Paradise Living: The Beginning

TL;DR:

The ocean is very powerful

Buckets were a good invention

Winter trade winds are not our friend

Boat people are good people

We spent three beautiful months in the Bahamas, starting at Cat Cay, then moving on to cruise North Bimini, the Berry Islands, New Providence, Exuma, very briefly Eleuthra, and the Abacos. Our days were spent hammocking and spearfishing and reading and snorkeling, and our evenings were spent sharing fresh ocean meals and cocktails with friends under the Bahamian stars. Those months were the best, happiest, most peaceful months of paradise living we could have ever asked for… except for the first two weeks. It was during those two weeks that we tested our skills as sailors (and fishers!) and we learned just how demanding the ocean can be.

I’ll start at the beginning.

CAT CAY

We crossed from the Florida Keys to Cat Cay because Mike (who raised his kids in the Bahamas) suggested we cross there. Shortly before departing, I googled Cat Cay and saw that it was a private island, causing me to question the soundness of the decision that we cross to there. Grace suggested that there must be more than one Cat Cay… There is not more than one Cat Cay. Most of the island was off-limits to us. However, we were able to successfully clear customs and secure our fishing and cruising permits.

We have found that seeing two girls on a boat seems to immediately surprise people and then inspire generosity. A nice man (from Michigan!) on a bike introduced himself and ended up giving us a tour of the island via golf cart. While golf-carting, we saw three of Jimmy Buffet’s houses, many beautiful plants and beach views, and a disgusting, but fascinating, amount of wealth. Grace and I enjoyed our last showers for quite a while and also met boat captains who run 110 foot yachts. In an exciting stroke of luck, one of the boat captains had just finished a trip with the family who owns the boat and had fridges full of uneaten food. He gave us delicious stone crab, granola, yogurt, and more cheese than we knew what to do with. Actually, because we don’t have refrigeration, Grace and Daniel (who was taking a break from crewing on Mike’s boat to travel with us) and I ate grilled cheese and then more cheese for every meal for about 48 hours. My first Bahamas journal entry reads, “I ate so much cheese today!” It was magical (but oh man did our stomachs hurt).

Cat Cay Harbor- hi Samadhi

Jimmy Buffet's house, under construction

Bye, Cat Cay + lighthouse!

BIMINI

After Cat Cay, we anchored out at North Bimini. Mike again chose this anchorage, which happened to be near a sea plane runway. Death by sea plane seemed inevitable. I resolved to personally make all anchorage or marina decisions after that. At Bimini, we took a quick tour of the Dolphin House, built by Ashley Saunders. It is currently complete on two floors; the third floor is still under construction. Every bit of wall is covered in beach glass, sea shells of all sizes, and pretty odds and ends collected from around the island such as bottles of nail polish or colorful license plates. It is one of the coolest things I’ve seen on this trip.

Dolphin House

Ashley Saunders

BERRY ISLANDS, BULLOCK HARBOR

We left Bimini and crossed overnight to Bullock Harbor. This was one of the best overnights we’ve done so far because Daniel was on board to help out. This meant that we could take two hour shifts at night instead of trying to stay awake for four hours at a time. As always, the stars crossing the bank were so beautiful.

I woke up at sunrise to Grace shouting “FISH” in a very panicky voice. We had just set up our fishing poles for the first time, and a 46 inch Mackerel decided to bite. It is a semi-bloody and sad process to kill a fish, but it was a unique experience to see where the food that I am eating comes from. It seems important to make that connection. Thank you, fish! You were delicious.

We made a quick land-venture to see what was up, and we found out that not a whole lot is up in Bullock Harbor except for a lot of talkative roosters and no open container laws. After watching a gorgeous sunset from land, we returned to our boats pretty quickly.

Thank you, fish!

Dan filleting the mackerel

Ready to snorkel

Eating the first fish we caught!

Thanks for cooking, Mike!

Grace at sunset

BERRY ISLANDS, SOLDIER CAY

We arrived at Soldier Cay after a long day of strong wind and 4-6 foot waves. Grace and I dinghied to the tiny uninhabited Cay to explore, finding lots of coral rock, very soft sand, a turtle, and an awesome conch shell. Sadly, much of the beach was all covered in large pieces of plastic that had washed up from the ocean, including a lot of single flip flops and those trays that dish washers use for the dishes. The lesson here is that plastic is bad. While at Soldier Cay, we also met two under-thirties named Catherine and Tucker and their dog Mango. Catherine and Tucker had moved from Maine to Colorado and then decided to buy a boat and sail from Boston to the Bahamas. They had no prior sailing experience, so Grace and I felt infinitely more capable of doing this trip after talking to them. We shared a lovely night of ocean-fresh mahi tacos, and now they follow me on Instagram.

