In 2010 (before kids) Karen and I sailed from California to Australia, across the Pacific, the first half by ourselves and the second half with our friend and co-boat-owner Jon Haradon. We had a blog about that adventure (and a separate blog about the adventure of fixing up the boat beforehand).
Since then we had only done one other sailing trip in 2016, adults only, leaving the boys with my parents and renting a boat for a week in Grenada/Grenadines.
For many years we have wanted to introduce the boys to cruising. We have the skills, how could we not give them the opportunity to experience that kind of life? That’s potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Or, if it resonates with them, maybe it will inspire some aspect of their future, maybe job related, or where to live.
For years we’ve been in a constant state of delay, of “maybe next year” because we didn’t have the money. We still didn’t have the money but in a late-night moment of impulsiveness in November I booked a Leopard 42 catamaran and airfare to visit the Exumas in the Bahamas for January.
Then the crooked scamming middleman charter company that we booked through—Boataround—pulled a bait-and-switch on us. Two days after we booked the catamaran they came back and told us that boat wasn’t available. The only affordable alternative was a 39-foot monohull instead of the 42-foot catamaran—for a thousand dollars more. I was furious, but we had already booked non-refundable plane tickets so we were stuck. Boataround offered no compensation or recompense. Never again will I use Boataround, fuck that company.
We decided to make the best of it (even though both Karen and I had vowed never-another-monohull after our Grenadines charter experience with a catamaran), reasoning that the boys wouldn’t know what they were missing and at the least they would get a more “pure” sailing opportunity in a heeled-over monohull.
I should explain, for the non-sailors on this blog. Catamarans are fair more comfortable than monohulls. Monohulls rock and heel. Catamarans do neither. The rocking and heeling is the motion that can make sleeping in a “rolly” anchorage miserable. The boat we bought, fixed up and sailed for a year across the pacific to Australia was a monohull. It was frequently uncomfortable. The catamaran we rented with friends in 2016 was so much more comfortable in comparison that we vowed to never rent (and especially never buy) a monohull again. Catamarans are faster besides. The only drawbacks are cost and a slight compromise of seaworthiness but only if you pick a bad catamaran. When crossing an ocean, seaworthiness is paramount—so pick a good catamaran. When chartering for a week in the Caribbean (or any charter destination anywhere), it doesn’t matter as much.
The actual charter company was Dream Yacht Charters, and they seemed fine to me. They were pleasant and helpful. My biggest criticism is the way they handle trip duration. On a 7-day trip, the first “day” is check-in at 5 PM and the last “day” is check-out at 10 AM. So it’s really only a 5 day trip, but you’re paying for 7 days. That misleading if I’m being generous, underhanded if I’m uncharitable. It makes their prices look lower than they actually are. Also, they seemed to gouge us for silly things, like $70 for three 20-lb bags of ice as we were leaving the marina. But Nassau was stupidly expensive across the board so that might have been a standard “when-in-Rome” pricing rather than any deliberate captive-customer style gouging.
Our goals with the boys for this trip were quite different than they had been for our adults-only cruise. With the adults, we were focused on attractive beaches, good beach-front restaurants, rum cocktails and conversation. The sailing was a sizeable but secondary attraction.
Bodie is the only one of the three that enjoys good food and they’re all too young to enjoy beach bar drinking and conversation. Instead we were focused on the swimming, the clear water, the snorkeling and marine life and reefs. The boys were not very excited about the sailing—in fact Jasper and Emerson were actively opposed to it. They imagined that dad was going to be forcing them to labor at the sailing, forcing a sailing education on them, “making them” learn how to sail. The two of them are philosophically allergic to my preachy moments and rebel anytime I to try to convey knowledge or skills. I knew Bodie was somewhat interested and would participate, but Karen was sensitive to Jasper and Emerson’s attitude and I went into the trip expecting them to actively refuse to participate in the actual sailing. We focused strongly on the snorkeling side of it. We bought masks, snorkels, fins, and 3/2 wetsuits for all of them over a two-month trial-and-error process with amazon (for obvious reasons there is no great selection of that gear in New Mexico).
Why the Exumas? Lots of competing variables, it wasn’t an easy choice. We considered other places, including Bora Bora, Belize, and the Grenadines again. Ultimately price was our primary consideration. We were trying to optimize the overall cost for airfare for five with the boat cost. We wanted to do 10-12 days and ended up with a shorter window than we wanted. We wanted a >40 ft catamaran. We wanted good snorkeling, which breaks down to a) clear water b) reefs and fish c) warm water.
We flew threw Atlanta and made it to Nassau in one day, stayed at a hotel on Junakanoo beach for the night, then made our way to the marina the next day. Check-in for our first “day” was no earlier than 5 PM. We slept on the boat in the marina that Saturday night—we had to pay for that first “day” despite the 5 PM check-in. On Sunday we motored for 5 hours directly into the wind, across the bank, to reach the Exumas. We anchored in Allen’s Cay for Sunday night. Monday we motored and sailed for an hour or two to Shroud Cay. Tuesday we motored and sailed for an hour or two to Norman’s Cay, where we stayed Wednesday and Thursday as well. Friday we motored back across the bank in a dead calm to return to the marina slip where we stayed on Friday night. Saturday morning we checked out by 10 AM (that also counts as a paid day of sailing, though you have to be off the boat by 10 AM). All told we paid for 8 days, sailed for 6, 4 of which were actually in the Exumas and 2 of which were the day-long trips back and forth across the bank to reach the Exumas. In retrospect, it was too short of a trip for an Exumas experience. Two extra days would have made it just barely long enough—so, either 8 real days or else 10 Dream Yacht Charter “days.”
