Way back in 2012 (before kids) Braden and I made it down to Staniel Cay on our previous sailboat. Staniel Cay is a cool place with a lot to see - sharks, swimming pigs, and Thunderball Grotto (made famous by the James Bond Thuderball movie in 1965). Not much has
Black Point has a few things that we were looking forward to - (1) coconut bread and (2) an amazing laundromat. We had hoped to stay at least a few days so we could get some delicious bread and get some laundry done... but unfortunately the weather had other plans.
I research each island we might stop at and make a list of places to eat, interesting things to see and unique shops to visit. Little Farmer's Cay doesn't have a whole lot to do or see, but I did find JR's woodcarving shop
Our next stop was Rudder Cut Cay. There were a couple things we wanted to see here, and we managed to get them all done in one day. First - the cave. It isn't a huge cave, but it was cool to pull our dinghy up on the
Our next stop after George Town was Lee Stocking Island. We went from being around hundreds of boats on a busy island with grocery stores and restaurants to being around less than 20 boats on a quiet island with only beaches and sandbars. Luckily we were traveling with some boat
After almost 2 months in George Town it was time to move on (finally)! But there were some things we had to do first.... One of the last kid events in the regatta was the kids model boat race. Olivia built her boat on the very first day using a
Yep. We're still here. If it was up to Braden and I we would have moved on weeks ago, but the girls are loving it in George Town... so we'll stay a little longer. The big event in George Town this time of year is the
After dealing with some strange allergic reactions for a couple weeks we decided it was time for a trip back to Minnesota for some doctor appointments. Just Olivia and I made the trip while Emma and Braden stayed on the boat. The Bahamas is so pretty. We had a week
Every year hundreds of boats come from all over to spend their days in George Town on the island of Great Exuma. Currently there are 300+ boats here, which means there are kids everywhere. It also means there was no way we wouldn't run into other families we
We've had a lot of 24+ hour trips this time around. The trip from Great Inagua to Long Island was no exception. One of the stories we've always told the girls is in the Bahamas you can see starfish on the bottom right from the boat.
Our first island stop in the Bahamas was the southernmost island - Great Inagua. Fun fact for Austin - Great Inagua is the second largest island in the Bahamas at 596 square miles. We wasted no time hopping into the water. The water is crystal clear and the sand is
We hadn't exactly planned to stop in the Dominican Republic, but it was nice to break up the long trip to the Bahamas. Plus we got to catch up with some friends that we hadn't seen in months. We knew we wouldn't be staying
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Our stay in Puerto Rico ended up being a little longer than we had planned, but we got a ton of projects done. The most important one: we took out our old generator and put in a new one. Not an easy task with just the two of us, but
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Olivia only had a couple special requests for her birthday. Unfortunately she was sick on her actual birthday, so we had to postpone all but one until this week. We ended up stretching her birthday celebration out to four days and finally today we completed her list. ✅ #1: (and the
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It was only a matter of time until one of us got whatever Emma had. Unfortunately it was Olivia... and just in time for her birthday. She didn't let it ruin her day though. Last year we were in Martinique for her birthday. The French may know how
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After our vacation in the British Virgin Islands we headed back to the US Virgin Islands. St. John is still at the top of my list of favorite islands (so far). We spent a couple days snorkeling and shopping. There are so many fish here... 0:00 /0:03 1×
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We have a couple things we're waiting on (mainly all the girls Christmas presents), so we have a little more time to kill before we can start moving north. After spending a couple days in St. John we decided why not go to the British Virgin Islands for
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Thanksgiving did not go at all how I thought it would. It started on Saturday night with Emma getting a high fever. That fever would just not go away. She has always been pretty tough, but the constant fever took a lot out of her. She napped a lot. Every
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Taking the boat out of the water is always so much work, but putting the boat back in the water is just as much work. Days and days un-vacuum sealing all our clothes/sheets/towels/pillows with fingers crossed nothing is moldy or smelly, cleaning, trying to remember where we
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The girls and I took a detour on our way to Puerto Rico and stopped in Florida to visit my family while Braden headed to the boat a couple days before us to try to knock some projects out. The last time we were in Jacksonville was in March 2023.
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The leaves are changing. The weather is getting colder. That means our time in Minnesota is coming to an end and it is time to get back to the boat. I mean... just look at this weeks forecast. 80 on Tuesday to snow on Thursday. Before we can get back
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A day and a half is nowhere near enough time to see DC, but we tried our best. On Saturday we took a break from the boat show and took the girls to the children's museum. On Monday we hit the ground running early to try to squeeze
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Every year there is a huge boat show in Annapolis, MD. Braden has been talking about going for months, but Emma was the only other person that wanted to go. In the end we decided last minute to pair it with a trip to DC and a visit to see
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When we left for the boat the first time Braden left three bee hives. After that winter only one of them survived. Last summer he didn't do very much with them and we didn't get any honey. This summer that one hive is still kicking. We