March 2020: Spring Breakers Onboard and the Corona-pocalypse

/ Aventis / 13 Comments

It is March and time to have some fun with friends, and Mak and Ella celebrating their college spring break! The Coronavirus is starting to cause some concerns and travel is being discouraged. However, this did not stop Makenzie, Ella, plus their friends, Anna, and Lily, from coming to spend a week with us on the boat.

It takes an early morning flight and a stopover in FL, but they do not mind.

Welcome to Spring Break 2020!!

The girls took a taxi to Brewers Bay on St. Thomas where we were anchored. We picked them up on the beach in the dinghy.

We are very excited to have them on board!

Our first stop was Maho Bay on St. John’s.

We did lots of relaxing in the water:

And paddle boarding:

Anna, Makenzie, and Chance. Mak sure does miss Chance when she is away!

Lily and Ella hanging out on the beach:

Anna, Makenzie, Ella, and Lily walking on Maho beach.

Anna and Mak modeling on the beach:

Addie practicing her modeling skills on Maho Beach:

Makenzie and Anna chilling with the dogs on the boat:

Ella and Lily in the Safari Bus on the way to hit the town (Cruze Bay):

We snorkeled around Maho Bay and saw a bunch of turtles and fish. Caper always wanted to come with us!

On one of the days, even the sun had a corona!

We made our way from St. John’s over to the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. It is a short sail, taking just over an hour.

The girls were so excited to get to Jost, they swam to shore:

And headed straight to get Painkillers at the famous Soggy Dollar Bar!

Of course, this is also a good place to hang out at the boat, enjoy a cold one, and be kept company by Caper swimming around.

The next day we dinghy’d over to the next bay to check out Foxy’s Bar. Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke is always a good place to enjoy a cold beverage.

We try hard to keep guests happy and hydrated!

And ourselves of course 😉

Lily, Mak, and Anna at Foxy’s:

After Foxy’s, we all headed over to Soggy Dollar and Hendo’s Hideout.

We were all trying to make sense of Corona, not really knowing what was about to come.

After lunch and hanging out, we decided to get ice cream:

After a couple of days at Jost Van Dyke, we had to head back to St. Thomas so the girls could fly home. We took a family picture on the boat at St. Thomas:

We then went to lunch at a cool restaurant (Stone House Cafe) in downtown St. Thomas before putting them in a taxi to the airport.

The girls at St. Thomas airport:

Ella and Lily on the plane getting ready to fly home:

While the girls were waiting at the airport, we sailed the boat back to Brewers Bay, which is next to the airport runway. We took a video of the girl’s plane taking off:

We are grateful for this week with all of our girls and their friends! While they were here, the university extended spring break, closed all dorms and buildings, and moved all classes online. The girls are headed back to a new world and they weren’t excited to what was coming up for them.

With a few days on our own, we headed over to Norman’s Cay in the BVIs and tried to teach the dogs a new trick.

A dog ramp attached to the back of the boat is supposed to give easy access in and out of the water. Caper used it just fine. Chance really was not having any part of it! We even tried to get him to fetch a stick – his favorite game on the beach. Unfortunately, he really only likes getting into the water from the beach.

Resting on the trampoline after play time:

Our friends, Don and Melissa Marlett, came to visit us in late March and stayed for a week. We took them to some of our favorite spots. On their first night we decided to go out to eat in Charlotte Amalie because we knew that eating out would be limited for the rest of the week with beach bars and most restaurants starting to close. It was a wet and bumpy dinghy ride, going against the current and into the wind. We were all soaked by the time we got to shore.  Turned out to be well worth it; the food and drinks were yummy at the Green House. The USVI’s closed all restaurants for sit down dining the very next day.

The next morning before sailing out, we took the dogs to the beach on Hassel Island. There is a swing on Hassel, so we all took some time to just hang out.

Don and Melissa on their first sail aboard Aventis:

We spent the next few nights at Ditliff Bay on St. John’s. We love this bay because the beach is dog friendly, it is an easy swim or paddle boat ride from the boat to the shore, and there is good snorkeling. It is usually pretty quiet too, with only a handful of boats. The dogs love to paddle board to the beach.

