Back to School! (and so much more)

The first day of school! But with it surfaced LOTS of emotions for this homeschool/boatschool momma. This was also likely the last first day of homeschool for us…the last first day of boatschool…and perhaps even the last time the kids start the school year by waking up on the boat.

I am beyond excited about this upcoming year of travel we have planned (or at least loosely laid out!). I’m even pretty excited about all the possibilities facing us when we return, which includes a possible shift to a real land home for the remaining schooling years for our kiddos (but maybe back to the boat…who knows!). But that doesn’t mean that I won’t wax poetic about all the amazing memories I’ve collected while living aboard since 2009 and while cruising since 2019.

Why would we consider leaving this lifestyle and perhaps the boat? Well, it’s simple—the kids asked for it. We made a lot of the choices we did over the years so that we could truly enjoy time with them before they flew off to adulthood. It’s made better if they are enjoying themselves, too, and they are quite curious about what “normal” is like! We have the ability and flexibility to pursue it, so we will.

We have more questions than answers right now about what exactly awaits us when we return from South America sometime next year, and while that pushes some of my anxiety buttons just a little, there’s a bit of excitement about seeking the next adventure together.

Much, much, more to follow!

~Jo, soon-to-be former 1st Mate/soon-to-be CLOD/something of a nomad/chick just trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up 

We have a new diver!

We’ve had all sorts of excitement here recently and adding another certified SCUBA diver to the crew was SUPER exciting!

When the 1st Mate made plans to be away for a week the guys headed into Dive Exuma in George Town to get Swab started on his open water dive certification. We adjusted the school schedule so he could focus on his PADI e-learning and the shop worked around weather to schedule his confined and open water portions. 

I lucked out and returned in time to join the open water dives and he did great! We also had some beautiful reef dives with lobster, a huge turtle, a green eel, a spotted eel, tons of reef fish, and some healthy, colorful coral. And it was great to dive as a family!

Trent did great!

~Jo, 1st Mate

Sea Change

Three weeks ago we mentioned that changes may be coming to our crew (What Is Next?) and a few days ago we came to a decision, one that surprisingly we all agree on after a bit of discussion. This summer we will return to the U.S. (as we had already planned), welcome Katreina home from France, welcome two of her French friends for a visit, then put the boat on the hard for some much-needed work and a break for boat and crew. 

Video chatting with Katreina 5 days ago to let her know that she won't be heading to a brick and mortar school quite yet!

And the crew will...TRAVEL! We have decided to do another year of homeschool while we do some less weather-dependent travel via air/land. How long? Depends on the crew! To where? Well, those votes are being tallied now...we will update this post when the results are in!

Keeping the votes anonymous!

UPDATE! All family members have casted their votes and...

¡NOS VAMOS A SUDAMÉRICA! ¿Donde exactamente? ¡No sabemos!

What is next?

What is next? We ask ourselves this question ALL THE TIME. And the answer usually requires an accurate forecast and a few back-up plans, but we're talking about here is the BIG "what is next." 

When we started cruising full-time we knew it was only a matter of time until the younger crew mutinied. As we coast into the second half of this school year it's time to start figuring out what the next year will bring. We've already decided to bring the boat back to the U.S. in the spring and welcome our daughter back from France. We then have some work to do on the boat and some guests from France to host! Then what? I am at the "end of tour" point I'm used to...2+ years of doing the same thing was a luxury in my old line of work so I am programmed to expect a "next." Our original plan of cruising and travel was adjusted by COVID, and that's still a factor. The kids will both be in high school next year, so that's a factor. We have family, friends...those are factors.

We asked the kids for their input and they have unanimously chosen "normal" high school. Their second choice was a year of air/land travel. Me? I am not ready to leave the boat, but I'm simultaneously ready for something else or some more purpose. Frank? He'd be happy with an off-grid cabin in the woods!

So what's next? Give us your thoughts!

Chatting it over with one of my girlfriends.

~Jo, 1st Mate

Au revoir, Katreina!

After months of planning our crew is officially embarking on our biggest change to date! This week, we became a crew of three for the first time since Trent was born as we sent Katreina off to France for the next 10 months!

We made the decision to say goodbye to the boys at the curb since they couldn’t come through security anyway. I would get a few hours in the airport with her before my own flight to Greece. The two-hour drive to the airport was a long, silent build-up, and the goodbyes were hard, as expected! Ok, maybe not-so-expected were the tears shed by her little brother. He’s usually so unemotional! Katreina said Frank teared up, too, but I missed that through my own tears! 

