Holley Family Random Thoughts and Lessons Learned (evolving collection)

Travel is good for so many things… One big one is that it shows you how much we all take for granted at home.

Charter boats in the Virgin Islands get abused. Not all of them, but a lot of them.

This year is different from last year in many ways, but one thing definitely remains the same: Rebecca’s love of marina showers.

Check the hatches.

We NEED to take better care of Planet Earth and all her inhabitants.

(Almost) everything is better with feta or cream cheese.

Boat life: highest of highs, lowest of lows.

This is a song we hear frequently in the Bahamas…. It’s hilarious, and we can’t stop singing it on our boat: https://g.co/kgs/xAdGvS

Catching is more fun than fishing.

If you live on a boat, you will have bruises most of the time.

The “green flash” at sunset is real. It’s not a big flash of green light, it’s more subtle, but we’ve seen it several times.

Read the room.

Free drinks aren’t really free… You pay for them the following day. 🥴

Dominoes is a surprisingly fun game.

Toys can be tools, but tools are never toys.

Sailing terminology is funny, and if you don’t agree, you take yourself way too seriously, sailor.

When friends bring you stuff from home, it’s as good as Christmas.

Fast is slow and slow is fast.

If you have to clean out a clogged toilet drain pipe into the ocean and there are bull sharks around, they will aggressively eat the poop that comes out of the pipe. It’s the grossest thing ever.

We couldn’t live without our dinghy.

Be careful not to get near poisonwood.

When in doubt, wear your bathing suit.

A family of 4 with a giant dog can get by on about 15 gallons of fresh water per day.

If it has to do with a sailboat, it will take 10x longer and cost 10x more than you expect.

Number one Morris question is “what kind of dog is that?!” Number two is “how much fur do you have on your boat?!”

If you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot.

When you jump into the water from high up, hold your nose and point your toes.

Your boat name is important because people know you by your boat name (except everyone knows Morris).  Also, every time someone hails you on the VHF they have to say it three times, so you’d better like how it sounds. I want to name our next boat “Toy Boat” or “Unique New York”, because it will be hilarious to listen to people try to say it three times fast.

Don’t compare your insides with other peoples’ outside.

In the Bahamas, rum costs less than water, but beer costs as much as decent wine in the US.

The boat will never be clean. Fighting sand and salt water is futile.

The only time you don’t tie up your dinghy with two lines is when you tie it up with three or more.

Take care of your feet.

14 responses to “Holley Family Random Thoughts and Lessons Learned (evolving collection)”

  1. Roger, important and insightful info received. Carry on, sailing ohana!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Really? 15 gallons? Good news about rum — bad news about beer. Must be supply, demand, or both? In Haiti we developed a taste for rum coke.

    A friend had another sailing axiom: all sailboat parts cost five times as much as they should. He later opened a store selling sailboat equipment and parts.

    Great collection.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yeah the beer thing is definitely a supply/import thing.

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    2. And yes, everything at the boat store is 5x more expensive for the same product at the hardware store!

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  3. I should clarify— it’s rum Coca-Cola.

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    1. Cellini— I was chuckling at your rebuttal. 😁

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Ok so I think and jot down notes daily of ‘what would Santa bring if he visited the holleys’ and you are consistently sharing clues.

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  5. Toni & Larry Holley Avatar
    Toni & Larry Holley

    🤪😂
    Your dad says to stock up on some of that “cheap” rum for him!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Toni & Larry Holley Avatar
    Toni & Larry Holley

    Rebecca, Thank you so much for posting blogs so all of us can follow your family on the OHANA. It lets us be a part of this fabulous adventure you are on. We admire all 4 of you for your bravery and courage taking on this lifestyle. You are embracing life to its fullest. You are seeing the beauty and wonders of God’s creations like most of us never get to experience. Enjoy, be safe, and come home to us some day. 🥰❤️

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  7. Good one! Some important life lessons in there. We are assuming that this means you are still sailing?!

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    1. Yes – we have friends visiting for Spring Break and will be sailing for another month or two before heading home!

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  8. Why does fishing make you superstitious and what’s the room to read?

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    1. It makes me superstitious because there is no apparent rhyme or reason when it comes to catching fish… There are some basic skills and a lot of luck. So I find that I come up with superstitions to explain how and why we catch fish when we do, and why we don’t sometimes. Reading the room is just referring to what we talk with the boys about, in general social context.

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