East Greenwich, RI to ....

Sorry about my last blog it was a little late and out of date. It took me a while to write it and then I kind of forgot to post it.

Once we found a house we cast off the lines and set out for 2 weeks of cruising New England. We explored MA and the cape for about 4 days before doing an overnighter to Tenets Harbor, ME. We loved exploring Maine, climbing on the rocks, playing in the tide pools and collecting lobster buoys. We spent many days in little coves, happy to be reunited with Maine's beauty. And I'd like to say, we took the plunge (literally) and jumped in 60° Maine water. It was CCCCOOOOLLLLDDDD!!!! We also swam in a fresh water pond that wasn't nearly as cold. We slowly wandered up to Buck's Harbor, which is about as close to home as it comes, this being the 5th summer we've spent up there. We only spent one night at every place we've been in the past week and a half except for Buck's Harbor where we spent three days. We went from Buck's to Providence Town, which was an another overnighter, and finally back to where we started, East Greenwich, RI. Now we're landlubbers, living in a house and all, but we still visit Borealis every weekend. Today was Dad's first day of work. The trip was sooooo much fun and I hope to go on another one. It was (by far) the best year of my life!

Cape Fear, NC - East Greenwich, RI

Hey,

Wow, we've been in the US for 2 months and I already want to go back to the Caribbean. I like the US, but I prefer warm places and clear water. From Cape Fear we traveled up the ICW and went to numerous marinas, (I like quiet anchorages better than marinas) and even passed the largest naval base in the world. I thought the ICW was boring, lots of motoring, long days, and tiny, river-like canals. There were some fun places here and there though. One such place was Oriental, a small shrimping town in NC, which had very friendly people, and an awesome restaurant called M&M's. They had shrimp and excellent potato skins. Potato skins are potatoes stuffed with cheese, bacon, and spices. YUMMMMM! We went all the way to Deltaville and hauled out of the water. Dad did bottom paint while Remi and I did schoolwork and played with our friend Celia. We met her last time we were at Deltaville and couldn't wait to see her. After that we went offshore to Block Island, RI which took 2 days. When we were done exploring Block Island we went to Newport, which was fun. It was fun because there were lots shops, there even was a Panera, one of our favorite restaurants. It's a little cold for us, though. From Newport we went to some small 'town-less' coves before going back to the place we started from, a Brewers Marina in East Greenwich, RI. I'm looking forward to being able to go to an air conditioned mall. We picked up our car and are going house hunting before going cruising in New England.

To all kids who are out of school, HAVE A FUN SUMMER!!!!!

-Mia

Swimming with Pigs and Sharks

Long Island was our first stop in the Bahamas. We met up with Tiger, my green-haired buddy, and walked to Dean's Hole, the deepest known blue hole filled with salt water in the world. We swam over the 663 ft water-filled hole and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a glimpse of the bottom. Leaf Cay was a nice island with endangered lizards on it that scared Mom to death. She refused to be anywhere on the island with them. Stanley Cay had swimming pigs. They were hairy and loved to head-butt dinghies. They were incredibly fast swimmers, but looked out of place in the water. There also was shark. It's cool to be able to say that I've swam with pigs and a nurse shark at the same time. We went to the Thunderball Grotto. It was a underwater cave filled with fish. It was cool, you couldn't move without touching at least one fish. There was an underwater entrance, too, that I swam out of. We then went to Warderick Wells. There we climbed up Boo Boo Hill with Tiger from sv Alexina, and Tristan, and Raphael the French Canadians from sv Raftan. We wrote Borealis on a piece of driftwood and left it on the pile where many other cruisers left their mark also.  We then played on kayaks that were available from the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Tiger, Raphael, and Remi, the explorers aboard the kayak, Swallow, owned Kayak Island, Seagull Island, and Rock Pool Island. Tristan and I, the pirates aboard Amazon, stole Swallow and wouldn't give her up until they gave us Seagull Island. Our island, Blue Island, was taken over by ladies in bikinis off a big motor boat.

We traveled up the Exumas to the Abacos and provisioned in Marsh Harbor, which is a big town Bahamas-wise. We then went on a passage up to the US. It took 3 days.

Being at sea, or being on passage, can be very boring. Often you can't see land and,  and depending on the conditions, can be very uncomfortable when the swell is up. Most of the time the ports have to be closed so water can't come in the boat. It gets very stuffy on board, especially when the engine is on. Being on passage can also be fun because it usually means that you're going to a new place. Also, it's a great time to watch movies. Most people appreciate things a lot more on passages, like chips and cookies. Being on passage can be boring or fun, depending on how you like it.

