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I have gone on a lot in this blog about how this trip has allowed us to truly slow down. Most of the time I really love our slow, lazy days, where we don’t have to squeeze lots of activities in. However, some days I find myself bored. Yes, bored. We spend a lot of time hanging out on beaches, at a pool, on the boat, walking around a town. And sometimes I find myself bored. That is probably why I enjoy writing these blogs because it gives me a sense of purpose. I have always liked to stay really busy and always seem to get myself involved in lots of projects and activities. When I was off on maternity leaves, I often struggled with feeling a bit bored and idle. I was one of those moms that never spent a whole day at home; I had to have at least one activity a day. I find the same applies to life on the boat. I need to have at least one activity to anchor the day. Our cruising friends on s/v Free Spirit have figured out what works for them and creates that balance – one big activity a day or no more than two small activities. So occasionally I have the odd “boring” day, but maybe it is not such a bad thing to have time to contemplate, time to think and time to just be.
We fly out of the Bahamas in exactly four weeks and we know how quickly those weeks will go. I am starting to get sad about moving off the boat and the simple life we have cultivated here. We fly to Nicaragua, where we have 6 weeks to explore that country. It will be quite a change switching from boat travel to land travel and backpacking. It will be nice to not have to check the weather multiple times a day, to have showers regularly (even if they are cold) and to have access to fresh, cheap food. However, I will miss so many things about the boat – the gentle rock while I go to sleep, eating meals together in the cockpit, swimming off the boat….I could write a whole blog about all that I will miss (and I likely will).
Right after Mother’s Day, we celebrated Paul’s birthday. It was a low-key day at the beach, but Barb & Eric treated us to a dinner out and our friends from s/v Tiki Trek joining us. It was nice to have a rare dinner out at the very quaint Lubbers Landing. The next we had a lovely sail up to Hopetown. The Sea of Abaco is created by a shallow lagoon between Great Abaco Island and a chain of barrier islands. It creates very protected sailing grounds with really short distances between islands. The inhabitants of the islands trace their roots back to a mix of Loyalists that settled here in the 1700s and freed slaves. Hope town is a really cute settlement, recognizable by its red and white candy striped lighthouse, one of the last manual lighthouses in the world. Before the lighthouse was built in 1864, the inhabitants made their living from the wrecks that were constantly coming up on the reefs offshore. They actually strongly opposed the building of the lighthouse as it would mean the end of this lucrative business. We trekked up to the top of the lighthouse for fantastic views, snorkeled off the beach, toured the island on a golf cart and wandered the quaint narrow laneways of this town. We were also treated to frequent visits from dolphins and turtles in the sheltered lagoon where we were moored. We finally met another kid boat and the kids were quite excited to spend time together in the pool, at the beach and watching movies. We could have easily spent a week in Hopetown, but wanted to keep moving. We stopped for a night in Marsh Harbour, the 3rd largest city in the Bahamas to provision and then sailed a mere 4 miles to Man-O-War Cay. We are off to explore the town and the ocean beaches! And I will try really hard not to get bored:)
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| This is for my friend Corrie, a CIBC employee. Perhaps she might want to come down and work a 4 hour workweek in the Bahamas! |