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Exploring the Sea Caves

Hi everyone! This is Lucy. I hope that you are staying happy and healthy, and having a great day! I wrote this post awhile ago, but I haven’t got to posting it until today. (Better late then never, right!)

I  am going to tell you about the past few days that we have spent here in San Marcos. I noticed a few things right away when we got here. The water was nice and refreshing and if you stayed in long enough, it could maybe even be a little cold. So, we liked this place right away! There were also lots of small sea caves and little beaches. 

We all decided to go check out the sea cave. We got the kayak down, Sally, Heidi, and I all piled into it. Which is much easier said than done.  We kayaked to the cave and we were greeted by the smell of bird poop and darkness. Other than that, was nice and much cooler. We looked around in there a little bit then left. We paddled around to one of the beaches and we found a lot of ray skeletons. Which was sad, but it looked like they ate them.  the next beach that we went to we found three starfish skeletons which were really pretty. We paddled through lots of little passages and saw lots of really brightly colored crabs. The next beach we found a baby hammerhead shark head. I don’t know what it is with us and shark heads,the next day we found 4 more baby shark heads on the beach too.  We went to show off our findings to the other boats and then went back for a laid back afternoon. An hour in the sun here really tires you out. 

The next day we woke up with lots of bees. We were getting swarmed by them, and we had our doors and hatches closed to keep them out. But they managed to come through. We found out that they were coming through a screened window that had part of the screen undone. We got so desperate that we made an exit only sign, English and Spanish, but they did not seem to either care, or know how to read. ; )

There were hundreds of bees, but we didn’t get to taking pictures to the end.

We started heading out to North Anchorage,  hoping to shake some of the bees off. Our friends from Arena went there the day before and said the caves were really cool. We decided to take our boat over and meet Arena and Utopia on their dinghies to explore the caves they went to the other day. The new anchorage was beautiful. There were lots of caves, a pretty rock beach, and the water was very clear.  Also- no bees yet!

Heidi and I went to put down the dinghy so we could go with the others to explore the cave. Heidi went in to pump it up after we dropped it down. I looked again at the dinghy and Heidi, and realized that it was floating away! The dinghy for some reason was not tied on. Of course, the engine would not start then. (Don’t worry, it was still relatively close to the boat.) Mom came to the rescue and swam out to it and pulled it back to the boat. As soon as I grabbed on to the line, the engine finally decided to work. This new place was already bringing lots of excitement! 

We packed our snorkels, masks, water, sunscreen, and a few pairs of shoes on to the dinghy. Willie was very happy to come along as we went over to the cave where Arena and Utopia were at. 

This was one of the caves you could swim through. I jumped off of our dinghy and looked in the water. There were lots of little colorful fish which were really cool looking. I also immediately say tons of sea stars. I looked into the darkness of the Sea cave and watched as some in our group, Willie included started going through. 

I went in and I was surprised how dark it got in the middle. It was about half way through and looking at all the rest of the cave before I even put my head in the water. It was a good thing I did! Right in front of me there was a huge rock that was very shallow. 

The light to the end of the cave came up and then we were out of it and ready to snorkel the rocks outside of it. While the rest of us looked and snorkled outside of the cave Wille wanted to keep on going through the cave. For the time we were there, he went through it four or five times!  

Once we were done with exploring that cave, we went to another rock beach that also had good snorkeling.We stayed there for a while, hung out with friends, enjoyed the cool rocks, and saw lots more sea stars. 

We went back to the boat that afternoon pretty tired, (Willie was absolutely exhausted) but it was a great day and we saw lots of cool things. 

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Shark Dentistry by Lucy

Hello everyone! This is Lucy, it’s been awhile since I last posted but I am going to tell you about a story from a few days ago…

It all started with Sally saying “Hey guess what we found on the beach today?” 

“What?” I asked curiously, guessing it was some sort of animal. 

“Two shark heads!” was the answer, one that I  was definitely not expecting. As you can imagine there were alot of follow up questions. 

  We went to examine them closer the next day with an idea. A dentistry idea. We were going to try to get the teeth/jaws from it so we could have shark teeth. Heidi, Sally, and I packed a bucket with the things that we might need. Pliers, big serrated knife, scissors, water, shoes, and sunscreen. We were all excited to go, it was a new adventure, something that we hadn’t had in a while! Once we are all packed and ready to go we left on the dinghy to our friends we have been isolating with on the boats Arena and Utopia. We had a full dinghy that was full of laughter and lots of talking on the short but very windy and bumpy ride in. 

We were all ready to go with Ava, from Utopia, Riley, Ada, and Bronwyn from Arena.

We unloaded on the beach and the rest showed me to the shark. When we got there I was so surprised. I was expecting a shark skeleton, but this seemed pretty fresh still and looked like the pictures of sharks heads you would see. 

