FIELD TRIP!!!!

It was also on Bequia that we went on our first “field trip” while homeschooling.  Until that day, school consisted of textbooks, work sheets and journals.  Math and Language Arts was all pretty straight forward from work books and just about all I could manage as I tried to figure out this home schooling thing.  Teaching two grades, three levels apart with two kids, one who can barely read (and so is extremely dependent) is difficult!  What makes it even more confusing is the change to the BC curriculum which switched topics from one grade level to another so I’m not sure what the kids have covered and what they haven’t.  What I do know is that they still have to do Math, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, journal, reading and comprehension, every day.  So, basically, I would pile all seven of those books up for each kid and every day, with me explaining each lesson before they started, they would have to get through the pile…BORING!!!

So, when we went to shore and this truck pulled up and we told the kids that an island tour from the back of a pick up truck was going to be school for the day, the kids got pretty excited.

Our first stop was a history lesson – an old fort.  It was here that we first learned about the unsettled past of the English and French in the Caribbean.  What was particularly interesting about this fort was that most of the cannons had the English coat of arms on them but one of the cannons had a fleur de lys on it demonstrating the fort had been held at least once by the English and once by the French.

Our next stop was a social sciences lesson.  There is a lovely beach on the windward side of Bequia where the landscape is largely shaped by wind and waves.  This fit nicely into the Grade 4 curriculum on landforms and erosion (not to mention the bonus lessons on boat building, fishing and whaling).

Our last stop was for a lesson in environmental biology – The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.  http://turtles.bequia.net. The kids learned about the endangered hawksbill turtle and how human behaviours threaten their existence.

This one day, which could hardly be considered ‘school’ is exactly the kind of learning we had hoped this adventure would bring for the kids.  Bring on the next field trip!

Thank you beautiful Bequia for such a memorable visit!

All of our sails to date had been relatively short – eight hours or less, and most of the rest of the sails that we are going to do are also going to be about the same.  This makes it easy enough to haul up anchor at 7:00 a.m. and be at our next “port of call” before dark and actually dropping anchor while there is still enough light to find the nice sandy patches (which our anchor likes).  This next jump from Bequia to St. Lucia, however, was going to be a biggie for us – seventeen hours and two channels of open ocean.  That meant leaving at night…into open ocean…in the dark…which we had never done before.  We had been anticipating this particular sail for months.

If I had have written this post while the feelings were raw, you would probably have seen my salty tears on the screen.  There won’t be any photos in this post!

So, apparently in the Caribbean there is something called the “Christmas winds”.  These are high-pressure systems which often build to the northeast of the Caribbean.  If these systems become strong, they can generate brisk sustained winds of 20-25 or even 25-30 knots (up to 54 km/hr with gusts even higher) and they can last for weeks.

Christmas winds are no problem if you are in an anchorage with good holding and you aren’t in a rush to get anywhere.  The problem was that we were already feeling like we were at the back of the pack since most of our buddy boats had left Grenada to go north a month before we did.  Also, we wanted to get to Martinique (two good sailing days away) before Christmas so we could do a little Christmas shopping for the kids (we really needed those Christmas pyjamas!!).  Also, my brother and family were supposed to visit us January 2nd (less than a month away) in either St. Lucia or Martinique and we couldn’t even tell them where to book flights to.

We arrived in Bequia on December 1st with plenty of time to get to Martinique for Christmas.  Originally, we had wanted to be in lovely Marigot Bay, St. Lucia on a mooring ball enjoying all of the lovely amenities of the Capella Marigot Bay Resort and Marina (www.capellamarigotbay.com)  on December 5th, my Dad’s birthday.  Well, that date came and went with no break in the weather so we scratched that idea.  Instead, we ended up going out for dinner with Higgins and Neverland and we raised a glass to Dad in the company of good friends – equally special.   As we were enjoying our time with our boat buddies, we were all checking weather forecasts daily to see when these winds would let up.  Since we were fairly comfortable with our anchor holding, for the first week we endured these Christmas winds and all was fine.  As time went on, for various reasons, one by one these boats started leaving even though the wind was still strong and squally (but maybe slightly more favourable).  We found out later that everyone who left before us had not very comfortable sails.  Regardless, by now we were approaching mid-December and every time one of those boats left, Neil and I started second guessing ourselves, “Should we have gone too?  Is this the last weather window we will have to get to Martinique before Christmas?!!  How long are these winds going to last?  Are we going to be stuck in Bequia until Christmas or later?  Where should we tell my brother to book his flight?!!”.