Rainbow after a quick morning shower:

Our next stop was Maho Bay on St. John’s. Sadly, the Paddle Up Tiki Bar was closed, but we had no problem finding drinks at the Aventis floating bar. Plus, all old salty dogs are welcome!

Addie and Mel did some paddle boarding at Maho.

We all also had fun jumping in the water and hanging out by the boat.

We saw lots of turtles at Maho:

And beautiful sunsets:

We spent the Marlett’s last two nights at Waterlemon Cay on St. John’s. We hiked around the water’s edge and then went a short distance up the hill to Annaberg Sugar Plantation. Addie did a great job teaching everyone how the plantation worked.

Here is Aventis in Watermelon Cay:

Shannon and Don hiked another area of Waterlemon Cay and found the old plantation owner’s house.

And local wildlife…

It was a relaxing and fun week with the Marletts!

After dropping Don and Melissa off in Charlotte Amalie, we sailed back over to Brewers Bay. After a great month with all of our guests, the boys were depressed to be alone. They had been spoiled with so much attention!!

Brewers Bay sunset:

So, living on a boat is pretty much an isolated way of life already. In normal times, other than going to the grocery store and going on hikes, we may leave the boat a couple of times per week to eat lunch out. This month, with the restaurants and bars serving take-out only, not being able to eat out was the only thing that really changed for us. There were really no known cases of the virus in the USVI during March, so we felt pretty safe. At this point, our plan is to head over to the BVI for a week or so, and then start sailing through the Caribbean toward Grenada, where we are going to live on Aventis during hurricane season (July-October).

Coming Up Next Month:
Another fire on the boat!, Makenzie social distances on the boat with us, and the impact of covid-19 shutting the world down

Addie’s Take: Mar. 10-Mar. 29

/ Aventis / 15 Comments

Spring Break 2020 Yay!
We had my sisters Makenzie and Ella, and their friends Lily and Anna, come visit us on the boat for spring break. Which means I got to skip school while the girls were here! We got the girls at Brewers Bay in St. Thomas US Virgin Islands. The next day we went sailing from St. Thomas to Maho Bay on St. John’s. We went to the beach at Maho and just hung out. I went walking down the beach with Makenzie and Anna and saw a lot of people. I then went with Makenzie and Anna to follow a cute boy. We ended up at the beach bar, where they got drinks and got me a diet coke. Makenzie stepped on a bee and it’s stinger got in her foot. She was limping and whining like crazy when Mom and Dad put a needle in her foot to get the stinger out. We then ate at the beach bar. The seats were like pods or domes with cushions in them, except they were made of tree bark instead of glass.

We went to the town of Cruz Bay on St. John’s a couple of days later and explored. We passed by one of the restaurants where I had a drink last month with Dad and Kent Meredith that had pesky flies in it. Mom, Dad and I got a drink at a bar while the girls went shopping. We then had lunch at a restaurant called the Tap’n’Still, that was a “Come Back Shack” and “Five Guys” all in one. They had Five Guy’s seating area and hotdogs and Come Back Shack’s ordering system and french fries. Later I went shopping with the girls and got salt water taffy while they got stickers and t-shirts.

Taxi ride going to Cruz Bay on a rainy day.
Tap’n’Still – yum!

We then sailed from St John’s to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.  We anchored in White Bay where Soggy Dollar Beach Bar and Hendo’s Hideout are. Our first stop was to Foxy’s for a drink. The dinghy ride to get there was a wet one since it was one bay over and windy. Next we went to Soggy Dollar for a drink and then to Hendo’s to get food. We hung out on the beach, swam and watched boats come in. There were different kinds of boats; there was not just one type of boat. I saw mono-hulls, catamarans, speed boats and even a spa boat, where you could get massages. We then got ice cream. I got cherry vanilla. It was good. It was really good but not as good as the cookies and cream last week. The girl’s last day before leaving for the airport we took them to a restaurant called, Stone House Cafe. After we ate we said goodbye to the girls; Mom and Dad had tears in their eyes.