Check in and security were a breeze, and then we headed to the Air France/KLM lounge (the perk of being a Priority Pass member!) to relax, eat baguettes (of course), sip wine, and say our long goodbye. And damn, it was hard! I’m tearing up just writing about it! It felt just as heart-wrenching as my departure on deployment in 2010 did. I mean, we have tons of technology to keep us connected and I’m not at all worried about her safety, but this mom loves hugs and silly, spontaneous moments. I will miss that with her for the next 10 months. And there’s a fair chance that her brother will get sick of me!

Katreina’s flight was a little delayed, but she made it and survived a long screening line to join her orientation group in Paris! Over three days they had presentations about what to expect in France, went to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and took a river cruise on the Seine. 

She departed the U.S. on Monday and by Thursday evening she was settled in to her new room and having dinner with her French family in Tours. It’s been a busy week for her, but she seems to be holding up quite well! She’s off on an end-of-summer trip with the family before school starts next week. Her adventure is underway! 🇫🇷

On Course to Financial Freedom--Boatschool and Beyond

Last year we did an interview with Stephanie at Poppin' Smoke and it was recently featured again as part of a "retirement alternatives" piece, "Reimagining Military Retirement: Think Outside the Box". While Poppin' Smoke is geared towards military retirees, the options presented are, in my opinion, options for anyone (with a few tweaks to step away from military lodging/travel options). As we have cruised we have met so many people from diverse professional backgrounds with widely varying budgets that have made a "seabbatical" or full-time cruising part of their plan through a variety of financial moves--selling it all to move aboard, working full-time remote, saving for a 1-2 year cruise, cruising between jobs in various ports, and more. Some friends are exploring the country in “land yachts” and others are traveling the world full-time. And we all have been called "lucky" by friends and family! It got me thinking...was it all really luck?

"Lucky" is a term that has always made me feel a little funny. I know that we are extremely fortunate to be living as we do and making memories together, but luck? I think if we had won the lottery to get here it would have been luck. How most of us got here though was through deliberate planning (and maybe a little bit of crazy). In our case, we started living with less, making asset decisions that matched our goals, and investing early on, and for a solid 10 years of pay raises in two successful careers we lived well below our means and didn't increase our standard of living with each promotion--we lived in the same little boat and Frank drove an ancient truck (which is all now apparently known as FIRE--Financial Independence Retire Early). Yes, we have my military retirement and that was certainly part of the math that got us here, but we could have gotten "here" without it, even if that meant "here" looked a little different, like cruising different areas, or with a different boat, or with a different timeline, or without so much other travel and goofing off, or...way too may branches to these options to dig into them all! But we had a "here," a goal that we deliberately moved towards.

So what's my point? I think we all have more options than we fully consider. I grew up in the era where success seemed to be tightly tied to some degree/title/family/car/paycheck metric and that's not a totally horrible thing, but I don't think it's the only thing either, or at least it's not for me. And THAT is what I want my kids to know. We want them to know that there are options, and that if they plan properly, they will have more options to choose from. Or maybe that they can do one thing and then reinvent themselves and do another without major stress. Or that they can plan a vacation or a sabbatical using passive income. Annndddd...that's why we teach them about finances as part of our homeschool journey!

Time to brag on my hubs a bit! As we began homeschooling he embarked on "Investments 101" with the kids, setting the goals of the class and designing his own curriculum. They were in 6th and 8th grades at the time and began with basic terminology, routine checks of the market, lots of Warren Buffet videos, and discussion about financial news articles around the dinner table. The trick was making it fun and therefore interesting so Frank dropped the "let's try to make some money" bit early on, perhaps earlier than a traditional curriculum would have. So part of the class involved the kids researching publicly-traded companies they were interested in and tracking them for a bit. Then we gave them the seed money for a well-timed purchase. The deal was that they needed to stick with the stock for a year, but then could keep/sell as they saw fit. Any profits were theirs to keep and we would absorb any losses. And they were off! Some mornings Trent would call out to Katreina from his bed to report that his stock (EA) was up and hers (BYND) was down...loved that they were a little competitive, but really loved that they were checking daily without our prompting! The first sale went at the 15-month point and Katreina walked away with ~70% return on investment (bought at $110.79/share, sold at $189.12/share). A few months later, Trent sold for ~35% return on investment (bought at $109.79/share, sold at $147.95). They had fun, learned a lot, and are reinvesting! Outside of the class, the kids have had their own savings and spending accounts for a few years (including their own debit cards) and have managed those with just a little oversight from the parental units. And we talk about our family's budget openly in front of them (marina expenses, travel expenses, their cell phone bills, groceries...all of it). All of this is with one goal in mind--arming the kids to have financial options and to make good choices.

