“Greg. Don’t move,” I said firmly, trying to keep my voice calm. “There is a shark about four feet away from you and if you keep walking where you’re walking you’re going to step on it.” Our new Greek friend, Greg, had been luring the huge, majestic sea turtle back towards the beach and the rest of our new friends with a piece of squid and didn’t see the five foot nurse shark lurking on the unusually hazy bottom of the ocean floor.

Yeah, that’s a good start. But that only offers the really cool, sugar-coated “sunset/pina colada” picture of our life. It completely misses the other half. Hmmm…okay, how about this?

The rain pounded against the boat. All of the hatches were sealed tight and the air in the boat was thick, sweltering and sticky. And stiflingly still—we were absolutely roasting. The fans were off because we needed to conserve power. Yet, somehow the putrid, rotting fish stench of the conch Sid had housed in a bowl in the cockpit the day before managed to permeate the boat. Sweat continued to drip down my face and run down my back. I was wearing the same sweat-drenched-and-dried clothes I had worn in the days before. I added my used toilet paper contribution to the ziplock bag that held our collective soiled treasures and pumped the flush handle up and down. What? I deposited yellow—only yellow! Why was there disgusting brown, smelly water bubbling back up in the bowl?!?? No. Ugh! The holding tank is full. Argh…I really don’t want to deal with this today…

*I thought it best include a photo of the rain instead of the toilet. You’re welcome.*

Yeah, that gives a realistic picture but that’s absolutely repulsive and no one wants to read about that. No way I’ll put that in. Definitely need to leave that out. Ick!

Maybe I could tell them about how we realized Sid had five remaining PE assignments due the next day (his last day of school) but we didn’t have time/land/wifi to do them and he ended up doing all five in a row in 90+ degree heat in the middle of the Loyalists Memorial Sculpture Garden after finally (!) gerrywrigging a wifi hotspot? Or the middle of the night literal and figurative meltdowns that ended with Addie sleeping on the couch, Sid sleeping with Steve and me sleeping in the cockpit because it was so hot the other night? Or how we have started to routinely wash ourselves in the cockpit using a two-bucket system and a freshwater rinse? And if we want to wash our hair (LUXURY! Only every few days! Takes too much water!) we use two bowls and a bucket and it takes the four of us about 1.5-2 hours to wash? (So, yes, if you’re following along, that means that ALL of that sweat and salt and grossness stays lasts a long, long time. Delicious.

The Loyalist Memorial Sculpture Garden - During the American Revolution, many colonists loyal to the British crown fled to the Bahamas. This garden had statues and stories for some of the descendants of those loyalists. It was also a relatively private and shady place for Sid to do the Cupid Shuffle, one of his five PE assignments.

Or how we fed wild stingrays and sea turtles on Coco Bay in crystal clear water with other KIDS (!) and families?

*We fed wild stingrays with some friends at Coco Bay….*

*…and then went to a pool with them to rinse off the saltwater. We ended up eating dinner at the Green Turtle Club and dancing to the live music of our Snorkel/Scuba Master’s (Brendal’s) band.*

Or how our dingy is leaking so badly that it takes Steve about five full minutes to pump out all of the water each time we use it?

*There is a SIGNIFICANT amount of water in our dinghy if we leave it on the water for any normal length of time.*

Or how Sid and I saw a six-foot reef shark when we went scuba diving? Or pet a grouper fish? Or held some sort of squirming sea urchin star?

*Sid and I did our first REAL dive. Amazing. Hopefully the underwater photos turned out well. I need to plug that camera in when we have a bit of power to spare.*

Or how we went to a dinner party on a friends’ roomy and air-conditioned boat last night with burgers and hot dogs and homemade pina coladas and it was absolute heaven for all four of us?

*All the beaches in the world can’t compare to a fun night with friends.*

Or how I’m concerned about how behind Addie is with her Math lessons because there was too much disruption in the first few months….? Or the mosquitos? Or dancing the electric slide at Pineapple’s? Or trying to hook Pippa up with the hot guy in the red baseball cap? Or how Steve checks the batteries every hour and we’re switching off fresh water and all of the outlets when we need to conserve?

We look at this battery gauge frequently throughout the day. If the batteries are running low, we switch off what we can. Or…if we’re desperate, we run the engine. Running the engine heats up the entire boat—especially Sid and Addie’s rooms—and it takes a long, long time to cool down.

Or how the hot nights are the worst but the cool morning breezes are the best? Or the constant noises on the boat—both the routine noises and the out-of-the-ordinary noises that sound like the keel is scraping against the bottom but after three days of hearing it sporadically we eventually were able to deduce that it was just the anchor chain scraping against itself? Or how we discovered Addie and Evie chatting at the bar like they had been friends for years? Or how Sid dove down 16-ish feet (!) to pick up a conch? Or how he managed to get FOUR (!) cups of ice water for the table when everyone else had been rejected by the bartender? And how a stranger came up to our table to ask how we managed to get water?

Or how I try not to get my salty, sticky, sunscreened, sweaty body on our always-damp clammy sheets whenever I try to creatively crawl to the front of our cabin to open/close our forward hatch? Or how I talked to a boat friend yesterday who she said she had just been crying because boat life is so much harder than she ever could have imagined? Or how I just got a text from another boat friend who said they just went swimming with sharks in the Berry’s and how amazing it was? And now happy I am for that family because the week before they told me that their teenage son was really struggling emotionally with the difficulties of boat life but that they had dreamed of this life for the last 15 years? Or about how within minutes of meeting another boat family, you instantly connect because of all of the commonalities that automatically come from living this crazy lifestyle? How the differences of nationality, class, race and age dissipate because all of us have so much in common with our water and power and all-things-breaking struggles and terrifying moments stories? How you feel completely comfortable letting your kids ride off on the back of another family’s golf cart even though you only met them four hours ago…?

No. There’s just too much to cover. And it’s all so extreme. I just want to sit here in the cockpit and enjoy the breeze and the shade-for-the-moment (wait…nope…shade is gone. Now I’m in sun again…) before the wind turns the boat back towards the sun. I want to soak up the Bahamas while I can. Oh look, a three-foot long fish just swam past. Amazing.

*sigh* But…I really need to go talk to Steve because we need to look at weather and figure out where we’re going next and how we’re going to get there. Are we going back to the US? Or are we doing another island? Regardless, I need to do all of the meal planning and prep for whatever we decide. I guess that’s what we’re doing today. And Steve will need to get some work done.

Do we want to go to Piggyville? It was on Addie’s list of wants but she did feed the wild pigs yesterday.

*Pigs, chickens, lizards, stingrays, sharks, turtles…..wildlife abounds.*

Some people we’ve talked to said it’s so much fun and the pigs are adorable. Others have said that the pigs try to jump into your dinghy, that you can see the pig poop spread all throughout the water and people have walked away with parasites and even flesh-eating bacteria so you definitely shouldn’t go if you have open sores. We do have blisters from walking and Addie’s face is peeling from sunburn. Hmmm….

Choices, choices. Are we done with the Bahamas? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m hungry and I need to move all of the now-dried dishes off of the refrigerator/counter so I can fix breakfast.

I guess I’ll do a blog post some other time. That’s a shame. I have so much to tell them….

5/25/25 - A Non-Post: Boat Life Extremes

5/27/25 - The Pivot?

5/9/25 - Oversharing: Excessive Reflections & Updates From My Parents’ Patio