Scootin' through Canada

Well, we left Alaska, and knew we were going to be camping on the road through Canada and the Northwest. We also knew it was probably going to be a bit chilly....it being the beginning of September. So, our first stop in Canada (and it ended up being our ONLY! :) was a campground called Beaver Point. 

Most campgrounds make you buy a small bundle of wood, but with this campground they let us use the wheelbarrow and get one load per night we were staying. Levi went over and loaded it super full and we all thought...."there's no way we're going to burn all that! we're only staying one night!" Well, by the time we went to bed, it was almost gone and we quick jumped in our sleeping bags and got settled in for a chilly night. By the way......these are NOT high tech sleeping bags!

It was the kind of night where you wake up every time you move because the rest of the seeping bag is freezing! There was even frost in the inside if the tent in the morning, so we decided to make a beeline for the states, and hopefully warmer climates the further we went south. 

In the end, it was a great spot and we had fun roasting marshmallows, and making memories!

See you in the US!

Beaufort, N.C.

Soon to be tuna steaks!

Zoe watching dolphins off the front of Mehari

We had a good sail up from Florida. It ended up taking 4 days, because the wind died out on the 2nd day and we ended up motoring quite a bit. On the flip side, we had several HUGE pods of dolphins with us on our trip and were able to watch them for an hour or so. We also caught a couple of fish! We had a BIG mahi on one afternoon, but we didn't let him get tired enough before we tried to bring him on-board and at the last minute, he wriggled off the hook!! We were NOT happy. But early the next morning, Levi and I each caught a Black Fin Tuna! Those were a first for us, and it was great eating on our last day at sea. Rachel seared them in some Teriyaki and over a bed of coconut rice, they were amazing!

We arrived in Beaufort N.C. a few days ago and discovered it was just voted the "Cutest Small Town in America" although we could have figured it on our own once we got here. It is just an amazing town along the ICW, and lots of little shops lining the old waterfront street. It was established in 1709 and there are rows of old houses as you go away from the water's edge. Really pretty.

"Cutest small town in America"

Boat-building competition 

On the day we arrived, they were having an annual "Boat Building" Competition. The 2 man teams were each given the same set of plans, and lumber supplies, and 4 hours to build a boat from scratch and make it seaworthy enough for each team member to row across the bay and back, relay style. It was lots of fun, watching the teams slam the boats together with liberal amounts of Sika Flex or 5200 (all purpose heavy duty boat caulking). Even still, most of the boats took on a LOT of water getting across and back! Some of them even had to dump the water out between rowers! Good fun. Maybe Levi and I will be ready to enter next years' event ;)

Mehari is anchored right in front of the town and we have spent a few nights hanging out on-shore, and finding some parks to run around in. Also this week, Emma and I flew up to Boston to pick up the car we purchased to get us up to Alaska. So that was a fun, but way too quick road trip where we drove through 9 states in 3 days! 

So, now it's time to get Mehari out of the water, safe in a boat yard for hurricane season, and start packing for our road trip up to Alaska! Busy, Busy!

From Beaufort, 

Hems

stateside :)

Hello from the US! We made landfall in Port Canaveral, right in the shadow of Kennedy Space Center, where the shuttles have been launched from.

Entering the "ICW"

First thing we had to do was to check in with Customs and Immigration. As boaters entering in our own vessel, we are required to call in when we arrive, and visit the office within24 hours. We had heard it can sometimes be a hassle, but for us it was super simple. We went into the office, down the street from where our boat was tied up, and it took a whole 6 minutes to check us in. We'd kinda hoped for some fanfare entrance, and a big welcome back to the US, but he just glanced over the passports (even the expired ones! :) and sent us on our way.

Addie Anna

So, the next day, we went up into the Intra-coastal Waterway (a canal system that runs almost the entire East coast of the US, and usually really calm) and made our way up to a marina in a little town called Titusville. It is a city-run marina and was a great place to leave the boat while we visited with family who were staying near Orlando. Erik's brother's in-laws Russ and Susan, put us all up in their huge camper on their farm and we had a great time hanging out with the crowd of family that was continually passing through their house. It was our first visit with them and all of us we were instantly accepted as family........how's that for southern hospitality?! We also got to meet our new niece/cousin Addie and absolutely fell in love with her!