Nothing grabs their attention more than seeing $$$ growth over time.

They got LOTS of finance class during a week-long blow in the Bahamas.

As Investments 102 ramps up, they will hit more of the basic terminology, tax implications, risk, fund types, and portfolio diversification. They will also dig more into personal budgets, banking (savings vs checking, FDIC, CDs, loans, how to pick a bank, etc.), and taxes. The topics are seemingly endless!

And it's never too late to start investing, whether with a financial advisor or getting out there and learning all you can. Why not let your money work for you? You can learn a bunch by reading CNBC, Seeking Alpha, Market Watch, and others. I mean, if you're willing to spend hours scrolling on Facebook or on YouTube watching other people do stuff, why not spend a little of that time learning something that will help you do the stuff you're dreaming about?

So get out there, set your goal, and reach for it! 

~Jo, 1st Mate

A truly unique (and beautiful!) head on a production boat

A non-essential boat project is complete and I LOVE IT!

Katreina has always been artistic and began painting last year. Her creations are so lovely and as she prepared to leave for a school year abroad, we decided that we really wanted her to leave her mark on our home. We decided that the door to the aft head would be her canvas and she was allowed to paint whatever she wanted. She went through a few solid ideas and sketches before settling on her final design and spent so many hours (~50!!!) working on it. Was she inspired by the pillows we made? Or the sea life that has surrounded our boat the past few months? Whatever the inspiration, the result is amazing!

The Artist and her finished piece!

So much detail in the tentacles.

Her signature, complete with "ily" and a fingerprint heart. 💙

From design to finish, she spent over 50 hours on this piece. 

We will finish this with a few coats of Minwax Polycrylic so that the painting isn’t damaged when folks shower. I am so happy to have this piece of art as part of our home!

Upcoming crew change

If you've been following our crew's story you know that our daughter has been working to study abroad in France next year. What is normally a fairly involved application process both with a school and an embassy was certainly complicated by a global pandemic, but we can finally report that she has met all the requirements to leave in August! She has been accepted, matched to a family, her visa was approved, and she has a plane ticket!

APPROVED in only a week!

Celebrating with her cousin (and French pastries!)

How did we get here? After researching a bunch of programs and reading reviews and sending inquiries, we decided to use Nacel to coordinate her program. This was a gamble as we didn't have any friends with first-hand experience with them, but we went for it. We were assigned a coordinator, Céline, who guided us through the entire application process, kept us informed as Katreina was matched to a school and family, and who guided us through the visa application process. She also answered literally any question we had along the way and really kept us informed as the COVID situation changed in France. Nacel is who works to match the student to a family, enrolls them in school, provides in-country orientation and transportation, and helps should any issues arise during the program. They also offer some intense French language training before the program. So far we are happy with the program we chose.

Katreina will spend the entire school year (her "Lycée Seconde") in Tours, France with a family that has two daughters and a dog--she is wildly excited! Her program starts in a month and we are enjoying our final weeks with her.  

3...2...1...Crew 2 has launched!

We found ourselves back in Titusville on our way north with PERFECT timing for a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center! We had been tracking the launch schedule for a while and weather pushed a launch right into a relaxed transit day from Vero Beach for us! But first, we enjoyed our favorite Titusville activities...skateboarding and drinking fantastic beer! The kids spent a few hours at the skate park before we hit Playalinda Brewery for their craft root beer and ever-changing beer selection. We got positively soaked on the way back to our mooring, but it was worth it!

The marina skate park and Playalinda Brewery make for a happy crew!

This morning was an early one! I was up at 0515 to get the coffee going, but the astronauts and launch teams had already been up for hours. At 0549 the eastern sky lit up with the glow of the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket as it carried four crew members to the International Space Station. It was beautiful! We saw a launch back in January, but somehow this was different. You could hear people cheering all around us, you could clearly see the 1st and 2nd stages after separation, you could see the rocket returning to Earth, and you knew that instead of satellites, you had just watch four fellow humans get launched into space. What a time to be alive!

First light from the launch.

