) to take any pictures, this picture is the closest image I could find to what it looked like that night.

Are you ready for this?

As I mentioned in my over-due post last week, Horizon is currently for sale in Indiantown, Florida. We’ve listed her with Advantage Yachts for $39,000, which is a great deal considering all of the awesome upgrades that she comes with! Here are a few posts that highlight what’s gone into making her live-aboard ready:

• The Cost of Upgrading a Classic Sailboat: Full breakdown of every upgrade to the boat while we lived aboard (over $30,000 in improvements and upgrades!!)
• Power at Sea: Part 1: Looking for power sans umbilical cord? Horizon is well equipped with solar and wind enough to keep you juiced up and ready to go.
• Introducing Horizon: Our Irwin 37: Post with the original pictures of Horizon when we bought her in 2014.

With tons of interior space, 2 cabins, 2 heads, and very good headroom for a boat of this age, it was an awesome home for the three of us at dock and at anchor. We hope to be able to pass her on to someone looking for an amazing adventure of their own! If you or someone you know might be interested, contact us or visit our YachtWorld.com listing.

At least we still get the benefit of beautiful sunsets.

So…for those of you out there who can do some simple math, it’s been 11 months since my last post. A lot can happen in 11 months and a lot HAS happened since our time in the Hub of Abaco. While I will be revisiting the end of our Bahamas adventure, I had to restart my posts somewhere so I’ll start with a little explanation of where we are today. Many apologies to those of you (there were quite a few!) who were following along with our trip and weren’t sure whether we met a watery end after not hearing from us for a while.

Let me start by saving that we loved our few months of cruising and have absolutely zero regrets about the whole process. The costs were all worth the journey and it was an amazing time together as a family. The water was beautiful, the people were incredible, and we learned a lot about ourselves and each other in a short period of time. The Bahamas will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

However, I’m sure you can hear the “BUT” in my words above. Those of you who have spoken to us recently know that we have settled back into land life and are selling Horizon. There are a lot of reasons why we believed this to be the best choice for us, but here are the big ones:

1. Cruising is a lonely business. I’m not going to lie, I did not expect loneliness to be an issue for Dan and I. We generally are pretty independent people who aren’t big on crowds. Also, there were generally people around to have great conversation with, cruisers and locals alike. People always talked about how quickly you make amazing friends while cruising, which is SO true, but they somehow forget to mention how quickly you sail away from those friends as well. That constant cycle in just the year and half we lived on our boat moving between marinas and cruising was a lot tougher all three of us than we had ever considered.
2. This one goes together with number 1, but has to be its own reason. Carter was lonely. Our social butterfly does great with adults, but he thrives with other kids to play with. If it was hard for us to say good-bye to new friends, for him it was like ripping his heart out. As a child of parents who moved every few years, I just couldn’t bear to watch him go through the good-bye process every couple of weeks. It was hard for us to weigh this against the benefit of cruising for him and us as a family, but this one was definitely a major factor.
3. Carter and I both got seasick…a lot. Short trips were fine but throw in any kind of waves and more than a few hours and all bets were off. This made for a lot of discomfort for Carter and I and plenty of lonely hours at the wheel for Dan. The prospect of sailing farther than the Bahamas in this state just wasn’t super appealing for any of us.
4. Finally, there wasn’t a particular call for Dan and I to keep going. That may sound like a lame reason to stop, but for us it just made sense. Cruising is not something that we felt like we could keep doing just for the sake of doing it. It is an amazing life-style, but it could be a nightmare if you went into it without enthusiasm.

Will we ever go cruising again? There’s a good chance we will. Or maybe next time we’ll try out an RV or go backpacking across Europe. Honestly, we don’t know. What we do know is that living on Horizon was one of the best things that we have ever decided to do and we wouldn’t change one thing about it.

Follow your Dreams. Follow the Horizon.

The beautiful anchorage just outside of Hopetown Harbor.

After spending most of our first few weeks in the secluded islands of the Exuma Cays, we were all ready for a little more human contact. We had been told by fellow cruisers not to miss Hopetown and Marsh Harbour, so we were interested to find out if the Abaco Islands lived up to the hype.

The crystal blue water was dotted with these ominous black circles. Do Not Hit!