I’ve always known Neil is a fair weather sailor (that’s why I could agree to come sailing with him) but it turns out I am fairer that a fair weather sailor.  Okay let’s call a spade a spade – I’m not a sailor, I’m more of a chicken.  I’m pretty sure that happened sometime after the kids were born.  Anyway, every night we would check the weather and every night we would have the discussion as to whether or not we should leave.  Then after an emotional discussion we’d try to sleep but the wind would howl and we would wonder if the anchor was dragging.  It is hard to get a good night’s sleep when there is a large wall of rocks that you may or may not get acquainted with in the middle of the night.  The wind was relentless, the pressure was building and emotions were high.

Finally, after over two weeks of waiting, a mediocre weather window presented itself and we decided to take it.  Oddly enough, when I woke up that morning at 3am in the dark of night, instead of my tummy being in a knot and the theme song for Gilligan’s Island popping into my head, which is usually the case, I was quite excited about this next passage.

Under the cover of darkness, we pulled up anchor at about 3am.  Although it was dark, the light of the full moon gave us enough light to be able to see what we were doing.  It was actually quite pretty.  I can’t remember our sail configuration but knowing us, there were probably two reefs in the main and not a full jib.  The short passage between Bequia and St. Vincent, which was supposed to have 6-8 foot seas, was surprisingly comfortable.  As dawn began to break, the new light gave us a sense of security and we shook out the reefs in the main and jib increasing our speed to 9+ knots. It was short lived however as the lee of St. Vincent was nice and flat with little wind however, so we ended up having to motor sail.  As the sun rose over the mountains of St. Vincent and we witnessed it’s stunning beauty we were saddened that we couldn’t stop because of the potential for violence against cruisers.  We wondered if this potential was real or perceived after one unfortunate incident but after even local Vincentians who we met in Bequia told us it was unsafe to visit, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

The next open ocean passage, between St. Vincent and St. Lucia, was a longer one but only about five hours.  It was a great sail, we ended up reaching 9.8 knots in about 6-8 foot seas, our fastest speed yet, and it was actually fun!  We had planned to overnight in the Pitons in the south of St. Lucia but we ended up making such good time and the weather was favourable that we decided to plod on to the northern tip of St. Lucia.  As many had before us, we ended up just taking photos of the Pitons as we sailed past and will plan to stop to visit on our way back down.  That made for an easy jump to Martinique.  Boy were we happy to drop anchor that night with that sail under our belts.  It was one that we had been anticipating since Grenada.

Okay, just a couple of photos…

The second reason that Bequia stands out so much in our minds and hearts is that this is where we reunited with but also said our final goodbyes to several of our good boat buddies.

Grenada wasn’t that far behind us, only a couple of weeks or so.  We had spent five whole months there getting to know many other boating families.  One of these families the kids were particularly close to – “Higgins”.  You have met them before in previous blogs.  Milly was Millie’s English twin, born only three months apart.  Together they were affectionately known around the cruising community as ‘The Millies’ and later, in the production Alice in Wonderland, as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  They were inseparable.

Milly had a brother named Ollie who Nathan also clicked with right away.  They were tight as thieves, chit chatting about various things, enjoying Pokemon and Terreria together and doing other nine year old boy stuff.  We were all surprised and flattered when we found out that Ollie’s birthday wish was to have a sleep over on Trismic with Nathan.  How sweet.  So, Nathan had his first ever sleep over, onboard with his buddy Ollie (of course it wasn’t long before “The Millies” had to have their first ever sleep over, also aboard Trismic).  The best part was that Neil and I (and the kids) also got along well with both parents and their eldest son Will.  It isn’t often that everybody in the families click so well (although I have to say that in the cruising community it happens fairly regularly)!

Anyway, you get the idea, it was five months of full on fun for the Higgins/Trismic crew.  By December it was time to leave Grenada but Higgins had some boat work to do so we took off before them knowing we could catch up eventually.  Well, Bequia was the place we finally caught up.  The kids (and Neil and I) had been watching every boat that entered the bay – could that be Higgins?!!  It was a happy reunion when we finally heard their voices on the VHF radio.  The sad part was that it only lasted about a week or so because they had to get to Antigua by December 21 to catch a flight home for Christmas.  So, not knowing if we would ever catch up again, we had to say goodbye.  It was so sad to see the kids saying goodbye to such close friends who live half the world away, not knowing if that was the last time they would ever see them.  Until today, we have not caught up, they are always a few islands ahead, but I have a feeling our paths will cross again somewhere, someday.

