Tideye

It’s Christmas Eve again. Quite possibly my favorite day of the entire year. Charlie just came downstairs while I was finishing my morning coffee and in the sweetest voice said, “Happy Christmas Eve Mom,” through a smile so big you could hear it. (He then proceeded to try and negotiate a morning gift opening as opposed to our evening tradition…) Yep. It’s my favorite day of the year.

Wishing everyone one heck of a happy holiday. Hopefully happy enough that someone can hear the smile in your voice 🙂 Big love from the crew of S/V Tideye.

Big Blue? Hm. Might need to work on her name a bit. But the first time I pulled the line to lower the collar and watched the enormous sail billow out off our bow, that’s what came to mind. “There she is. Big Blue.”

Logan has been itching to add a light, down wind sail to our toolbox since, well, since we moved aboard I think. I didn’t understand. I thought with our main and genoa, we could sail reasonably well in most conditions. I’m a cruiser, not a performance sailer here! Also not a huge fan of sail changes…But that was before I felt Tideye slide through the water at 5 knots in 8 knots of breeze. Wow. I get it. We needed this sail. Bonus is how beautiful she is. Big Blue is an A3 asymmetrical spinnaker made by Quantum Sails. Welcome aboard!

Aside from taking Tideye out to test Big Blue and a couple of weekend social visits, we have been neglecting our sailboat responsibilities in order to focus on settling back into life here in Texas. It didn’t take long. Boat to house is much easier than house to boat, logistically speaking. Now we are planning our next hop along the Gulf Coast. Sail on!

Has there ever been a passage with THAT many fish brought onboard? Seriously. Piles of mahi, tuna, grouper, jacks and finally a prize wahoo. The Tideye Crew may have run out of cookies and peanut butter, but never lacked for fresh fish as they sailed 1300 miles over 8 days to make a July 4th arrival to Kemah in Galveston Bay.

The passage was a total success. The weather allowed for 4 days of downwind sailing followed by 4 days of motoring. Logan captained our floating home with his friends Taylor, Rob and Jeff as crew. They departed Georgetown on June 23rd for Water Cay in the Jumentos where they waited on a low pressure system to move out before upping anchor. Then after a week of sailing, fishing, and I’m sure lots of stories I will never hear about, they arrived in Kemah, TX where the kids and I waited on the docks to catch lines. Excellent blue water experience and all around good time.

So now S/V Tideye is all tucked in at a dock in Kemah – a groovy new spot piled high with roller coasters and carnival games. Yes, yet ANOTHER season where Tideye is spending storm season in the hurricane zone. Sigh. One year we’ll make it out. But in the mean time, this is a great spot to make some upgrades and knock out maintenance projects. All while listening to theme park screams in the background.

We sailed the boat back to Texas so that she would be closer to us. (That AND sailing across the Gulf has been an ambition of Logan’s for a very long time.) We made the decision to mix things up a bit this year and move back on land while we continue to cruise the boat around. So we won’t be full time cruisers anymore, more like…land lubbers with an enthusiastic sailing agenda. How will that all play out? Well, we are still working on the logistics. But for now we are exploring our old haunts here in Austin, TX, hugging our friends, and finding our land legs again. S/V Tideye, dock lines secured.

Words of truth shared by my good friend Johnny at Da Sand Bar. The last few days have been filled with sweaty sandy hugs as I said goodbye to people and places that made Georgetown home this season. This was the time that we made mama cry….a lot.

Again, before all the boo-hooing, we filled our last days in The Bahamas with smiles. The sail south from Spanish Wells down the Exuma chain was idyllic. Gentle winds, green flash sunset conditions each evening, and plenty of time to travel back to Georgetown to catch our flight made for a week of quality family time.

The kids went back to Texas to play with grandparents for a week, but not before we made a bucket list of Georgetown “lasts”.

I flew back down to the islands with our people. Our friends that have been friends longer than…well since we were about the age of our kids now I guess! Another jam packed weekend showcasing this bad ass country.

S/V Tideye has a big passage on the horizon. The past two seasons we have docked in South Carolina for storm season – this year we decided to knock something off of Logan’s bucket list. He’ll sail the boat across the gulf from The Bahamas to Houston! Crew is lined up, routes are plotted, and there is a palpable level of bubbling excitement.

So now it’s time to leave. But only so that we can come back. One day.