It was sad to go back to the US because I like the Caribbean a lot. It was also nice to go back to the US because you can get almost anything, bagels, chips, shorts, you name it, the US has it. One thing that was definitely a downside in North Carolina, where we made landfall, was the cold weather. It was about 56° here in the morning. Unfortunately, all my jeans either shrank a lot, or I grew a ton because I don't have that many that fit me. Luckily I spent two days of the passage knitting a wool hat that I've been wearing. Remi is jealous of it and sometimes gets to wear it. I hope it gets warmer soon.

Catchin' a Ride

A Lionfish

Borealis

Driftwood Signs

Tristan paddling while I talk to Tiger, Remi, and Raphael on the bow.

IT'S TOO COLD!!!!!

-Mia 

(P.S. My hair is still green! It has been over a month and a half and my hair is still green. At least it faded a bit, now it's just been-in-the-pool-to-long-green, not something-is-in-this-water-that-is-not-normal-green.)

The Curse of the Orange Sea Glass

Hello,
Right now we are in Georgetown, Bahamas and are anchored off of Volleyball Beach.  Volleyball beach has, as its name suggests, a volleyball court on the beach.  The beach also has wild stingrays that come up to you looking for a scratch.  We found out the hard way that there was also glass in the water when our friend, Tiger, stepped on some and cut up her heel.  For those who have been waiting for the next installment, here is the conclusion of Part I of The Curse of the Orange Sea Glass.  It’s a good one you don’t want to miss.

Waking Up

We were heading due north 800 miles east of the Windward Islands, with Africa 2,000 miles off our starboard.  I was at the helm navigating Skipchaser through a series of squalls.  Through the 40 knot wind that whipped my hair around, I heard a woman pleading with me,
"Eliza, wake up, oh Eliza, please wake up!"
I yelled down below to Desiree, "I'm about as awake as I could be, Desiree!"
"Don't bother me, it's not my watch," Desiree yelled back.  I suddenly felt very tired.  My eyes started to droop and no matter how hard I tried to keep them open, they just kept closing. ______________________________________________________________________________

My eyes flickered open in another world.
"Mom!" I yelled, "What am I doing here? Why aren't I on Skipchaser?" I was in a hospital room with my mom who looked very relieved.
"Oh, Honey, I don't know what a 'Skipchaser' is, but you passed out when you were snorkeling and later slipped into a coma."
"I remember passing out while snorkeling, but I also remember waking up and swimming to shore."
"Eliza, you didn't wake up.  Not until now, that is,"
"So you mean that it was all a dream, Skipchaser and the orange sea glass?"
"I told you I don't know what a 'Skipchaser' is, but it was probably part of a dream.  The doctors said it was common to have dreams while in a coma.  Here's something for you.  It’s a necklace that we made out of something that you had clutched in your hand.”
She uncurled her fingers to reveal a necklace that had, as its centerpiece, a piece of sea glass that looked exactly like the sun.

Three weeks later I had been discharged from the hospital.  I was searching for a book in The Unicorn Bookstore.  The old saleswomen introduced herself as Mrs. Iguano and recommended a brown leather backed book named 'The Curse of the Orange Sea Glass'.
"I noticed your necklace and I think it's time to pass it on." She said, and with surprising strength for such an old lady, lunged at me. I toppled over, but I quickly regained my balance.  The old lady wasn't as quick as I was.  Her sudden strength was gone.  I had to help her back to her feet.
She handed me the book and said, "Please write your entry in here."
I tried to say “What? Who are you?” but it sounded more like this, "Whaaaa? Reewhoo oo?"
"You haven't guessed who I am yet?" she said with a sly smile.
Then something amazing happened.  Her frail body started shaking very violently.  Her gray hair turned to white feathers and her musty shoal morphed into brown feathers.  She shrank to the size of my hand and her lumpy nose turned into a sharp, pointy beak, in which was my orange piece of sea glass.  My voice suddenly came back.
"Fiddlesticks!" I shouted.
 Fiddlesticks or Mrs. Iguano chirped with a smug laugh, "You now have the curse of the orange sea glass!"

End of Part I

Bright Green Hair!

Blog Culebra- Turks & Caicos

From Culebra we went to Fajardo, Puerto Rico where we spent a day in a marina to receive mail, though I think the real reason was to have some ice cream. It is a big treat to have ice cream down here. We don't have a freezer on board and many local stores down here don't have refrigeration, let alone a freezer.

It took a 2 day passage to get to Dominican Republic.

We spent a wonderful week in Puerto Bahia Marina, in Samana, D.R. The marina was part of the Banister Hotel, one of the fancier resorts on the island. Staying at the marina unlocked all the goodies of staying at the resort. It had two infinity pools, one on the roof, one overlooking the bay, and many other huge pools. It also had a well stocked grocery store that had ice cream! But our favorite part was the resort game room. It had a foosball table, ping pong table, and a TV in it. The game room was looked after by a nice woman who spoke no English. By the end of the week she knew our favorite games. There were a few down sides though, the nice LOOKING showers that lacked hot water, and the pools that succeeded in turning my hair green. Not just your regular been-in-the-pool-too-long-

green but, all out bright green that lasted for weeks, as if I dyed it. Now Remi and Dad are calling me Yogurt, the spin off of Yoda, in the movie Spaceballs, who has green hair. We rented a car for three days and drove all over the peninsula.

