Category: Heidi

In my opinion, we spend too long wishing we could change the past, too long planning the future, and too little time living in the moment. So instead of writing about all of my plans for this new year or all of my favorite moments from last year, I want to share my day with you.

     Today, January 2nd, (I doubt this will go up until much later), I woke up to the crackling of the VHF. Some of our boat friends were calling asking if dad wanted to go surfing with them. However, after three continuous days of paddling hard mixed with some boat jobs, he chose to take the morning easy. I got a pretty late start to the day, I was up and moving by 8:30 which is late for boat life. I blame the New Years party and fireworks until three in the morning the day before for the slow start.

     Almost all of the food we share on this blog has been special to a certain spot but I’m sure you’re very well acquainted with my breakfast. Cheerios and a banana! Well, off brand cereal from a few countries ago, milk made from powder, and a fresh banana from the fruit market. Pretty great way to start the day.

    Lucy and Sally went off to a friends boat to work on a super secret special event that I’m gonna let them tell about so Fenton and I played cards for a bit. We learned this game from other cruiser friends and we’ve been playing every morning ever since. I’d highly suggest the game, Poophead, Poohead, or S***head depending on who you ask. Google it!

   After our daily few hands of cards we decided to put our suits on and attempt to set the windsurfer up all by ourselves. Actually, it was the other way around. Try to set up the windsurfer and then swimsuits which was a wet mess of fun. It took quite a bit and some helping hands from dad but eventually we got her up. Fenton hopped up on the windsurfer so I decided to get the paddle board which was held by three long strips of material held together by a large metal clip. I unhooked one of the three and it splashed into the deep blue sea. Actually, the 10 foot brown ocean. Dad and I looked for a good 15 minutes and decided to call it lost. I eventually got the paddle board into the water and splashed around for a bit. We took turns switching from the paddle board to windsurfer until we got tired and the the rain was really starting to pick up, it’s been raining all day long.

     It was almost lunch time and we didn’t have anything planned or started so we decided to make some lunch. The idea started with enchiladas. We made the rice and a homemade enchilada sauce, collected the rest of the ingredients and started putting it all together. However, our tortillas from Grenada….? so about 5 countries ago, were a lil stiff. So we made enchilada lasagna! Very tasty.

     The rest of the day was full of windsurfing. Back and forth switching and lots of falling and splashing. Lucy made a fantastic dinner later and we concluded the day with watching Mamma Mia!

     Living the adventure day by day. 🙂

P.S. As we are slowly easing back into school, my assignment for today was to write up a blog post so, here it is.

          After our month of Colombia, we were ready to get the move on. We found two very small weather windows, small breaks in the 40 knot winds and 20 foot seas. Our first short passage took about 6 hours. Not very long but the seas were still quite large leaving us with a salty sail.

      We arrived in a small vacation town. This spot was home to amazing winds for windsurfing, kitesurfing, and overall any water sports. We spent the next there too, waiting for the seas to die down again.

     When Poseidon calmed his inners we took off again. This passage took a little longer, we had two overnights so Lucy and I took our 10pm-1am shifts.

      We finally made it to our destination of the small islands off the coast of Panama, the San Blas. These islands were some of the most beautiful and untouched places I’ve ever seen. Each island housed one family and about a hundred palm trees. The indigenous people made hand carved canoes, and came to visit your boat offerening fresh fruits, seafood, and artwork.

    These people and islands are known for their gorgeous works called Molas. The molas are pieces of art that are hand sewn full of color and texture. They can take from two days up to half a year. They are all so unique and different, it makes it hard to choose!

   We only spent two days in these islands, due to weather. However, we do want to head back before we, *drum roll please* CROSS THE PANAMA CANAL!!! We are heading to the Pacific ocean on the 25 of January and we couldn’t be more excited. Stay tuned to hear our adventures!