Also in Bequia, we ran into another kid boat, Neverland, who we only met briefly in Grenada.  They were new to living aboard as well so it was really fun to get to know them and share funny stories about trying to figure out how to exist on a boat.  They also left before us but we knew we could catch up to  them in Martinique.

So, one of the really tough things about cruising is that everyone is always moving around on their own schedule so you have to constantly say goodbye to people.  The flip side, though, is that every time a boat family leaves, another one shows up.  Luckily this was the cast in Bequia.  I’m pretty sure it was the same day or the day after Higgins and Neverland left, we were reunited with two other kid boats from Grenada, Keltia and Mango.  Also, right around that time we met a new kid boat, Flip Flops.   All are super fun families and provided a much needed distraction from our missing the friends who had just left.  We managed to keep up with this new group of families for a while, you’ll probably hear more about them in future posts.

For every goodbye there is a hello and for every hello there is a goodbye.    Sometimes it happens so fast we don’t even know what hit us and sometimes, if our schedules jive, we get to spend several weeks together discovering new and interesting places.  Every new family brings a new and interesting experience and we learn so much from each and every boat we meet.  We are thankful for those we have met and we look forward to meeting many other wonderful cruising families along the way.

The boys fishing (Trismic, Higgins and Neverland).  The girls are off somewhere petting kittens and the parents are having a drink at the beach bar and catching up on internet.

I dedicate four whole blog posts to this stop because emotionally it was significant for several reasons which I will get to shortly.  Bequia – Part 1 is the first.  It is hard to bring myself back there because it was so long ago, before Christmas in fact, sometime in early December.

As far as cruising grounds go, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was not a new one for Neil and me.  About twelve years ago Neil and I had chartered a boat here for a month so the islands and waters felt very familiar to us.  The last time we were here we were young(er), kid-less and carefree.  During our spare time we befriended two locals.  ‘Skipper’, a boat boy on Union Island (see photo on a previous post) and  Noel, a craftsman on Bequia.  Since we had been so lucky to have run into Skipper again, we were holding out hope that we might also find Noel, all these years later, when we reached Bequia.  But, would we recognise him?  Would he remember us?  Luckily, we had a photo with us of him, twelve years ago, chilling on our chartered boat when we gave him a ride from Bequia to St. Vincent.

On our first day on shore we set out to look for him.  Well, we weren’t on shore more than ten minutes before we saw what we thought was a familiar face and as soon as I introduced myself and saw his big genuine smile, I knew it was him.  After a few stories to jog his memory, he remember us (I don’t think it is every day that a local catches a ride to another island with ‘yachties’).  He was keen to meet our kids and we enjoyed hearing about his family as well.

Nathan and he hit it off right off the bat when they started talking about, you guessed it, fishing.  Since Noel was an avid fisherman too, he offered to take Nathan out (in our dinghy) one afternoon to where the locals catch fish.  Nathan was elated so we took him up on the offer.    We invited Noel over for dinner that night for “the catch of the day”…or chicken if there was no catch.  When they got back, they were both so excited.  With the number of fish they caught that afternoon, each trying to outdo the other, we weren’t going to be having chicken!  As we feasted on the day’s catch, Noel continued to fish off the back transom.  He pulled in two other biggies!  It was too much for us to eat so he took a nice one home to his family (who were in St. Vincent so unable join us).

Although it had been many years since our last meeting, Noel was never far from our minds because  since twelve years ago until the day we packed up our house, Noel’s wooden carved mask had been hung on our dining room wall.  Also, Neil had bought a bracelet from him all those years ago which had only fallen off about a week before our return to Bequia.  Some things must just be meant to be.

These guys are having way too much fun!!!

Fishing buddies – These guys are having way too much fun!!!

Many people have been asking us what Christmas was like on the boat.  This was one of the things I had wondered about while packing up 1106 Newport Ave.  What WAS Christmas going to be like on the boat?  How were the kids going to feel?  Would they miss home?  Would it still be Christmas without all of the Christmas hype, the Christmas school events and crafts, the Christmas socials, the Christmas lights and weather?  Would there be a tree?  Would there be turkey?  And, of course, the kid’s most important question, would Santa find us?!!

