In the beginning....

Hello friends. Happy new year to everyone! It’s been somewhat of a crazy start to this much anticipated adventure. We had some initial delays.. if the terms solenoid and optimizer interest you, DM me and I’ll elaborate! But for now, allow me to use the analogy of Christmas lights. You take your perfectly working Christmas lights off the tree and pack them away neatly. Only to unpack them the next year to find them burnt out. How is that possible???? Having not tampered with them a bit for 365 days? Well, that is sort of what happen with our boat, Genau. All the things that were working the last time aboard...were NOT still working. Thank goodness for ShirleyTemples, sea turtles Pussers Landing, and especially Lincoln and Al (the voyage yatch geniuses)...along with banana grams and DOS-a new,  strange, but fun game. We bided our time until ready to shove off. We set sail o n 1-4-20 around 2 PM and by special request from the January birthday girl (Mills 1/30/10) made a first stop at “the Indians” a favorite snorkel spot. See picture below. The kids donned the snorkel gear that Santa brought and we circumnavigated the three rocks to look at the beautiful coral and interesting fish. Sunset was coming soon (and it gets pitch black promptly at 6:30 PM - no lingering sunset like in NC) so we tucked into Benures Bay at Norman Island. We checked “The Bight” for the Willie T but it was jampacked,as you can imagine, with all of the high season vacationers.. so we rolled on.  The next morning we got up early, swam to shore, and collected many cool shells before heading back to the boat to play with the drone and then sail to Jost Van Dyke-Dr. Bright’s favorite!! This was also our opportunity to practice our special jobs for hoisting the mainsail and the jib. Everyone passed their initial practicals. But it’s pretty easy when you’re moored in a protected bay in lite breeze. I’m sure we’ll do great in 40kts in the Atlantic! Stay tuned! Jan 5: Twelve mile sail from Norman island to JVD and we secured a spot in Great Harbour by early afternoon... in time to dinghy to White Bay for a visit to Soggy Dollar. WiFi and gymnastics on the beach! Plus Charlie was 3 for 368 tries on the tiki toss! Headed back to boat then to Foxys for dinner. Last day of “vacation” as homeschool starts tomorrow and first LOOONG sail from JVD to Anguilla. Jan 6: First light brought a delicious breakfast of eggs, croissants, and a side of Wordly Wise part A for both Charlie and Mills. Some choice words and sub par attitudes were heard and seen.. all before the first bell at APA had even rung. Here. We.Go!! (Lots of prayer happening too...I always taught high school for a reason!) You know I mentioned that I was going to spend each day journaling and come up with some lessons that can help me in my Head of School role. Believe it or not I have actually done that. I’ve never been disciplined in writing but.. I have not missed a day.. (thanks for my journal, Raven) and the kids are writing too! Today’s  “HOS Lesson of the Day” is —“Sometimes you have to go north to get south.” Naturally this applies to everything in life. It’s not always a straight path from point A to point B. (Distance versus displacement, physics people!!) But anyway.. we departed JVD and headed north to tack around Anegada then sail southeast toward Anguilla. If you look at the chart it seems like an illogical route, but a must due to wind directions. Full transparency here... this is NOT the fun part. 3/4 of us were significantly seasick so both kiddos took a half sick day and lounged around with their faces in the wind. We got in a shortlived squawl and the head of the jib popped, causing us to have to take it down for repairs.Then we determined that the fridge had lost power.  Freezer working, though. So we already have a to-do list of issues to address at Road Ba

Hours in the rolling sea certainly lends itself to lots of time to think! So my brain has been hard at work... and sometimes not. But I think of ALL of you often, miss, and love you!! Time to focus on kids with NO distractions has been a true gift and something I’m learning to cherish quickly. Just for fun we would like to keep a running list of things that have been committed to “ Davy Jones Locker” (For those that don’t know that refers to “the ocean” a phrase from the Pirates of the Caribbean) Future posts will reference DJL 1- our deck chair 2- my favorite brush (No people or school books so far)

Hope everyone is well. Thanks for following along. Prayers for fair winds and following seas are welcomed too.. Also subsequent posts will not be this long but felt the need to catch you up on several days

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