Folks cheered as the rocket broke above the clouds.

Kind of love the contrail!

Separation of the 1st and 2nd stage is clear.

The rocket returning to "Of Course I Still Love You" as the sun starts to rise.

As the sun rose we enjoyed seeing photos of the launch from friends from the Bahamas to Charleston...so cool to see the different perspectives. This may not be he fastest, least stressful way to make a transit of the coast, but I could watch that again and again. 

We are back...hello, Florida!

I'm never super excited to leave the Bahamas, but I had a little incentive this time...I'm out of good olive oil and I am super excited to get a COVID vaccine! So yes, I am moderately happy to be back in the U.S.A.

Our crossing was a decent mix of sailing, motoring, and motor-sailing. We did one overnight from Spanish Wells, Eleuthera to West Palm Beach, Florida. The worst seas were probably on my reveille watch (0400-0800) as the wind went right on the nose and I struggled to try to keep sailing. We opted to motor into the westerlies for a bit, then point more northerly as we got into the Gulf Stream for our push to the Lake Worth Inlet. We managed to drop the hook just before sunset and checked in smoothly via the Customs and Border Patrol ROAM app. 

Officially checked back in...time to take down the Bahamas flag and put down some Bahamas drinks!

The big news of this transit is that the kids fully entered the watch rotation! We decided to forego school this week and focus on navigation. While Katreina mostly ran the show, Trent was up there to help out, fetch stuff, and keep her entertained. She did great and even negotiated some tight CPA's with merchant vessels. We were always nearby in case they needed anything and usually one of us was awake anyway, but it was nice to be able to tune out a little and recharge. We kept the kids on daylight watches and worked to our strengths (Frank is not a morning person!)--it worked so well that I can't wait to try it again! So our watch rotation looked like:

0000-0400 Frank
0400-0800 Jo
0800-1200 Katreina & Trent
1200-1600 Frank
1600-2000 Katreina & Trent (until sunset, ~1935)

2000-2400 Jo

Watchstanding MVP!

This year I tried to keep our track up-to-date on NoForeignLand.com. I didn't adjust the track to stay out over water, but here is a nice snapshot of our three-month stay in the Bahamas.

Today is a "down" day. It's not a great day to make a run offshore and we avoid transiting the ICW on weekends if at all possible due to the insane amount of boat traffic. We are happy to watch the excitement from the comfort of our cockpit while anchored!

~Jo, 1st Mate

Spring Break—our boatschool reality

This is what homeschooling parents who are behind on grading look like. 

Our “school” has been on spring break for the past week. Why? The teachers were behind and we were about to visit an island we had never been to! And we had boat projects piling up. After spending a few weeks in the company of great boat friends and lots of socializing, we were just behind. FOMO exists even in paradise and the days can get crammed between navigation, general upkeep, and fun. Math grading has stayed on track and we are engaged routinely throughout the school day, but actual grading in most subjects was lagging. We decided to take a week to catch up, tend to the boat, and just enjoy the islands! Katreina was allowed to continue with geometry (her book will go to another cruiser when we next see them) and French, and Trent had to keep up on reading, but that was it.

We are fortunate. Our students are actually fairly self-motivated and thorough in their work. And since we aren’t stuck commuting for hours these days we have plenty of time to do continuous learning around our table or as we explore. But the reality is that schooling takes time and effort, and just like in normal schools, homeschoolers need a break every now and then!

Losing a member of the crew

When we started cruising full-time we expected that there may be starts and stops. We thought the kids may push to have a “normal” bit of high school, or maybe we would settle for a bit for work, but I can’t say that I imagined we would lose a crew member before they turned 18. It’s our own fault, really. We have traveled with the kids since they were babies, encouraging them to explore the world and learn about cultures by immersing themselves in it. 

After a year of French in public school and a year of DuoLingo French, our 2nd Mate decided she was interested in a foreign exchange program. We’ve researched, discussed, thought...and this week we put down a deposit on a full year exchange program in France for her sophomore year in 2021-2022. Application is still pending, and we have COVID concerns, but it seems to be a “go.” I am excited for her, but at the same time my heart is breaking just a little. Just a year ago I retired to spend more time with my kiddos and now one is leaving me. But it will be good. Everything will be good. 🇫🇷

Tears of joy (I swear!) 😭

1st Cruising Anniversary!