Before we could start having fun however, we had to make the trek to get there! Our first day from Ship’s Channel Cay to Royal Harbour took us through the Middle Passage, a path filled with coral heads that had to be dodged if we didn’t plan on leaving our boat at the bottom of the bank. I stayed on the bow for almost 2 hours directing Dan around the large black/brown spots on the otherwise crystal blue water. As the saying goes: if it’s brown, you’re going down! Our next day up to Little Harbour was one of the bumpiest we’ve had so far, with 4-5 foot seas on the beam rolling in from the open Atlantic, aka a seasickness party for Carter and me.

The lighthouse is still operated manually and open for self-guided tours every day.

Our first major stop in the Abaco Islands was Hopetown, Abaco. The picturesque harbor town complete with red striped lighthouse was like a scene from a postcard. Hopetown would be a great place to spend a vacation, with the beautiful Atlantic beach and protected harbor and just a short ferry ride to the other destinations in the so-called “Hub of Abaco.” We had a great time climbing the lighthouse and strolling through town. We also had to have a taste of a Vernon’s Grocery Store’s famous key lime pie, which was every bit as good as the guide books claimed.

I’m pretty sure I could go that low…but I wouldn’t be getting back up!

Next on our itinerary was Marsh Harbour, the third largest settlement in the Bahamas coming in at a whopping 5,000 permanent residents. While we wouldn’t consider this one of our favorite spots for visiting, it was fantastic to be able to get some chores done and find parts that would have been nearly impossible to get in other areas of the Bahamas. We did have a bit of a splurge night by attending the weekly BBQ buffet night at the Jib Room, complete with Bahama-style mariachi band and limbo performer (limbo-ist?). The food was good, the company fun, and we all had a great time.

We visited on a weekend, so the workers weren’t in the shop, but it was still fun to see the boats in progress.

The last point of the Hub’s triangle was Man-O-War Cay, a lovely town in which you can slow down. Because the island has a ban on the sale of alcohol, there are much fewer tourist establishments and no traditional beach bars. What they lack in party atmosphere, they more than make up for with the authentic feel of the community that has been mostly supported by their famous sail loft and boat workshop on the island. It was a great compliment to the other settlements in the Hub, especially after a few days of chores in Marsh Harbour.

Picturesque handmade boats were in abundance on Man-O-War Cay.

The Hub of Abaco was a completely new side to the Bahamas that we are glad we got to experience. While the area certainly can’t compete with the sheer intensity of natural beauty in the Exumas, it still has plenty of its own charm and flavor. The proximity of the destinations to each other makes it a perfect vacation destination or charter area and we would encourage anyone to give it a try if you haven’t before.

The last sunset during our time in the Exumas.

We were sad to see our time in the Exumas come to an end, but it was time.

We saw 49 knots on our wind meter when the storm passed through!

After a week of hiding out at Staniel Cay due to the Tropical Low that eventually became Tropical Storm Anna, we were going a little stir crazy to start moving again. Our buddy boat friends were moving on and we were close behind them. After a third visit to Warderick Wells Cay, we left the Exuma Land and Sea Park behind and made it to the famed Norman’s Cay, a former drug runner hideout and all together beautiful place.

Carter loved snorkeling the plane.

The coolest kid on the block!

A lonely plane crash on the inside cove of the island is a relic from the battle between the drug lords and the US Coast Guard; it also happens to be a great snorkeling spot. Carter is really getting the hang of snorkeling now and loved seeing the sunken plane! He also got some dinghy driving lessons from Dad, which he did very well at considering he can hardly see over the front of the dinghy from the driver’s seat.

Our special guest for dinner!

The perfect meal for our 500th mile!

Norman’s Cay marked 500 nautical miles traveled on Horizon and a grouper decided to stop by for our celebratory dinner! A candle-light (just because it was citronella doesn’t make it less special…) dinner of grilled grouper was just the right touch and one of our best meals aboard so far.

Thirteen pounds and 36 inches, a record we hope to beat in the future!

Our last stop in the Exuma Cays was at Ship’s Channel Cay, a great overnight stop before we would head out across the Middle Passage to Northern Eleuthera and the Abaco Islands. That night as I was tossing dinner scraps to the friendly remora under our boat, a huge Crevalle Jack decided he wanted a bite as well. Dan attempted to catch him for half an hour or so, but couldn’t get him to bite. After cleaning up, we accidentally left the pole in our rod holder and went to bed. At about 11 o’clock that night, we starting hearing the whirring of the reel and we both rushed out to discover he had finally gotten his bite! The half hour fight that ensued, chasing him around the boat with me holding the flashlight and Dan reeling him in, will certainly live on as a proper send off from the Exumas!

