Bahamian Sunrise

Sunrise, sunset, that is the cruisers sleep schedule, with the sun.  Unfortunately, even though it feels like summer, the days are still short.  Sunrise is at 6:30, sunset is around 5:30.  I find that you pay more attention to these things when you’re on a boat.  I will admit, however, we don’t go to bed by 5:30, more like 8:30-9pm, but still, that’s early compared to our “old city life” in the Couve!  We’ve turned into morning people, if you can believe that!

Hans has also brought a new schedule to our boat life.  To name a few, the single side band radio, Rodney Yee yoga, eating more and band exercises.  I now have someone to share coffee with in the morning and since he brought us the single side band radio, we can tune into the weather forecast with Chris Parker at 6:30am.  This is a big deal, it means that we don’t have to rely on other cruisers for hand-me-down weather reports anymore and that we need to be up by 6:30 am if we want to get the weather forecast for the day.

We start the morning (after coffee, of course) with yoga exercises on the beach to a Rodney Yee audio.  We also bring our cat Nelly with us to the beach these days.  She uses the beach as her own personal litter box.  While we do our stretching, she digs her deep holes, does her business and then rolls in the sand and explores, meowing incessantly.

Later in the day, if we are not traveling (traveling can be a whole day activity in itself), we go on a snorkeling adventure and this is when we usually spear our dinner – grouper, lionfish, hogfish, lobster, or snapper to name a few.   If we are traveling, which we do a lot of, we’ll go snorkeling after our sail, as long as the sun is still up.  Sharks are more likely to be out on the prowl closer to dusk.

Sara snorkeling off the boat

Hans' speared us dinner - Hogfish

Since Hans’ arrival, we have also started doing band exercises, using rubber bands on the boat’s mast to work out different muscle groups.   Hans has been teaching us different techniques and workouts using these bands.   I still have my intense workouts to share with the group, that my co-worker James O’Brien put together for me before I left.  These are extreme workouts and may make the boys cry!  I will have to bring them out slowly.

On the Tanqueray

We end the day with cooking an elaborate dinner, maybe baking a dessert, reading a book, writing, playing cards, doing dishes (on the boat, this is an activity of it’s own), re-stowing the boat, and listening to music, while going over the days events and reviewing the charts and weather forecasts for the next days travel plans.  If I was able to make a tray of ice that day (meaning that we had enough solar energy to really crank up the refrigerator during the day), we may even have ice-cold cocktails with our meal.  It’s a good life thus far. 

Crew in the Jumentos - Flamingo Cay

Mike spearing a lobster