The day before we figured out it was  a mako shark, one of the fastest sharks. We looked at it for a little bit then went to work. Sally and Heidi picked up the shark head- (their noses plugged) with two sticks and dumped it in the water to get out the bugs. (I should mention right now that rotting shark smell is DISGUSTING. We all agreed it is worse than fish or rotting fish. So very very unpleasant.) Once all the bugs were out, it was time for taking out the jaws. Sally and Riley successfully sawed through the extra head near the jaws.  

At one point near this time we saw a wiggly tooth, and Bronwyn came in with the pliers. “Don’t worry, I’m good at pulling out wiggly teeth, I got some practice.” She exclaimed smiling, she had been losing lots of teeth lately. We all started laughing and sure enough, the tooth came out easily. Sally, Bronwyn, and Riley ran off to get a glass jar to put it in. 

Heidi and I continued sawing then we gave the teeth and gums to Riley, Bronwyn, and Sally for them to extract the teeth and rinse them. Ada, Ava, Heidi, and I continued to try to get as much of the jaw out by sawing, holding it in place, and using the pliers. We were all very successful and after 30 minutes to an hour we had a glass jar full  of teeth. There was only one problem…They absolutely stunk. We all went back to our boat and put the teeth in muriatic acid and water. It bubbled up so much, but we added more water and it seemed to be working.  

Heidi and Bronwyn working with the pliers!
Heidi and Riley trying to get the jaw out..
Ava and Ada helping

We realized that it would take a while for it to work so we started playing some games. After playing the same games for a while you get more creative with your games. We played a game called “quack”, categories, and alibi. After lots of games and lots of laughing, everyone went back to their boats for the day.  

The next day once the teeth were all clean and bleached we all made necklaces out of them. 

Heidi, Sally, and my shark tooth necklaces.

 It was a fun, interesting, adventure and new thing to do. I would never ever think I would be doing “dentistry” on a shark, but it was surely an experience like no other that I have done! 

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    Christmas letter 2019

    Feliz Navidad! Christmas 2019

    We have enjoyed another year filled with tons of family time, sea adventures, and land travel.  Last January we started our year in the Caribbean Sea in Bocas del Toro, Panama.  We sailed through the Panama Canal and met the Pacific Ocean—shockingly colder, bigger tides, and an  inviting coastline waiting to be surfed.  We traveled north along the coast—traveling from Panama, to Costa Rica, to El Salvador, to Mexico, and all the way up the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Penasco, a mere 4 hours from Phoenix.  Our “on the boat” highlights include:

    1. Bioluminescence and surfing in Bocas del Toro and Benao, Panama
    2. Transiting the Panama Canal, the good, the bad, and the ugly…
    3. Climbing Volcan Baru, the only place you can see the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans
    4. Costa Rican wildlife:  monkeys, frogs, toucans, sloths, macaws, sting rays
    5. El Salvador pupusas, Herradura village market, smiley friendly people
    6. Amazing Mayan ruins, blue waterfalls, and taco stands in Chiapas, Mexico
    7. Isla Isabel, Mexico’s Galapagos: blue footed boobies, frigate birds, cool snorkeling
    8. Sea of Cortez wildlife:  sharks, whales, sea lions, coyotes, fish, huge dolphin pods
    9. Barb’s Dog Rescue in Puerto Penasco—puppies to cuddle by the dozen
    10. Dia Des Muertos in Puerto Penasco—what an amazing celebration to experience

    We arrived to the top of the Sea of Cortez mid June and began our North American Western National Park tour.  We camped all summer hitting phenomenal national parks, state parks, provincial parks, national forests, and public BLM land.  Our minivan has never been so full—6 people, 1 dog, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, food, clothes for all seasons, and gear.  We all became experts on setting up all the tents, breaking down camp, loading the car topper, unloading the car topper, all while battling the rain and wind.  Our highlights:

    1. Climbing around the Jumbo Rocks at Joshua Tree National Park
    2. Big Sur and Ewok trees and our Gypsy audio guide tour
    3. Drumheller—escaping the rain, free A&W root beer day, Tyrell Museum, Tim Hortons
    4. Cherry picking and visiting with smoke jumpers in Montana and camping under the willows along the banks of a quick stream
    5. Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump and Blackfoot Indians crafting and storytelling…STARS!
    6. Being chased down the trail by a black bear in Waterton National Park
    7. Getting a really great deal on a ham (or two) in Canada—and eating ham for a month afterwards every day for lunch and sometimes dinner too
    8. Finishing all fruits and vegetables before crossing the border—ie. passing around a carrot and everyone taking a bite to finish it off before we reached the border patrol (we hate to waste food)!
    9. Due to a very fun park ranger in Mesa Verde, Heidi got married to Bruno from Switzerland—who we luckily bumped into again at Bryce Canyon (all but Heidi were looking forward to more chance encounters).
    10. Visiting St. Louis family, Connecticut family, Ridgefield friends, Wilmette friends, and rekindling friendships with college friends whom we hadn’t seen for ages

    After 4 months of land travel, we happily arrived back to our boat, which has never felt so comfortable and spacious!  Beds without rocks.  The last few months in the yard, we all worked hard on lots of boat projects, took a few classes in nearby Phoenix, and enjoyed many Taco Tuesdays:  taco stands, churro stands, and ice cream spots.  We finally splashed at the end of November and are back in the Sea of Cortez.  We are currently heading south and east towards the mainland of Mexico.  We are expecting to find some rad surf spots this Christmas.