We arrived in Turks & Caicos where there was another green-haired 11 year old cruising kid named Tiger, who left the marina a week before we did! It was obvious that she had been swimming in the same pool as me. Besides being a great new friend she gave me the hope that green hair fades after a while... a little bit. I hope that mine fades as well as hers does. We plan to meet up with her again in the Bahamas. Now we are in Provo, the tourist destination of the T&C. We haven't seen Jo Jo the dolphin yet, who supposedly brings lobsters to boats and plays with snorkelers and swimmers, but are hoping to see him. We met up with one of my good friends form home, Sadie, who we played with on the beach for quite a while. It just happened that she was visiting the Turks and Caicos the same time we were. How lucky am I?! The day before yesterday we crossed the Caicos bank, it was really cool. No land in sight but we anchored in 12 ft. of water. Amazing!

I'm still working on the next chapter of my story. I'll post it when I'm done.

Sailing wing and wing

The pool that turned my hair green

It's a bird, no it's a plane, oh wait, there's nothing there!

Virgin Islands

Blog 

 Well, we had a nasty upwind sail to St. Tomas (USVI) from Culebra. Then we went to St. John (USVI) and Tortola (BVI). We spent the morning of my eleventh birthday in Tortola that was followed by another nasty upwind sail  headed for Virgin Gorda. Did I mention that my one birthday wish was to see my friend, Julia? I thought that that was't going to happen, until we called them on the radio and changed our course to Marina Cay, where they were moored. I had a wonderful birthday making a 'Happy Birthday Cake' out of sand with Julia and Remi. This perfect day was ended with tacos and cake. We also went to Virgin Gorda, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke, and finally back to Culebra with Arwen. We took the ferry to mainland Puerto Rico, where we went to Wal-Mart, a rainforest, and West Marine. We had to wake up at five to catch the 6:30 ferry. We planned to take the 7pm ferry back to Culebra and arrive at 8:30 pm, but it was delayed by two hours. We finally got on, but the captain told us a wire broke and that they needed to fix it after the cars got on. It was an extreme high tide and the cars could barely get on, so it was a good hour and a half before the cars were on and the wire was fixed. We left for the one and a half hour journey back to Culebra. It was a bit rolly and people who had never been on a boat before got seasick. I tried to take an unsuccessful nap when a crew member started passing out barf-bags. When we finally got there it was almost 1am and I was ready to go back to the boat. Our friends on Arwen are flying back to Germany soon, so we had to say goodbye. They are planning to visit us when we are back in Stow.

Here's more of my story:

We are in Tobago Cay, Grenadines now. This anchorage is filled with charter boats that can drive the boat just as well as I can and I can't drive the boat without breaking something. Anyway, Quinn, Desiree, and Jade are out snorkeling and I offered to stay behind because I didn't want to tell them that I don't know how to use fins. I was watching other boats run into each other and putting out fenders as a precaution, when I heard a beeping sound. Thinking that was on another boat beeping, I tried to read one of Desiree's books, Stowaway. It is hard to read when a beeping sound is being very annoying. Suddenly it hit me, could this be the anchor drag alarm Desiree was telling me about? I ran down-below and, yep, sure enough the GPS had red, flashing letters on it "ANCHOR DRAG ALARM". What should I do? What should I do? I racked my brains and started the engine. There was a small chance that my plan would work, but it was the only hope I had. I went to the bow and pushed on the button that supposedly pulled the anchor up. Nothing. Then I remembered that there was a switch that Quinn had to flip for Desiree to be able to put the anchor down. He always switched the wrong one and Desiree had to yell "THE WINDLESS! IT'S ON THE TOP ROW, ON THE FAR RIGHT!" So I ran below again and flipped the switch and ran up. Sometimes it's nice to have Quinn around. I pulled the anchor up and carefully navigated to a nice spot in front of where Quinn, Jade, and Desiree were snorkeling.

                                          •     •     •

Desiree looked up and said "Wow, that boat looks just like Skipchaser!"
Jade looked and said "Yeah, we should talk to them on the way back." All Quinn said was "OW! I stepped on a sea urchin!"

                                         •    •    •

I anchored, remembering the five times the depth for amount of chain, ratio. I pulled backwards on the anchor with the boat to make sure it set well. Then I attached the snubber and lay down. It wasn't five minutes before Quinn, Desiree, and Jade were back on the boat. I told them about what happened.
"You're getting better at this. I think you're better than Quinn!" said Desiree
"Is not!" Quinn said indignantly and then fell head first down the stairs hitting his head on the table. "Guess what? I just got that water out of my ear."