The girls had fun at Foxy’s.
Tears in their eyes!

In late March, we had our friends Don and Melissa Marlett down on the boat for a visit. We went to pick them up from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. I stayed home and watched the dogs while Mom and Dad went to pick up Don and Mel in the dinghy.

The dogs were very happy to see the Marletts.

We hung out on the boat with Don and Mel and played fibbage a couple of nights. On their second day we sailed to Ditliff Bay in St. John’s.  The water was rough with big waves, which made Mel and I get a bit seasick on the way over. We spent a couple of nights at Ditliff Bay swimming and snorkeling. We saw a starfish!  Mom really wanted to have a starfish on the boat for a long time, so she went and killed the starfish.  That is how she got nicknamed Savage.

We sailed over to Maho Bay in St. John’s, no one got seasick, thank goodness! We just chilled at Maho Bay. The next day Mel and I went kayaking on the paddle board over to the beach. We swam off the beach and saw four turtles, a sting ray, plus lots of fish.

After a couple of nights at Maho Bay, we sailed over to Waterlemon Cay and spent a couple of nights there. We took Don and Mel to the Annaberg Sugar Mill Plantation. We hiked up to the plantation by walking near the water from our boat.

Nobody got seasick today.
Dad and Don hiked up to the top of this hill overlooking Aventis.

Early the next morning we went to Hassel Bay on St.Thomas to take Don and Mel to the airport. When Don and Mel left we moved back to our favorite spot at Brewer’s Bay and watched their plane fly out.

We had fun with you! Come back soon!

January/February 2020: Cruising Full Time Now!

/ Aventis / 4 Comments

It is real now. It is just the three of us and the dogs enjoying boat life. Sadly, we put Mak and Ella on a plane in George Town, Bahamas on December 30th with the thought that we would stay and explore the area for a few days and then start sailing south. A few days turned into a few weeks. The winds became unsettled, blowing 25-35mph and we just had to wait it out.

Sunsets in George Town were pretty nice though!
Caper and Chance learned to paddle board with Shannon.
Long walks on the beach. The beaches in the Exumas are about the best in the world.
Cruisers built a cool beach shack on Sand Dollar Beach where we anchored most of the time.
Stocking Island, Chat n Chill bay area.
Loved just hanging out on Sand Dollar Beach.
Chance enjoying a cold one after a beach walk.
We went back to the Chat n Chill a few times.
Enjoying the Junkanoo party one night in George Town.

It isn’t always fun and games. We had an electrical fire one night due to a loose screw. It took us a couple of days to find new wire and make the repairs.

After three weeks anchored just off Stocking Island, Exuma (George Town), we began to make our way southeast. We spent 4 days in Thompson’s Bay Long Island, Bahamas Jan 15-19.  We got to see an amazing natural wonder, Dean’s Blue Hole. You are just walking along the edge in knee deep water and then it drops straight down. It is 633 feet at the deepest spot. Something you really have to see to understand its beauty. 

Dean’s Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas

January 18th. We had fun celebrating Addie’s 15th Birthday! It included lots of yummy food at Addie’s request – bacon, eggs, hash browns, and lemon muffins for breakfast and Shannon’s yummy fried rice and lo mein noodles for dinner.

We did our first sail into the night Jan 19-20. We traveled 110 NM from 7:00am to 2:00am. This was a test for Addie and Ashley as they had never sailed past sunset before much less into the night. We made it all the way into Abraham’s Bay at Mayaguana in the middle of the night without hitting a reef or any coral. Thank goodness for great charts. 

Amazingly clear water at Mayaguana! Lots of sand dollars.
Not a lot on Mayaguana…
Still have wrecks on the beaches from past hurricanes.

The winds picked up again so we spent January 20-26 just hanging out in Abraham’s Bay, Mayaguana, Bahamas. Mayaguan is the eastern most Bahamas island. We head out east in the Atlantic ocean from here and then turn south all the way to Puerto Rico. Mayaguana is the last place we can use our Bahamas money.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to buy!