Maggie with a baby Croc!

We packed in a lot of fun in one week, playing games, visiting and catching up, and of course, plenty of eating! We had a several BBQ's, and took a big group of family out for a day sail up the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) one afternoon. We skipped the whole craziness of Disney and Universal Studios (just spending a few hours one evening walking down "City Walk", a chaotic shopping and restaurant compound)
We also visited a local winery for a blues and wine festival, got to take an air-boat ride in the swamp where we got to see alligators.........SUPER COOL!, and even fit in a quick trip across the state to visit friends we'd met in Costa Rica. Whew! It was a busy week, but we all had a great time, and of course, there were a few tears when we had to say good-bye again and make our way up to North Carolina.

It was four day sail up to Cape Hatteras area and it was much faster to "go outside" (of the ICW) and try and ride the Gulf Stream north, even though it is much rougher out on the open sea than the calmness of the ICW. Plus, it was the last open sailing for all of us on Mehari for a while, so we wanted to cherish the peace of the open sea!

See you in NC!

Hanging out with Grammy and Gramps!

goodbye........bahamas!

We had planned an leisurely route through the Bahamas, taking our time up along the main town of Nassau and heading up through the Great Island, and through Freeport, but after pulling up anchor at Little Halls Pond Cay, we had great wind and a good line to just make our way on to Florida. So we thought......hey..... why not?!

In fact, once we were clear of the shallows of Bahamas by 50-60 miles, we found ourselves in the Gulf Stream and made great time north. The gulf stream can add as as much as 3 knots to your speed, and we found Mehari cruising along at 8-9 knots all night! It certainly wasn't boring night watches! 

So, here are a few photos from our last weeks in the Bahamas, next post will be about the good 'ol USA!

Zoe, playing with a giant sting ray!

On the Horizon.......

Something we've been talking about as a family for over a year now, is…….what next?
Many of the cruising families we've met along the way have since sold their boats and/or returned to land life, and we've been thinking, praying, wondering and listening to which direction we are to take from this point forward ourselves.

A lot of families come to this point where as their kids get older, they are eager to start their own life. They want to make plans for college, relationships, careers, and the future. And while cruising is an absolute incomparable way to see the world and experience cultures and places most people only get to dream about, at what point is it unfair to the late teens that want and need to move on in their own life? We feel like the time has come for us to try and give them opportunities to make steps in those directions.

This is the part where I would love to have a pause button for life, and keep things just as they are and have been for these past 3 years on the boat, even though it's an extremely challenging lifestyle in a lot of ways, cramped quarters, totally dependent on the weather, missing family, seasickness, etc., there is no question for us that it had been an incredible experience for our family and we have all grown together because of it. There is also no way I as a father would have been able to spend this much quantity, and I like to think sometimes……quality :) time with my family without having made this decision.

Something that's also been incredible is the addition to our family during this adventure: Miles John. For our whole family to be able to spend two whole years non-stop with him has made him feel secure and bonded together in a way we haven't seen in any of our other children, and we feel extremely blessed. We can't deny this whole experience has been a gift and please don't think for a minute we take it for granted.

Another huge drawback we feel like we've missed from 'normal' life is family time from our extended family. We haven't set foot in the US in over 3 years, and that has been very difficult to miss out on that time from other family. It just was too difficult on our budget to be able to fly 8 people back and forth for visits, the cost of airfare alone being what we usually live on for up to 6 months!

So it's with a lot of mixed emotions: some apprehension, but at the same time, excitement, that we are moving back to the US, at least for now ;) We seem to have been steered by a lot of different things and through a LOT of prayer that we are supposed to be in North Carolina. We think we'll still be living aboard Mehari while we get settled and that's another great thing about boat living......we can move along with our home as we scout out different towns.

But first: We have a 'small' but very exciting detour over the coming summer months:

Levi and I have been invited by family friends to come up to Alaska for this summer to work as commercial salmon fishermen! As we near the end of our funds, the work cannot have come at a better time, and we thought Levi and I were going to go alone, while Rachel and the kids stayed with the boat in North Carolina. But they, not wanting our family to be separated all summer, invited all 8 of us up to stay in their house while Levi and I fish. So.......we're all very thrilled to have an opportunity to spend several weeks driving and camping across the US and Canada, and spending the summer in Alaska.

