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Friday, April 7th - Marsh Harbor, Bahamas
We
made the last 30 miles of our trek to Marsh Harbor
today. We spent the night in Little Harbor on
Thursday, our first glimpse of the island group known as
the Abacos. At first glance, the Abacos have
already struck us as quite different than the Exumas,
with many more "bustling" commercial centers, houses,
boats, and people.
The past three days have been mostly spent getting our
"home" ZIA from wherever we happened to be, to our
scheduled rendezvous with the Rezvani clan. Where
we happened to be was not quite as random as that makes
it sound, since we have known for a long time that we
had to be north in Marsh Harbor on a certain date.
We went back to the Exumas on Sunday from Nassau so we
could see some of the remote islands in the chain that
we missed, and knowing that we had another month and a
half to check out the Abacos if we so desired.
Consequently, we had some miles to cover to make it
here. All together, though, it was only about 130
miles, which I'm sure sounds like a pittance to anyone
used to traveling by car most of the time. On our
relatively fast sailboat, however, we broke the trip up
over the course of three days.
We
woke up on Wednesday morning, still debating whether to
hit Allen's Cay, only 20 miles north of Hawksbill, or to
cover a larger percentage of the distance towards our
destination. It is always a risk, leaving too long a
trip to the day before a hard deadline. You never
know what obstacle will present itself when you are
trying to get somewhere on a boat, be it weather,
mechanical breakdown, accidental grounding (heaven
forbid) or any other catastrophic accident that is
seemingly lurking around every corner. We are also
anticipating a trip back to the Exumas to meet up with
our former traveling companions CENOU, who have finally
made it to the Bahamas. This accumulation of logic
lead us to the conclusion that we needed to boogie north
as far as we could make it, just to be safe.
Granted, this spark of brilliance didn't hit us until
10:30am, so we had already wasted a good number of
daylight hours.
Our mornings generally incorporate the same basic
routine, whether we are underway or at anchor. On
this particular morning, as would be typical, we were
half way through school by 10:30. We had finished
breakfast, usually some fruit and cereal, eggs, or a
bagel or english muffin, straightened up the kids rooms,
and brushed our teeth. We generally execute the
daily lessons with each girl down in their own cabins.
At anchor, it is a fast rule that we complete the whole
day of school in our separate rooms, but underway, we
are more liberal as the motion sometimes adversely
affects our students' concentration. Of course,
some of this is posturing on the procrastinating
students' part, but you never know how much of it is
real, so we tend to be a little more lenient and try to
set them up outside or at the salon table when possible.
Sometimes it is too windy outside and the papers and
pages of the books fly all over the place. We have
tried to have them both working at the salon table, but
it quickly becomes apparent that it is impossible for
either of them to concentrate on their own work, so one
of them has to either be on break and outside, or move
back down to their room. As you might imagine,
they get a little more supervision in their scholastic
assignments if we are still at anchor, but they are both
equally capable of following the instruction
manual on their own, with minimal input from their
teachers.
If
we are sailing while school is underway, we have more
frequent breaks during the lessons. Either Joe or
I have to have an eye on the course, making sure we
don't hit a sand bar or another boat, adjusting our
sails, and monitoring the fishing lines. The kids
love all of these distractions, but we don't let them
interfere too much. If we hook a fish, it is fair
game for everyone to get involved, but otherwise, we are
pretty strict about keeping them on track with their
studies. Very rarely is it too rough to keep all
these balls up in the air, but if it merits it, we have
no problem calling for a day off.
Lunch usually follows quickly on the heals of school.
It is my least favorite meal. If it isn't
leftovers, I am usually at a loss. Quesadillas,
Macaroni and Cheese, cheese and crackers and a few
crunchy vegetables, or occasionally tacos comprise the
lunch menu on ZIA. Mostly I try to have leftovers
of some sort available. I should start cooking
like a European, serving the big meal of the day at
lunch, rather than dinner. It certainly feels
better to eat a heavier meal in the middle of the day
and a light meal right before going to bed for the
night. If facilities are available, we usually
have lunch out and dinner on the boat. It works
much better for our 8:30 bedtime.
