Lake in the Middle of Nowhere

Posted by Christopher

We pulled up on a beach in the middle of nowhere. Pristine white sand, probably only visited once every couple weeks, by unsuspecting sailors. We quickly anchored our dingy and began to hike up a trail, commonly whacking down spider webs belonging to spiders, with bodies larger than erasers and legs longer than needles.

 We continued to walk getting tired as the minutes past, when suddenly the trail broke out into a large opening, lined with trees and cliffs. The water looked pure and lively, like the sun had spent millennia perfecting the pool. The 6 metre drop into the salty lake, was straight and jumpable. We had found what we were looking for.

The blue hole on Hoffmann's Cay.  There is a cave right beneath where we are sitting.

We had heard of this, large, tranquil pond, but never seen it. We were overwhelmed with beauty and excitement. We had also heard of a path out from the pool, but we couldn’t see it. Alexander and I saw a path leading around and decided that it must be the right one, so we began to explore. We cowered down the path, with images of the spiders dropping down on us but kept moving. In a couple of minutes we hiked down to a wondrous cavern,directly beside the lake. We called to our companions (directly above us) and told them about this. They came down and were enticed by the cave themselves. We all stood in the shade of the cave, before alexander and I said “who wants to jump?'”

View from the cave.  The jumping spot is at the top of the picture.

We hiked back to the top of the cliff and got ready. After a small conversation about who needed to go first Alexander stepped back slowly, then ran forward and launched himself off, easily clearing any obstacle below. It looked maniacally entertaining, so not far behind him I flung myself off of the drop making great distance and flailing around to keep balanced, like a fish out of water. After the longest second I've ever experienced, a crashed into the salty lake and looked down what must’ve been a hundred feet. We did this again and again alongside our dad while my mom and sister stayed in the cavern below.

Alexander catching air.

Christopher right behind him.

After a joyful session of hurling myself off a cliff and getting my picture taken, I began just to swim instead of falling anymore. Soon my family joined me and eventually we were all swimming. It was a very serene moment with everyone in the water, just floating and soon people started to get out. we finally began to leave and I was completely happy. It was a good day and a good ending.

Floating in the blue hole.

Halloween Day Hurray

Posted by Katie

Halloween day started off with scary pancakes.

Today I’m going to tell you about our Halloween party. It took about a week of planning and the day of the party was pretty crammed too.  Here is the whole story starting from getting the party ready.  Everyone had a job that I had given them.  Dad was on music. I had given him a play list to set up and he added some other songs too.  The boys were on decorating but they  got grumpy sometimes so I fed them some sugar to keep them going.  I was on decorating the cake, getting the games, doing the magic show and making sure every thing went as planned.

Once we were done we decided to wait an hour until it was dark.  After an hour Alexander got us all to start the party.  Alex was dressed as a pirate, Chris was dressed as Robin hood and I was dressed as a vampire.  Mom was a witch and Dad was a burn victim but he took his wrapping off pretty early.

We remembered to get some Halloween costumes and decorations before we left Florida, so we were all ready when the day came.

Dad kind of threw his costume together at the last minute from our first aid kit.  I think he wrapped his bandages a bit tight.

Then we started the games.  I had made special games that were meant for Halloween.  We started with Halloween charades  then we finished making our home made pizza mom had started before. 

Halloween charades.

Then we put them in the oven and started another game.  After the pizza was ready and eaten it was time for the awesome mouthwatering scrumptious iced candy loaf cake that I worked on for half the day.  It was a pretty good cake.

We had the spider cake and candy all ready to go, too.

Anyways after the cake we went to trick or treat to all the hatches on the boat.  Mom and Dad went to the hatches and acted out different funny people.  The first person we met was Mom acting out an old lady, then we met Dad acting out Mom and then Mom acting out Dad.  The last one was a pirate and he gave us candy because I was apparently dressed as a pirate vampire and apparently Christopher was dressed as pirate Robin hood.  Weird right?  And last but not least (actually it was the most) the dance party!

Dad had put together an awesome playlist.  The party was legend… wait for it…...

…..dery.  We had put on the underwater lights, cranked up the tunes and went up to the front with the gleaming stars shining as bright as they could just to make our party that much better.  Goodbye and Happy Halloween!       

Since there was no one else around for miles, we cranked the music up and had a great dance party.