We had remarkably bad weather luck. It stormed on us for the first half of the trip. A cold front hung out right over top of us, moving back and forth. For two and a half days we suffered continuous 30-knot winds, and it kept shifting to come from whatever the worst direction was for whatever situation we were in. On the initial leg SE, it was dead on the nose so we were motoring the whole way. After we got into Allen’s cay it shifted to be from the NE and whipped up wind wave chop through the channel we were in, making the anchorage extremely rolly and uncomfortable. We moved to Shroud Cay to be protected from the NE winds and overnight it shifted to be from the S then the NW by morning. Still at 30 knots. We woke up to a miserable 30 knots of wind and 3 foot chop from the long fetch across the bank, but wind and waves made an obtuse angle and we were rolling uncomfortably on the chop. We moved to Norman’s Cay to be protected from the NW winds and it blew so hard from the NW we were dragging anchor and had to reset it in rain and 30 knots of wind. Then it shifted back to the south and blew 30 knots continuous for 12 more hours. We really couldn’t catch a break for the first four days.
At Allen’s cay the first morning Emerson had to be rescued in the dinghy because he swam away from the boat about a hundred feet in mask and snorkel but then couldn’t make it back in the heavy wind and current without his fins. That was early on, he eventually gained more confidence with trusting the snorkel (and appreciating the power of fins), but I certainly don’t blame him for getting scared in those stormy conditions.
Emerson and I visited the beach to the east and checked out the Iguanas. Kind of neat. Lots of them.
At Norman’s Cay—once it calmed down to only 25 knots—we tried to do some adventurous snorkeling in the storm. The wind was blowing the tops off of the chop but we put the whole family in the dinghy and went over to the sunken plane to snorkel on it. We were forced to don our goggles and snorkel in the dinghy before we even got in the water, because there was so much blowing water in the air it was hard to see and breathe. Snorkeling the wreck turned out to be far too hazardous because it wasn’t sufficiently deep to permit safely floating over it. Super sharp rusted folded steel plane fuselage parts were barely below the surface, and the waves and current pushed everyone around like they were in a washing machine, so we gave up on that real quick. At least going downwind to return to the boat felt pleasant after subjecting ourselves to the blowing rain and waves.
The boys spent a lot of time playing in the water just behind the boat, on and around the paddleboard that we rented. That was a top attraction for them and I’m glad they had so much fun doing that. Occasionally the current where we were anchored at Norman’s was prohibitive though—too fast to be able to swim against—so we had to be careful when they could jump in. Another unlucky sort of thing. While currents are common in and around the Exuma Cays, it’s not that common to be anchored right in the middle of one so strong (generally that makes for a poor anchoring spot…).
Once we established a solid anchor at Norman’s Cay in the 30 knot winds, that wasn’t unbearable uncomfortable, we were reluctant to leave. We had run away from uncomfortable anchorages three times, and didn’t want to take a chance of returning to the same pattern. So we stayed at Norman’s even as the weather cleared.
We revisited the plane wreck and snorkeled it properly in the calm conditions, the boys enjoyed that and there were even some fish to see. We visited a beautiful beach and miniature shallow lagoon reachable by dinghying across the sandy shoals in the middle of Norman’s cay, and we enjoyed walking around on the sand, checking out the views on the sound side of the cay, following a small reef shark around. The sand was amazing, somehow it was “foamed” at the edge where it dried out. Our feet would sink down six or eight inches, releasing bubbles of air in the process like it was spontaneously boiling. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Afterwards we went to land and found some ice cream and beers at the resort. That was the best day I think.
We didn’t end up doing any decent sailing on the whole trip. Twice we sailed on a broad reach for less than two hours each. At no point did we sail higher than a broad reach—not because of lack of desire, but only because there was never an opportunity. Most of the times we shifted anchorages, and when we crossed the bank as well, the wind was on the bow and we motored because we lacked either the time or the sea-room. Carefully navigating shallows and channels up close to the Cays is no time to be trying to sail in heavy wind and uncomfortable chop, especially light-handed as we were. Karen was too rusty on her sailing to know what to do without plenty of instruction, and it was not a good time to teach the boys.
I had assumed that, if nothing else, we would have ample experience of being heeled over under sail in a monohull (and then with that experience checked off for the boys, we could forevermore stick with catamarans). Crazy that we didn’t hardly end up sailing. Usually when people don’t sail during a charter it’s because they’re either scared to, incompetent, or lazy. We were eager for some decent sailing, but to sail on this trip would have been merely an uncomfortable contrivance. Just bad luck for the sailing.
It’s ironic, Jasper was worried that he would be co-opted into excessive sailing labor, and in the end he turned out to be the one most bemoaning our lack of sailing. It turns out he really wanted to experience the heeled-over boat and the excitement of wind and splashing waves etc. That was another reminder to me that sometimes he complains the most about something for which he’s secretly excited.
Jasper was very interested in the boats—ours and others that we saw. In typical Jasper-fashion, he had Karen and I take pictures of various boats in the marina and that we encountered in the anchorages and then recreated the boats in one of his computer games when he returned home. He has done that through the years with all sorts of vehicles and structures: campers, aircraft, houses we stay in, interesting buildings we’ve visited, he recreates them all in Minecraft afterwards. This time it was some game called Stormworks which is already set up to permit sailing boats in storms on the ocean, so he customized existing sailboat models and designed a dinghy to be pulled behind it.
Bodie and Emerson enjoyed sitting on the beautiful beach and playing in the shallows. I think they could have done that all day for multiple days if we had the time.
All of them were keen on driving the dinghy around, which Karen and I had predicted. It’s a taste of responsibility and independence for them. Naturally, Jasper was most keen on taking every available opportunity. A couple times he and I went out just so he could drive around, no destination needed.