If
we finish school in time, we will sometimes make a trip
to the beach or to snorkel or to just wander around the
shore before coming back to the boat for lunch. If
not before, we certainly try to get everyone off the
boat after lunch. The kids never complain about
going stir crazy, being on the boat for too much time,
but we notice how much it helps their attitudes to have
an hour or two to run around the beach, building sand
castles or playing on the kayak. These poor
kids spend so much time with their parents, they are too
young to even realize how much they crave a little time
out of our earshot!
Luckily, the whole Boyle/Fisher family loves to read.
At any point during the day you are likely to find at
least one of us absorbed in a book. Joe and I will
read in the morning, before school gets started, as well
as at night before switching off the light. Cassie
routinely wakes up and starts reading before even seeing
who else is awake. I can't tell you what time she
usually wakes up as she is often reading by the time I
peek into her room in the morning. Juliana is the
late sleeper in the crowd, but she will also roll over
and pick up her book before saying good morning.
We try not to let the girls read too much before school
as they tend to get lazy about their studies and too
eager to get back to their books. Our worst
punishment is to take away their books. This
prospect often gets them back on track during a rough
day at school.
If
we are underway, the kids might watch a movie in the
afternoon before dinner. Just as often, however,
they involve themselves in some project or craft.
We will sometimes bake cookies or cupcakes. The
girls love to help in the galley and I am trying to be
better about involving them as much as possible.
It isn't that big a space so I shouldn't be so worried
about the mess, I keep telling myself. Lately, we
have been playing Rumikubes, a great game similar to Gin
Rummy but using numbered and colored tiles instead of
cards. The kids can both play and it is a nice way
for the four of us to spend a half hour together.
Joe and I spend a lot of time underway staring at the
fishing lines, willing those elusive fish to bite!
Joe was pulling in one line to clear some seaweed and we
actually watched a Mahi Mahi skimming along the surface,
half out of the water, at an incredibly fast pace,
making a beeline for one of our lures. We watched
it hit the line but we didn't hook it. We had two
more near successes, both huge Mahis that were well
hooked but managed to jump and flop their way off the
lure before we could bring them in. What a rush
and what a disappointment. We have taken to using
the fishing rod that Scott and Stacey left with the boat
when we bought it so you can really hear the line paying
out when there is a fish on it. Whoever is closest
runs over and stops the spool and makes sure everyone
else knows that we have a fish. Everyone gets
involved. Cassie is good about looking up a new
variety in our fish book to see if we should keep it or
throw it back. We've caught a great variety of
fish, all keepers except for the barracuda. We
also threw back a couple of snapper we caught on the
Caicos Banks because we weren't sure of the risk of
ciguatera poisoning. The rest we eat; Big Eye
Tuna, Mahi, Cero Mackerel, Rainbow Runner, Almaco Jack
and Wahoo. The kids are much more enthusiastic
about eating fish when we actually catch it.
Otherwise, it isn't their favorite meal.
We
have heard from a number of people that the fishing in
the Abacos is no where near as good as it used to be.
We are only 150 miles miles from the Florida coastline.
Tons of boats come over from Florida for long weekends
and fishing expeditions. Others come for a month
or two at a time when they can get away from work.
Consequently, the islands have had a boom in building
and development. You find a lot more little towns
of substantial size as opposed to a "developed" island
in the Exumas which consisted of the little grocery
store that is re-supplied once a week by boat from
Nassau and, if you're luck, a restaurant. I'm
anxious to explore some of the outlying cays to see what
they are like. So far, the water is murkier and a
little less inviting than the crystal clear water of the
Exumas. How spoiled we have become! Even on
its worst day, I'm sure the water here is 100 times
cleaner than that of the Chesapeake Bay, and we never
hesitated to jump in back home.
We
are excited to discover the Abacos with Hope, Ramin,
Natasha and Leila. They arrive Saturday afternoon.
We made great progress getting the boat ready today, and
have most of tomorrow to finish up the preparations.
Now, we just have to hope that the flights go smoothly
and nothing gets in the way of an eagerly awaited
reunion.
Enjoy the weekend and write soon!
Love,
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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