It’s been seven months since we started the process of our move onto the sail boat, five months since we sold the house, 3 months since we found our sailboat and one month since Eryk and Tia left to finalize its purchase, but we can finally say “it’s real”, we are living on a sailboat in the Caribbean.

The Arrival

The trip down to Antigua was relatively uneventful. After two flights and one hotel with four checked bag, three carry-on bags, two children and one dog complete with a LARGE dog crate, we arrived in Antigua with no issues. There were many hours sleep lost over all the intricate details of organizing our lives and the dog, so that we could spend the next two years on sailboat. What kept me sane through it all was our organizational skills, which we can likely attribute to our project management backgrounds. We kept spreadsheets of all our belongings and what needed to happen them, either put in storage, given away, sold or brought with us. I had a spreadsheet of everything we need to pack, which was checked, cross checked and reviewed many times, even daily in the last week. I had an electronic Kanban board of all the things that needed to be accomplished prior to departure, including buying health insurance, boat insurance, US visa card, paper work for the dog and the list goes on. When people asked how the process of moving was going I could confidently state I was on track. However, in the end I did run into a few issues, which goes to show no matter how much you plan there is always going to be an event (or even three as the rule of “bad things come in threes” goes) that occurs that is completely out of your control. Thankfully through the support of some family, colleagues and friends I was able to get everything taken care of and get to the airport on time.

The Dingy Captain

When we got to the dingy, I was informed that Tia is now the official dingy captain! I was the first to get escorted by dingy to the boat with all the luggage. Tia and I drove though the marina and out to the anchorage, where we found SeaSparrow awaiting our arrival. The thing that amazed me was that Tia seemed so much more mature after a month away. She gave me the tour of the marina, briefed me on the boat and told me stories of her and her dad on the sailboat together. I really saw Tia in a new light, not as her mother, but as others get to see her, a well-spoken, friendly young lady, which left me very proud. Then she left me to get acquainted with our new home, while she went back to get Eryk, the boys and the dog.

 

No Rest for the Wicked

For those who thought we were on a two-year vacation rest assured we are not!! On the car ride from the airport to the boat Eryk briefed me on everything that needed to be done on the boat. We have a water tank that needs cleaning, an exhaust elbow that needed to be changed on one of the engines, and the generator needed work as it seemed to be running rough. To top it off, we were out of water because Eryk didn’t want to try docking without me, so in their 10 days on board they had used up most of the water.

The next morning, I was put straight to work scrubbing out the locker where the water tank sits while Eryk scrubbed the water tank. Seemed like a simple task, but rest assured, no good deed goes unpunished.

The lid for the water tank was placed on top of the tank as Eryk scrubbed the inside, but he left for a minute to go get something and… of course… a gust of wind picked up the cap and dropped it into the ocean. Of course, these caps came with the custom water tanks made for the boat in south Africa twelve years ago, so it is very unlikely we would be able to pick up another one even at that best stocked marine store. Unfortunately the water opacity in Jolly Harbour is quite low currently, probably only a foot or so, and the depth is about 7 feet. So now we had another item to add to our list of things to do… find the cap. A friend told me before I left that every problem has a solution. So Eryk drew up a plan for locating the cap. Using the app he has on the phone to track the anchor and the direction of the wind, he determined the probable location of the boat when the cap fell in. The boat is always moving so it’s a poor reference for locating something stationary. Thankfully, the cap sank immediately, so it was feasible to think we could find the cap if we could organize a stationary reference point. He rigged up a marker using the fishing spear and a empty bottle of water, to indicate where thought the boat was located, and swam grid patterns. He resourcefulness paid off, after nearly an hour of swimming his grid pattern he located the lid!! I have heard Eryk scream with joy before, but this time was with the sound of shear relief.

Boatschooling

I am glad to report that the boys have taken to the homeschooling immediately, I didn’t even have to ask, Monday morning after breakfast they pulled out their work books. Tia briefed them on her system of rotating two subjects every second day, they picked the subjects they wanted to start with and dove right in. Next, I plan to study the curriculum and workbooks myself to figure out how we can enrich it through additional writing assignments, research projects and science experiments. We are all ready to meet this challenge head on and will continue to update this blog on the progress we make.

What’s Next?

Well we need to work through the remaining tasks on our to do list, we would like to meet up with another kid boat in English Harbour, but they will be moving on to Martinique soon, and until the engines are running, we can’t move anywhere. No complaints here though, as we have a beautiful view, warm air, turquoise waters, and the family is together.