It’s Pronounced Conk!

Posted by Alexander Nov.1

Yesterday we got to go conching which is not pronounced with a ch sound but a hard k sound. We met some other Canadian boaters out in an uninhabited anchorage. Bruce and Val had found an awesome place to catch conch. We met up with them in our dingy and Bruce took us to the conch hot spot. It was very wavy so we anchored our dingy and mom and Katie stayed aboard. We followed Bruce through the tumultuous water until he spotted a little lump on the seafloor (which took about five seconds). I dove down to grab it by the shell and brought it back to the dingy. Mom was amazed at the size of it. Dad was right behind me paddling with one arm. He dumped another conch into the bucket. We went back out and within seconds were coming back with more conch.

Mom was in shock that we were bringing in so many that she failed to say stop! Katie expressed moms panic and we stopped. In two minutes we had brought in twelve conchs. That’s the trouble with conching. The hard part is finding them so when you already know where they are you’re as fast as a production line.
We kept ten conchs and went to the beach to clean them.

Bruce, ready to teach us how to clean a conch.

This is where things get gross. You chop at the shell behind the second line of ridges. Once you’ve bashed a good hole you run a knife in the hole to break the muscle holding in the conch.

Bashing the shell with a machete (using the dull side).

You then reach into the shell and grab the conch by a bone hard limb called the toe. Here’s the fun part! You pull the conch out of it’s shell bringing all the guts with it. It basically looks like something's innards. You cut off all the unnecessary organs, cut off the eyes and nose which look like tentacles, cut open the anal tract and clean that out and slice off the thing that produces all the mucus that the conch is covered in. Did I mention the mucus? Next you skin the conch and you have yourself a nice edible slice of slimy shellfish sea snail thing.

Pulling the conch out of the shell by the "toenail".

Gross fun fact. There is this little transparent noodley thing that some conchs had. I don’t know what it did for the conch, but Bruce said that some of the Bahamians just ate it! (They claim it makes them more viral). I wouldn’t eat that slimy noodle thing in a gazillion years.

Afterwards we went to Bruce and Val’s boat the Windrush. We hung out and saw their boat, Val told mom how to cook fried conch.

Windrush, a beautiful PDQ 36 out of Lunenburg

She even  gave mom a tenderizing hammer because Val had bought a newer bigger tenderizing hammer. Everybody talked for a bit and we found out they were going the same way as us and we’d probably see them again. Afterward we all said goodbye and headed back to our boat with our new conch. New adventures also lay close ahead. You can read about them in Katie’s blog on her epic Halloween party.

On our next blog....Halloween Pancakes!  Boo!

Different Halloween for Me

Posted by Katie 

Halloween is coming!  How will we celebrate it on a boat?

This Halloween I’m kind of depressed and kind of excited.  I am depressed because I won’t be able to go trick or treating back home or here and I always loved seeing what my friends were dressed up as.  I can’t trick or treat here because we will be anchored in the middle of nowhere.  We haven’t seen any other boats for days even though we are in the awesome Bahamas.  

But I am excited because I’m throwing an awesome Halloween party with streamers, cake, games, a dance party and we are even going to find a fun way to trick or treat on the boat.  I’ll let you now how it goes. I have a calendar to count down the days till Halloween. I have already started preparing for the party and I will still have lots of work today, tomorrow and especially the next day.  What are you doing for your Halloween?  Oh, and if you want to come you can always check out the blog I’m going to write after Halloween.  At least it will feel like you were here.  I haven’t decorated the boat yet though. 

Party planning on the beach!

Life is a bowl of Berries

Posted by Scot

From the first day we hit the Bahamas, we have had nothing but strong northwest winds that have been bringing cool air with them.  Despite that, we pushed on from Bimini to Bullock’s Harbor on Great Harbor Cay, and suffered the consequences with an unpleasant 15 hour night, bashing into the wind and waves.
We spent a few days in Bullock’s Harbor recovering, and enjoying flatter water, but the wind continued to blow.  After a couple of nights on the boat, we went into the town of Bullock’s Harbor to check out the marina, get a weather forecast, and pick up a few groceries.  The trip to town was a real eye opener for the kids; picture the smallest town on the Gulf Islands, and knock the amenities back from first world to third world, and you can imagine what it is like.  The people were friendly, though, and the kids at the school, all dressed in their uniforms, lined up at the fence to check out the tourists walking through town.  The Berries are one of the less visited island groups in the Bahamas, and it is definitely low season here right now, so it turns out we are a bit of an anomaly.  The marina had the air of something from Deliverance, with the wind howling through the empty wooden docks, and a few people hanging out in the shade on picnic tables nearby.  They let us use their wifi, though, which got us the info we needed about the weather.