Grenada- Culebra

Hi,

I'm sorry about the delay in posting my last blog. Even though it's a high priority for me to WRITE it, sometimes it isn't a high priority for Mom to POST it.

We had an uneventful 62 hour passáge going from Grenada to St. Croix, including a pod of dolphins that played with us for the better part of an hour. Although casting off the docks at 6am was hard, the even harder part was saying goodbye to our friend Julia who we had been traveling with for six weeks. She was up at 6 in the morning to say bye. They are cruising up the islands and we plan to meet up with them in the Virgins.

After the passáge we picked up a mooring in St. Croix while Remi and I were down below watching a movie. Since we were below we missed the excitement, or harbor TV as we call it, when mom missed the mooring (for the first time) and dropped the boat hook in the water. We went snorkeling on Buck Island and then took the six hour run to Culebra.

Larry, I wouldn't be exaggerating about a 2,000 mile flight that took six hours. For us a 35 mile trip is usually six hours. You were probably sitting in the air conditioned jet watching a movie and had food rolling down the isle for those that were hungry.

Culebra is an island off of Puerto Rico that is really nice. We spent 3 days with the Candells (Larry, Amy, Allison, and Jeff). In those 3 days, we walked all over the island visiting different beaches. We sailed to Culebrita with them, which is a pretty, small island that has two magnificent beaches. We only went to one, but we snorkeled off the boat, played on the beach, and swam from the boat to the beach.

Today we rented a Jeep so we can go back to our favorite beaches. We love the air conditioning!

Here's another chapter of my story.

Chapter 5

We left Grenada where we dropped off crew. Now there is only Desiree, Jade (Desiree's younger sister), Captain Quinn (Desiree and Jade's dad), and me. We are now sailing to Carricou and Jade and Desiree are down below. We are tacking back and forth because we can't go directly into the wind. I was up on deck while Captain Quinn was singing Queen songs. I heard beeping and knew something was up. I checked the wind instruments but all was normal. The depth, normal. I looked at the chart plotter as an explosion rocked the boat so I couldn't get a good look at it.
"Captain!" I yelled to Quinn. "What's happening?"
"Don't bug me! I'm picking my nose hairs." was his simply answer. "Another one bites the dust..." was added from him for good measure which wasn't good enough for me. Either he was concentrating on saving us or saving his nose. I'm thinking he meant the latter. Captain Quinn can be so out of it, sometimes. I looked at the chart plotter and realized we were going over an under water volcano.
"Quinn, Desiree, Jade! Someone help!" I yelled.
"Will you please shush?" the Captain ordered. "Your breaking my concentration. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike...."
I knew help wasn't coming so I was the one who needed to give it. I marched over to the steering wheel, or helm, and grasped it tight. I pushed the hair out of my face and turned just as another burst of lava came flowing out, this time even closer. The sharp turn made the wind push into the other sides of the sails, causing us to heal in another direction. This made stuff go flying across the room. Desiree and Jade, knowing something was up, came running.  As they we coming, I heard a big splash.
"Captain Quinn's in the water!" I yelled.
"Not again" was the groaned reply I got.

Thanks for reading! Hope you like it.


P.S. Quinn, if you are reading this then don't worry. This it just the beginning of Captain Quinn.


From,

Mia

Relaxing on the aft deck.

Some dogs from a local shelter on Culebra.

Spotting Dad (yellow fins) from the bow.

Long overdue

 It may sound like I'm really behind on my blog because if all the the islands I've listed but we only went to each island for a couple nights each. Believe it or not It's only been 3 weeks since my last post.

 After St. Lucia we went to Bequia, part of the Grenadines. Most of the islands I'll talk about are part of the Grenadines. They are known for their model boats. We (Julia, Remi, and I) made our own out of coconut shells that we found cracked open and ate. (We spent 3 nights there)

Mystic was a pleasant place where we spent Remi's birthday. (3 nights)

Then we went to Canouan, which was a really rolly anchorage. When we are in a rolly anchorage we have a hard time walking around and doing stuff. We didn't get on land at all. (1 night)

We went to Mayreao and we found a swimming pool that was next to a bar. Adults were lounging on floats in the pool with their drinks so we couldn't spash at all until they got out. (1 night)

After that met up with S/V Dilly Dally and Giamar in the Tobago Cays. We spent our time snorkeling in a turtle sanctuary. We went to a beach BBQ were someeelse grilled and Julia, Madeline, Wyatt, Remi, and I played freeze tag on the beach. (3 nights)

Then we went to Union, the last island in the Grenadines. They had really good fruit. There was bananas, mango, pineapples, starfruit, papaya, and my favorite, passion fruit.(2 nights).

