Travel—why solo and why now?

Kaliméra! As I’m waiting to board a ferry in Greece I figured it’s a good time to explain what the heck I am doing here—now—and why I am alone.

Why solo?

Is my marriage failing? I don’t think so! Am I having a midlife crisis? Perhaps! Do I miss solo trips like I used to go on when I was working? YES!!! And was my husband’s passport getting renewed when I decided to do this? Yes. :)

Look, I love my family and if you’ve been reading this blog for a hot minute you know we love traveling together A LOT. But if you spend almost every waking moment concerned about the needs and wants of others you are probably neglecting yourself to a degree. And while I’m mostly talking to the parents and partners here, single folks can get wrapped into the care and concern of others, too. 

Back when Frank and I were working we both traveled as part of our jobs. For about a two year stretch one of us was gone for at least a week every month, and sometimes one of us would be gone for several weeks at a time. The “away” team member would check in with the “home” team, but really they only had to care about their own needs for the most part. Work trips became a mini-recharge for me as a wife and mother. What does everyone want to eat? Not my problem! Want to wake up early and see the sunrise? There’s no one to have to crawl over or worry about waking up! Want to just lie in bed for an hour and do nothing? Go for it! I’m not saying my family stops me from any of that when I’m home, but rather I do! I stop myself. I don’t want to bother anyone, I don’t want anyone else to have to worry about anything that I can take care of, and I sure as heck don’t want to slack on stuff around the house by lying in bed.

And I would also take weekends to see my girlfriends and he would take hiking trips with his buddy. At the end of any of these trips, no matter which side I was on, it was great to talk about our unique experiences and learn about new places from one another. And yeah, maybe distance did make the heart grow fonder! 

So I am solo in Greece! Frank does want to come someday so I’m considering this a recon trip, but I am definitely enjoying a little bit of traveling on my own agenda.

Why now?

There is a Level 4 “Do not travel” advisory for Greece from the CDC due to COVID right now so I get that my decision might not make sense to everyone. But I am vaccinated and readily wear a mask when asked or when I feel like a space or crowd requires it. And between my desire for some solo travel (it’s been over two years since my last true solo) and wanting a distraction as my daughter leaves us for 10 months (and Frank’s passport being “in the mail”), now seemed right! I was actually looking at a trip to Spain when I stumbled upon a good deal on a flight to Greece that departed from the same airport the Katreina was leaving from within an hour of her flight—this would allow me to be with her just a little bit longer! And I found a great place to stay in Athens that was affordable, in a great neighborhood, and close to transit. So…Greece, now!

This trip is two and a half weeks long. While even a few days alone in the mountains would have given me the recharge I need right now, this long trip to a completely new place is also helping me learn a bit about myself…what really makes me happy, what causes me to be anxious, and what do I really want out of the next few years. And I can’t wait to share my experiences with the home team!

The marina in the Port of Aegina, Saronic Islands

(the end of my ferry journey!)

~Jo, 1st Mate

Hatchet Bay, Take 2 (we get off the boat!)

Once the wind chilled out a little we were able to goof off on a nearby sandbar have a relaxing Easter. 

Happy Easter!

We started the next day by shifting our anchorage to southern Alabaster Bay and taking a morning walk over to the abandoned Navy base. After those days on the boat we were ready for a nice, long walk! The beach was just as glorious as we remember from last year!

We LOVE the beach at the old base!

Lehe Paine looking good in Alabaster Bay

That night we headed to Hatchet Bay, our COVID quarantine spot from last year! That was the last place that Frank went ashore last year (we were minimizing our contact by only sending one person in) before the lockdowns started. We spent weeks there, just on our boat, so this visit was a bit of a re-do!

The narrow (but deep!) entrance to Hatchet Bay Pond

We got up early Tuesday morning for a big breakfast and a 1-hour walk along Queen's Highway to the Hatchet Bay Cave. This is the most extensive cave system on Eleuthera, extending about 1100 feet underground with over a mile of twisting passages. The crew was starting to lose their sense of humor when we finally made it to the access road. Then we just had to survive a 5-minute walk through some guard and stray dogs to get to the access steps at the "front" of the cave. Shortly after entering our world went completely dark and we descended a ladder to the next level of the cave. The air was warm and water dripped from the forming stalagmites. And no bats that we could see! And a thin string ran through most of the cave...just in case your light goes out! And there is graffiti pretty much all throughout the cave, some dating back to the 1800's. At the "back" of the cave is a square cut out of the overhead rock with a rope ladder to climb out. While it was a haul to get there on foot, we liked it! We spent the afternoon recovering, doing school, and getting a few groceries in town.

