Sailing Ohana

We had great sail to Long Island for a too-short stop here. We caught two barracudas on the way, which was a bummer because it’s been a long time since we fished a lot, and since we caught anything worth eating. Those barracuda teeth are amazing… I wish I had gotten better photos. The boys had a blast sitting on the trampoline and getting splashed with waves as we sailed over.

We anchored in wavy, windy conditions in Thompson Bay so I was anxious to get off the boat for a while, until the wind shifted as predicted. We had a great spot with protection for the really windy weekend as soon as the winds shifted north.

Our family took the dinghy ashore and walked along the shoreline with Morris until we had the idea to split up and have Spencer and Tommy go back to get the dinghy and go to Tiny’s, a local favorite beach-front restaurant. Jackson and I would walk with Morris and meet them there. We walked along the shoreline until we ran into some very scary barbed wire with no tresspassing signs which threatened an attack dog and said “not responsible for injury or death”. We turned around and started looking for a path inland to the road so we could take that to Tiny’s. We tried several different spots and every time we would get halfway to the road and have to turn back because the vegetation was so dense. It was a million degrees without the ocean breeze we’re accustomed to, and the humidity was off the charts. Jackson and Morris were so tough… We walked and walked and walked and sweated and sweated until I was about to give up, and then we found the ruins of an old stone wall which we followed to the road. After an hour of trying and then a very long 15-minute walk on the road later, we arrived at Tiny’s. They had dog dishes and water for Morris, cold water and beer for me, and a Shirley Temple for Jackson.

We had plans with about 10 (!) kid boats to have dinner at Tiny’s, so we ordered our pizzas and enjoyed dinner there. We loved having real veggie pizza, just like home. I was wiped out and took the boys back to our boat to play cards with their friends rather than stay and party with everyone.

Sunday (today) was a cloudy, stormy day so we didn’t do much. It was actually nice for a change. We went ashore to go for a walk and took Morris to the beach a couple of times. Jackson was a superstar and took Morris by himself in crummy weather conditions. Otherwise we hung around the boat a lot, being lazy and trying to catch up on school. I practiced ukulele which I’m not progressing on as quickly as I had hoped.

We are heading to the remote Ragged Islands tomorrow with about 5 other kid boats (almost all of whom have been there before), so I won’t be updating the blog. We’ll be back in Georgetown in about 10 days to re-provision and get ready for a visit from friends from home.