Once we had seen Bullock’s Harbor, we started to feel the urge to move on and see more of the Berries.  The weather report was essentially unchanged, with strong northwesterlies being forecast, but we rationalized that if we could bash our way around the north end of Great Harbor Cay, the wind would be on our beam, and we could reach right down to Market Fish Cay, and duck behind and out of the wind and waves.
So, we set out early Tuesday a.m., and had a great sail up the west side of Great Harbor Cay, protected from the waves, but getting the full effect of 18 to 20 knots of wind.  With two reefs in the main and a few extra wraps of the jib around the forestay, we were coasting along at 7 to 8 knots.  It was the first real sailing we had done on Monashee, and she handled it great.



Before long, though, we were out from behind the protection of the island, and were turning straight into 3 meter swells.  We had to start the engines just to make any headway.  With those waves, we didn’t want to have to tack way north, then back down again under sail, prolonging our time in the open.  We worked our way past the two cruise ships that were there to enjoy the “private islands” that the cruise ship companies own north of Great Harbor Cay.



After about an hour, we rounded the north end of the island, and turned southwest, putting the wind onto our port beam.  We took off again under sail, but still had huge rollers bouncing us around.  All the kids hung out on the coach house roof, watching the waves to keep from getting sick, and hanging on tight as the boat rolled side to side.  It was a pretty wild ride, with spray breaking over the foredeck every few minutes.






 Eventually, we made it in behind Market Fish Cay, and immediately enjoyed the quieter water.  We motored through some shallows, at one point just brushing our starboard keel on the sandy bottom.  We passed another catamaran flying a Canadian flag – Windrush, out of Lunenburg Nova Scotia.  We worked our way down to the next beach beyond their boat, and dropped anchor in about 8 feet of water.  Despite the ongoing wind, the water here was the bright blue turquoise you see in the travel guide books.  We were happy to have found a spot to hide from the wind for a few more days.

Monashee at anchor

Resting in the water off Hoffman's Cay.  No other boats in sight.

Sailing to More Bahamas

Posted by Alexander

Dad's note:

For the astute reader's out there, you will have noticed that we have not posted much on our blog for the past week.  That is because we have been in the Berry Islands, with no internet access.  That doesn't mean we haven't been writing though!  For the next few days, I will post a couple of times per day to get you caught up.  To start with, here is Alexander's account of our overnight passage from Bimini over to Great Harbor Cay on the Berries:

Today, I should say tonight, we are leaving on an awesome overnight passage. We left Bimini at exactly six o’ clock and are on our way to the Berry Islands. It’s the first night we’re trying shifts and I’m very excited. Dad and I will stay up to about twelve o’clock and then Dad will stay out a little longer. Mom and Christopher will take over from around three and onward.

Christopher on look out as we leave Bimini at sunset

Everyone is staying up a little late due to the excitement and we’ve had some new experiences already. At the beginning of our passage some dolphins came and played up alongside the Monashee. Katie was ecstatic to see her favorite animal in the wild. She is usually a little timid when it comes to fish but dolphins are a huge exception. There was a whole pod of them and they rolled around and poked out their dorsal fins. There were three adolescent  dolphins that kept popping up in unison. They kind of reminded me of me and my siblings.



Once the dolphins were gone mom and dad brought out the safety harnesses so we wouldn’t fall off the front of the boat. I was hopping around on the front and ended up jumping just before the boat came down on a wave. I felt like I had jumped four feet in the air (or to stay Canadian, about one point three meters), We made a game out of this and stayed out on the front jumping at the apexes of waves and falling much further than we jumped. It was tons of fun and I think we’ll do it again soon.

The kids jumping to absorb the waves with their harnesses on as we head out into the night.

After that little game, we retired to the brownies we had baked the day previously and finished them off. Man I love life on the boat. That’s about up to date. I can’t wait to get where we’re going but a good sleep first will be appreciated.