We are grateful that our kids seem to feel very strongly about family traditions so for them there were several Christmas traditions that we could not give up.  Three stand out in particular.  Luckily only one of those required thinking and planning ahead – their Christmas ornaments.  Every year since they were born, there has been a new ornament under the tree for each of them symbolizing a first for that year.  They range from “First words” to “First year skiing”.  Every year my favourite part of Christmas is watching them unwrap their own box of ornaments, one by one, because they reminisce about that particular “First” as they walk up to the tree to hang it.  So, despite having very little space for packing things from the house to the boat, these were something that could not be left behind.  With these little gems secretly tucked away on the boat, we bought a small three foot tree which fit perfectly on our navigation station.  The kids were thrilled when we pulled out the decorations and we all enjoyed that first tradition of decorating the tree together.  By the time they were done, and since they only decorated the front half, the tree had a definite lean forward.  We weren’t sure if it was going to make it through the season without toppling over but with a bit of Christmas magic, it survived.  Tradition number one – check!

The next tradition came on Christmas Eve.  Every year sometime in the evening before going to bed, the kids get to open one gift.  Every year it is the same thing and the kids talk about that one special Christmas Eve gift for weeks ahead of time in eager anticipation.  This year Millie was pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen so when it did, it was even sweeter than usual.  At bedtime on Christmas Eve, they found that gift on their beds – a cozy new pair of “Christmas pyjamas” all washed and soft and ready for that first wear.  Tradition number two – check.

The third “must do” tradition was out of my hands.  All we could do was provide the vehicle for this tradition to happen and hope.  You see, every year Santa puts a Christmas orange and a Christmas banana into all of our stockings. But, what if Santa didn’t find us?  So, in order to summon Santa the only way we know how, on Christmas Eve, we did what we usually do – we hung out our stockings and set out some gingerbread cookies (minus the molasses because I couldn’t find any at the grocery stores) and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  This Christmas banana was also brought up several times in the weeks leading up to Christmas with some major cases of the “can’t hardlies”.  “I can’t hardly wait for my Christmas banana!!!”.  You can imagine our delight when we came up from our hulls and saw the bananas sticking out of our stockings.  Tradition number three – check!!!

So, those were the major things that we were glad were similar this Christmas.  A few of the differences didn’t really have much of an impact and some were very welcomed!  The first one that comes to mind that I think the kids enjoyed most was Christmas Breakfast.  Instead of the usual make ahead breakfast casserole which, because of our bar sized fridge was not an option, and in order to take in the full French culture, we had pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) and saucissons (sausages) for breakfast.  Vive la France!!  Other differences included a Christmas Eve potluck on the beach, Christmas afternoon knee boarding, prawn scampi instead of the usual stuffed turkey dinner and, instead of Bing Crosby’s Christmas album, we had Jimmy Buffet’s – all fairly inconsequential…except for maybe Jimmy Buffet.  The one tradition that we did all miss very much was Grandad’s reading of The Night Before Christmas to the kids right before bedtime on Christmas Eve.  But, just as everything that you have to wait for, when we return home and get to renew this special tradition, it will be even sweeter.

So, to answer the original question of what Christmas was like on the boat, it was kind of similar but kind of different from the Christmases we are used to but the four of us were all together and in the end that was all that really mattered.

All the best for a New Year filled with love, laughter, family and friends!!!

‘Till next time!

Well, once again, this blog is long overdue.  In the two short months since our last post we have sailed to a new country, we have welcomed our first overnight guest (my Mom) and we have grown so much as a live aboard family.  We have started to make Trismic our own and she is feels more and more like home every day.

As I type we are sailing past the familiar landscape of mountains and small towns that make up the island of Grenada.  We have spent the past five months here and we have done this sail several times before but this time will be the last for a while, for we are heading north.  The hurricane season will officially be over November 30 at which point we will be free to explore the islands further north and experience all they have to offer.  Many of our cruising friends have already gone so the once kid filled bay that has been home base for the past several months is feeling quiet and not quite right.  We will miss Grenada, she has been good to us and has kept us safe but it is time to move on.  So, farewell to Grenada – and as we have learned to say to the many wonderful cruising friends and families we have met and who we were not quite ready to say goodbye to – until next time.

Here are some of the highlights of the past three months…

Weekly swimming lessons from the Grenadian National Swim Team coach, Nataly Regis Sihera, who had just returned from the Rio Olympics.  The lessons were on the beach and our boat was moored somewhere in the background.