Very cool cave!

The next day, we hit the road again! This time, the walk was only about 40-minutes each way to Sweetings Pond! This inland lagoon is believed to have been closed off from the sea for 6000 years. Seawater seeps in through the limestone, but there is little-to-no recruitment of animals from the outside. The result is a unique, yet fragile, environment that is known for its seahorses! While we did end up seeing one pregnant male seahorse, we saw so much more! Harry Clinging Crabs, a Striped Burrfish, Brittle Stars, Red Fireclams, Fringeback Dondice, needlefish, mussels, barnacles...tons of life! Visibility was 10-15' and we were pretty cold after about an hour in the pond, but it was such a great experience!

Tons of life in Sweetings Pond

We hit the store on our way back to check out their fresh produce delivery (awesome!) and were excited to see S/V Yemaya anchored in the harbor when we got back to the dock! We immediately ditched our plan to get underway and stayed another night. I met Ian when we were both stationed in Washington, D.C. and now we are both retired and cruising. The adults shared a lovely evening and sundowners on Yemaya...such a great way to close out our return to Hatchet Bay!

A fabulous spot to wait for our take-away lunch in town.

Frank, Jo, and Ian together again after over a year! 

COVID UPDATE: If you haven't figured it out by now, given the new COVID orders that apply to travel from Eleuthera to any other island, we have decided that we will slowly enjoy Eleuthera and close out our cruising season here. While we again feel like COVID has robbed us of our visit to the Abacos we are thoroughly enjoying taking our time here in Eleuthera. We will get to the Abacos someday!

How can we get to the Bahamas during a pandemic???

With the COVID pandemic upending travel plans across the globe many have debated whether it’s even worth it to try to travel and cruise right now. Well, we opted to go for it! Having been in the Bahamas at the start of the pandemic and seeing first-hand how they handled it then and over the past few months, we felt comfortable with returning. How did we do it? 

The Bahamas publishes very clear instructions for travelers to follow. Our starting point was the website, travel.bs.gov. As of our crossing the requirements were:

- must have proof of a negative PCR COVID test taken within 5 days of arrival 

- must have a Bahamas Health Visa ($60) approved before arrival

- must take a rapid COVID test on day 5 of your trip if staying more than 5 days (included in price of health visa)

- must take an online health survey for the first 14 days of your trip

- follow all mandatory COVID protocols and curfews for the area you are in

Easy, right? First we had to line up a potential weather window. With the requirement to clear in within 5 days of the test (test day=day 0), this can be a challenge if you are awaiting results and the window is narrow. Fortunately, the authorities added an allowance in the COVID orders that allows boaters to arrive outside of the 5 days so long as they can prove they didn’t go to any other port between their test and checking in. 

We also had to figure out how/where to get our tests. Florida has some free testing sites, but the turnaround on results isn’t guaranteed. Labs that promise results in 24 hours are available, but run $150-250 per test. As we needed four tests and aren’t on a serious schedule, we decided to try the free route first! A decent weather window was opening Thursday-Saturday. With free testing sites closed on Monday due to the MLK holiday, we had to target a Tuesday test. We had to rent a car to reach any of the free sites near West Palm Beach so we decided to use the drive-up clinic as no appointments were required. With the testing site open 8-4 we arrived at 7:40 am and found ourselves 1/2 mile from the entrance in a huge line of cars! Stress! At 8 am the queue started moving along as we all entered a maze of cones. The site was doing both rapid antigen and PCR tests so we just had to state that we wanted PCR and were sent to those lanes. They give you a sheet telling you to make an online account and enter all sorts of info—tough to do as you are driving, but we did it for ALL FOUR OF US only to never get asked to provide the handy, personalized barcode that process yielded. Instead, we were also given a little slip of paper to enter our info on, which was then hand-jammed into a laptop. Our test packets were hooked under the windshield wiper and we were off to the testing tent! That actually wasn’t horrible. Trent ended up having a sneezing fit from getting swabbed, but after a few brain tickles we were on our way at 9 am. The whole ordeal took less than an hour and a half and they said we should have results in two-five days. We were hoping for two!

The local “free” testing options. The signs just terrify you, and the barcode was apparently useless!