Tideye was hauled out of the water Friday morning. She splashed Sunday morning – 48 hours later! It’s still hard to wrap our heads around that quick of a turnaround time. In our experience, the boat tends to hang out in the yard longer than predicted…lift scheduling issues, weather, unforeseen boat problems…but not in Spanish Wells! R&B Boatyard was just as fantastic of an experience as we were promised.

In addition to a having killer boat yard, Spanish Wells is a quirky happy place. I keep calling my mom from each new island saying, “This place is SO different.” She laughs at me, but it’s totally true. Spanish Wells is tiny. When we first arrived, I went to hook us up with golf cart to cruise around the island. (They still let me drive here in The Bahamas believe it or not) I was asking what was and wasn’t walkable when I was finally cut off: “The island is two miles long. Everything is technically walkable.”

We moved off the boat for a few days while the boat was on the hard and spent the week falling in love with Johnny Cakes, playing with our Bahamian friends and their family (with kids!), and being blinded by the whitest sand. Sunglasses didn’t even help. The food was great, the people are warm and the island is squeaky clean. Spanish Wells definitely gets high marks from the Renz Crew.

With serviced sail drives and a sparkling fresh bottom we sailed straight south back to Exuma. We all love exploring new places just as much as we love re-visiting our favorites. It’s still May, so we decided to squeeze in as much of this beautiful country as we can this season. Our friend Adam asked me what I love most about living in The Bahamas after dinner one night. I laughed at myself when I couldn’t come up with a single answer. After an awkwardly long pause, I finally told him that the fact that every island has several AWESOME varieties of local hot sauce was pretty groovy. But no, we aren’t here for the hot sauce. A week later, I’m still trying to figure out how to answer that question. Better do some more research.

You think we like it here?

As I was attaching the bridle to our anchor off of Compass Cay, I had to pause and regroup after looking down to see a shark swimming just feet below my hand. A HUGE nurse shark was circling our boat as we set the anchor. We killed the engines, but he didn’t leave! He just kept swimming at the surface and I kid you not, he was cuddling our sugar scoops. Like a cat nuzzles. Should we hop in and go for a swim?

No. But we did get excited to step OVER that shark and dinghy over to Compass Cay Marina where they let you hop in the water and swim, pet, and even feed the dang things. All the kids were excited. I assumed that once they got a look at water filled with sharks, they would change their minds (maybe use a little good judgment). Nope. Everyone hopped in. Well, everyone except me. I said that my brave act for the day was allowing my family to swim with sharks.

We spent the week island hopping the Exumas with the Salty Dawg Rendezvous. We joined this group last year and had so much fun we decided to put it on our calendars again this season. This year we picked different natural attractions to explore with the kids – snorkeling an underwater cave, swimming with sharks, and practicing family freediving in the Sea Aquarium. Logan’s hobby has created a family obsession. Everyday was more fun than the last and every evening spent with great friends on the beach for happy hour and beach games. Thanks Salty Dawgs!

Hours after wrapping up all the silly fun, we headed back out to sea to sail back across the Exuma Sound to the island of Eleuthera. We needed to make our way to the small island of Spanish Wells. Spanish Wells has one of the only boat yards in The Bahamas that can haul a catamaran out of the water and we have some annual maintenance that needs to be taken care of. So after upping anchor daily for the last two weeks, we find ourselves moored in a spot for about a week. It’s weird to wake up each morning and recognize our surroundings. And it’s weird that it’s weird.

Cruuuuuuunch! I looked at Tucker, “Oh boy, that wasn’t good.” When we rent a car, Logan is usually the driver. The driver’s seat is on the right side and you drive on the left down here on the islands. A small adjustment, but you’d be surprised how unnatural it feels. But with only one pot hole filled road to navigate, Tucker and I set out on an adventure together.

We were out running errands the day before upping anchor to sail across the Exuma Sound to the Exumas. One of those errands was refueling our rental car and filling two jerry cans with diesel (our tanks were getting too low for comfort and ten gallons would be a nice cushion). After a really fun 20 minute drive swerving to avoid those potholes and oncoming cars, we were proud of ourselves for arriving unscathed….for about 10 seconds. As I pulled up to the pump, I misjudged our distance and put our front bumper right into the stone barrier – remember I’m on the right side of the car, our gas cap on the left. The attendant came out laughing at our “fender bender” and helped us with our fuel needs. After inspecting the damage, ensuring nothing was rubbing on the tire, we squared up and continued our journey…albeit with slightly more caution. More embarrassment and more adventure than we had bargained for.