366 days ago we brought all the lines in and left our home marina in Maryland for the full-time cruising life! That day was emotional for some of our crew, but what followed was a year of new places, new friends, new experiences, and great memories. Was it always easy? No. We had plenty of weather challenges, a few “joys of living in tight spaces,” and of course COVID-19 to contend with. We were somewhat fortunate on the COVID front as we were already homeschooling, able to isolate for long periods of time, and already used to living non-stop with just our family unit.

Just for fun, the Skipper ran the numbers to see how we spent that first year (yes, he keeps thorough logs)!

Total distance traveled: 4926nm (5669 statute miles)

# days underway: 166 (44%)

# overnight passages: 14 (4%)

# nights at anchor: 187 (51%)

# nights on a mooring ball: 80 (22%)

# nights docked: 77 (21%)

# nights on the hard (in a boatyard): 8 (2%)

It was interesting to see how many days we spent on the move! I think another fun breakdown would be looking at how many nights we spent docked where we didn’t have power/water—I would bet at least a dozen nights were docks where we didn’t have services.

Last October we also started slapping stickers on the cowl of our dinghy engine. It’s partly an anti-theft measure, partly memory collector. We didn’t get stickers everywhere we stopped, but this is what she looks like after a year!

As we sit in Cambridge, MD getting drenched by the remnants of Hurricane Zeta (wow, 2020!!!), we are chatting with other cruisers and planning the next year of cruising. 

Safe sailing, everyone! ⛵️

Lehe Paine gets interviewed by Poppin' Smoke!

I forget exactly how this came about, but I'm pretty sure Stephanie at Poppin' Smoke posted a question on her Facebook page asking about any regrets RVer's had after downsizing and hitting the road. I chimed in with my take on the shift to a sailboat and that piqued her interest! We did some remote interviews with her and the result was a 2-part interview! Poppin' Smoke is a great resource for military retirees to learn about using their travel benefits. It was fun to add "traveling via boat" to the list of topics. And Stephanie is a way better writer than I am. Check out her interviews with us here!

Part 1--Living on a Sailboat With Kids: This Family Loves Life on the Water

Part 2--This Full-Time Sailing Family is Making the Most of Their Kids' Pre-College Years

The end of our Maine cruising (for this year!)

We awoke to an outside temp of 39F the day we left Casco Bay—let’s get south!

At the start of our trip to Maine I never would have guessed that we’d be working to avoid impacts from a tropical weather system here, but it is 2020 and here we are! With unfavorable winds and big (15-20’) swells from Hurricane Teddy in the forecast, we opted to hang in Kittery for a few days. As a military retiree, we can sometimes tie up at base marinas and we lucked out at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. They have a “COVID Island” dock that lacks power or water, but it’s in a protected cove, it’s out of the strong river current, and at $20 a day it’s a steal. We can also walk to a nice commissary (grocery store) and fill water via jerry cans. And the bonus? Two of my MMA classmates have their boat there and rowed over to say hi within minutes of us tying up! We have quite a few friends in the area, but between COVID, weather, restaurant closures, and the fact that we have to get off base to hang out, we are keeping to ourselves for the most part. Walks around base, school work, and provisioning have kept us plenty busy! 

But alas, it’s time to go and we will head to Gloucester in the morning. We had a great time thanks to many friends who helped us and visited along the way, the friendly cruising families we met, and the awesome hospitality of the people of Maine. We will be back!

A graduation celebration!

When we chose this way of life, I knew we were going to have to decide how to handle birthdays, holidays, and milestones. How do we make them special and meaningful, even when we are away from family and friends? Now, let’s throw some pandemic physical distancing into the mix. As always, a little help from our friends goes a long way!

This week, Katreina finished up her 8th grade curriculum from Oak Meadow Homeschool. In our country, completion of this grade usually warrants a ceremony and big party as students leave middle school behind and move on to high school. Well, that’s not happening for any graduates right now, but we still wanted to mark this milestone. Enter our friends, The Mooney’s, owners of the Carolina Deli in Columbia, SC! They make these AMAZING, huge cookies and brownies and as they were coming to Charleston, we ordered a special brownie for our chocolate-loving graduate!

“Lehe Paine Middle School 2020”

She was pretty surprised by this delicious, personalized treat, and I love that we were able to properly celebrate her hard work. Congrats to all of the 2020 graduates—the celebrations may be different, but that doesn’t diminish your accomplishments!