Elpis at sunrise, taken by Mike's friend Tom

NEW PROVIDENCE (NASSAU)

We had another day of 4-6 foot waves and 25-30 knots of wind on our journey from Soldier Cay to West End anchorage at New Providence. I have never gotten sea sick before, but I was feeling pretty nauseous in the huge waves. The trick for stopping sea sickness is to look at the horizon, so I spent most of the day getting really good at driving up and down the waves and trying not to throw up my breakfast. Under no circumstances should one ever remain below deck in that kind of chop or else you will definitely get sea sick, so Grace and I had to take turns sprinting down below to grab granola bars or peanut butter. Despite the semi-unpleasant weather conditions, it was actually a pretty fun day of sailing, but we were definitely happy to drop the anchor that evening.

We spent a few days in West End; Daniel was leaving Samadhi to hike the Appalachian trail. We were so sad to say good bye to Daniel; he had become like family to us after spending hours on the ocean together. We truly valued all our conversations, talking about everything from our happiest memories to how we feel like we are exactly where we’re supposed to be. We hugged Daniel good bye, exchanging a story about our adventures together, written by me and illustrated by Grace, and a book of poetry.

Later that day, my BFF from college Heather flew into the Nassau airport to come sailing with us. I instructed her to take a cab from the airport to Jaws Beach, where we would pick her up in the dinghy and take her out to where our boat was anchored. I forgot that it would be dark when she arrived to an empty beach, and her cab driver seemed unsure about the whole situation and did not seem to believe that she was getting picked up at a beach at night via boat. However, we acquired Heather with no problems and successfully transported her through the pitch black night back to our boat. She said she felt a little like a refugee.

We spent the next day in West End swimming in the ocean, painting our nails, and shaving our legs using a bucket of salt water, and that was the last pleasant day of poor Heather’s trip. I warned her that visiting the boat is a lot of work and not like vacationing at a resort with fancy cocktails and showers. I probably should have mentioned to her that our head is non-functional so we have to use the bucket system. (We have many buckets on board, and they are all very useful. Every day I think about how great buckets are.)

Reefed main on the way to West End

Waves!

The one million mile trek back from the grocery store in Nassau

Heather visits the Bahamas!

We <3 sailing into a headwind

EXUMA (THE BEGINNING)

We left at 4 am for the Exumas; we had our sights set on a marina at Highbourne Cay. It has since been decided that getting to Highbourne Cay was the worst day of sailing we’ve had this entire trip. The wind was coming very strongly from exactly the direction we wanted to go. It was so choppy that the entire contents of our boat fell off of counters and out of storage hammocks and onto the floor. Heather looked as though she regretted coming sailing with us, particularly after our boat library fell on top of her while she was sleeping (although she was a champ about it). The hot shower at the end of the day was worth the struggles. We were so happy to be clean and have little Elpis tied up at a dock.

We left Highbourne and sailed overnight for George Town, where Heather would catch her return flight. The day started off pleasantly; we saw a lot of sharks, the wind wasn’t crazy yet, and we caught a 41 inch mahi mahi within ten minutes of putting out fishing poles. Through team effort (I reeled in, Grace stabbed the fish with a gaffe, Heather drove the boat) we got a beautiful blue, green, and yellow fish into the boat. Grace filleted the fish as Mike gave instructions over the radio. We had mahi steaks and rice for lunch; Grace was a champ for successfully doing her first fillet in 4-6 foot seas.

The theme of our Bahamas trip so far was wind, so naturally we had a long night of crazy wind. When everyone said “Don’t go to the Bahamas in February,” we should have listened. I had the first night shift, so Heather stayed up with me and we chatted under the stars. Aside from the waves and all of our possessions once again falling onto the floor, we had a lovely evening.

My second shift started at 4 am, and this was much less lovely. I have only been genuinely afraid one other time on our boat before this night (it was pretty stressful when a squall came through in northern MI). However, at 5 am, the wind started picking up even more, making an eerie howling noise. Although it had become cloudy and the sky was dark, I noticed an even darker cloud much closer to me than I wanted. I had to ease the sails a little bit so we weren’t overpowered in the gusts, which meant that I couldn’t point quite in the direction I wanted to go. Grace and Heather were both down below sleeping, and I had to tack the boat on my own. I thought about waking Grace up to help tack but imagined her telling me that I needed to toughen up, so I decided against that. I said some prayers, ran through all of our emergency plans in my head, turned on some happy music, and successfully did a couple of tacks! I have never been so happy for sunrise. Successfully making it to George Town through those kinds of sailing conditions has built my confidence in my sailing ability and in making decisions about driving the boat. It was rough at the time but it’s an experience that I’m really glad I’ve had.

We dropped anchor at George Town around noon that day, exhausted beyond belief and ready to not go sailing again for at least a few days. A book I read said “I think about how no place is how you expect it to be,” and that holds very true for George Town; when we arrived, we had no idea we were about to make incredible friends with the most inspirational stories. We would end up staying there for over a month.