More soon,

Heidi

MINCA

We’ve made some pretty good friends on this trip. We’ve been to numerous dinners, pot-lucks, sundowners, and family get-togethers. Recently, we went on our first ever overnight with a good boat friend family. We left the day after I got sick, so my stomach wasn’t 100% quite yet. We loaded into 2 taxis and the 10 of us made our way to Minca, a small town that is known to house many backpackers. The cab ride took approximately 45 minutes through some scary turns, hundreds of motorcycles, and near collisions. The scenery was gorgeous as usual and everything was green and growing.

After we got off at the “iglesia blanca” or white church, we waited for the man to show us to the house we were renting. He arrived and we were off. The walk was about 10 minutes but with all of our bags and not knowing where we were going it felt much longer.

The house was super comfortable, it had three bedrooms, a few nice couches, a full kitchen, and two adorable kitties that lived there. Willie, surprisingly, did very well with the cats and didn’t bother them at all. We set our stuff down into the rooms and right away hit the road. The wife of the man who led us to the house showed us a nice short cut that took us to town much faster. It included crossing a river that could get super strong after rain so she warned us not to take that path on the way back…if only we had listened. Haha just kidding, we took the road.

We scouted out a nice place for a super late breakfast/early lunch. This nice place included of what might be similar to a gas station but without the gas. Everyone who thought they could keep the food in them (aka everyone but me) found some good fried food. All fueled up, we started hiking/walking on a paved road, towards a waterfall spot that was supposedly an enjoyable spot about 45 minutes off the road. We kept walking and walking, passing many cute hostels and small restaurants.

At one point, my stomach decided that it was time to stop and I was quite close to stopping at a hostel and waiting for our group to come back. But! Mom had Advil in her First Aid kit and all was good, that stuff does wonders.

We finally made it to the spot. Lots of doggos spotted the scene, Willie again did great with them. I decided to take it easy and rest while everyone went swimming. Swimming is a stretch. It was apparently quite chilly and lots of ‘it’s cold it’s cold’ dancing was fun to watch. We stayed here for a bit which was very fun, I made friends with a puppy and attempted having a conversation with a lady who’s Spanish is probably better than English.

We wrapped up and headed towards home. We decided to stop at a smoothie/juice spot on the way back. I was brave enough to try one and after three days of not eating anything, it was the best thing ever. I had a passion fruit, ginger, and mango juice. The lil restaurant was super super cute and very photogenic with an amazing view.  

The rest of our journey was not very eventful. Until the rain kicked in. It came down pretty hard and really fast. Thankfully, we made it home not too too long after the downpour and we had dry clothes waiting for us at home. Our group spent some down time drying off and preparing our next move.

Later, we headed out to find some dinner. We first stopped at a restaurant called The Lazy Cat for some drinks. Again, feeling confident I ordered a drink–and kept it down. Phew!

Once we were done there, we headed to a different restaurant for food. My dinner wasn’t super exciting, I played with a cat that liked to hang out under my chair. From what I heard, it looked like, and smelled, it was really good.

We went home, and went to bed. The next morning, Mom, Dad, Fenton, and the dad from the other boat, got up way early to go birdwatching. They saw a toucan!

The next day was pretty similar, we got up went back to The Lazy Cat for a breakfast smoothie, and started hiking to another waterfall. This one was a bit more like hiking, muddy trails, and at some points, pretty steep. Again, I wasn’t feeling up to swim so I watched a lot of tourists plus our group splash and play. What I really enjoyed about this spot, was the hammock that they had. It was a huge hammock that went out over the cliff. Nice and relaxing, right?

We made our way back down the hill and into town. We stopped for lunch at a Greek spot and still not feeling comfortable with putting solids in my body, watched everyone eat. Soon after, the dads ran back to the house to grab our stuff, check out of the house, and then head to the bus to head home.

We made it back to Santa Marta and rested until bedtime. Super awesome, quick trip with some good friends.

Till next time,

Heidi

P.S. My stomach felt much better two days after and I was eating like normal–thank goodness.

Despite all of the efforts, Fenton has caught the bug. Willie next?

Lucy is out with the sick.

Fenton is doing the best he can to avoid it.

I’ve thrown up a total of six times on this boat. All of which occurred in three days and we weren’t sailing. In fact, we were tied to a dock.