George Town—a cruiser mecca

As we headed south with our fishing lines in the water, we were full of anticipation. George Town was on the horizon! We had heard so much about this place from our cruising friends—supplies, produce, social events, hiking, KIDS! As we entered Elizabeth Harbour, all I could utter was, “Oh. My. God.” Masts...as far as the eye could see along Stocking Island. My initial reaction—turn around! 😂 

We dropped the hook off the famous Chat ‘N Chill and headed ashore to begin our George Town experience.  After a day or two, the mass of boats seemed normal, we got into a routine with the morning net, ran into some folks we’d met previously, and met lots of new cruising families!

We spent just under two weeks anchored off of Stocking Island (I’m starting to think two weeks is our limit in any one spot!). We anchored off C ‘N C and also in deep water between Honeymoon and Monument Beach and had great holding in both spots. Rather than chronicle everything we did, our thoughts...

“+”

• Tons of options for anchoring. Even though it looked crowded, I never felt like there wasn’t room for another boat. (Though maybe that changes during regatta!) Folks kept good spacing for the most part and neighbors chatted.

• Supplies! Fresh produce was readily available and the farmers market was great. Propane, fuel, trash, and even water (via jerry can) were easy to get to in Victoria Harbour. A big dinghy dock and a wall to tie up to made access easy. Getting in and out of the harbour could be tricky in some wind/current combos, but we managed to make it each time!

• People! With this many boats, there are plenty of folks to meet/hang out with. We were in town for a party hosted by the tourism board and met a bunch of folks! (The food was awesome, too!) The kids managed to meet other teenagers, too, and that really made the stop worth it.

• Social events. It is way too easy to get overwhelmed if you try to do everything in the cruiser community of George Town! Yoga, water aerobics, ukulele lessons, rake & scrape, tours, Texas hold ‘em, kids meet-ups, bonfires, volleyball, church, daily Chat ‘n Chill gathering...when do we relax?!?! 😂 Seriously, you can't be bored.

• Friendly locals. Everyone we chatted with in town was nice and helpful. Special shout-out to Doe Boi who sent us on our way with an iPad cover to test its fit with nothing more than a hand-shake to bring it back or come back and pay for it.

• Outdoor fun. While you can’t hunt or fish in the harbor, there is plenty to do. There are some snorkeling spots close by (we didn’t get to try them due to conditions) and Stocking Island has a bunch of hiking trails that are easily accessed via dinghy.

• Community. I mean this in the “here to help” way. Every day folks would be reaching out for a part, expertise, or suggestions and they rarely had to ask twice. We were able to offer some water maker help/parts and were thanked with friendship and a bottle of wine! Long-time GT cruisers were a wealth of information and really helped out the newcomers, and ran a fantastic morning cruisers net!

• With an airport and frequent supply ships, you really don’t ever have to leave.

“-“

• The robust schedule can lead to FOMO or just guilt if you ignore it all to relax.

• People! Haha, I (Jo) am an introvert, but there are so many cruisers here that you can get wrapped into that community instead of experiencing the local one if you’re not careful. And with so many people comes plenty of opinions (including a mom who thought my kid needed to hear her opinion of their cell phone use directly instead of coming through me). The morning net and FB page featured plenty of “mother-hen” comments and it started to sound like a bunch of people yelling, “get off my lawn!” It was decent entertainment, but...

• With an airport and frequent supply ships, you really don’t ever have to leave. With all of its conveniences, GT can suck you in and scrap all of your cruising plans!

The pros far outweigh the cons! We really did enjoy our time here, and may come back for a brief stop as we try to head for islands to the south and east. But for our first year of cruising, this stop was long enough!

Chat ‘n Chill fun—swings, volleyball, drinks, CATS!

Monument Hike. We took the steep “Intrepid Trail” up the back to get there, and the easier front path on the way down.

Town life! Shopping, dining, fuel, and parties!

Our 6-hour, 3-hour tour of Little Exuma. 😂

Boatschool: Art Appreciation at Rudder Cut

After five nights at Farmers Cay, we headed out into Exuma Sound for a lovely sail down to Rudder Cut Cay.  Our objective—the piano!  David Copperfield placed this stainless steel sculpture of a mermaid and a piano in shallow water, and I decided it would be a fun physical education/music appreciation/art appreciation lesson for homeschooling! We anchored off the nearby cave and explored the piano and nearby reefs.  What did we find, other than a piano?  More on that later!

The forecast, wind/current regime, and folks that anchored really close to us made this a one-night stop.  Kids have voted—we are bound for George Town!