Wrapping up the Caribbean season

 

We’ve been at anchor in San Juan, Puerto Rico for almost two weeks now. We’ll sail north to Bermuda on Tuesday, approximately 800 nautical miles from here; from Bermuda we’ll sail another 700-ish miles north to Maine in order to get us to more temperate summer weather and wholly out of the hurricane zone.

It doesn’t feel like we’ve been in the Caribbean for over five months, but it does seem like ages since we arrived in Bequia after crossing the Atlantic. The Grenadines, Grenada, the Grenadines again, St. Croix, the BVI, the USVI, Culebra, Vieques, and San Juan—we’ve kept our cruising grounds small and it seems like this season was more about enjoying our time on the boat and in the water around the boat and less on exploring new places. Daily school definitely limits the time we have for other activities, and getting Hans to and from airports to go to work is another major factor in where, and how, we spend our time.

So after five months we’ve definitely fallen into pretty regular daily and weekly rhythms, which is something that our kids crave when the rest of their lives are constantly changing. Our backyard may change on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis, new and old friends may pop in and out of our days, but we do schoolwork every morning, eat pannkakor on Saturday mornings, and do something fun near the boat in the afternoons.

Last day of school. Will they make it?!

After a couple weeks in Culebra, we sailed south to Vieques (which has a deplorable history of use and abuse by the US military as a bombing range) with the goal of paddling around the bioluminescence bay on the south coast. Mosquito Bay has some of the highest concentrations of bioluminescence in the world—think: the crab scene from Moana when she uses “pieces of bioluminescent algae as a diversion.” In this little bay, you just need to dip a hand in the water or paddle an oar through and the water turns supernatural. As you drag your hand through the water, a trail of bioluminescence lights up the water. You can also scoop up a handful of water and pour it into your other hand to actually see the little creatures, which look like blue glowing orbs. It’s nearly other-worldly. We paddled around the bay with Malin and Chewy, the kids went swimming and we all marveled in the glow, which did not fail to impress.

We weighed anchor and motored around the corner to a calmer bay, spent the night, and weighed anchor at dawn to sail the 50 miles to San Juan. We were all excited to spend some time in San Juan since we’d spent the past five months basically on small islands—beach combing and snorkeling. We were definitely ready for some big city history and culture.

Two weeks in San Juan gave us plenty of time to stroll around the old city, fly kites at the park, explore the fort and walk around the base, go to the beach a few times, and, a surprise for us and a sign that our kids are indeed getting older, two trips to the mall. (Huge, and air conditioned.)

So practical. All white sneakers.

Flying kites at el Morro.

Full moon rising.

We also spent a day in the ER of the children’s hospital. Definitely not  a highlight. Freja got pricked by a cactus on Culebrita and two weeks later her ankle was still swollen. We held off on antibiotics and took a “wait and see approach” because she wasn’t complaining of any pain and there was no sign of infection. But after a day walking around old town, her ankle seemed more swollen and she could barely put any pressure on it. Increased pain and not being able to walk after two weeks raised all my alarm bells. Of course this was the day after Hans left to go to work, because we like to save all our medical drama for when he’s gone.

Ten hours later, blood work (clear), x-rays (no cactus spine stuck in the ankle and no fractures), and a phone call to Hans to confirm that “no, we do not want a hard cast when there is no fracture,” and we went home. Ibuprofen and an ace bandage for a week. Chewy came by in the later afternoon to get Matilda and rescue her from the endless waiting; and when we finally got back to the dinghy at 8pm, we dinghied over to Leia where they had ordered enough sushi and dumplings and egg rolls for all of us.

[Update: two weeks after that visit and the ankle is still swollen but isn’t tender to the touch and Freja can put full weight on her foot. So, for now, a medical mystery.]

We finished up our official school year; both kids pretty much finished all their curriculum, but since we’ll take such a long summer break, we’ll definitely be doing some review work throughout the summer. Not year-round school, but not a full stop either. Who is happy about this? Hint: not the kids.

My two highlights of San Juan were the museums. We visited the Museum of the Americas, a history-art-anthropology museum and the Art Museum of Puerto Rico. We’ve been to plenty of museums, and, especially the art museums, we usually have guards follow us around as if the kids are going to smear milkshakes all over the paintings. The guards in these museums, however, also doubled as docents and were excited to share with us some information about the artists and about the individual pieces. Immediately upon leaving, Freja asked to find an art store to buy a new sketch book. We found one around the corner from the museum (smart location!) so both the kids got new sketchbooks and also some wood blocks and tools to try wood block printing, an art form that was common in both museums. We went to the art museum with Leia and were lucky to find a fun plaza with small cafes near the art store—just in time for happy hour!

Freja's favorite painting at the art museum.

posing like the painting.

My favorite painting at the museum.

One of the modern, interactive exhibits.

It's no surprise that our kids love Malin and Chewy so much.
They always give them 100% undivided attention.

Massive avocados!

When Hans returned it was all hands on deck to prep for the trip to Bermuda. Provisioning, propane refill, engine maintenance, tidying, stowing, cleaning, etc. etc. We took the best weather window we could get and weighed anchor from San Juan on Tuesday May 24. 6 days to Bermuda!