Nathan getting fishing lessons from a former professional commercial fisherman.  We learned what lures to use, how to read the water, how much line to let out, how to clean the fish once we landed it and we even made lures out of used pototo chip bags!  Thanks Jamie!!

In September, we were busy dodging Hurricane Matthew.  We had the boat hauled and hunkered down in a hotel for just over a week.  The day the storm went over us the whole city shut down and no one was allowed out on the streets.  We were told the day before by hotel reception to get all the groceries we would need for the next several days.  The hotel room had shuttered windows and sliding doors and we filled the bathtub with water just in case.  Luckily for us, the storm curved a bit north and we only caught the outskirts of it which only amounted to a lot of rain but not much wind.

Halloween was a bit different this year.  A friend and I organized trick or treating by boat in the bay that we spent the summer in.  We ended up with about 25+ kids all dinghying around from boat to boat trick or treating.  Everyone had a great time.

We also celebrated some summer birthday parties.  They were so much fun.  All kids were invited and we hung out on various beaches doing a variety of activities including inflatables, pinatas, and games.  I was always fascinated at how the parents managed to light candles on the beach in the wind.  Somehow it worked every time!

It was a shame to beat this beautiful tuna apart with a stick but the kids managed!

We also learned what a hash is and how people get addicted to them!  For those of you who don’t know, the Hash House Harriers is an international group of non-competitive running social clubs.  They organize weekly runs/walks usually through difficult terrain.  They claim to be drinkers with a running problem.  There is usually a ceremony before and afterwards which always involves beer being both consumed and sprayed all over any “hash virgins” (see below).  To find out more, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers

We loved having our first visitor on board and sharing what life on board is really like!  Miss you Mom!!

Here is evidence that we really are doing school on the boat.

And this is what Phys Ed looks like on the boat…

Here are some sailing shots…

And of course what blog would be complete without some mention of fixing things.  Don’t worry, I spared you the photos of Neil fixing the heads.

Till next time!!

I can do the splits!  And I have been prackticing for a year.

This is me dooing a snowanjuls in the sand!

Thees are my frens Daphne, Lauren, and Amelie and I on Syrena.  it wus a bot renaming saramone!

This is a millie sanwig with gowe in the mitul.

There is a hurricane moving through the Caribbean as I type. A few days ago, it passed just north of us, and hit Martinique and Dominica. At that time it was a tropical storm. Once it passed Martinique and Dominica, (well mostly,) still as a tropical storm, it moved on into the Carribian Sea. It is forecasted to make an almost a nintey degree turn for Kingston Jamaica, and western Cuba, causing the outskirts to hit Haiti. For a few hours it was supposed to hit Haiti, but then the forecasters saw that it was back on it’s previous course. ( The one that was supposed to hit Jamaica, along with western Cuba). If Matthew continues on its current route, the Bahamas are in for a big hit also and Miami and the surrounding cities may feel it a bit, but on the bright side it is already starting to lose power from a short period of being a catagory 5.  Right now it is a catagory 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h), with gusts up to 160 mph (255 km/h) and if it really is losing power and not just a break in the wind, it will probably die down a good deal more, but I am not a weather forecaster, so my theory is probably incorrect. Hopefully Hurricane Matthew will die down into a tropical storm or a tropical depression before it hits Jamaica, Cuba, The Bahamas, and the other islands that are in danger of getting hit by Matthew.

**Please note:  The primary purpose of this ‘blog’ is to provide a journal of our Trismic adventure that can eventually be printed out with photos, etc. so I apologize if it does not comply with standard ‘blog’ criteria.  I have a feeling moving forward it will be a lot more photo journalistic in nature than journalistic.  After all, a picture says a thousand words!!…and writing takes too long.

Bless me blog followers for I have sinned.  It has been about a month and a half since my last blog post…

Wow, where to start?  So much has happened and we have learned SO much!!  A few weeks ago I got an email from a good friend asking how we were adjusting to living on board.  She must have caught me on a bad day because the general feel of the email was that everything was a challenge – cooking, groceries, showering or doing ANYthing independently, really, because we – the kids and I – had no idea how to even exist on boat, in a foreign country.  We didn’t even know how to use the loo!!

But the following day we had a real shower on shore (as opposed to a sponge bath or no shower at all in an effort to conserve water and power) and we did laundry so we had fresh crisp sheets to sleep in and somehow everything seemed better.