These yummy brownies made an ugly reappearance later & maybe weren't such a great idea after all!

Some people might have a little trouble with that, sadly. The kids are pretty much ready to throw up and I don’t think the brownies helped. Mom gave them some Gravol so hopefully they will feel better. She gave me some Gravol too but that might not be such a good thing because it’s supposed to make you drowsy and I need to stay up with Dad.

Post passage me talking now:    Well, the Gravol was a bit of a problem. Turns out mom gave me a full adult dose. I slept in until lunchtime and couldn’t get out of bed for another half an hour because it felt like my body had gone to sleep as well. When I finally got out of bed I had a lunch of a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios. Dad told me I was lucky I fell asleep because the majority of the passage was endless bouncy waves and pitch black night. Katie and Christopher had a good sleep too. The next day was spent sleeping and reading. The next day I actually took note of our surroundings. We are in a little bay. But there is supposed to be a wreck nearby that we can snorkel to. So look for my blog on that.

Dad’s note:  The passage overall was not what I would call fun.  The kids had a great time with the waves while it was still light out, but as soon as it got dark, it was hard to predict the motion of the boat without visual cues, so the little ones especially had a bad hour or so.  Once they were asleep, with the help of the Gravol as Alexander mentioned, they all slept well through the night, so the original idea of Alexander and Christopher getting up to help us with shifts didn’t work out exactly as planned.  Sara and I spelled each other off every 4 hours or so, instead.  That was just as well, though, since we spent the whole 15 hours pounding directly into the waves, which were not huge, but were big enough, and at an angle to make the ride pretty uncomfortable.  The wind and the waves were more on our nose than we had expected from the weather forecast.  We did sail for awhile when the wind backed off to about 45 degrees, so that was nice, but mostly, our engines powered us through.

Fortunately, there was not much other excitement.  We crossed the Grand Bahama Bank, and spent several hours sailing in waters less than 10 feet deep, which was kind of strange. But since it was dark, we couldn’t see the bottom, and the only indication was our depth finder.  We passed a couple of other ships out in the night as well, and had to veer off course at one point to get around a freighter that had anchored smack dab in the middle of the recommended passage course, which we were on.  He was lit up like a Christmas tree, though, so we saw him about 2 hours before we got to him, and he was easy to avoid.

The best possible picture of a freighter in the night from the deck of a bouncing sailboat.

We were sure glad to drop the anchor the next morning in the flat water at Bullocks Harbour, though.  The rest of the day was pretty quiet, and I was in bed by 6:30, with the rest of the family not far behind me.

Another welcome sunrise and calmer water as we approach Bullock's Harbor

Day at the Beach

Posted by Christopher

After a sickening overnight passage, we arrived in the welcoming Berry Islands. We found a nice place to anchor a little ways off of a wreck and a small, pretty beach. I regret to inform you though, that we have not snorkelled the wreck yet on account of the water being too cold. I know that sounds a little pathetic, especially when coming from swimming glacier lake water, but I guarantee you that if you were in the hot sun all day, swimming only hot tub water, you would be in the same shoes.

Either way after a very lazy first day here, my dad and sister felt urged to go to the beach, so we lowered our kayak and sent them off. A little while later Alexander and I decided they must be having a blast on their pristine beach with nobody on it, so we inflated our paddleboard and attempted to get there ourselves.

Our private beach in front of our anchorage

After departing from the boat, with both of us sitting down with a kayak paddle we began to paddle against the wind to get to what looked like a beach paradise. I was in the front and therefore ended up getting splashed by every wave that we broke through and Alexander was in the back, lifting the front up a little and occasionally hitting me by accident with a paddle. Once we eventually reached the beach, tired and wet (at least me) we slid our board up on to the white beach out of the turquoise water.

Two brothers trying to get in sync with their paddles - I think it took a bit of practise

We immediately wanted to go for a swim in the water, because it was much warmer in the shallows, than by our boat. After that lazy float in the water, we went and built a mountain of sand, which I named Sandy Mountain. Soon we made a game of chucking more sand at it, in order to make it taller.
Finally we decided to leave the beach, so we placed our paddleboard in the water and departed. The paddle home was a little easier because the wind wasn't directly against us, but it had changed so it wasn't with us either. We finally reached our home once more and put back our gear, then dried off.

Everyone coming back to the boat from the beach