Then we went to Carricou and we anchored of a beach that has a little saltwater pond on it. When I say pond, I mean it is still clear and the only thing separating the ocean from the pond is a wall of huge pieces of dead coral. It is excellent snorkeling in the pond, which is as deep as a shallow baby pool. It suddenly drops of at the end with coral, rocks, fish, sea urchins and other amazing sea life. It is really cool to lie on the edge and look over at the ‘guard fish’ and coral. The ‘guard fish’ are fish that come at you strait on, only diverting when their fear of us overcomes them. We made a crab house, like a fairy house except for crabs, on the beach with our friend, Julia. (5 nights)

Now we are in Grenada, the spice island, and have been enjoying it emensly. We are in a marina and they have a pool. Now, not only have we been playing with Germans now we are playing with Finns and some French kids!

Thanks for reading my blog! Here is the next chapter of my story.

Skipchaser

The rowing boat was leaking and water was pouring in. The rim of the boat was two inches above the water and my shins were submerged, too. I had learned about density in school and I knew that if the boat filled up any more, it would sink. I franticly waved my arms in the air hoping that the three masted boat would see me. It did, and it turned, its sails fluttering like a seagull and then slowly but steadily settled on the other side of the ship. I quickly turned and started bailing out the dingy. The boat came closer and closer and I only stopped bailing out when I could see the Canadian colors flying behind the boat. Soon after that I could read the name of the vessel -Skipchaser- stood out bold, like a sliver of the night sky lying on pure white, shimmering snow. Someone on the boat, which was pure white and shimmering, threw me a rope ladder that I caught with the greatest difficulty.
"Have her come up on the port stern." someone yelled from the ship.
"Roger that, Captain." said a girl about my age. "Did you you hear the Captain? Come up on our port aft."
''What does 'port aft' mean?" I yelled back to her.
"Great" she mumbled sarcastically to herself "A non-sailor." then said to me "Port means the left of the boat and aft means back, so come up on the left side of the back."
"But didn't the Captain" I said proud of my small knowledge of sailing slang. "Say to come up on the port stern?" I asked.
"Yah, aft and stern mean the same thing. Now, enough chit-chat, just come on up here!" she said getting impatient. "The bitter end of the rope ladder is made fast to a cleat."
"What?" I said. I would have to get used to this natical way of talking.
"Just come up!" she urged. I scooted up the rope ladder stopping halfway up to make sure I hadn't left anything in the rowboat. Oh, no! I had left the orange sea glass in the digny, that was drifting away. Then I felt a burning sensation and felt the necklace around my neck, there was defiantly something mysterious about the sea glass.
"Hi, I'm Desiree" the girl said "What are you doing out here in the middle of the ocean?"
"We can't be that far away from land." I replied.
"Only 10 miles." Desiree said. "What's your story?"
"I quickly made up a story, knowing that no one would believe the truth about magic sea glass and tiny birds.
"My mom sent me here from Maine while she went to a vacation to Italy. I was playing on the beach in that boat and I drifted away."
"Well, we'll be going to Maine but not for six months. Maybe, you can come with us, if that's not too late." Desiree said.
"Perfect, that's when she's expecting me." I replied.
"We're gonna tack." the Captain yelled.
"Duck!" Desiree told me.
"Why?" I asked confused.
"No questions, just duck."
I did, but not soon enough. Something hit me square in the head. I fell over but quickly regained my balance, hand to head.
"What was that?" I asked bewildered.
"It was the boom of the mizzenmast." Desiree replied running towards me. I had a lot to learn in these six months of sailing.



From,

Mia 

Shing, Shang, Shong

Hello Everyone,

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in awhile. I have a perfect explanation for this though, I've been spending all of my time doing schoolwork. Just kidding, I'm not that perfect. I've really been exploring the islands, swimming, playing on the beach, and doing other fun stuff (though I have been doing schoolwork too). Anyway, the last time I blogged was in Les Saints so I have a lot of catching up to do. When we left Les Saints we went to Dominica, the island were the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. We took a tour around the island with our friends from Canada and a family from Germany. In the German family was a 6 year old girl that spoke very little English. By the end of the trip we learned some German and Julia learned some more English. We also learned a German version of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'. You say Shing, Shang, Shong (the name of the game) and swing your hand back and forth. Then you make the rock, paper, scissors, or well sign with your hand. To do 'well' you cup your hands. The only thing that beats 'well' is 'paper' because 'paper' can't go down the 'well'. The tour was very fun, and included a plunge into a freezing 75° waterfall, brrr.