We loved the Exuma Islands and hope to return to visit again. Our first real cruising grounds will be hard to beat in our future travels.

The whole crew on our visit to Thunderball Grotto.

On our second day in Black Point, Carter had decided that he was bored with Mom and Dad for company and it was time to find himself some new friends. Up to that point in the trip we had seen precious little of other families on cruising boats and even Dan and I were ready for some interaction. Carter attempted to make a VHF call by saying, “Calling all vessels, are there any kid boats in Black Point?” to no avail. Then, as we were coming back from a water run some motion caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Little people! We saw a few kids jumping off of their boat and swimming not too far from us.

Our crews plus that of another boat family on Del Max.

Carter and I unceremoniously ditched Dan and the water jugs to go check out the action. Sure enough when we pulled up to their boat, Zazen, we found three girls with their parents enjoying the warm water. And thus began our first foray into buddy boating, as we made arrangements to meet at the beach.

The two bambinos!

Dan and I quickly became friends with Fred and Adrienna but not as quickly as Carter and their youngest daughter Paloma. For the next week, the two were practically inseparable partially because we all enjoyed each other’s company so much and partially because the two of them would drive us crazy asking when we would meet up again. Marine, Penelope, and Paloma were a joy to be around and Fred and Adrienna were the type of friends that come quickly but we hope will last a lifetime. (Sorry if we spelled any of your names wrong!)

Oh to be a fly on the wall during this conversation…

We made our way back north with them, seeing sights for a second time in a new light with another family to share them with. On one long hike, we never quite made it to the destination we had intended, but Carter and Paloma managed to have a great time anyway jumping in puddles, picking fruits from bushes, and having the enlightened conversation of four-year-olds. When I asked Carter afterward what he thought about the hike he replied, “Mom, it was very hot and very amazing.” Well put.

While we only spent a week together on the water, it felt like we had known them for years by the time we had to say good-bye. This was the end of their trip and only the beginning of ours so we unfortunately had to part sooner then we (or the kids) would have liked. Such are the friendships made while traveling. We look forward to meeting more cruisers and hope to see the crew of Zazen again in the future.

Our first anchorage in the Exuma Cays

Our journey from Rose Island to Allen’s Cay went straight through the Yellow Banks, an area dotted thickly with shallow coral heads. For a little over an hour, I was at the bow having my first experience with visual piloting. Dan was watching the charts while I was continuously scanning the water for any dark areas ahead. The water here is so clear that it is quite obvious to see large coral heads or rocks that may be of danger to our boat, but only as long as the sun is above/behind you and the clouds aren’t shadowing the water. It is quite nerve wracking when a cloud passes over an area and suddenly the water is a solid gray. I was rewarded for my diligence by a pair of dolphins playing underneath me just as we passed out of the dangerous zone (and with an undamaged boat of course!)

This iguana was standing sentry for the rest.

He called out all of his bodies once we got to the beach.

We spent our first two nights in Allen’s and Highbourne Cays where we got to spend some time with the famous iguanas. As we pulled into the anchorage, there was one iguana standing sentry in the middle of the beach but as soon as dinghies starting pulling up they starting appearing everywhere! Nearly 100 iguanas swarmed onto the beach, waiting for the handouts they’ve obviously been conditioned to expect. We kept our distance, but the iguanas certainly were not shy at all!

Even with having to pull the dinghy, the scenery made up for it and then some!

The most beautiful beach of our trip so far.

From Higbourne we journeyed into the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, with our first stop being Shroud Cay. Shroud Cay is essentially a ring of solid land surrounding a huge mangrove field with two creeks running through the middle. We decided to journey by dinghy on the northern creek to the Exuma Sound on the east side of the island. What we didn’t realize was we should’ve gone around high tide, so Dan and I got to play barge mules whenever the creek got too shallow to drive our dinghy. Never the less, it was one of the most beautiful hikes we’ve ever done and the beach at the end of the hike was by far the most beautiful we’ve seen so far in the Bahamas.

The view of the Warderick Wells mooring field from the top of Boo Boo Hill

Our modest plank on Boo Boo Hill

Next, we moved on to Warderick Wells which is the home to the park office and another beautiful destination. We hiked Boo Boo Hill, where the legend says the ghosts of a shipwreck still haunt. Boats leave a piece of driftwood with their name on the top of the hill and we left ours too. What we didn’t realize was how elaborate some of the decorations would be! The view from the top was spectacular but we were ready for a dip at the beach after a hot hike in the sun.