On the morning of January 27th we lifted anchor and set sail for Puerto Rico. The distance was 470 NM. The plan was to travel at an average speed of 5NM per hour, if we were lucky maybe 6NM per hour. We were ready for 4 days and nights of non-stop traveling. Winds were light and seas were calm for most of the trip so there was not much sailing – mostly motoring.

Plenty of time for school.
And Hanging out!
Did I say Calm Seas????
We even caught a blue fin tuna.
Beautiful sunsets.
You can’t miss the cruise ships at night!
This was a Disney ship about 5 miles from our location.

Our first 4-day passage from Bahamas to Puerto Rico was a success!

Land Ho!
Made it to Puerto Rico!
From our anchorage we could see the Conquistador Waldorf Astoria resort.
We stayed at this resort about 8 years ago with the girls. They loved riding the funicular down the mountain to go to the water park and beach.

We hung out in Puerto Rice for about 4 days stocking up on provisions from the grocery store and some needed items at West Marine. We took some time to research our best cellular options, which becomes a very big deal once you head south from the Bahamas.

Caper waited patiently on the boat while we shopped.
And checked out the sites…
But our best find in PR was Ocean Lab Brewery!

After a few days, we left Puerto Rico…

Aventis arriving in St. Thomas in the USVI where we met up with our friends Kent and Kathy Meredith on Wind Ensemble.

We spent the next few weeks exploring St. Thomas and St. John’s.

We spent lots of time looking under the water.
We checked things out from a higher perspective.
Keeping good company.
Enjoying the Paddle In Tiki Bar on Maho Beach.
Shannon was not paddling fast enough, so Caper jumped off the board and swam for the beach.
One of Addie’s favorite hikes, the Annaberg Sugar Plantation on St. John’s.
We got to celebrate Kathy’s birthday!
Magens Bay on St. Thomas really is a beautiful place.
One of the best things about living on a boat – your sunset view is different every night.

We spent the last week of February over in the British Virgin Islands. It was really neat to be there on our own boat and not have to always grab a mooring ball or feel like we were on a tight charter boat schedule. We visited some of our favorite places.

Cooper Island is Ashley’s favorite. Great snorkeling, lots of turtles, a coffee shop, ice cream shop and a super fun beach bar.
The Baths on Virgin Gorda
We shared the beach at Prickly Pear with one of the last cruise ship groups to be in the Virgin Islands before being shut down for corona virus.
At Addie’s request we went back to the Soggy Dollar Bar and Hendo’s on Jost Van Dyke. She loves the food at Hendo’s and she knows Mom and Dad love the pain killers at Soggy Dollar.
Even with all the fun exploring, we still make time for school.

So, January and February were big months for us; we went two months without seeing Makenzie and Ella, which was really hard; we had our first overnight passage and our first multi-day passage; we had our first (and hopefully last, boat fire; and we were still figuring out how to be full time cruisers with a teenager and two dogs. We are absolutely having the time of our lives!

Coming Up Next Month:
Spring Breakers in the Virgin Islands (and Corona-pocalypse)

Addie’s Take: Jan 22-Feb. 23

/ Addie Thompson / 18 Comments

On January 22nd we arrived in the tropics at Mayaguana, Bahamas (the most southern Bahamas Island). We had a two-day passage sail to get there. We sailed through breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got to sleep at the fly bridge. We saw the sunset while the boat was moving. We eventually stopped at 2:00 in the morning and I moved down to my bedroom. While I was sleeping, we moved to a new anchor spot. Once we got to our new anchor spot, we got to go for a morning swim. The water was crystal clear. The water was nine feet deep. We could see sand dollars, fish and conch at the bottom. Chance was a lifeguard. Caper was a Champion swimmer. We had to tie him to the boat, so he would not swim too far away from the boat.

The dogs and my favorite activity (listening to music on my ipad) during sail days.
Caper the lifeguard!

