Our trip this year is so much shorter than usual, we’re working hard to check all of our family boxes while onboard: beaching, snorkeling, visiting with friends ashore and floating, nipping into our favorite shops, beloved walks and dinghy exploits, favorite meals (that we only seem to make and eat on Chickadee, almost as in reverence to).. it’s a lot to cram into just two weeks. A lot but not impossible, so we’re moving fast, seeing the things, and not so much tending to the boat tasks that normally fill the interstices of our days. Like cleaning. Or organizing recently-used gear. Or fretting about laundry, or trash. Throw in a couple of teenagers who change their clothes (usually just discarding old onto the sole to be tripped over by the next passerby) every seventeen minutes on average, and we’ve got ourselves a real scene.
It’s actually amazing how quickly I allowed my anal-retentive tendencies to fall by the wayside. Instead of sweeping sand from the companionway and salon a few times a day to tamp down the beach encroachment, I just spend a few extra seconds brushing it from my feet before I get into bed (always a habit, of course, but more time and attention is clearly needed now). The cockpit is strewn with our snorkel gear from days ago, little bags of trash that haven’t seem to have found their place in the locker, and sand, sand sand.. I’d be living my nightmare if I wasn’t living in my dreamiest setting. I should think I’d want to be able to bring this attitude home with me for maximum chill vibes, but… dirty secret revealed, I actually enjoy cleaning and having clean spaces, when I have the time.
We’re in Hope Town once again, and have swam and dined at our favorite pool bar, walked the beach (and subsequently watched a shark threaten to ruin a body-boarder’s day), shared dinners with dear friends and even spent a day racing (an unexpectedly fun activity for buoy-to-buoy-adverse me). It’s been only two days, and we’ve packed them to the brim.
- – – Turtle Interruption….. I don’t know what it is about the turtles this year, but they’re starting to feel like labradors. As I’ve been writing, a decent-sized green turtle has been coming up all around the cockpit; I keep hearing the ‘pfff’ of its breath as a funny little ‘hello’. And then I swear it’s looking me in the eye- is it expecting breakfast? Doesn’t it know that this is MY cockpit time?! Sheesh.
We’ll need to round the Whale today (staying in the Abacos is definitely a time to recognize this ‘hurdle’ of movement as a constant in our journeys), but we have time to do so, so we’ll leave here and head to Guana to play on the beach and wander around until later in the afternoon. I’d like to think that I’ll also spend some time tidying and perhaps polishing our very rusty stainless (“It’s stain-less, not stain-never!” as Andy says, groan..), but it’s more likely that I’ll… not. We’ve got paths to explore and games to play!
