Sailing Positive Waves

After leaving George Town we pointed our bow south toward the Ragged Islands. Remote, mainly undeveloped, and teeming with underwater life, they have been at the top of our "want to go" list for years. They didn't disappoint. We had an easy motorsail to the northernmost cay, Water Cay, and spent a little over a week working our way south. We had settled weather, including some windless days, perfect for exploring these small islands that offer no anchorages with all-around protection. (Also perfect for mosquitos and no-see-ums.) We were able to anchor more or less where we wanted and took advantage of windless days to snorkel outer reefs and coral heads. We spent a couple days hanging out with some youtubers , sharing meals and snorkeling a blue hole together, and we spent many days in solitude. A low point was the death of President Periwinkle, the kids' hamster. He lived a normal hamster life expectancy but it was sad nonetheless. We found a nice spot

  Dinghy sailing with friends off Sand Dollar beach  One week turned to two, which turned to three, and before we knew it we had been in George Town for nearly 6 weeks. Much longer than we anticipated, but it made sense for a number of reasons. Friends, an airport, birthdays, and a moment to hit pause. There were over 300 boats in George Town when we arrived in mid-March. We arrived in the middle of March to meet my mom who flew in on March 16 in time to celebrate both kids' birthdays. First we celebrated Freja by inviting five extra kids aboard and taking a trip to a sand bar area of Moriah Cay National Park called the Lazy River. The water flows from an ocean cut into a naturally formed river of sorts with a strong current. A few of the kids tried floating the lazy river but mainly they built some kind of obstacle course-slide-ramp from the beach to the water. Freja was treated to all the food she requested, presents from us and her guests, chocolate ice cream, extra screen time,