On January 23rd we went to explore the island of Mayaguana. We walked on the island and met a Police guy and his son. We explored Abraham’s Settlement on Mayaguana and checked out the beach. We did not stay on the beach because the dogs got sand spurs on their feet. I went into one of the little stores, which was in a lady’s garage. She had dogs and the dogs were crazy protective and scared of our dogs. The store didn’t really have much. All we got there was eggs and an orange Fanta. Thank goodness for the Fanta, I was dying of thirst that day.

Our last night on Mayaguana, we found a private little beach on the southern end.

From Jan 27-Jan 30 we made our way from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico. We stayed in Puerto Rico for only a few days. We rented a car and checked out a few places (and a brewery) while there, plus grocery shopped and bought new phones for internet. We then had a 1-day sail to the USVI.

We raised the Puerto Rico courtesy flag.

On February 8th we went on a hike in St. Johns, USVI. We hiked up what used to be a Danish road they used to get from one settlement to another. It was a strenuous hike to the top of the hill. We went so high up to the top of the hill that we had a really good view of Maho Bay. We got to do it with Kent and Kathy Meredith of s/v Wind Ensemble. It was a long hike to me because I was already tired. The name of the hike was Mary Hope Trail.

On Feb 10th Me, Mom and Kathy took an island taxi to Trunk Bay on St. John’s where we went snorkeling and hung out at the beach. What was neat about the snorkel is there were markers that told us what the fish were and it was a national park, so we had to pay to get in. Afterwards, we took a taxi back to Maho Bay and ate at the beach bar with Dad and Kent. We then went back to the boat and danced along to Abba music. We had Kent and Kathy over for dinner.

On Feb 17th Mom, Dad and I went on a hike to a Sugar Mill Plantation. We saw the ruins of the old factory, windmill, cooking and boiling areas as well as the slave headquarters. In the early 19th century the sugar mill was the only way to get sugar in the USVIs. At the time they would have slaves working because they found the work a whole lot easier if the slaves did it. The sugar cane would go through the windmill and into the boiling room where it would go from copper kettle to copper kettle. The slaves would then cook it in the kitchen and bring it to the people who own the plantation so they could sell it.

This is Water Melon Bay that the plantation looks down on.

On Feb 23rd we went motoring from the US Virgin Islands to the British Virgin Islands. We stopped at Tortola to check into Customs. The British Virgin Islands restaurants do not cater to pet dogs because they do not believe in pet dogs or friendly dogs. The dogs they know and have on the islands are not usually pets but wild dogs and they are not always friendly. They are scared of dogs because they have never been around dogs very much. Caper and Chance had to be checked by the local vet to see if they were friendly and healthy. One of the restaurants we wanted to eat at on the patio in Tortola said no because we had the dogs. After Customs we moved over to Cooper Island. There we got a mooring ball instead of anchoring. We went to the island and it was very touristy like the shops and the restaurant are all stuff that you would see in a tourist town and the environment was really pretty, especially the view of the water. The restaurants on Cooper Island were nice and they let us be there with the dogs.

Mom and Dad love sunsets.

Addie’s Take: January 4-17 in the Bahamas

/ Addie Thompson / 11 Comments

On Saturday January 4th, we got to experience the Junkanoo in George Town, Bahamas. It only comes once a year. It is usually in late December after Christmas on Boxing Day, but it got postponed this year to January because of the weather. Junkanoo is a celebration of freedom from slavery.

It had really loud music and there were a lot of people there. Once the parade started about 8:30 there would be a group of dancers and musicians once an hour. We would have to wait an hour for the next group. The parade was on “Island Time.”

What was unique about the costumes is that they were made with feathers and sequins. Only one person could carry them. They could make them big or small whatever they like but only one person can carry it. The parade was really fun to see and experience. We also met some new friends there.

On January 8th we went to Sand Dollar Beach just off of George Town, Bahamas and the dogs were crazy! The dogs wanted to get off the dinghy and swim to the beach, so they did. They jumped off the dinghy a hundred feet from the beach and swam to the beach and almost beat us to the beach. When we took the dogs for a walk on the beach, Caper did not walk he swam and wandered off.  He came back to Dad’s whistle and met a dog friend. Chance follows Caper when he takes off. I guess they wanted to do their own thing today.