You can see the whole crew swimming out for a taste.

Carter was nervous about the pig biting his fingers!

Finally we made it to the famous Staniel Cay, home of the swimming pigs and Thunderball Grotto. We visited the pigs on our first day, not knowing exactly what to expect. As we pulled up in the dinghy, they saw us coming and starting swimming out to us, especially once they figured out that we had brought them some raw potatoes. The biggest pigs were so excited they were pushing into the side of our dinghy with their mouths open like baby birds! We decided not to even get out since we didn’t want Carter to get accidentally knocked down or stepped on by the over-excited hogs.

Thunderball Grotto was a magical place!

Most of the entrances are underwater at high tide.

Thus far in the trip, we hadn’t been able to convince Carter to try snorkeling with us. That all changed at Thunderball Grotto. The grotto was made famous by the James Bond movie Thunderball and is truly just as beautiful as the movie made it seem. We made sure to go at low slack tide so that Carter would have plenty of clearance into the low cave entrances and so we wouldn’t have to fight the strong current that runs through. When you come into the cave, it is amazing to see the shafts of light shooting down into the amazingly clear water filled with fish and colorful coral and sponges. Carter loved it so much, he immediately started asking us when we would come back again. At the time, we didn’t think we would but he got his wish the next time we came back through.

More pictures and buddy boating stories to come soon!

Carter says, “Listen up, foo’!”

Everyone in cruising talks about the steep learning curve involved when you first start. Dan and I can certainly attest to that and the stress that goes along with the uncertainty of moving your house and all your worldly possessions across an expanse of water. While we are definitely not what we would call seasoned, we have gotten into more of a rhythm after a few weeks of traveling thanks in part to some first-hand lessons we’d like to share:            

1. Take seasickness medicine as soon as you feel sick (some even say beforehand if you are prone to bad bouts). Trying to tough it out only makes you miserable, it doesn’t go away without dry land under your feet.
2. Weather forecasts aren’t always right. This might seem like an obvious one, but there’s something about paying money for forecasts that makes it seem like they should be more accurate and more frustrating when they aren’t.
3. Paper charts are worth the cost but not only for a back-up to electronics. Our Explorer charts of the Bahamas have been invaluable in planning our routes, something that is significantly harder to do on a chart-plotter or other small screen. It is also nice to have two different sources of chart information.
4. If your charts and instruments (including your eyes) disagree, trust your instruments and proceed with caution. Charts aren’t always accurate and if the visibility is bad, it’s always better to err on the conservative side to avoid problems.
5. Once you get used to the sounds and reactions of your boat, be wary of believing your gauges if they are telling you something that doesn’t seem to jive with how your boat is acting. We lost significant time on our trip to Nassau because an electrical short was telling us that the engine was running hotter than it really was. If we would have tested the gauges sooner, we wouldn’t have lost those (very uncomfortable) hours.
6. Calling a boat by name (thank you AIS!) usually produces a response from the captain. No name, forget about it.
7. Moving around in an anchorage can produce dramatically different results in comfort levels. This is especially true if you can get tucked in slightly farther behind wave obstacles or get out of the typical line of traffic coming in.
8. Fix the annoying noises your boat makes at anchor, it’s worth it! Rocking at night we can handle, creaking all night we can’t.
9. Salt + inside of the boat = bad. Rinsing off with fresh water in the cockpit is worth the price of a gallon or two here and there.
10. If glitter is the bane of the craft world, sand is the bane of the cruising world. Once it sticks, it is impossible to get rid of.

What lessons did you have to learn the hard way?

We spent some time walking around the Marina Village at Atlantis.

If a week in Bimini was surprising in how different from the United States it was, a few days in Nassau was just the opposite. We chose to stay at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina which is located at the far eastern side of the harbor. Even though it was farther away from the typical tourist attractions, it did have one major advantage…the awesome grocery store and Starbucks right across the street! To be honest, it was a bit comical how excited we were over what seemed like lightning fast internet at Starbucks after months on dodgy marina wi-fi networks.

We had heard from guidebooks and friends to make sure to stop in to Solomon’s Fresh Market for groceries and now we know why. It was exactly like a Fresh Market or Kroger at home, complete with a full assortment of organics and basically everything you would expect if you were shopping in the States, just at Bahamian prices. Some things were pretty similar in price (bread, fruits and vegetables, etc) while others were much more (like $10.99 for a pound of chicken breast!) We didn’t have too many things to stock up on other than some perishables, but we figured we’d replenish what we could before heading to the Exumas.

