Next Up: The Bahamas

Hello! I know it has been a while since the last blog post, give or take a few years, but I have come back from the land of no writing. You may be wondering why am I just now suddenly beginning to write again. Well, we are going on an amazing sailing trip down to the Bahamas and back.

But before I get to that, I will briefly catch you up on the past year or so. The last trip we took was a three week trip back to Guatemala to teach a few girls how to travel independently. That was the last trip that we took in a year. We also moved into a new house on Wolfe Island where we hope to build a permanent home. We rented a cottage and moved into it and the first winter we were here we went on the biggest ski hill on this side of Canada. We also had our Australian friends over for the whole winter. Out of all the places you could have gone to why Canada? In the winter?

When I found out that dad wanted to sail down to the Bahamas from Ontario, I thought it was a bit nuts. I mean, we had barely any experience on a big sailboat. But then he started to tell us about all the cool things along the way. After that I did some reading on the Bahamas and the sail down, and it looked really cool. So, I agreed to go with and we bought a beautiful boat named TearAway. We get to go through amazing locks, sail down the historic Erie Canal, and on the Atlantic ocean. I, for one, am very excited. The odds of swimming and snorkeling are high and I have heard that the Bahamas has some great diving areas, so that’s another reason I want to go. We leave in 11 days on a full moon if all goes well, the boat passes inspection, and the engine exhaust actually works.

TearAway in our bay

So fingers crossed that all goes well. In the mean time, my job is to gather boat recipes that involve two pans at most. I also have to figure out where all the food is to be stored for passages.

Anchored at Amherst Island

The last passage Gabe, Dad, and I went on was from Toronto to the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River. The pass is 150 miles and was supposed to take two days but it took three because all hell broke loose. We got caught in a storm, our navigation lights went out, and we hit a few rocks. All else said, it was a nice sail, good cruising during the day and the one night with the storm was troublesome. But what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger! I am very excited about the trip!