This is a Beach Shack built by other cruisers over the years at Sand Dollar Beach where we were anchored:

On January 17 we went to the famous blue hole called Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island, Bahamas and swam. This blue hole is the deepest known salt water blue hole with an entrance below sea level. It is 663 feet deep. This was a neat and fun place (Dean’s Blue Hole). Nature’s swimming pool.

We rented a car to drive on Long Island and we went to a couple of more beaches and stores. We went to a Italian restaurant called Chez Pierre. The food was really good. It was my birthday celebration so I got to order margarita pizza, spaghetti and french fries. And I got free dessert at Chez Pierre!

We had left the dogs on the boat and they were barking like crazy (as seen on the security cameras). Caper even went up on the table and laid there all day! Crazy dogs. Singing for us to come home.

We came back to the boat to see the dogs, who went crazy with happiness.

Addie’s Take: Starting the New Year

/ Addie Thompson / 8 Comments

We started the new year at Sand Dollar Beach in Stocking Island, Exuma. We dingyed over to the beach and Mom wanted to find sand dollars. Since it is Sand Dollar Beach and because she used to look for Sand Dollars when she was a kid. Dad found them first. We hiked up some very steep, rocky hills. I wore Chacos, so my feet wouldn’t get hurt. I recommend wearing Chacos/tennis shoes when hiking up those hills because your feet could easily get hurt. We wanted to cross to the other side of the Island to see the Atlantic. Since there was a poisonous tree in our way, we decided to go back where we started and we did. We went back and we swam. The dogs had so much energy, they were always one step ahead. Dad tried calling them but there were times where they would not listen.  When we got back on the boat in their defense, they drank a lot of water.They were so tired, they went to the bathroom on the wrong side of the boat. They got in trouble.

The dogs pose for a picture:

Chance is telling me to come on:

Finally Chance is worn out!

December 2019: No Longer Home Owners… Let the sailing begin!

/ Aventis / 10 Comments

After Thanksgiving, we drove back to Hollywood, FL to move the boat to a new slip so that we could stay at Suntex Marina until it was time to leave for the Bahamas in mid-December.

It was a short, but very busy week in FL. We sold “Big Mama” (the van). We cleaned and prepared the inside of the boat to get it ready for Makenzie and Ella to visit. Shannon changed the oil in the engines.

We bought the last of the needed provisions and got them stored.

Never leave home without the Bojangles seasoning and twizzlers.
Hope we have enough beer and paper towels.
Our provisions are taking over Addie’s room!
Re-purposed Addie’s shower as storage.
Most important, the wine! 150 bottles stashed across the boat (these are in the floor).

We then drove back to Blowing Rock to move the last of our things out of the house and into a storage unit. December 11 was the big day – we closed on our house!

Goodbye 335 Cool Springs!
Thanks for all the amazing memories!!

Makenzie and Ella finished their exams on the 11th. We said goodbye to Julie (Grandma) and Jack and drove to Charlotte to say goodbye to Max and Julia (Grandad and Nana).

Have a great Christmas Grandma! We will be in the Bahamas…

We made it to the boat on December 12th with the plan to head for the Bahamas in just 36 hours.

We put the girls to work cleaning the boat.

As a reward for all their hard work, we took them to Jaxson’s Ice Cream Shop.

Addie got a rootbeer float with black cherry ice cream:

Hopefully this will give us an ice cream fix for a few days…

In preparation for leaving in the dark on the morning of the 14th, we rafted up next to Bella (Patrick and Rita’s Cat).

Thanks so much to our Hollywood Suntex Marina Family!
What an amazing year! We will miss you all!

Leaving Florida – plans are to return in 5-10 years!

We had a great 10 hour sail over to South Bimini, Bahamas (about 60NM).

Made it in time to get an early dinner at Sherry’s on the beach.

We spent the next morning exploring Bimini and hanging out by the pool at Big Game Marina where we were docked. The next day we had a great sail over to Gunn Cay for the night so we could leave easily the next morning for Chubb Cay in the Berry Islands.

Discovered a new talent of Shannon’s, Sting Ray Tamer.