The previous four days on Cat Island were less embarrassing and full of fun. Our main reason for visiting the quiet island (home to only 1500 people) was to check Tucker’s box of hiking to the summit of highest point in the entire country. Mount Alvernia, or The Hermitage, towers above the rest of the country at a whopping 206 feet above sea level. We put on real shoes for the challenge! Once you climb the hand carved stone staircase, you are rewarded with a stunning view and a quaint chapel gives off some pretty magical vibes. Hike Mount Alvernia – check!

Next we followed signs down gravel roads to a place called the Healing Pond. We had been told it was an experience similar to the Dead Sea. A high salinity content makes you super buoyant – sounds fun! We all changed into our suits on the side of the road and plunged into the salty healing waters. It. was. awesome. The buoyancy made it feel like a zero gravity experience. You could hold your body vertical and your head just floated above the surface. Or float on your back with arms and legs up out of the water. Another fun family memory made.

Yesterday we sailed downwind for 10 hours across the Exuma Sound and navigated our way through a new cut. Dotham Cut is deep, but narrow and still had an unsettling amount of current as we pushed through an hour before slack tide. We anchored just inside the cut at Blackpoint. Last year we anchored in this same harbor and I was writing about how we had just completed our first solo passage out on the ocean. This year, a longer passage felt like business as usual. A good time to reflect on how far we have come as a family of sailors and cruisers. Pretty groovy.

Our time in the Jumentos was cut short after a four foot swell had Tideye rocking so hard at anchor that we had to secure the galley like we were underway. If this was any sign of what was to come with a north component wind, we didn’t want any part of it! So anchor up baby, with a route to Long Island on the chart plotter. We had only been walking down the main road for two minutes before a car pulled over to ask if we needed a ride – Logan and I looked at each other, we were going to love this place.

Long Island is a new to us island (and a huge one at 80 miles long by 4 miles wide), so we had a lot of exploring to do. We rented a car for a few days to get around:

Dean’s Blue Hole – FINALLY! I have wanted to check this place out for…12 years. With a depth of 663 feet, it was thought to be the deepest salt water blue hole in the world. Now it ranks number three, but the beauty and accessibility are incredible. Bonus is that we got to watch a couple of professional free divers do some training – impressive isn’t a big enough word. Logan made his deepest dive yet at 75 feet, which is plenty deep enough in my opinion!

The Hamilton Caves were also on our must see list. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but ho-ly cow! Leonard’s family has owned this land for generations and he gave us a spectacular private tour through some of the grooviest caves we’ve seen. Charlie was on fire. Leonard could hardly keep up with his questions as we used flashlights to spot bats and an underground tidal pool with crabs and frogs.

Easter is one of the kids’ favorite holidays…though each holiday is a favorite as it approaches (especially with a mom that likes candy as much as they do). So we had our annual traditions planned out, all things eggs and bunnies, but as we were saying our goodbyes to our new friends at Tiny’s Hurricane Hole, we were invited to the Harbor Club for a Long Island Easter celebration. And what?! An appearance from the Easter Bunny, brunch followed by egg hunts for kids AND adults – it was yet another case of “we couldn’t have planned this better if we had tried.”

After the winds chilled out a bit, we sailed 30 miles north to Calabash Bay. This place is a dream for our family (minus the gentle swell wrapping into the harbor from the north – hopefully it STAYS gentle…) We are anchored in 10 feet of jello blue water (blue raspberry flavor to be specific) in front of a stellar beach resort that shares amenities with cruisers. Our planned two night stay quickly turned into a week before we make the jump across the Exuma Sound to our next spot.

I really am the worst cruiser. Every time I find a place I like, it’s oddly difficult for me to want to move. Even though I know the next port will most likely be another place that I don’t want to leave. But the winds and swell look reasonable and we need to sail to another island to check an item of Tucker’s Bahama bucket list. Hoist the main!