A lot of things changed when we moved onto a boat but being sick is one of the most uncomfortable. In the past week, Mom, Dad, Sally and I have had a case of the well known, and much hated stomach bug. Dad and Sally got hit at the same time, Dad looked like death for a day trying to sleep in boiling heat. Sally’s tummy wanted no part of any contents inside of it. So we lost them for 2-5 days. And then, when I thought we were in the clear, I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and a stomach that felt far from normal. So now what. Sally was on the couch just in case, Lucy in her room, Fenton in his, and Mom and Dad sleeping in their room. I ended up outside with Willie. Which was okay, I was so so hot so the wind was nice but then my stomach started giving me these signs.

Something to know about me. I don’t puke. That’s just not my thing. I rarely ever barf and when I do, it’s my least favorite thing in the entire world. So now, I’m freaking out. It was about midnight when I went outside and my stomach was upset until four in the morning when I finally emptied my stomach. The worst part was the fact that it is nearly impossible to sleep while hanging your head over the side of a boat waiting to throw up. Anywho, I fell asleep after four and slept until about seven when my tummy thought that three hours was too long.

The next day was a combination of barfing and sleeping. And of course, when you live thirty-seven feet from everyone, everyone knows exactly what’s going on. I got up to (you guessed it) puke once, and Fenton goes, “Oof, that’s the I’m about to barf walk.”

I feel much better now and thankfully, felt well enough to eat Thanksgiving dinner. As if three out of the six people on board wasn’t enough, Mom woke up yesterday morning with the ick.

I know that I’m a day late but I wanted to take a quick second to express how incredibly thankful I am. But is it ever too late to share what you’re thankful for? First of all, this has been the first big sick we’ve had and I’m so thankful we are all in good health. Obviously, I am one of the very few kids that are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go sailing. I can’t put into words how grateful I am everyday to wake up in paradise with my most favorite people. I’m thankful that we have successfully and safely made it all the way to Colombia on Love & Luck. We have had an amazing trip down and I am so appreciative for all of the places, people, and cultures that have made this more exciting and enjoyable than I could have ever hoped. I hope that you have an amazing day and I wanted to say thank you for following our adventures. We love sharing and hope you continue to stick along.

Cheers,

Heidi

Bonaire is a beautiful place. Amazing amazing waters, some of the clearest I’ve ever seen. The entire island is protected so the fish are quite large and colorful. I know that there have been numerous posts about this spot so I’ll try to keep it short.

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It all started with a fish. A very very big fish. A 200 pound 5 foot 1000 dollar yellowfin tuna. We had tuna for lunch and dinner for our entire passage, we caught the fish a few hours in. The remainder of the passage went well, Lucy and I had a nice shift from 7-10 pm every night.

We made it to Bonaire and one of the first places we found was the ice cream shop. Homemade ice cream after five days at sea is one of the best things in the world. Flavors including tamarind, cinnamon, passion fruit, and Bounty were new to us. So yummy.

The atmosphere of Bonaire was cute and touristy. Lots of little shops dotted the streets and cruise ships filled the huge docks. Many many many different cultures came together in this one small island. Bonaire is visited for all sorts of water sports. Windsurfing, scuba diving, snorkeling are among the top. We were fortunate enough to try all of these activities and loved them all.

Bonaire definitely felt like a vacation spot. Bonaire hasn’t seen the last of us…

Sandy Island, a very small island off the coast of Carriacou, is a special place. The water is crystal clear and the sand is pure white. The reefs are all protected and the fish are fantastic. But what I will always remember are the baby turtles we “saved”.

We were walking down the beach and came to the tip of the island. There was a small sand dune like lump of small weeds and sand keeping us from the other side of the island. I decided to give it a go and made it to the other side without any difficulties. If you can imagine, the ocean was blocked off. A large wall of coral had been pushed up onto the beach so only a few small trickles of the sea was reaching the sand. And this spot was the home to a nest of turtles.