Just chillin at our Gunn Cay anchorage after swimming with the rays.

The next day, December 17th, we got up at 4:00am and sailed 13 hours (80NM) to Chubb Cay. It was also Ashley’s birthday! The winds were good, the seas were calm and the whole family was on board! It was a great birthday!

Chubb Cay was just a layover for us. On the 18th we had another long, but fantastic day of sailing as we made our way to Hatchet Bay at Eleuthera, Bahamas (83NM).

This is us entering Hatchet Bay; it is a very protected bay.
Can we make it through that opening?

We stayed in Hatchet Bay for 4 nights because of high winds and waves. This gave us lots of time for chilling and relaxing together as a family. We watched movies, played games, ate well, and explored the island!

One day we rented a car and explored north Eleuthera. We found an amazing road side farmer’s market with fresh arugula that Shannon got to pick, a cute little shop in town with local crafts, and a beautiful restaurant on the hilltop with yummy brick oven pizza.

Cheers! That is a cranberry Kalik Bahama beer Addie is trying!

We also visited the glass bridge. This bridge connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Exuma Sound. On one side of the bridge is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side is the sound. Two completely different worlds colliding!
Did I mention it was windy?

Ocean Side……………………………………………………………………………..Sound Side

This is the Atlantic side. Glad we are not out in that.

This is the Exuma Sound side.
Our boat is anchored on this side a few miles south of here.

After leaving the glass bridge, we went to Queen’s Bath. On less windy days, it is a natural “hot tub” at lower tides. On our way to find Queen’s Bath:

This is Queen’s Bath. On a calm day people hike down to it and hang out in it. This is as close as we got.

We then stopped and checked out Hatchet Bay Cave.

Hatchet Bay Cave was just hidden in the ground down a dirt road.

After Hatchet Bay, we took advantage of a day where the wind was not 25+ and sailed 6 hours (37NM) south to Rock Sound – another protected harbor on south Eleuthera. Going to check out the town at Rock Sound:

We found this really cool natural wonder, a blue hole. Ocean water has found it’s way inland far beneath the surface and made 300 foot deep swimming pool. Hard to tell here because it is a cloudy day but the water is crystal clear.

Everyone explored Rock Sound.
We also explored a cool local bar on the beach ;).

The wind direction shifted so the next day we moved to the west side of the bay to be better protected and found a great beach to play fetch.

And work on our tans…

At last it is Christmas Eve! We celebrated by opening gifts and enjoying a wonderful steak dinner.

Did I mention the we were eating well on the boat?

Merry Christmas from s/v Aventis!

Caper and Chance playing peek-a-book through an open hatch down into Ella’s cabin:

It was now time to make another jump. On Christmas day we motored 44NM across the Exuma Sound to the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. We anchored at Hog’s Cay and had it all to ourselves.

Shannon tried out his new fishing pole on the way over. Caper was ready to help.

Caper and Chance love the boat life!

We had this little anchorage (actually a mooring ball) between Warderick Wells and Hogs Cay all to ourselves.


It does not get much prettier than this.

The place where we anchored (moored) used to be a pirate’s lair. Maybe this is why the beach was called…

Life is Good on our private beach in paradise on Christmas Day!

After just one night in the park we continued to head south down the Exumas. We traveled 38NM to Little Farmer’s Cay.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of fried chicken and lobster at Ocean Cabin. We enjoyed an evening of private dining (we were the only ones there!) with the owner and his wife cooking for us.

Early the next morning we used the good weather window to make our last jump 45NM to get us to George Town, Exuma. It was not an ideal sailing day with waves at 4-5 feet and us heading directly into them and the wind, but we needed to get George Town so we persevered.

We made it and so did a whole bunch of other boaters.

Now it was time for some fun, exploration and beach time.

Hanging out at the Chat n Chill on Stocking Island.

We had an awesome Christmas vacation and the start of our full-time cruising adventure on Aventis with our girls. It was sad to see Makenzie and Ella leave, and we look forward to their return.

