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Thursday, May 18th - Great Guana Cay, Bahamas
Our schedule is in the hands of Mother Nature, as we
wait for a good weather window to make our passage to
Bermuda. Larson arrived in Marsh Harbour as threatened on Monday
afternoon, just in advance of a large and virtually
continuous line of squalls that have plagued us for the
last two days. There is a cold front working its
way over us from Florida, and we are suffering through
the pre-frontal activity that is stirred up when the
high pressure system collides with low pressure
associated with the front. Behind the front, the
wind is out of the north, northeast and light. Our
route to Bermuda is northeast, so the winds are not
looking favorable for taking off in the next few days.
Luckily, we have good internet access throughout the Abacos so we will be able to stay on top of the changes
and pick a good time to leave.
Poor Larson had about an hour of sunshine in his first
three days in the Bahamas. He was a good sport
about it, however. True to the spirit of a 19 year
old, he made the most of the opportunity and caught up
on some sleep. His 9:30am wake-up time was
followed by a mid-morning nap, which mustn't be confused
with the pre-lunch siesta. Conversely, he has
managed to keep me up way past my usual bedtime of
9:30pm. We learned much about cards and board
games with the Cunard-Thune clan, and Larson shares the
rest of the family's affinity for games. Bruce and
Alison, he confessed, prepped him on
Rummikub in advance of his visit so he fit right
into our new nightly routine. He was a bit
dismayed to be beaten by our six year old the first
night, but he'll get used to it. The rest of us
have!
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The skies started to clear last night just as the sun
was setting. We awoke this morning to clear DRY
skies, so we made our way 10 miles northeast from Marsh
Harbour to Bakers Bay on Great Guana Cay. We hung
out here with Hope and Ramin, Natasha and Leila when
they were here a month ago. The little green boat
on the following chart (top center) shows where we are.
The black line is the course we plotted to get here this
morning.
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After three days in Marsh Harbour, where the water is
too dirty to swim and there is no beach, I was very
ready to set sail for a more hospitable location.
While in Marsh, we were very happy to reunite with our
friends on CENOU, who are there at a marina, awaiting
repairs to their mainsail. The girls romped and
stomped along the dock and in the marina pool, enjoying
each other's company for the first time in almost three
months.
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We
also enjoyed seeing Claude and Rike and shared a couple
of dinners while we rehashed our recent travels and
compared adventures. We'll hopefully be traveling
to Bermuda with them and look forward to seeing them in
Europe as well, although based on how different our
recent travels have been, I'm not sure how much time we
will wind up spending with them. At any rate, it
is good to have them around again, for however long it
might be.
Last night was a bit of an interesting night. We
had invited CENOU over for tacos. In the middle of
the evening, we got an email from Juliana, Joe's sister,
who was reporting on some health issues their mother,
Vivian, is suffering. General lethargy and
dizziness have plagued her since she slipped and hit her
head a week or so ago. It seemed to be getting
worse so they went to the hospital for some x-rays and
an MRI to make sure everything was okay. Shortly
afterwards, we got an email from Bruce letting us know
how John Thune, Larson's grandfather was doing. He
had been suffering from an infection in his lungs but it
recently had seemed to be getting better. He had
gone home from the hospital only to return a few days
later as his condition worsened. Unfortunately,
according to Bruce's email, he didn't seem to be
improving at all. Sitting on the boat in the
middle of the Bahamas, we had some pretty major health
crises going on around us. Thankfully, we have Out
Island Internet who, for $40 a week, provide us with
wireless internet access. We are able to stay in
constant email contact. With the help of
skype,
we were able to call and talk to everyone. It is
amazing how a phone call can help you to feel a little
less far away. Luckily, all the news today is
good. Vivian has been sent home with a diagnosis
of dehydration and an all clear result from the MRI.
Although John is still in Critical Care, he has been
improving slowly and everyone is very encouraged.
Being so far away from our loved ones is one of the
hardest things about this life. I can't imagine
what it was like to do this before satellite phones,
internet, and email.
We
are still debating our options on when to take off for
Bermuda. There is hardly any wind out there right
now and we really don't want to motor the whole way.
We have 13 days before we need to be there so we might
just wait until we can expect better winds for a larger
percentage of the passage. CENOU can't leave until
sometime next week, when they get their sail back, and
it would be nice to travel with them. If only we
had a crystal ball that could tell us whether the
weather window will be better rather than worse if we
wait another four or five days. Unfortunately,
there is just no way to tell.
We'll try to update the website while we are underway so
you can keep track of us. In the meantime, we'll
be enjoying the swimming, beach, and games, and thinking
of our family and friends.
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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