And then we waited. While we waited I created our travel visa accounts on the Bahamas website—one account for each adult, the kids were listed under an adult. With all of our passport info in the system we just had to wait for our test results! And wait. And wait. Tuesday wasn’t bad since we had just gotten the test and had errands to run. Wednesday was ok as we could fill water and monitor the forecast. Thursday, one of our options for leaving, was just dreadful! Late in the afternoon I think we had given up hope on getting results that day when we both got text messages—our results were in as of 4:08pm—55 hours after we had been tested. Woo hoo! It was super easy to see that we had all tested negative, but establishing accounts in yet another system to download our results as pdf’s was less so. 

Once we finally tackled that I uploaded our results and submitted our health visas for approval. We had heard that this was a swift part of the process so we raised the dinghy, discussed crossing options, and prepped for dinner. Within an hour, we received notification that our health travel visas had been approved and were pending payment. Online payment was a breeze and we were “green” to depart by 6pm.

Major milestones! Negative tests, travel visas (love the online system) and printing EVERYTHING twice!

Our options:

a) leave Thursday night for a Friday morning arrival at West End

b) leave Thursday night for a Friday afternoon arrival at Lucaya (on a rising tide to avoid a shoal)

c) leave early Friday morning for a Friday afternoon arrival at West End

As we also needed to get somewhere to pick up a WiFi service for our cruising season, we went with plan “b”—that put us in a reasonably-priced marina that was walking distance to an Aliv cell phone retailer. We had dinner and pulled the anchor just after 7pm!

Last Florida sunset for a bit!

We had a decent crossing, though we were only able to sail a few hours of it. Seas got a little lumpy mid-Gulf Stream but it was way better than last year’s crossing! We actually made good time and decided to come into Bell Channel in Lucaya at mid-tide. We didn’t see less than 8.5 feet—plenty of water! We tied up at the Grand Bahamas Yacht Club fuel dock (doubles as the Customs/Immigration dock), presented all of our COVID and normal cruising documents, and were cleared in! It was all very smooth and only took about a half hour. We payed for a night at the marina and shifted over to a slip. Easy peasy!

From quarantine flag to courtesy flag, and the crew ties up the boat!

Bahamas essentials—Ricardo rum, WiFi, coconut bread, and Goombay punch.

R&R for the crew after a whirlwind night/day!

We only have one hurdle left—the 5th day COVID test. We are en route to the Berry Islands now and will request our test there. All the testing sites are listed on the Bahamas website. I expect that part of this process to go just as smoothly as check-in did.

As the Bahamas has rolled out new requirements, any ambiguity is swiftly dealt with. While the system may have shortcomings, we are impressed with how they are trying to reinvigorate their main industry while protecting their citizens at the same time. We only spent $240 more to cruise this year than last (4x$60 health visa)—I’m not counting the rental car as we would have done that anyway for propane and provisioning. We are excited to spend the next three months visiting these beautiful islands and people!

Update: Cruising in the COVID-19 pandemic

The Bahamian government has put in place a 24-hr curfew through March 31st. Folks can go out for essential needs (food, fuel, doctor, essential work, etc.), but otherwise are to remain at home. Public beaches are closed. There is also a restriction on inter-island travel.

There is much debate in the cruiser community about these rules and how they affect us. Our take--if we don't absolutely have to shore for food or fuel, we won't. While we have been cruising the island of Eleuthera since late February, we will not move the boat if we don't have to. We will only move if needed for a safe anchorage or if we decide to go home. It's my opinion that boats moving amongst the islands to get to North America expeditiously should go ahead and do it, but should not go ashore. But if they need fuel...gah, this is tough, folks!

There is talk that this curfew will be extended for another month as the confirmed cases (5 at this point) are now on two islands. That may be what pushes us to move on. Our plan had been to volunteer with rebuilding efforts in the Abacos in April, but given their damaged infrastructure they are discouraging visitors at this time to keep the virus away. We understand, but having this aspect of our trip go away is a bit heartbreaking, though not as heartbreaking as a virus impacting an already fragile island would be.

At this point, you may be wondering, "So what the heck will you guys do?" We don't know. We weigh spread of the virus, access to food/water/fuel/waste disposal, weather, and our general feeling of safety daily (ok, one anxious crew member weighs those things nearly constantly). We are currently anchored snugly in Hatchet Bay on Eleuthera, a 2-day (overnight) sail from U.S. waters. We have food and water (and rum and coffee!). And every day, we relook at the world and reassess our plan.