After we left Doninica we went to Martinique, another french country. More fresh French bread and cheese. We met up with Julia and her family on the boat Arwen in every single harbor we went to in Martinique. We spent New Year with Julia and her parents on our boat. This was the first year I stayed up until midnight on New Year and Julia did it too, but we were a little disappointed when not much happened. Five minutes after they went back to thier boat we were all asleep. When we were in the town of Le Marin we could completely talk to Julia using hand signals and a few words from each others languages. Le Marin was a huge city to our standards after being in some pretty remote places. It was a  lot more urban to us than a lot of the places we've been in the Caribbean. It even had fully stocked chanderlies and great groceries stores almost as big as the ones at home, with easy acess via a dingy dock right at the store. After we provisioned and fit as much food and boat parts as we could on the boat, we went to St. Lucia.

Now we are in St. Lucia, anchored right off a beautiful beach that has two resorts on it. Yesterday we went to a mall, yes an actual mall, with a real Burger King! This morning we took the bus to the fruit market and got fresh mangos, avocados, and papaya. Then, as an early birthday present to Remi, we rented some local horses and Remi and Dad rode with Julia and her mom. At the end they went swimming on the horse. Dad decided he didn't want to go in the water. Who do you think got the chance to ride in the water? Yes, I got to ride a horse! This was the first time I got to ride a horse, except for some carnivals where you just walk a couple of feet in a tiny fenced in area. I was a little wobbly on the horse until I got in the water. I also had a hard time getting him to go, but for the first time on a horse, I think I did a pretty good job. Today we went and ate at the Burger King. It was the greasiest food we've eaten on this trip.

I'M ACTUALLY ON A HORSE!!!

Well, I'm sure your dying to hear the next chapter of my story (at least I hope so) so here is chapter 4.

The Ocean

The ground was swaying and my feet were engulfed in water. Suddenly my head was drenched, too. My jaw dropped and a tiny drop of water fell in my mouth. It was salty! My eyes jolted open. A blue landscape was all around me. Except for the clouds everything was blue. I sat down in the little rowing dingy (which was more like half of a barrel) and stared at the beautiful scene before me. The fish, flying fish is what they call them I think, were flying in and out, in and out of the magnificent-...
My thought was interrupted by a sudden wave that got a lot of water in the dingy. Another filled up the boat more and completely brought me back to my senses. I looked around hopefully for some sign of land. There was none. I had never been in a boat before, except for the time I was on a large ferry going from Maine to Nova Scotia. What was I doing in the middle of the ocean? Then I remembered, Fiddlesticks had said something about a journey. Maybe this was the journey. If it was, I wasn't liking it that much.
"Fiddlesticks, Fiddlesticks, I want to go back now!" I yelled hoping that the queer little bird would hear me and come back. My orange sea was glowing. I grabbed it and it burnt me again. Then I tapped it three times, remembering the scene in my bedroom. Fiddlesticks flew out.
"Oh there you are, I was so worried. Where am I? Can you take me home now?" I blurted out.
The little bird looked at the ground and said:
"There are two reasons why I can't bring you back. The first is that I don't have any more magic left. The second is that you are on a little bit of a schedule."
"What do you mean a schedule?" I inquired a little hotly.
"Well when I brought you here I also brought you back in time. You have exactly 6 months to get back to your home or you will be captured in a time-warp."
"Why did you even take me on this so called journey?" I asked, still a little mad.
"The only way to pass this exam and get my magic is to do this to someone. That is why I have no magic to get you back. I was only given a small amount for this journey." He said.
"Okay I get it, but where am I?"
"Look off in the distance to your right and you will soon find out." Fiddlesticks explained as he flew back into the sea glass.
"Why can't you tell me now?" I asked but the little bird was already gone.
I looked to my right and saw the faint image of a boat in the distance. I stood up and started waving my arms as a little sliver of hope stirred inside me.

Joyuex Noël

Now we are in Les Saints, Guadeloupe. The locals make excellent crepes and really good bread that is delivered right to the boat. The only problem is we usually don't know what the people, that are selling us the crepes and the bread, are saying. That is because they speak French! Otherwise everything here is really cool. Since Christmas is just around the corner (just 2 more days to be exact) all the local kids are off of school, even though I'm not. Anyway they are had a Christmas celebration yesterday and the door steps of people's houses are decorated in Joyuex Noël posters. Joyuex Noël if you haven't guessed already, means Merry Christmas in French. Christmas in 90° weather just doesn't feel right and we heard a song about sweaty Santa Claus a couple days ago. Even though Santa and his reindeer might be sweaty, Christmas is definitely in the air (as well as firecrackers) and we are getting used to not knowing what people are saying. For those people who are waiting to read the third chapter of my story here it is:

The Voices

I woke up in the morning to the sound of a voice saying "Come over here, tap me three times". I groggily got out of bed, yawned and walked to my closet. I threw open the door, picked out a shirt and put on some jeans, as the voice kept repeating. I opened my door and yelled
"Lucy, I know you're there and you're not scaring-" I stepped out of my room and realized that no one was in the hall. I marched over to Lucy's room grabbed the handle and pulled with all my might while the voice was still yammering on in my head. I gave the handle another jerk.
Locked!
The voice was seriously annoying me now so I ran to the bathroom, yanked open a drawer, grabbed a bobby pin, and ran back to Lucy's room. I picked the lock and barged into her room.
"Lucy stop it!" I yelled. Lucy turned around, she was on the floor playing with her barbies.
"Stop what?" she demanded.
"Uh, nothing. Did you hear something?" I asked.
"No, did you?" Lucy inquired suspiciously.
"No" I lied. The voice was still repeating in my head.
"Come to me. Tap me three times." It said.
"I was just wondering" I told Lucy.
"Can you go now? Lucy said abruptly
"O.K." I said heading for the door. I walked to my room and sat down. The voice started saying something else.
"Come to me. I'm on your window sill. Tap me three times." my eyes wandered to the window sill. The orange sea glass was moving! I went over and picked it up.
"Ouch!" It burnt me.
"Tap me three times" I tapped it three times, it didn't burn me, instead a tiny brown bird flew out.
"Phew" the bird said "It feels good to be out of the sea glass."
I was so surprised I fell on my bed.
"Eliza I'm going to go to the grocery store, take care of your sister" yelled my mom from downstairs, momentarily taking me out of my surprised state.
"O.K" I yelled back and then turned toward the bird "What's happening?"
"I'm taking you on an adventure. My name's Fiddlesticks. You always have to keep the sea glass with you at all times" the bird chirped a-mile-a-minute.
"What kind of adventures? I'm Eliza, I don't have pockets. How do I keep the sea glass?" I thought out loud.
"Oh yeah, I'll make you a necklace." Fiddlesticks found some wire and string and soon had a necklace. I slipped it over my head and the bird landed on my shoulder. "Close your eyes, you'll be on your adventure soon" he said. With that I left my room for a very long journey.

JOYUEX NOËL!!!!!!
- MIA

Mia Surfing

Hello Everybody,

We went snorkeling near Great Bird Island. There were some really cool coral and sea anemones. I like snorkeling a lot because of all the pretty (and ugly) sea life. We moved to Barbuda. The guide book says it has a wonderful "pink" beach, but no matter how much you squint it just isn't pink. Any beach is a good one though and this one is super awesome! There are big waves that Remi and I 'Mia surf' on. Mia surfing is when I body surf with my head underwater and Remi sits on my back and enjoys the ride. We also like to sit in the breaking zone or where the waves break and let the waves tumble us around. In Barbuda we learned how NOT to beach a dingy. We accidentally almost capsized the dingy. Dad fell out and everything flew everywhere. It wasn't what you would call a successfully dingy landing. Anyway, nobody was hurt and we all had a fun time on the beach. Now we are back in Antigua and yesterday was Hero's Day here, which is just like our Veteran's Day. All the local kids got the day off and a bunch of them hung out on a beach, that we were anchored near. We spent the afternoon playing in the sand and swimming with them. It felt good to have 'kid time' again because the last time we spoke with kids was almost a month ago. It was a fun way to see how locals spend a day at the beach. They caught a bunch of fish including a stingray when they were spearfishing! They grilled and had fun in the water. We made sand balls together, which the local kids called snowballs. When we asked if they had ever made actual snowballs out of snow, they said that they have never even seen snow! Well, for all those people held in suspense from my story here is the second chapter.

Passed Out

I woke up to the sound of muffled cries that I couldn't make out. As I tried to hear what they were saying, I realized that I was still underwater. Thousands of questions buzzed in my head. How did I get underwater? Why was I underwater? How long was I underwater? Unfortunately I didn't know the answers to any of my questions. I kicked hard until my head popped out. I heard that the the muffled cries were talking to me.
"Eliza, where are you, Eliza?" the voices cried. I turned around and there on shore was my family. I swam fast towards them.
"Where were you? We looked for the top of your snorkel but, we couldn't find it. I was so worried." my mother said frantically.
"I was right there." I said pointing to the place I was. "I was just underwater."
"For half an hour?" Lucy my 6 year old sister said.
"Really? It was that short I thought it was longer." my mom said to no one in particular and then turned towards me and said "Eliza, you couldn't have been underwater for half an hour. Where were you?"
"I don't know." I replied. Lucy snickered.
"Well, what do you have in your hand then?" she asked. I slowly uncurled my fingers to reveal a piece of sea glass that looked exactly like the sun. All the memories came rushing back. The dive under, the burning pain, the black out.
What had happened down there? I wondered and so badly wanted to say. Instead I turned towards Lucy and said "It is just some sea glass, I'll probably throw it back." I knew the sea glass had some hidden mystery that my body was just aching to find out. I also knew how valuable orange sea glass is. All the reasons why I shouldn't throw it back swirled around in my water logged head and my gut feeling, throwing it back because it might be dangerous, was over powered by the curious part of me. I held on to it the whole ride home and then put it on my window sill.