The baby turtles were high on the list of cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life ever. But but but, the problem here is that there was no possible way for these lil guys to get past the coral and they couldn’t see the ocean in the other side because of the sand pile. We’ve been told by a friend that the babies need to reach the ocean or water on their own before humans touch them or else their sense to go to the sea would be lost forever. Not wanting to ruin some turtles lives, we waited for them to reach one of the few pools of water and then scooped them up. We carried them over to the other side of the island (which was a 30 second walk) and placed them high up on the beach. While in Grenada we were fortunate enough to experience a mama turtle give birth to 50 turtle eggs and see a hatchling crawl out of the ground. We were taught there that the babies build up their lungs and strength on their journey to the ocean from their nest. So we watched them waddle into the water and swim away. We watched about 20 lil ones return to the sea.

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There is something magical about turtles, watching a three inch baby make its way into the sea is truly amazing. To have the perseverance to waddle into crashing waves is something I hope I can bring into my own life. To keep going even when the road is difficult. Push through the waves and swim away.

There is a very small chance for most turtles. Even though there is no certainty that any of those turtles are still around today, it’s a nice thought knowing that we tried. We tried to do the right thing and help these guys have a chance.

-Heidi

(I’m trying to get caught up and up to date so don’t mind the blast of posts that will be coming soon…!)

G R E N A D A

One thing many people ask us when we are attempting to introduce ourselves is, “What has your favorite island been?” Until a little while ago I would list about five or six islands and then add, “But they have all been incredible.” Now, I can answer with one special spot, “Grenada.” 

Grenada will forever be remembered with a very happy face. During the four months I lived there, I taught many small humans how to swim, hiked to five different waterfalls, I was recognized in town, swam on the swim team, befriended almost all of the cruiser kids, hosted a week long day camp, volunteered at the local animal shelter, and made some really, really great friends. 

I’ve already covered my swimming experiences in a previous blog but what I did not know at that time was I would continue my role as an instructor. For the past two(ish) months I spent multiple hours with kicking, bubble blowing, smiling kiddos. Again, super awesome time.

All of the waterfalls we have visited this trip have been gorgeous. These were no exception. The first one we visited was with all of my cousins, so always fun times. The rest were a little bit of a hike to the fall and lemme tell you one of the most refreshing things in the world is plunging into a waterfall after a hot and buggy walk. 

One of the most magical things I have experienced on this trip is being welcomed and recognized in a foreign country. Miss Jessie, the lady we went to for our fresh veggies and some fruit, the mango man at the corner by the supermarket, fresh juices from the lady next to the fish market, soursop and papaya from the man selling goodies in front of the “No Vending” sign. It is so special to see a familiar face while walking through town. I’d occasionally bump into a friend from swimming or one of my swim students. Knowing close to no one this entire trip, having people know my name and stopping to say hi was truly a remarkable happening. 

A good chunk of the friendliest, kindest, most welcoming, smiliest people I’ve ever met in my entire life were swimmers on the Grenadian Sailfish swim team. I know Lucy previously covered our victory and the events we participated in but I don’t think that my words or her words will ever do this team justice. Truly amazing group of kids I hope to keep in touch with for a long time with an incredible coach and a ton of team spirit. I was the only 13-14 female (age was taken from December 31st so I got to be 14 again) swimming for the Sailfish so anytime I was swimming, I was up against three girls on the other team. After being out of the pool for close to two years I knew I was going to have my butt kicked but the team was so enthusiastic and encouraging. Everyone on the other team, Grenfin, would have a big loud cheer when their three close to best swimmers plus me would get up on the blocks. And then the Sailfish would cheer for me. I now have a handful of great friends. One of the highlights of my Grenada stay. 

During this adventure I have found myself playing and hanging out with the smaller children. And there’s nothing wrong with that; there aren’t many teenagers out here sailing. But trying to fill that age gap was a challenge so, I became a camp counselor. I organized a week long camp that occupied many of my small friends for two and a half hours each day. Fenton and I have both participated in Venture Scouts and one of our requirements for many of the tasks we are working on is to share the information we have learned to a larger group of kids. So, I planned out a ‘Scout Camp’ covering all of the required subjects. This week was fun-filled with 30 children participating! We built fires, made our own first-aid kits, went over weather and wilderness survival tips, did a big beach clean up, sang songs, played team building games, went letter-boxing, and much more. I had a great time with those guys and it was nice to lead something instead of play along with them. I learned how much work planning and organizing is! It was a last-minute decision but it all worked out very nicely. The kids had fun, their parents could get some work done, and I learned a lot. Fenton was a huge help and executed the games beautifully. 

