Sailing Positive Waves

A little routine rigging work. We had been in vacation mode with our Swedish family for over two weeks in Hope Town and while we did spend a few days here and there doing regular boat maintenance, we definitely had a little catch-up work to do on PW. Not only that, but we were leaving PW for five weeks so we had to get the boat cleaned and ship-shape for our absence. Contrary to all logic and reason, we were leaving PW in Hope Town to join Hans in Wisconsin for some skiing and cold weather. Freja and Matilda were very, very excited and kept telling everyone they met, “in just 2 days I’m going to Wisconsin. I can’t wait! I’m so excited!” After quite a few quizzical looks (you’re leaving the Bahamas to go to Wisconsin? Voluntarily??), the running joke became: “I’m so excited to leave the Bahamas to go to Wisconsin—said no one ever.” But our kids have only lived in hot climates: Florida, Texas, the Caribbean so they were understandably very excited to spend an extended time in the cold. H...

The Swedish side of our family came to visit us in the Bahamas for two weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays. In total we were a group of 8 adults and 8 kids, and the time we spent together consisted mainly of two activities: feeding and moving a large group of people, and drinking rum punches. There was beach time, snorkeling, fishing, some boat chores, pool hangouts, and movie nights mixed in, but as I look back on the pictures it all seemed to revolve around shuttling a large group of people around, feeding all those people, all the while bolstered by strong rum punches. The Hope Town mainstay, Cap'n Jacks , had particularly strong rum punches. You could get tipsy off the fumes alone!  We stayed on PW on a mooring in Hope Town's protected inner harbor and the Swedes stayed in two rental houses, side-by-side on the same property . (I highly recommend Karen and Robert's rental houses. Their hospitality was unsurpassed and the houses were comfortable and had everyt...

Picking the best weather window We woke up before dawn on December 10 and immediately checked the wind and sea state forecast to decide if we would cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t terrible. We needed to be in Hope Town by December 19th to meet the Swedish side of the family so we also knew we didn’t have time to wait around for the perfect forecast. There is a common cruising adage that says you should never sail by a calendar. That’s all well and good if you’re independently wealthy or retired or have no commitments other than yourself and your sailboat, but since we have to plan around Hans’s work schedule, we are basically always sailing by the calendar. Granted, we plan ahead and build in lots of extra days to wait for good weather, but sometimes we have to take the “good enough” forecast. 

We decided that the pre-dawn Gulf Stream crossing forecast was good enough. The forecast: winds around 15 knots from the north with 2 meter seas with a 12 s...