    Hi! This is Heidi (now 16!) Wow this year has flown by! This year has been full of laughter, new friends, and above all, family. And another full year  cruising! A few things that I’ve picked up this year include, surfing, BSA, Sea Scouts, and psychology. I am working hard towards earning my Eagle Award this coming year. I’ve seen a few more countries, added a few more words to my Spanish dictionary, have tried so many new dishes, and met so many amazing people. I’ve learned how similar I am to all other humans in this world, how high the highest point in Panama really is, and how grateful I am to be here. I am so lucky to have these experiences and so excited to continue this amazing adventure. Feliz Navidad! 

    Hey! This is Lucy (now 14). So far the year has been great! I also started scouting in BSA and Sea Scouts. Some things I have enjoyed have been sailing, cooking, surfing, seeing family and friends this summer, camping, meeting new friends, and trying new foods;) I have learned more about sailing, camping, how hard a 20 mile hike up a volcano mountain is, wilderness first aid, surfing, and my Spanish is slowly improving! 

    Hi! This is Sally (12) wowsers! This year has been filled with so many awesome memories and I can’t believe it’s almost 2020. I have made so many new friends, explored most of the USA this summer, been to so many countries, surfed, and even learned how to give a puppy a shot. I am so thankful for another amazing year with my family, plus being on Love and Luck. We are all much better sailors!

    Fenton, now 18, (woah!) has been having so much fun on his boat gap year that he’s extended it for another year. Right now, he’s finishing up his applications to colleges and hopes to attend one of them in Fall of 2020. This year, he’s learned to surf (kind of), taken the SAT again, and written (and revised) countless essays. Fenton is super thankful to everyone in his life, and is very excited for Christmas and the New Year, and he can’t wait to see where he ends up next.

    Mark had a great year traveling from Panama to Canada – and all spots in-between.  He truly enjoyed sailing over 3,000 miles and driving an additional 21,000 miles (yikes – that’s a lot).  It was great to see so many places, experience so many different cultures ,and realizing how, at the end of the day, that people are fundamentally the same everywhere.  Now that we’re back on the boat, he is continually fixing things as they come up, consulting with a few different clients, and sometimes has time for a Crossword puzzle.  He is a big fan of podcasts which he shared with us ALL summer long.  He is always up for a good family game and is our best fisher person.

    Julie is loving this new lifestyle—exploring new places, meeting new and different people, being a part of nature, and learning all kinds of new things all with the whole family.  It is truly an adventure to travel with your kids, experience new cultures together, and watch our family values develop.  Our backyard is always amazing, forever changing, and full of new creatures daily.  I wish all of our friends and family could easily drop in for a visit—you are missed!

    Willie is happy to be back on the move.  He jumps up and sniffs around as soon as we are entering the harbor to anchor somewhere new.  His favorite spots are a short dinghy ride away from a deserted beach to sniff at, run around, and play in the water or to find a trail to explore.  He still likes to herd us and is happiest when we are all together.

    2020 Plans…Sailing west across the Pacific

    March: Sail a long way from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to the Marquesas, French Polynesia

    April:  Explore the Marquesas, French Polynesia

    May:  Explore the Tuomotus, French Polynesia

    June:  Explore the Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora), French Polynesia

    July:  Explore the Cook Islands

    August:  Explore the Kingdom of Tonga

    September:  Explore Fiji

    October:  Travel to New Zealand

    November:  Settle in New Zealand for a while…any job leads out there?

    We wish you a very happy and healthy 2020, full of Love & Luck!  Please let us know if you have any opportunity to visit.  We have learned there are airports everywhere and we can always make room!

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    Haul Out at Cabrales Boat Yard in Puerto Penasco, Mexico! By: Lucy

     For the hurricane season, we took our boat out of the water so that we could make some repairs for it, and we could leave it to go on our road trip. 

    The day before we hualed out we anchored just minutes away. We were able to get the sails down and fold them up. The next morning we went to the dock and we topped off our fuel. We then went towards the other dock where we were getting hauled out in. We got tied up and everything, and it was a bit stressfull, but it was good. We started getting raised up, and our boat was out of the water and we were just floating there. Fenton, Heidi, Sally, and I all got off, but it became to far for Willie to jump, so Mom and Dad stayed. 