I could go on and on about Grenada forever but overall a very very memorable, special spot.  I am so lucky to have spent a part of my cruising life in such a remarkable island. Grenada, you will be remembered forever.

-Heidi

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The Sailfish Swim team in Grenada

Get Grenada swimming

Hello again!
I know that Fenton has already covered this and the event happened a million years ago but I wanted to share my story from J’Ouvert (ju-vay). That morning was definitely one I will remember forever. I’m very glad I chose to go. It was a last minute decision on my part. I mean let’s be honest here, “Hey Heidi, wanna come with me to get covered in grease and listen to music that’s playing way louder than it should be all at four in the morning?!” Um yeeeah no thank you. But if you think about it, this is a once in a lifetime experience I don’t want to miss. And the stories that come after. It’s a new culture at their most exciting time of the year. It was all worth it.
We (Dad, Fenton, Lucy {she decided to skip it} and I) planned our “outfits” the night before. This included a very old way too big pair of shorts I had never worn that I could very easily part with and a large white t-shirt I’m not too fond of. All on top of a swim suit just in case we needed to take our clothes off for the dinghy ride home. We woke up the next morning way earlier than any human should have to wake up at and the music was already blaring. So loudly we could hear it from our boat before we left. The sun had not yet risen but being very pale cruisers we put on our sunscreen and dish soap. Dad figured that Joy would help rub off the greases that we were to be covered with. So we loaded up the dinghy and headed off, stopping to pick up a few more boat friends along the way.
And then, the most terrible noise came out of the seventeen year old sitting next to me in our small boat. A strangled cat mixed with a breaching whale scream accompanied the flopping sound coming from the bottom of the dinghy. The flashlight was whipped out and we caught our first dinghy fish!! Quite the way to start the crazy morning.
We made it to the dock with no further excitement. The music got louder and louder and we could kind of make out the clusters of dark oil covered people. We docked and locked the dinghy and moved about two feet before hitting the wall of people. The streets were filled, jam packed, completely full, hundreds of thousands of loud, crazy, messy people everywhere. Everywhere. Our small group stood and stared for a few minutes, trying to take in the entire scene. We finally decided to try to make our way through the mass of human bodies. We moved about a foot and were stopped by a man with a gallon of white paint. He smeared some on Dad’s face and continued walking. Lemme point out here that this isn’t face paint. This is full on paint-your-walls stuff. Anyways, we decided to make a go for it. We stepped into the streets and the music pounded through my body. My chest thumping to each beat of some of our new favorite songs.
It is practically impossible to stay clean in this setting. Even if you don’t cover yourself in oil, like us, there is no way to walk down the packed streets without being brushed up against. By the time we had moved maaaybe two feet, we all had some sort of coloring on us. We stopped for a minute to enjoy the music and partially because we physically couldn’t move anywhere. The speakers were moving in and out with the music (just like in all the cartoons!!!) that seemed to get louder as the day went on. Then, this man with his buddy stopped in front of us. One of them holding a five gallon bucket of grease and the other with a grease covered piece of seaweed. If you haven’t imagined this already, he dunked his seaweed in the bucket and dripped the slimy plant all over our necks and for me, all in my hair. We moved about a total of ten feet in our entire experience. On a short dash to the next “open” spot, I was stopped by a big orange paint coated hand on my face. After getting some more grease and paint thrown on us, we stood back and just watched.
It was truly the craziest event I have ever been to. The entire island was going insane. Partying hard. And all at four in the morning.
Grenada, you really do have an amazing culture. I feel so special and lucky to have shared J’Ouvert 2018 with you. Thank you for an awesome carnival.

More soon,
Heidi
P.S. The dish soap definitely helped with the aftermath of the morning. Only a few ocean showers after we were cleaner than before.