Our first stop after exiting the Exumas Cay Land and Sea Park was Staniel Cay. As we neared the island, it was obvious that Staniel Cay was going to be a very different atmosphere than the solitude we just left behind. Surrounded by all of these mega-mega yachts, we instantly felt a stroke of jealousy. I wish our boat had a 3 story slide into the water, jet skis at our disposal, and cool vintage Italian speed boats to zip around on.
Author: Crystal
Crossing the Gulf Stream
Well the good news is…WE ARE IN THE BAHAMAS! The bad news is…wait, there is no bad news! We are in The Bahamas and nothing broke. I’m so used to taking the good with the bad while cruising, that even as we were tightening our dock lines at the marina, I was sure the engine would crap out. Or the dinghy would fly off the davits. Or our bilge pump would break. But none of these things happened. The weather turned out to be just as nice or even milder than predicted. We made great time despite fighting the easterly winds and found ourselves in Bimini in just 9.5 hours. All in all, it was a rather boring day. When it comes to sailing, I’m 100% in favor of boring.
Cruising is a Roller Coaster Ride: Our Trip to Marathon
Rob is at the helm and the pups are taking naps in the cockpit. I’m sunning myself on the bow of the boat when I hear a big splash. I peered over the edge and I see two dolphins playing and jumping right in front of us. They swim with us for a while and I’m smiling ear to ear with excitement. I think to myself, “we have found paradise”.
A Delayed Start
Our lease at the marina ended on Wednesday, Feb 10th. We decided that this would be our departure date. On Monday, Rob pulled me up the mast to replace a lower shroud that was damaged. The only chore we had left to complete before we could set sail was replacing the alternator, which we received in the mail Tuesday morning. We thought replacing the alternator would be an hour long job, then we could relax and enjoy our last day at the Regatta Pointe Marina. Little did we know, Kairos had different plans for us.
10 Lessons Learned from Life Aboard
We have been living aboard for 10 days now. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. The time is flying by. We’ve learned a lot of things since moving on board. For example we just learned how to take apart and clean a carburetor. We also recently learned which way the valve handle should be pointed to ensure we are pumping the toilet to the holding tank instead of overboard (oops– fortunately we haven’t really used it yet). But in addition to learning about our boat’s systems, we have also learned (or relearned in many causes) some valuable life lessons. Here are our 10 lessons learned from 10 days of living aboard.
A New Year, A New Home
Happy New Year everyone! We are officially liveaboards! We said goodbye to our very colorful beach apartment on Friday and moved all of our belongings on board Kairos. This was by far our most pleasant moving experience to date. It’s not such a dreadful and daunting task when everything you own fits in your car. Once on board we spent the remainder of the day organizing and developing storage solutions. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much we were able to bring on board. We still have some unused storage on the boat, which I plan to fill with new shoes and bathing suits (just kidding…kinda’).