    They drove our boat in the slings to the yard. It was boiling hot out that day! The boat got all set up.

    The next couple of days it was also really hot! Sally had her birthday and we had a strawberry orange cake, which was good!  She dyed her hair with dye she got for her b-day. Dad left later that day to go get the car for our road trip.

    The next few days we cleaned up the boat a bunch and got ready to leave it for the season. We cleaned the lines, clean our lockers, cleaning all the walls with bleach, took out all of our cans and other things that could explode, and among other things, we packed up things to bring on our summer road trip. It was busy and really hot when we were here at first, but we got a lot done!

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    Chiapas trip

     Hey everyone! I am going to write about some land travel we did in Chiapas, Mexico. This was from a long time ago, we are on land now traveling the National Parks now. I figured it would be better to post it now though then never. In Chiapas, we went and did some land travel for a week with our boat friends on Utopia. It was a ton of fun. We saw lots of different Mayan ruins, heard and saw howler monkeys, saw some beautiful waterfalls, walked around to different towns, went on a boat ride through a canyon, and ate lots of tacos, roasted chickens, and quesadillas 😉 Sally posted an overview of the trip more in depth. Today I am going to write about Yaxchilan ruin.

          It was a cool day out, a bit cloudy, it seemed like the weather before it rained. Everyone had just eaten sandwiches for lunch. The group was going to go on a boat ride to a ruin. We started walking down a dusty dirt road. We got to the entrance of the national park, and we went to see which tour was the best price. After the adults negotiated the boat ride and a tour there, we all went down to to the beach. All of us got onto the boat, and it started making our way through the river.  The water in between the land was separating Guatemala and Mexico, so we had almost been to another country. I used to think that most countries are different, even like their landscapes, but I wouldn’t know by looking then which country was which besides what side of the river it was on.

          The river water was a really pretty color, it was like a chalky blue and a beautiful contrast to the deep green of the mountains and jungle. We were on the boat for about 15 minutes. We pulled up to a rocky beach and we all jumped off the boat. We then started walking up the path. As soon as we were at the site , we could see (and hear) howler monkeys jumping around the branches. I even saw a couple of monkeys jumping from one tree to another, when the trees were at least 5 feet apart. We headed to look at the ruins.

        We started off looking at the old ball game court. The Maya people used to play a game that is now called the pelota or ball game. They wore stone things that were on their hips and elbows to hit the ball into a hop. It was a bit like basketball, but they hit the ball their hip and elbows. In every village, the game differed a little, but in the ruin we visited they said that they used to play one on one.  The ball was made of the sap from the rubber tree. In this town, they used to sacrifice the people that won the game. They believed it was an honor to sacrifice themselves to the gods.(There was a ruin we went to the day before they didn’t sacrifice anyone.) We saw carvings of the ball game players, and they had the amount of stairs that they walked down after they won and were about to die. The Maya people believed that if you walked down the stairs you defeated the devil, and you were going to go up with the gods.  After we finished looking at those carvings, we walked up about 200 stairs to get to the main ruin were the royalty lived.

       There were lots of carvings in the wall. I think that is so amazing that the carving have stayed for so long, and can tell us how people used to live. There was also a pretty big statue inside. It was headless. Our tour guide told us that the head was in the next door. It was really dark and smelled like earth and wetness as we made our way out of that part of the ruin. We saw the head, it was surprising to me that the statue still looked brand new, even though it was from 200 AD. We learned that a legend said that if anyone ever put the head back onto the statue, the world would end. The poor statue will never get his head back!

     What I thought was the coolest thing about it, was that you could imagine what it would be like. There was howling, croaking, and you were surrounded by jungle. We were the only ones there at that site. We walked around some more, and soon, we started heading back to the boat. We started walking back to the hotel. It was a great afternoon!

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    A Bike Ride In Bocas


    Hi everyone! This is Lucy. I haven’t posted a blog in like forever, sorry about that! I wrote this about 2 weeks ago, but never posted it. We are near Colon now, getting ready to head through the canal on Friday!

              Yesterday was a crazy and fun day! We biked from 9:30 until 5 pm. We biked through the streets, walked (us and the bikes) through beaches, saw a sloth and monkeys, biked through the jungle on a possibly bike path, went to the natural Piscina (pool), got down poured on, had a few reealllllly muddy falls, and so much more. 

        It was a nice morning in Bocas del toro, Panama, the sun was shining, the fruit stores were thriving, everyone said, “Hola!”, and it was going to be a perfect day for a bike ride. We got to the bike store  with our good friends from Lasgair, and chose our bikes.  While trying out the bikes, two of the bikes pedals fell off.  Don’t worry, we got new bikes.  ; ) The rest of the bikes were great!  All of the bikes had back pedal breaks, and (probally the bigger reason) we haven’t biked for a bit over a year, so we needed to practice a bit before we left.  

