Mike & I would discuss it from time to time, checking in on our thoughts, weighing the opportunity cost, career complications, money issues, and boat issues. I had been dreaming of leaving Boston to sail to the Caribbean for a while, and probably considering it more heavily than Mike. To the point where I had started saving up ‘just in case’ he changed his mind. In 2012, Mike put his heart and soul and savings into Gaia by undergoing a full engine re-power, installing a new fuel tank (the old one was steel and rusting from the inside out), and V-drive (yeah, Gaia is one of those bassackwards boats with a V-drive).

In 2013, we left our apartment and moved onto Gaia as full-time liveaboards in Boston. We still talked about leaving and how great it would be… but at what cost to our careers?  We were back and forth and generally up in the air about taking a season off work – until one afternoon.

I remember it clearly. I was working a portfolio accountant job and it had been a particular arduous and drudgery-filled 10 hour day working non-stop from the year end close. I was mentally tired and wanted to enjoy the release of work by drinking a well-earned pint in the company of a friend. Mike told me to meet him at a bar in South Boston, Lucky’s. I waited for him decompressing whilst slowly sipping my beer, relishing each moment. Mike showed up behind me plopping down in the next stool and shrugging off his winter coat. 2014/2015 was a particularly cold and snowy year for New England. He handed me a card and tried catching the bartenders eye. He ordered a Guinness as I held the card curious as to the occasion. He told me to open it. The cover showed a woman sailing aggressively close hauled in beautiful and strange waters. I couldn’t help but think…. maybe…. maybe… Inside the card were the words ‘Change is in the air. Welcome the challenges.’ and in Mike’s scrawly hand writing “We’re Going South!!”

And thus, it began.

Boat preparation. Wedding preparation. Job preparation. Money preparation. It’s amazing we survived the first 6 months of 2015 and the mental stresses associated (and I suppose even more amazing we survived the following 6 months and the physical stress of blue water sailing). In the months of 2015 February, March, April, & May… when I pictured us in the Caribbean,  I thought of the Bahamas, the solitude, and expansive beauty of white sand beaches, and crystal waters. So arriving here in the Bahamas and experiencing it first hand after months of travel. It feels good, we feel accomplished, well executed and like nothing can shake us.

Bermuda, Antigua & Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Eustatius, St. Barts, St. Martin, USVI, BVI, Puerto Rico, and now The Bahamas.

8 months of cruising, 13 major island destinations visited, hundred or so anchorages, thousands of miles sailed… I may not be a seasoned cruiser with grey hairs and skin so rough I bleed the salt of the ocean but I’ve experienced enough to know the cruising life and what I like. So without further ado, I’ll write about the Exumas and what a treat it is to explore from SE to NW, the actual ‘thornless passage’.