I love snorkeling!

The local girls were really cool.

A lizard on Great Bird Island.

Skip Chaser

Hi Everyone,

Now that were in the Caribbean life isn't that bad. Yesterday Sterling flew back to Panama and we moved to a really cool anchorage. The water is super clear so, we went snorkeling. We saw the anchor in the sand, sea cucumbers, and starfish. Then we went to the beach and played in the sand for a while, when we swam back it felt like swim practice because Mom had me do breaststroke and head high crawl. It's really relaxing here and I started writing a story called "Skip Chaser" the sailing adventure of an 11 year old girl. Here is the first chapter.

Orange Sea Glass

White sand, beautiful white sand, rocks, and shells was what I saw. Something caught my eye, a shimmery orange glint. I focused on the bottom of the ocean, a orange piece of sea glass about the size of a quarter, lay beneath me. I gasped and then realized I shouldn't have, as my mask fogged up when I did. I knew that if I went to a place where I could touch the bottom to de-fog my mask, I would lose the sea glass. I started treading water, closed my eyes, and pulled off my mask. I carefully tried to stay in the same spot so I wouldn't loose the sea glass and smeared spit in the inside of my mask. I put it back on and looked for the sea glass once again. There it was, an orange glimmer. I took one last breath and dove down as the top of my snorkel submerged. I kicked hard with my right arm outstretched reaching for the sea glass. Almost there and I grabbed it. A shock of electricity hit me. I lifted  my hand away from the glass instinctively, but the glass stuck to me. The pain became unbearable and the world went black.

I'll post the second and third chapter on the next blog.

Passages

Today is the last day of a seven day passage from Bermuda to Antigua. I hate passages a lot.

    One of the reasons I hate passages is that I get seasick. Imagine if your house was tilting and flying up and down side to side, you wouldn't feel too good either. Not only does the motion make you seasick but it also makes it incredibly hard to do stuff, like go to the bathroom and sleep.

    The second reason I hate passages is that I need a change of scenery and people. I you were stuck on a 37' boat with 5 people for a couple of weeks, you'd know what I mean.

    Another reason I hate passages is that it's really stuffy in the boat. We couldn't open the hatches or vent because water might get in, the aft cabin is especially stuffy because the engine is right next to it and it is really blocked off from the rest off the boat. A couple days ago Dad let us open the hatch and vent in the aft cabin because the dingy was covering them. Dad also said that we had enough power so we got to turn on the fans so it isn't as stuffy anymore

    The last in reason I hate passage is that this passage is really hot. A couple days ago (on Sterling's birthday and Thanksgiving) it was in the 90's. For all those people back in the states with snow on the ground, YES, I said 90° on Thanksgiving! The heat would be fine if all the other things that I hate about passages were gone, but they're not and I'm not fine with the heat either.

    There is also two things I like about passages. The first one is seeing dolphins, they jump around our bow and leap out of the water really fast. We have seen 2 pods so far. I think seeing dolphins out here is cooler than going to a park to see them because it is guaranteed if you go to a dolphin park but when you are in the middle of the ocean it's not guaranteed, but when you see them it's so cool. Can you guess what the second thing I like about passages is? If you guessed watching Sterl trying unsuccessfully to catch a fish you guessed correctly! Sterl hasn't caught 1 fish on the passage yet and we have gone almost 1500 nautical miles! He has lost 3 lures and numerous hooks from snapping 50 pound line. He now has 100 lb. line but the hook keeps breaking. Oh well, maybe not a fish on this passage.

NOW WE ARE IN ANTIGUA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 It feels so good to be here. Yesterday Remi, Mom and I hung out a pool while Dad and Sterling were at the bar. Oh, and Sterling caught a fish three hours before we reached Antigua! It was a small tuna, so he says we we will have sushi for breakfast since Mom brought sushi rice and wasabi just in case. It is a really cool place and it's almost worth the passage. We wouldn't think that the Caribbean was as cool if we flew there because after a passage we really appreciate things. This is such a cool place and the passage wasn't too bad but, I wouldn't want to do it again.

I made kites out of old grocery bags.

We found a pool in Antigua, Remi really likes it when I  throw her up in the air.

Sterling's GIANT fish.

The beach was really fun.

Here is a poem about the things that I missed on the passage.

What I would do for a bag of Doritos
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,
I'd laugh and play all through the day
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,

What I would do for a brownie
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,
I'd scream and shout for it's all about
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My

What I would do for a taco
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,
Id jump around right off the ground
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My

What I would do for some ice cream
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,
I'd swim and swim until the sun dimmed
Oh My, Oh My, Oh My,

-MIA-