We had just arrived to a new anchorage at Water Cay in the Jumentos. Tucker was begging to head out fishing as soon as the anchor was set. Lucy was already in her swimsuit and Charlie had his snorkel gear on before we even got in the dinghy. So off we went – in search of a nice reef to fish and snorkel before dinner. That’s when it happened. Logan speared the largest Nassau grouper to date and launched it up out of the water into our dinghy. The fish was greeted with screams of surprise, joy and in Lucy’s case – terror. The four of us had been bobbing up and down in the dinghy calmly discussing evening plans when BAM! Giant flopping beast landed with a thud inches from our toes – spear still sticking out of its back and mouth open so wide it could have swallowed a softball. I’m just glad no one fell off the dinghy backwards trying to escape! It was a pretty hilarious memory that we will all keep forever. We LOVE the Jumentos.

That was actually the second time Lucy cried a lot this week. This nomadic lifestyle keeps us all moving – lots of the time in different directions. We had to say goodbye to our close friends on Bijou de la Mer, including Lucy’s best friend. Tears were shed, favorite clothes swapped, and plans were made for a reunion. Love you guys.

The good news is that before all the weeping, we were all smiles. The last six weeks in Georgetown were a combination of way too much fun as we hosted two spring breaks and a settled routine including lots of diving for Logan and lots of beach playdates for the rest of us. The Gunderman Family and the Krutsch Family both made return visits this year. Nothing makes me happier than a boat full of happy giggling friends. I did get stung by a lion fish and whewee! Those suckers sure do pack a punch!

Once all that spring break fun came to an end, we started looking for weather for our own departure. We were feeling like our anchor was stuck and needed to be…unstuck. Logan’s love of diving and spearing pushed us south back to the Jumentos for the third time this year. So with a light north wind, we set out at first light in order to make it to the cut with just enough water to get us through. The winds were light enough for a few days to anchor out in the middle of the banks in order to snorkel a giant blue hole. It was a jam packed two days of fun that loaded up our fridge with so much fresh fish that my recipe list has been completely exhausted – luckily the internet has one or two for us to try.

We plan to sail around for the next few months, exploring new islands and soaking up as much salt, sand and sea as we can. Even though hurricane season is still a few months away, it looms. But for now, we cruise. Hopefully with fewer tears for Lucy.

We only hung out in Georgetown for a week before the tasty lobsters of the Jumentos were calling us back so loudly that we HAD to sail back down. Several trips to Exuma Market then we were ready to up anchor to go fish our faces off.

This trip we traveled with our good friends from Charleston, Island Time and Toes in the Water. Then we rendezvoused with Everlong and Bijou de la Mer and had ourselves a TIME. We fell into an awesome rhythm – the mornings were spent schooling while the rest of the crew went out fishing. After lunch we explored the deserted islands waiting to see what the ocean had provided us for dinner. Evenings were spent sharing the daily catch together and watching the moonrise. Pretty dang fun. Logan celebrated another trip around the sun surrounded by happy friends and more fresh seafood than we could eat.

The last time we made the trek down, the winds were super light. Not the case this time around – we finally got to SAIL. A lot. It got a little bumpy with strong trade winds right on the beam, but totally worth it to make the hop between islands without the hum of the engines in the background.

Our sail from Water Cay back to Georgetown was charted to be 60 miles this time. The previous trips we had been able to use Hog Cut – but that guy is shaaaaaallow. We need to hit it pretty close to high tide in order to have enough water under the keel. This time the high tides were early in the morning and in the evening, so we had to sail around the island via the Comer Channel. 60 miles is a long day sail for us, so we upped anchor at first light in order to make it back to Georgetown to catch the Super Bowl (priorities!).

As much as we all love the ocean, we all really love the mountains. We have been living on anchor since November and a little boat break sounded pretty nice. We also missed grandparents, had an 8th birthday on the horizon, AND our visas were about to expire. So we spent the next week tackling boat chores and tucking Tideye in for a couple weeks without us.

Being back on land is such a bizarre thing. We’ve been here for a week now and it feels so completely normal and entirely foreign at the same time. I appreciate every long hot shower, but I miss watching the sunrise each morning. I love walking down the aisles at Target, but my feet feel a little cramped in shoes. I can’t tell you how great it is to hug friends and family, but I constantly wonder what our boat friends are up to and if we are missing out on anything cool. I guess that’s why it is important for us to do a little of both. We still have a week before we head home, but I’m already checking the weather forecasts for Exuma. Just a little boat break.