    The streets we went through at first were small, but then they got bigger.  Soon, there was a lot of traffic! We found out minutes later wen we came to a big construction site. Yikes, I thought as the big construction machines roared through. The construction workers told us to go on the playa (beach). So we ended up walking our bikes through the really soft beach till a park that came back to the road. 

    Soon the paths had lush jungle on one side and a bunch of palm trees on the other side. It was truly beautiful. I looked back at the rest of us and smiled. There were nine bikes in a line and Poppy, the youngest on Lasgair, was side saddling the back of her dad’s bike. It reminded of the scene from the Sound of music went there were all biking. 

    all of us biking

    The path was level for a bit then it started getting hilly. We biked up this pretty steeped hill. Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h-hhhh I screamed, the bumpy road vibrating my whole bike, as I accelerated to like 100 mph. The hill was going by super quick. Even when I had the breaks all the way on it was still soooooo fast. I got to the bottom of the hill very soon. 

    “Wasn’t that so-oooo fun!” Sally yelled as she came down. I laughed and agreed. It was actually a lot of fun. It felt like the fastest I’ve gone since the Grenada buses!  ;p

              Slowly the path became more in the jungle. All of the bikes in front of me skidded to stops. 

         “What is it?” I asked. 

    Heidi pointed to the tree right in front of us.  I looked up and oh my gosh, like 10 feet up, it was a sloth. It was like the cutest thing. It was just like hanging out. It slowly turned it’s head towards us looked at us then went back to sleep. The sloth kind of looked like a chubakka, ET, and a cute puppy mixed together. After watching it for a bit, we started on our ride again. 

    the sloth!

    After biking more we came to a sandy road. Hopefully this is not too soft, I thought. Seconds later,  it was like someone put the breaks on. I tried to start pedaling again, and this time, the bike went on a super sharp turn then turned the other way. I was not expecting that, I thought with a  laugh. All ahead of me, I saw everyone walking their bikes and I decided that was better and faster then swerving back and forth. Every once in a while when the sand was not so soft people would go fast and say, “I am coming through on your left!” so they wouldn’t lose their momentum. 

    We stopped to look at surfers on a beach break. They were very good.  The surfers rode the face the whole way. The waves were huge. We watched them for a bit then biked/walked our bikes to the next spot.

    A beautiful beach and sandy spot was in front of us, and we were all ready to take a little break. We agreed it was a perfect place to have lunch. We brought fresh bread from the bakery, cheese, oranges, tomatoes, corn chips, and cookies. It was all delicious. We ate, some people swam, and mostly relaxed, so that when we started biking a little more than an hour later, we would be ready.

    A perfect place for lunch!

    The next part of the trail was crazy! There were pools of mud to go around, huge roots to go over, and multiple rivers to cross. 

    It was very bumpy!

    A strange howling had started up just as Heidi passed a tree. I stopped and looked around, and about 15 feet above us were howler monkeys. They were swinging from tree to tree. I was pretty cool!    

    “Look! Theres some howler monkeys!” I told the other people behind me.

    Howler monkeys!

    “Whooooaaaaaa!”   Fenton looked up and a just the wrong time.  There was a huge thing of mud right there. His bike fell over, and left him in a huge puddle of mud. A whole side of him was covered in mud!  It was very funny! He posed for a few pictures then washed off in the ocean. 

    We  continued  along with lots of laughing, bumping up and down, sometimes a few feet, and mainly having lots of fun. It started to rain minutes later. Heidi saw the sign for the piscina so Heidi, Fenton, and I stayed in one place while Mom told the others who were a bit ahead. We waited for a few minutes and no one came. The rain was getting louder. A whole group of howler monkey started howling then as well. 

    “This is a bit creepy.” I said as the tree stopped the rain less and less.  

    The others finally came back! 

    We stopped at the piscina then started back. We biked our way back to the rental place with not that much more excitement ; p 

    La piscina

    We came back ten times dirtier, ten times more tired, but, ten times happier! What a day, I thought as we went back to our boat!


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    A little bit about the ABC’s, our passage, and Santa Marta, Columbia

                       Hi everyone! This is Lucy. Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I will try and post more often!

                    The ABC’s were nice. In Bonaire I had a lot of fun when we rented a pickup truck with another boat family and went around the national park. We each had turns riding in the back! We stopped at multiple snorkeling sites and there attractions such as flamingos!  We also went to a cultural fest and saw people did the local dance.  Overall Bonaire was a ton of fun! 

                         

    In the back of the pickup truck!

