The Summer before we Sail
With the house sold, our jobs finished up and Addy’s graduation, it was time for two big endeavors - move out of house and move our boat from BVI out of the hurricane zone. Our insurance requires that our boat is North of the 36 latitude (Outer Banks area) for hurricane season.
Nate left Oklahoma soon after graduation to move No Worries to Puerto Rico where he would meet up with his crew; Mathew (head of our school), Addy and Sydney (Addy’s adventurous friend). Departure from Puerto Rico was delayed when our life raft was somehow inflated by Fed Ex or airport employees. Deeming this essential equipment, the crew waiting for a new raft to arrive three days later which gave everyone time to explore Old San Juan and provision at Costco.
Once all safety gear was on board, the crew left Puerto Rico for Turks and Caicos. The sailing got serious straight away with a three day continuous sail that included 2 nights. The girls quickly learned navigation skills and participated in all the shifts. The auto-pilot died which meant everyone was old school steering - keeping the boat on a heading and following the chart plotter. The sails were up and Nate was excited when Zatara said hello over the radio. Sailing Zatara is one of our favorite YouTube sailing channels and they were heading in the opposite direction but chatting with vessels nearby. Fan moment! Needing to be alert during your shift meant everyone took 30 minutes shifts with a 1.5 hour break in between. Unfortunately the auto pilot was not a quick fix due to European sourced parts and would have to wait until the boat reached West Palm Beach Florida.
Two days were spent in Turks and Caicos to recover and explore. Then No Worries headed towards the Bahamas where many more islands exist to stop along the way. The girls loved diving for sanddollars and even took a deep sea swim where the ocean floor was over 9,000 ft below.
On June 13th there was a crew shift when Matthew had to return to work in Oklahoma and I came to help with sailing. Josephine opted to stay home with her animals, barn job and summer math class. She had a responsible college student staying with her. I flew into Georgetown in the Exumas and sat at a funky restaurant waiting for No Worries to round into the bay and pick me up via Dinghy. Mathew flew home with us grateful for his time and help. I think he enjoyed each salty day.
We stayed at the wild and unpopulated Rat Cay which allowed for Nate to do a swim workout and the girls to take the dinghy for beach cave exploration. At 839nm (nautical miles) since Tortola, we stayed Staniel Cay. Addy had lost the boat hook overboard and had to jump into the water to help tie the mooring lines to the ball. This stop was so splendid that we stayed overnight to have time to eat at the fancy restaurant, get fuel, and see some of the sights. This is the location of filming the James Bond movie “Thunderball” so the local bar has a gallery of black and white photographs of Sean Connery and crew. We snorkeled the Thunderbolt Grotto, I pet my first shark and the girls went to see the wild island pigs. We often played games in the evening and even tried to do workouts on board.
