George Town, Exumas, Bahamas

 

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, key lime pie, and a movie after dinner. It was a perfect birthday for her.

The Lazy River, part of Moriah Cay National Park

Birthday breakfast

Matilda's celebration was only four days later and, as we've come to expect, it was much more low-key than Freja's. She was treated to the food of her choice all day, presents, and lots of extra screen time. She invited a few friends to the beach in the afternoon and they swam in the ocean and had Klondike bars after. Her movie of choice was a Harry Potter movie and Meme made her a "dig in the dirt" pie. (Basically chocolate pudding with bits of Oreo cookies. Insanely sweet but rather delicious.)

breakfast fit for a queen

Matilda requested painkillers for her birthday drink, so of course we also brought the appropriate cups.

Queen for a day!

Happy birthday at the beach

Hans flew out to work the next morning and we settled in for three weeks without him. But we still had Meme for two of those weeks and, as always, the kids had lots of plans for her. I think her plans may have been just to relax with a book, but that wasn't in the cards. At least not all the time! We considered leaving George Town for two weeks and exploring the Exumas, but we were also rather content and were enjoying the predictable, low-stress days in the protected harbor. The kids were meeting other boat kids and I was happy to hang out with fellow boat moms in the afternoons while the kids played at the beach. Since we're always on the move, rarely staying in one place for more than three weeks, it's really hard to find community. I miss having a good friend that I can spend time with in-person on a regular basis. Social media makes our world smaller and makes community possible, albeit a virtual community, wherever I am, but nothing compares to spending time with friends IRL. I went on beach walks with friends and a snorkeling trip one Sunday morning. The kids had a few sleepovers between our boat and a friend's boat. It really was the kid boat mecca I had been promised.

Hanging out with Pres in the cockpit.

Matilda takes a weekly science class every Friday morning, covering topics from physics to geology to chemistry.

art class

My mom took a turn driving the dinghy on her last day.
She had fun but I think the kids were petrified!

Our friends on s/v Omana returned to the Bahamas after they left their boat for a couple weeks and I soaked up every minute of having good adult friends to talk with about the big and small things in life. We missed Hans though. It was almost like we were missing a limb. But we had fun regardless and went on mini-adventures around George Town harbor. A fellow cruiser set up a zip line for the kids at "Flip Flop Beach*," and we spent many many afternoons there, hanging in the shade, trying to avoid the no-see-ums while the kids played in the water. My mom joined in all the social activities and seemed to slot into our little cruising community quite seamlessly. As I had expected, it was very nice to have another adult aboard PW while Hans was at work. She did multiple rounds of dishes, cooked meals, and answered the kids' questions and requests, saving me from being the only point-person for an entire three weeks. 

Beautiful sunsets almost every night

three generations.

Freja was Matilda's teacher for four weeks: Ancient Greece for two then ancient Rome for the last two.

 

open air cafe in George Town

We went for a hike and Matilda (LHH) went ahead.
She left us some breadcrumbs along the way.

We had one week alone between when my mom left and when Hans arrived back home. Omana left for the season around the same time Meme left so Matilda was feeling rather bereft for a few days. Goodbyes and transitions are a regular part of our life, but they don't get easier. As an adult, it's easy for me to look at the big picture and appreciate the value of the present moment, but kids have a much harder time seeing their life through such a wide angle lens. Our kids facetime and text with their friends, but it's not the same. We meet new friends, but they're old enough now that they're not very interested in playing with kids when they know they probably won't see them again. Just like small-talk can get tedious for adults, brief play with other kids can also be unsatisfying for kids. 

 kid party at the beach, splashing in the bubbly baths at high tide.

I woke up on April 1st to find the doorway to my room had been tp'd.

the local beach bar and cruiser hang out, the Chat-n-Chill, has swings and ropes set up for the kids. Matilda consistently climbed the highest on the rope.

Ziplining, every afternoon.

 

Swimming with the turtles at Hooper's Bay

The weather started changing from winter cold fronts to squally, convective summer weather. Less variability in the wind direction, more squalls and calm wind days. More heat.

 As we evaluate our life choices (we're always evaluating our life choices!), we can see both the pros and cons of our nomadic lifestyle. Sometimes the pros are hard to relate to a ten year old, but our 12 year old gets it. No lifestyle is perfect, be it nomadic or stationary, but the beauty of intentionally choosing how we live means that we are always looking at our life critically and deciding if we're happy on the current course or if we need to veer to the left or right. And, like most things on PW, we make these decisions with everyone involved. It's not a democratic boat, but I'd say our kids have plenty of say in our short and long-term plans. 

Our plans have indeed changed. The working plan was to sail from the Bahamas to Panama in June, spend some time off boat in the summer, return to the boat in late fall, cruise around the San Blas and then transit the Panama Canal in February and continue across the Pacific ocean to French Polynesia and beyond. Full stop to that plan. Cancel the plane tickets. Freja expressed her legitimate and well-thought out concerns about sailing to the South Pacific islands (mainly the heat and her disinterest in tropical places) and asked if we could sail back to Europe. After reading, listening to, and watching seemingly endless amounts of Harry Potter, Matilda jumped on her bandwagon. They both presented us with thoughtful and researched pros and cons lists of S. Pacific v. Europe. We had multiple family (and parent-only) discussions and decided that we'll point the bow of PW back to Europe in June. We'll make it to the South Pacific one day, just not in 2024. Happy kids = happy boat. Our kids are happy living on the boat and cruising, so we'll pretty much work our hardest to keep that trend going. If that means Europe instead of the South Pacific, then viva le croisaant! Who knows what is in the cards for the next five years, but for now we'll take it season by season and make decisions based on the entire crew's happiness and goals.

During our last week in George Town our friends Emma and Lewis and their dog Bodhi arrived from the eastern Caribbean. We first met in France in the summer of 2021 and we sailed across the Atlantic together at the same time. We hadn't seen each other since January 2022 so it was a fun reunion.

Matilda and Bodhi.

We stayed in George Town long enough to see the Family Island Regatta. Traditional Bahamian work boats from all over the country compete in a week of racing in three different classes. This year the Bahamas changed the national sport from cricket to sailing. It's a pretty big deal.

Filling up dinghy gas is not my favorite job and one that I try to save for Hans when he returns from work. (thank you Hans!) This trip was three weeks long so we were basically running on fumes when he returned.

spares, spares, and more spares. And some school books. The Amazon haul was pretty impressive this time around.

Freja and Matilda getting a dinghy pick-up from the kids on Coddiwomple. They're a great gang of kids and spent nearly every afternoon together for weeks.

Saying goodbye to good friends on Coddiwomple.

*Other beaches in the harbor are called Hamburger Beach, Monument Beach, Volleyball Beach, and Sand Dollar Beach.