    Last passage was a nice one.  As Fenton said on the other post we caught some fish! I reeled 2 fish in. One Mahi and one blue runner. Sally and Dad also caught 3 more fish but we only kept one  which was a mahi-mahi.  The shift Heidi and I had went from 7-10 pm. It was nice but still a bit tiring. 

    We got to Santa Marta three days ago and so far it has been a blast. There is a lot of buzz on the street. The other night we were walking through town and there were multiple groups of people who would do like break dancing and acrobatics mixed together. It was amazing how flexible and strong theses people were.  It was so cool! I will post a video of that below.

    There also is super good food here. We went out for hamburgers the other night and they were so good! They have awesome lunch with pork, rice, lentils, coleslaw, and yucca.  Also this morning we got empanadas from the venders. They were amazing and  only cost about $0.50 each. Or, in the Columbian currency, 1,500 pesos each. There are multiple fruit and vegetable venders out on the street as well. The food here is amazing!

    Everyone in Santa Marta is super nice and helpful. They help us with Spanish and teach us new words. People who know a little English say, “Hello,” or “how are you?” It is fun as well as challenging to be in a country that speaks a different language. I think that it is great that the locals want tp help you learn there language.  It is really inspiring that lot of people are kind and want you to love their country and culture.

    The music in Santa Marta is also fun… It is much different from Grenadian soca which we got used to. It is kind of like Mexican music. I will post some music below! I posted the URL to some music that sounded like some I heard!

    Soca from Grenada

    Columbian instrumental Music

    I am super excited to continue to explore Columbia! I will keep you posted on adventures to come!

     

    Sigue sonriendo (keep smiling)💕

    The one and only

    Lucy

     

     

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    Swimming With The Sailfish🏊🏻‍♀️

     

    Hi everyone! Sorry I haven’t done any blog posts in a really long time, but I will catch up on other things that I have done here in Grenada soon! I am going to write about a super fun event I was super lucky to be part of right now though, The Grenfin Invitational Swim Meet.  The swim meet was a really cool experience, one I will never forget. The Sailfish swim club swimmers, coaches, helpers, and parents were all great people and inspirations. 

    It all started about one and a half weeks before the swim meet. We were asked if we wanted to do a swim meet if we were still in Grenada. We all thought that would be fun but didn’t think that we would still be in Grenada. We decided we would stay in Grenada, so, we would be able to go! 

    We started going to practice. We had about a week to practice and when we got into the pool for the first time in about a year and a half, it was much harder then I remember. But with Coach Mandy and Coach Deb I was very excited and ready to swim more! 

    When I first got to the swim meet on Thursday night, I was very excited to start swimming! When we got there we met some more super nice people on the team. There was good music playing as we quickly warmed up. That day we were doing only one event which was the 500 freestyle. The event was 9 and over for the event and since I had no times I was in the same heat as Sally. The 500 was good. We had the first heat so we spent a lot of time cheering with the rest of the team. The swimmers were so dedicated and were sooo fast. I talked and met more people which was fun. Later that evening, we found out that the Sailfish were leading the meet for the first time in 7 years! That was exciting to us all.

     

    Friday night we were going to swim the 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke, and 100 freestyle.  But…Friday night was filled with rainstorms with lots of thunder and lightning. We got into our dinghy a few minutes before we were going to be picked up because it was raining hard and thundering and lightning right in the harbor.  We got up to the swim meet and before the meet even started, they postponed it.  Well, the Sailfish were still leading the Grenfin 2 days in a row. When we got back to our boat, it was still thundering and lightning. We found out that one of the boats in the harbor even got struck by lightning!  It was definitely a good call to postpone the meet.

    The next morning we woke up early and Coach Deb drove us up for a 7:15 warm up. When we got to the meet, we found out that we would be swimming Friday’s and Saturday’s events. They eliminated 2 events, the 200 back and 200 breaststroke, so there would be time to do both days. We were all warmed up well before the meet started. To start the meet, there was a march around the pool with everyone in their team jackets. It was fun and I will post some pics of that! Next there were announcements. I started off just standing by where we ended with other people, but I was informed that, “You will be old by the time that these people stop talking,” by Coach Mandy. So I sat down and half listened to the ongoing talk about Lucozade, basically gatorade, and all the other sponsors for the meet.  After about 5 false ends to the talking, the meet was finally beginning! The little kids swam the 100 freestyle and then it was time for the 9 and over 200 freestyle. Heidi, Sally, and I were all in the same heat. No one else was swimming with us.

    So, when the announcer was announcing us, it was, “Heidi Vannini in lane 2 from Sailfish, Lucy  Vannini in lane 3 from Sailfish, and Sally Vannini in lane 4 from Sailfish.  Well, they are all Vannini’s and they are all Sailfish.” I looked at Heidi and Sally smiling. They both were smiling too. I adjusted my goggles and soon the race began. It ended Heidi first, Lucy second, and Sally third. We had fun doing the rest of the races, talking and laughing with the team, and cheering. By the time that the two days put into one were done it was dark and about 7 at night. It was a long day and soon after we ate dinner, I went to bed, thinking of the fun and swimming that the next day would bring us. 