Carter loved watching the animals in the huge aquarium.

On Monday, we decided to hitch a taxi ride over to Paradise Island to visit the famous Atlantis Resort. Even though Dan and I had visited after my brother’s wedding (and our engagement) in 2007, the resort was significantly bigger and more opulent this time around. Beautiful fountains, tile mosaics, and Atlantis “artifacts” are everywhere in sight. The aquarium is a wonder in itself and is free to visit. While we considered paying the extra cost to go to the water park, we decided that the $120/person price tag was just a little more than we were willing to pay. We did tour the marina though and let’s just say we saw a 58 ft Azimut that looked like a dinghy compared to the mega-yachts docked there!

This dolphin greeted us just after we anchored at Rose Island.

After stocking up and sight-seeing, we were ready to get out of marinas for a while and get to a nice anchorage. Our first inclination was to head straight for Allen’s Cay, but we tried a night at Rose Island just north-east of Nassau first due to a great recommendation from our friends Peter and Gale. We liked it so much, we ended up staying for two nights instead! (though we did tuck a little further in to the anchorage on the second night to reduce the swell.) We all enjoyed exploring the little rocky island on the south side of the anchorage, even the dogs. Visiting at both high and low tides gave us a great teaching opportunity for Carter to learn about tide pools and the myriad of animals that make their homes in shallow water.

Our beautiful view of Nassau Harbor from Rose Island.

We’re finally starting to get in to the swing of cruising and just in time too. Next stop is the Exuma chain with the reputation of some of the best cruising grounds in the world. We can’t wait!

A beautiful afternoon for a swim.

Friday morning we were finally ready to get out of Bimini. We took a short hop down to the anchorage at Cat Cay. It was still bouncy since the winds had been coming across the banks for a few days, but at least the wind and waves were coming from the same direction this time around. Once we were safely anchored, we decided to take our dinghy over to Honeymoon Harbor, about 2 miles from our anchorage. We had heard that it was a great place to stop and we are glad that we did!

This one practically climbed my leg!

Carter loved being able to touch the stingrays as they swam by!

We knew that Honeymoon Harbor was famous for having stingrays, but we made sure to hedge our explanation to Carter to manage his expectations in case they decided not to show up. Luckily, that was unnecessary because there were plenty for us to see! As soon as we waded into the water, the rays would immediately start coming towards us. They made many passes close enough to rub your hands along their backs and even a few times rubbed against our legs as they went by looking for food. We spent the whole afternoon playing on the beach and swimming with stingrays, exactly the kind of day we had dreamed of for years! Both Dan and I commented afterwards that it was actually somewhat unnerving to have the multiple stingrays gliding straight towards you in the water. Regardless of how cool it was, we were children of the 90’s and remember distinctly the unlikely death of Steve Irwin at the tail of a stingray.

Our first fish was a black fin tuna!

We left early the next morning to start across the Great Bahama Bank. The wind and waves weren’t nearly as calm as predicted by our multiple weather sources, but the first day wasn’t too bad. We even caught our first fish of the trip, a small black-fin tuna! Unfortunately, our second catch of the day broke our leader and stole our good trolling lure, so that was the end of the fishing for the trip. We’ll hopefully pick up another good one at one of the shops in Nassau and some stronger leaders too!

Our first view of New Providence Island was a relief.

We kept going back and forth on whether to stop for the night at the Northwest Providence Channel entrance or just continue on overnight to Nassau. In the end, we decided to do a little of both. We anchored around 7 pm just behind the shoals north of Andros island to have dinner and get Carter to bed, since we knew it would be hard for him to fall asleep with the engine on. Dan and I got a few hours of sleep before pulling up the anchor at 1:30 am. It was important to us to get into Nassau harbor before dark the next day and it turned out to be a good choice because once again the weather didn’t cooperate as we had hoped.

Carter and the dogs prefer our land days.

Throughout the day, we ended up with wind right on the nose and waves opposing which meant no sails and more engine time. We also discovered that the back-light for the engine thermometer was wired incorrectly, making the engine temperature appear higher than it actually was. This made us keep the engine running slower than normal, which made our trip about 3 hours longer than we had hoped to make the trip. The waves, time, and the added bonus of Carter and I both being seasick for a few hours meant that we were all exceedingly happy to see New Providence Island on the horizon. We went through Nassau Harbor with no problems and were all relieved to be back on land for a few days before heading to the Exumas.

The view of the Atlantis resort from the harbor