Best wishes for an amazing 2020 from Aventis and the Thompson’s.
May you be filled with love, surrounded by good friends, have good health, and experience many wonderful adventures!

In January we are planning to continue sailing southeast in order to get to the virgin islands by the end of February… We’ll see!

November 2019: New Batteries, New Solar Panels, and Goodbyes!

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We are super fortunate that Aventis can get the upgrades she needs so we can sail her anywhere. In addition, we load every available space with food, drink, and paper products.

Lots of boat projects this month… One of the first was the AC unit in the master bedroom had to be replaced with a new unit. Shannon, Patrick and Joffre took on the job.

Another project? The heating element for the hot water heater needed to be replaced. These marine heating elements only last about a year…

All filters on the water maker got replaced.

The wind instrument on the top of the mast was replaced with a new instrument and the broken B & G Chart Plotter was replaced with a new one. Love the new Zeus 3 plotter!

We replaced our 6 house batteries (which were basically all dead) with 4 new lithium batteries. We upgraded our inverter to a 5000 watt inverter which has been amazing! And, we got solar panels!! We can now sail almost completely “off the grid”!

It might not seem like a big project, but we gave the dogs haircuts. It is a bigger and messier project than you’d think!

Ashley spent a lot of time figuring out what we needed for provisions for the next 6-9 months and how to store them all safely. Addie worked hard on her “boat school” curriculum.

For Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to the NC mountains. During the drive we got the call we had been hoping for the past 18 months, a good offer on our house!! They wanted to close in just 2 weeks. Time to really move out! But first, our last Thanksgiving in our home of 17 years.

We had a great visit with family and friends. The family enjoyed one last holiday meal together in our Blowing Rock home.

We spent the rest of our time back in NC moving our personal items into storage, eating one last time at our favorite restaurants, and spending as much time as possible with family and friends.

Coming up next month: Selling the house and Sailing away…

October 2019: Full Time Aboard, Getting Organized, and Boat Shows

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All the bins have been emptied and it is time to find a spot for everything. Addie’s room looks awesome! Her books, toys, and other special things all have a secure place.

In the galley, we added some shelves which increased our storage.

It feels like home now – we have plants!

Mak and Ella have been having fun together doing sorority stuff.

Shannon, Ashley and Addie flew to Maryland and stayed on with our friends on Wind Ensemble. We attended the Annapolis Boat Show with Kent and Kathy Meredith for two days. Addie’s take on Annapolis is that is it an “old timey town.” She loved it – reminded her of an American Girl novel. We had great time!

Back on Aventis, we celebrated Shannon’s birthday.

We woke up on Shannon’s birthday to a decorated boat. The marina minions were busy!

One boat project we undertook was to take the white plastic covering off the 4 exterior windows. They protect the windows and offer privacy, but you can’t see out of them. So, we are taking it off and putting on window tinting. Unfortunately, this was a trial and error project and there were a few mistakes along the way. Great news though, because there are 4 windows, by the time we got to window 3 and 4, Shannon had the system down to a science. Now when you look out the window you have a beautiful view!

With the covering removed and the new covering applied this is the clear view we have.

We bit the bullet and decided to go ahead and fix Chance’s hind left leg. We had his hind right leg fixed a couple of years ago. Doing his left left leg now means major knee surgery and an 8 week recovery with limited movement. UGH!! (Spoiler alert: we all survived and Chance is doing amazing, swimming and running right beside Caper.)

We had great times at the dock with our marina friends! We may be outgrowing our little dock area…

Addie celebrated Brendan’s birthday with him and Cinder.

Don and Melissa Marlett came to visit with us on the boat. We did not get to take the boat out, but we did share some of our favorite things in Hollywood with them, like the Broadwalk and “La Tub”. We had a great time!

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Shannon and Ashley went to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show with our good friend, Joffre, who lives on Willow, the boat next door to ours at the marina. Thanks to Joffre’s connections, we got to tour a mega yacht. That was very cool.

Then it was Halloween and guess what Addie was….

Yep, Addie is all things Harry Potter right now.
She went trick or treating with Brendan.

Coming up next month: New Batteries, Solar, and Goodbyes