It was then, in that blissful state of cleanliness, that I began to realize that although we had had many challenges, we had also had several triumphs to celebrate.  For example, the ice box at the top of our bar sized fridge iced over and needed thawing.  At home, this would not have been a problem because I would have just put all of our food into the second fridge in the basement to keep it cold while the small freezer thawed.  Without that luxury, it wasn’t as easy.  We had to eat down all of our food for days to a reasonable amount then I had to hop in the dingy, drive to shore, pick up two big bags of ice, lug them back to the dingy and then unload them out of the dingy once back at the boat (which isn’t quite as easy as loading and unloading a car because both the dingy and the boat are moving targets).  Anyway, the ice went into a cooler followed by the food and I sat around and mopped up the water as the ice thawed from the ice box for several hours.  Although the task seems pretty straight forward,  I had never done it before and accomplished it without breaking anything else or hurting anyone so it was definitely a triumph, albeit a small one.  Hurray!

My next small triumph involved a toilet that stopped working.  Without going into detail, just say that one of the kid’s toilets stopped working at an inopportune time.  Neil asked me to prep it for fixing and since I’d rather do that than fix it, I got to work.  How hard could it be?  I used to change diapers, right?…gag.  It was a job that I hope to never do again BUT I got it done – so again, another triumph.

Neil has had a few triumphs too.  The first day we tried out the watermaker, a hose burst and water was flying everywhere into the bilge.  Luckily he was there monitoring it and shut it down.  After some banging, fumbling around and a few colourful words he had it fixed!  YES!!  Also, after being shown how to do it on our port engine, Neil managed to tighten the fan belt on the starboard engine to make the alternator work more efficiently for charging our batteries.  Wow!  Another triumph!!  The next project – replacing the fan belts (the need for this has nothing to do with Neil having just tightened the belts).  We’ll let you know how it goes!

All to say that yes, it has been an adjustment and there have been many challenges but without them we would never experience the triumphs.  In the next couple of years, I’m sure we will have a growing list of challenges but as the list gets longer, so will our list of triumphs and each one will undoubtedly make a good story.

In the meantime, here are some other things we have been up to in the past several weeks…

These mini-olympics were organized by a six year old Spanish boy.  He thought up the events and then made medals out of pounded and painted beer bottle caps for all thirty kids!  In one of the photos you can see the area that our boat is moored.

Three Legged Race

Egg Relay

Race Around the Palm Tree

On Your Marks…

Tug-o-war

Here are the kids doing some of their daily chores…

Here are Nathan and Millie (and Neil) having some fun on the paddleboard.  Nathan likes to paddle around the bay visiting his buddies on other boats.

***News flash***- Rainbow loom has made a comeback!!…at least in our small corner of the world.

One day we went to a mango festival!  Yes, that’s right, mangoes everywhere!!  Mango curry, mango bread, mango pie, mango jam, mango chutney, mango ice cream, mango, mango, mango.  We picked up about twelve mangoes that day for about $1.50.

One of the big annual traditions in Grenada is Carnival.  Once a year, loads of scantily clad women (and some men) dance around in a parade to incredibly loud music.  Have a quick look at this video to get a better idea.  This parade was called “Pretty Mas”.  After arriving, I quickly learned that this “Mas” had nothing to do with church.  Millie has taken to dancing like these lovely feathered, bedazzled ladies, in the shower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlAzexfbc_w

On another note, Nathan’s two year wish has come true.  He brought in food for the family in the form of a lane snapper caught right off the stern of the boat.  That night we enjoyed appies of lovely fish morsels with our sundowners.

Nathan also learned to knee board behind a friend’s boat.  I see a new purchase in our near future.  AND he got to have some tubing fun behind another friend’s dingy.  He is truly thriving.

He’s getting pretty comfortable in his knot tying too…

And, let me introduce “The Millies” – Millie (6) and Milly (6).  There are a lot of boats here from England, including Milly’s, and our Millie has started to have a little British accent.  Cute.

BUT, the best part of living on board is…

’till next time!!!

I caught my first fish off of Trismic today. We think that it was a Jack. It was around 7 inches (21cm)(220 mm). I just caught it; the hook through his mouth- I forgot to mention that I was pulling the rod and then reeling it in. (The way I was taught.)-and then it spit the hook out and I accidentally snagged his eye (you can see the hook in his eye in the top left picture.) so I reeled it in and we rushed around to find the fishbook and only after we released it did we find it was most likely not toxic, and that the species was edible. Luckily it was a baby and you are not allowed to eat the babies.