    Heidi, Sally, and me in the Sailfish jackets

    It was Sunday. We still had the lead in the meet, only by about  20 points though. And there was one event that the other team could win 20-30 points.  It was the last day and the winner would be determined that day. It was going to be the most competition… I got up, ate breakfast, got swim stuff together, then we left. We decided yesterday that we would warm up on our boat so we didn’t have to wake up so early. But when we got there we warmed up a little more with the little kids on the team. The first thing that I swam was the 200 IM. It is my least favorite event so I was pretty happy it was the first event.  After that I swam some more races.  The others sailfish events were super exciting. At the end of them everyone on the team was jumping up and down and cheering for them. It always seemed to be less then a second that a least two swimmers ended from each other in the last eats. Grenfin seemed to be getting in the lead but still it seemed very close. We had lunch break. They had all different types of foods there and it was cool to see the differences between their food and the food at swim meets I went to. They had rotis, bake with salt fish or cheese, barbecue with rice and salad, and lots of other good food. After the lunch break, we started going over some of the medals before we finished the meet.  There were lots of Grenfin and lots of Sailfish winning prizes but I thought that the Grenfin might be a little ahead still. There was the 100 breaststroke and relay after that. We finished and there were more awards. 

    Me doing breaststroke

    Heidi doing backstroke

    Sally doing breaststroke

    Heidi, Sally, and I got changed quickly and headed over to the side where people were getting the medals. About halfway through the medals Coach Mandy came over and told everyone that if the sailfish won that we would run around, act mad, and jump in the water. Heidi said that she would do the running around and acting mad part but she was already changed. I agreed. When the time finally came for saying which team won, everyone was super excited and nervous. The last two teams left were Grenfin and Sailfish. For seven years before this, the Grenfin had always won.  The Grenfin started cheering like oo, oo,oo.

    “It was super close, only seven points difference,” the announcer said. Everyone fell silent. 7 points was only one race. “The winner for this years Grenfin Invitational goes to….…Sailfish!” The whole team was jumping up and down and cheering like crazy. It was so exciting how happy everyone was. People started jumping in the water. Sally went to change back into her swim suit and I was just about to when Coach Mandy told us, “Go be in the water with your team.” Heidi and I looked at each other then started going to the pool. I jumped in and was greeted with lots of splashes and “you came in!” Heidi was in soon after me. It was so much fun, they had great music playing, everyone was so happy, and hugging each other! It was so so so so much fun! After lots of hugs, congrats, and pictures we headed back.

    celebrating picture

    Sally, Heidi, me, and Coach Mandy with the trophy🎉

    Swim meet video

    I am so glad that I got to be part in this super fun event. It was very inspiring to be part of a swim team that everyone was encouraged, super nice, and dedicated. Coach Mandy and Coach Deb were great role models, people to look up to, and amazing both as people and coaches. The swimmers on the team were some of the most welcoming people that I met. Even though we just came and barely met one another, everyone was sure nice and welcomed us to be part of the team. It seemed by the end of the weekend that we had been friends with the rest of the team for a lot longer the just a weekend. The Sailfish Swim Team was a great team filled with amazing people. I would stay in Grenada just so I could be part of this swim team. It was a super great memory, experience, and something I will remember for the rest of my life. 

     

    Posted on

    Saba

    A post by Mark

    Hi all,
    When I ended last time, we were heading out of the BVI for Saba.

    Before we planned this adventure, I had never heard of Saba (maybe I had heard of it, but would have struggled to find it on a map). When we were doing the actual planning, Saba wasn’t a likely stop – as for many months out of the year, its shoreline is virtually unreachable by boat. You see… Saba is a volcanic island that looks like it just pops out of the sea – the shoreline is more or less a cliff all around the island. There is one ‘port’ (using the term somewhat loosely) – and if the wind or waves are coming from the wrong direction, you are not getting a small boat in or out of there. Luckily for us, the wind and waves – while somewhat ‘big’ – were in the right direction so we were able to visit. Before I get to Saba, however, I can’t gloss over our adventure getting there…

