Cruising Life

Part of the appeal of cruising is the people you meet and their stories. There is such a variety of folks from different countries and walks of life all looking for their sea adventure in the sun and surf. Yesterday my ears picked up French in the laundry and I met a couple with their children from Montreal, Canada. The man wanted to know how bad the “petrol” shortage was in the U.S. since he’d heard about the terrible oil spill in the Gulf last year. He figured we had to be rationing our fuel, especially for non-essential journeys like pleasure boating. I explained that while fuel prices have risen, we haven’t had a problem obtaining gas. Of course when we compared fuel prices, he told us we were fortunate because Canadians and Europeans have been paying really high prices for years. Whenever we visit other countries we realize how much we have. For instance, here in the Bahamas, there is currently no gas! The cruisers are anxiously awaiting a fuel boat that will resupply these little islands. When you ask when the fuel boat will get here, the natives shrug their shoulders. When it gets here, it gets here – that is what they live with daily. Fortunately, for us, we are AOK because Richard has brought extra gas, which we keep in a big container on the deck in a safe place. I’m so glad that Richard always plans ahead!


Today we met a couple from Kansas who are cruising around on a large blue yacht. They have taken the big blue boat from California through the Panama Canal, etc. on a 4-year odessey on the sea visiting different ports of call along the way. They told us in another year, they will be finished cruising and sell their yacht for another adventure. Who knows what? On Cambridge Cay at the Cruiser Beach Get-together, I met another couple who are from Maryland. They bought a 52-foot sailboat that was damaged in a hurricane and completely rebuilt it. Boy, did it look beautiful. They’ve been sailing around since January and will go back to Maryland by summer. They plan to cruise about 6 months every year on s/v Wild Star.


At dinner last night I spoke to our Bahamian waitress. She is from a little island called Farmer’s Cay. She has 2 children ages 2 and 6 that she leaves with her parents while she works on this island and stays here in worker housing. When she can, she tries to catch a ride back to Farmer’s to see her kids. The people here have to find whatever work they can to survive. So many stories and people’s lives to touch along our journey!


Daily Chores


Living on s/v Eagle’s Wings or any little boat has its challenges! WATER is one of them! You immediately begin to realize all that you have on land that you must conserve on sea. For instance, we have 2 water tanks totaling 70 gallons. You would think that is a lot of water, but not really when you have to filter it for drinking, wash dishes, take showers, etc. We are really careful about our consumption so we wash our messy dishes in salt water and rinse in valuable tank water. Also, here in the Exumas, good water can be hard to find. When we were in the capital city of Nassau, the tap water had a very high degree of salt in it. Apparently, the people use it for washing and buy bottle water for drinking. Or if they can’t afford it, they just drink the salted water. Yuk! Our friends have purchased water makers. They can make 1 gallon of sea water into drinking water in a period of 7 minutes. We thought about purchasing a water maker, but a price of $3,000 for a small one, gave us pause. So, we are going into the little marinas and filling our tanks at a price of 50 cents per gallon. We figure we’d have to buy a WHOLE LOT of water to break even on a $3K investment! But if we were coming here every year like our friends, maybe we would “bite the water maker bullet!”


TRASH is another challenge. Before we left, we got rid of ALL the PACKEGING on cereal boxes, snacks, etc. and double bagged in plastic bags. Here on these islands, there is very little way to dispose of garbage. They ask you to separate it into BURNABLE, GLASS & METAL (hopefully, for recycling). Food scraps are thrown into the sea away from land. So, we must be very careful to organize trash. Also, plastic bags are NEVER EVER thrown into the sea because they can kill the marine life and it takes years to biodegrade, if ever.


FOOD is precious. Here it is especially difficult to have any FRESH veggies or fruit. We have brought canned items and as we eat them, we again realize how lucky we are to live in the US with its plentiful markets. Fortunately, we have a pretty large freezer so we have been able to keep our bread and meat cold. But BOAT POWER, can be tricky. Eagles Wings has 2 large batteries that must be recharged daily. So how does that happen? Well, we have 2 large solar panels that help along with a diesel generator that must be run for a few hours everyday while at anchor. We’ve decided on this trip that we are going to purchase 2 more solar panels because they work so well and we wouldn’t have to expend the fuel. These solar panels are a NEW product that we just got at the Miami Boat Show. They are thin and easy to deal with. Apparently, they last forever, so we think they are good investments. If we are NOT at anchor, the batteries also charge when motoring from place to place.


DIRTY LAUNDRY happens constantly in this salt water environment. We collect it in a large bag and stuff it out of the way until we can find a washing machine somewhere. Today we have “struck gold” at this marina because they have 2 washers and dryers! Price is $4 for a wash and $4 for a dry. We are so happy to have clean clothes again.


These are some of the daily grind items we deal with along the way. Of course, it is all WORTH IT ! We are enjoying the people, the blue blue water, snorkeling and hiking trails along the beaches, not to mention the Bahamian bread, cracked conch (really quite good), lobster, etc. It’s not at all like home, but that’s what traveling is all about! We’re so glad we’re “out here doing it” as Captain Ron says in the movie. If you haven’t seen Captain Ron, please rent it! Great movie!


Over and out from the Exumas!