The people you meet

We gave the mahi mahi some coconut rum that
worked great to calm it down for a few minutes. This was taken
 after it started wearing off and the fish began thrashing again.

There are lots of great things about living aboard and cruising: scenic views from your home, gorgeous sunsets, the freshest seafood you can get. But the best part for us has been the people we have met. We have made fast friendships that we hope will last a lifetime. Many of the people are from different geographical locations or have had vastly different careers than us, so its always interesting to get together.  So many people have had way more interesting lives than we have. It's both inspiring and (at times) somewhat depressing.

We have also been blown away by the generosity and kindness of strangers (both cruisers and land-based folks). It's enough to bring a tear to the eye of a cynical recovering attorney from the big city.
We met one family on the internet who offered up their car before we met in person. Last New Year's we met a family in Eleuthera and spent about an hour with them. This April when we visited Nassau, they generously spent several hours giving us a great tour of Nassau and the island of New Providence.

Chester, Elsa, and Kyle took us all over New Providence. We
stopped next to this airport to see the approaching planes. Kyle's
going to be a pilot when he grows up.

I clicked a couple seconds too soon. It got MUCH bigger.

We hung around Nassau for a couple of extra days waiting for good winds and then blew out of there on the heels of a front that was passing through.  We had a fast and bumpy 2-day sail (with a brief overnight stop near Black Point). The second day was mighty uncomfortable with the wind as far forward as we could go and 6 foot waves on the beam but it took us only 2 hours to complete a stretch that took us 8 hours on the way up. Just as we approached Georgetown, the winds abated a bit and we slowed down slightly to only 6 knots.  But it worked out as we caught a mahi right before we entered Elizabeth Harbour , after we had given up all hope of catching anything.

Here in George Town, Mark and Conrad have attached themselves to the hip of Kyler on Good Trade and his good buddy Derek from What If. Kyler, Derek, kid-at-heart Brit (Halcyon) and the kids from Waterbug have all towed Mark and Conrad around on boards for hours. Mark and Conrad are in heaven and are lucky to have such tolerant teens around.

Charles from Waterbug took some great shots of the boys boarding.

Matt has been tending to boat ills (port radiator leaking coolant, air in the starboard engine system, and water coming in through the starboard transom tread while the bilge pump is currently quasi-operational). None of the issues is critical but we want to take care of them before we start heading south and east to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. As soon as we get everything squared away, we will solidify our route and figure out when our best wind and weather will be. If we can everything fixed in time, we hope to travel with a few boat friends for at least part of the way.