    It all started off beautifully…. As planned, I headed into Customs and Immigration first thing in the morning to check us out of the BVI. After generating a ream of paperwork and paying $0.75 for something or another, I was back on the boat and we were preparing to head into the gas dock for fuel and water. Just as we are planning to leave, we hear another boat call into the gas dock – giving them the head’s up to help them pull the boat in. That’s when the day started to go sideways…. The gas dock is out of diesel. Ugh…. They had it the day before – must have just run out. Normally, this wouldn’t be such a bad thing – except that after the hurricane, there are only a few gas docks that still operate. Now, our choices are to sail about 10 or 15 miles the ‘wrong’ way to a harbor on Tortola or to head north towards our intended day anchorage and fill our tanks 5 gallons at a time via jerry cans filled at a ‘regular’ gas station. Neither sounded great – but we opted for the sail to Tortola – as it was a beautiful day out. We had a nice sail – which is something I haven’t been able to say very often – as for the majority of this trip, we have had to motor into the wind to get from one destination to the next. When we got to the harbor with the gas dock, things got less nice. First of all, this harbor (whose name I can’t remember) looked like a boat graveyard. Quite depressing to see all the sunken (and still sinking) boats. The next challenge was finding the marina with the working fuel dock. After a tour of the harbor, we found the dock – and weren’t real happy about it. The dock was very short, surrounded by a bunch of boats, and pointed directly downwind. To make things more exciting,  the wind had picked up to about 20-25 kts aandthere wasn’t a person anywhere in sight to help us…. So, I had to do some fancy maneuvering to get the boat near the dock and then throw it into reverse to keep us from plowing through the end of the short dock.

    I almost got it right the first try.

    When I reversed us to stop us against the blowing wind, we got a bit crooked and one of our fenders on the bow got stuck on the dock and popped into the water. Realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to get the middle of the boat close enough to the dock for Julie to hop off and secure us, I had to jam it in reverse and back out of there…. As our fender is floating away and all the boats around us seem to all get a lot closer, we get away from the dock with only a minor scratch and regroup. Against the wishes of most on board, I decide to were  going to try one more time. In this case, second time was a charm, and all was good (we even picked up our fender). Except that this fuel dock didn’t have water. Ugh…. Luckily, the marina north of us that didn’t have fuel did have water – so we were able to fill our tanks there. There is also a nice beach nearby, so we were able to get Willie off the boat for a run and swim.

    So, all is good now – except that it is now ~5:00 pm and its time to leave for our passage. So much for our planned day of rest before heading out.

    Sunset leaving the BVI

    We knew that this was going to be a ‘sporty’ passage – as the winds were forecasted to be 15-20kts, gusts to 25 or so with seas 6-8’. We decided to leave then, however, because it didn’t look like it was going to be any calmer anytime soon. For the prior few days, the forecast had been predicting slightly calmer conditions – but as the days passed, the calmer conditions kept getting pushed farther and farther out. We ultimately decided to leave knowing that even if the conditions got a bit worse than forecasted, we would still be safe – just uncomfortable. Well… suffice it to say – it was uncomfortable. We motorsailed into nasty wind and waves for 17 unrelenting hours. Nothing remarkable – just a long trudge with the occasional (and sometimes more than occasional) wave crashing across the deck. When we got to Saba, we found a mooring and were very happy to be ‘done’. All of the water directly surrounding Saba is a National Marine Park, so you pretty much have to use a mooring. The interesting thing about the Saba anchorage is that it is situated such that the wind wraps and accelerates around the island so it was blowing a steady 30 kts all day. After a few hours rest, it was time to head to customs and get checked in. As with everything in Saba, the dinghy ride in from the anchorage to the port was a challenge. To get to the port, we had to dinghy 1/4 of the way around the island. As we traveled there, we went through a few minutes of strong wind and no waves, strong wind and big waves coming right at us, low wind and very big waves from the back, a set of 3 huge standing waves, and probably a few other combinations of wind and water that left us absolutely soaked. Like – we could have gone swimming and wouldn’t have gotten much wetter. Good thing we’re in the tropics and its pretty warm out. The check-in process with customs was pretty smooth – but we were going to have to come back a bit later to clear in with immigration (as they were not there at the time). An hour or two later, Sally, Heidi, Willie and I headed back to the port for a walk and to finish checking in.

    As I mentioned in the start of this post – this island just jumps straight up out of the water – so its quite a steep walk

    Walking Willie up a 23 degree hill!

    We didn’t make it far – but we all got a good workout.

    The next day, we took a taxi tour of the island. It was a lot of fun. The roads on Saba are memorable – with names like “The Road that Couldn’t be Built” and “The Road that Shouldn’t Have Been Built”. Our driver took us around for about an hour or two and then dropped us off at the trailhead to Mt. Scenery – the path that leads to the top of Saba. It is a very well maintained path with a little over 1,000 steps that goes through the rain forrest, cloud forrest, and several other ecological climates. At the top, there is apparently a great view of the surrounding islands – but it is almost always hidden in the clouds (as it was on our hike). No worries though, the hike was still very pretty.

    Scenes from Mt Scenery

    We then hiked down, walked around the town of Windward, and had dinner at the spot our driver suggested. After dinner, he picked us up and brought us to the dock. A good day on all accounts!

    Until next time…

    Mark