We also can't begin to thank all the people who we've met and others who have been praying for us, following us, and sending us notes of encouragement along the way. It's pitifully inadequate to try and put our gratitude into words on a silly blog what it's meant to us and I wish we could all sit down together, and have a lot of laughs catching up and sharing some of the stories we've collected along the way. Thank you sincerely for your support. It makes us sure we're on the right 'trail'

We plan to keep sending updates, from the road, campgrounds, and from Alaska and back so if you'd like to keep following us, we'd love to have you along!

~Hems

Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas

We're in a 'civilization' called Georgetown, the main town of 900 people on a chain of islands called the Exumas. There are dozens and dozens of islands almost touching each other over a 120 mile stretch. Most of the islands are uninhabitaed, and several are owned by celebrities like David Copperfield, Shakira, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. In fact, you can rent David Copperfield's island and five bungalows for only $325,000 per week. Keep that option in mind for your next family vacation!
We've been doing a couple of civilization things in Georgetown like loads of laundry and picking up a few groceries. We often do laundry on the decks with buckets of fresh water if it's readily available, but every couple months, it's nice to take everything into a real laundry-mat and get the clothes "clean-clean". The lifestyle is just way too hard on clothes, drying in the salt air, sitting in bilges, stains, etc All of our clothes are pretty thrashed and all most cruisers who have been at this for a while, have a scraggly look somewhere between island castaways and homeless, which I guess is true! We are!
We also met another cruising family here in Georgetown. They had heard about our family and were waiting to meet us knowing we were coming this way. They are the first cruising family we've met with 6 kids! They are on a catamaran as well, and spend part of the year in the East Coast, make a trip back to their home in Canada, and spend most of their cruising in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, where they are able to do mission work as a family. It was really great to meet them and we had a couple of fun nights hanging out playing games, playing and singing some worship songs, and analyzing this boating life! They winter their boat in North Carolina, which is where we are heading in a little over a month, so we'll make sure our paths cross again. Thanks S/V"Ruakh"!!
Our plan now is to keep heading north, through the Exumas, and on to a group of islands called the Berry Islands, before we make the overnight jump to Florida's East coast. We are also trying to meet up with another family on S/V'Imagine' who we sailed off and on with through the Med, and haven't seen since the Canary Islands!
We are all very excited for a mini family reunion in Florida at the end of the month, with Erik's parents coming from Costa Rica, and his brother Aaron, his wife Darla, and their new addition, little Addy, coming to visit. Addy is only 5 months old, we've never met her……...and are all dying to give her a little squeeze!
See you soon!

On the move

We're back on the move, after sitting for almost two weeks, we hope we remember how to make the boat move! In some ways, when we don't move for a while, we all get the jitters and it feels like we're starting over!

Random graffiti in San Juan

We got Maggie's passport this morning and we're continuing on around the bottom of Puerto Rico, making a pit stop today at an island called "Caja de Meurtos" or Coffin Island. It is supposed to be really beautiful, despite the name and we're hoping for some clean water for swimming. It is also reported to have the best snorkeling in Puerto Rico, so we hope to be able to give a report.

The bay we've been staying in at Salinas seems to be a dead-end, the water is cloudy with no water flowing through it and the bottom of Mehari is covered in barnacles in only two weeks!! So Levi and I will be busy this afternoon scrubbing the hulls once we parked in clean water. It will make a huge difference on our upcoming crossing to the Bahamas, and because our boat is so loaded down with food and people and books, we need all the help we can get. 

We are hoping to leave the corner of Puerto Rico on Sunday, which looks like a good weather window to make the 'Mona Passage' The Mona Passage is rumored to be one of the hardest passages in the Caribbean if not the Western Hemisphere. This is because it is where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet in a very narrow passage. Also, the second deepest section of ocean in the world (second to Mariana Trench in the mid-Atlantic) rises from the ocean floor to only 20 meters in the space of less than a mile! So, if there is strong breezes from the Atlantic, it 'pushes' huge amounts of water up this ramp and creates a swirling mess of waves and currents. We have chose to wait for a very calm day, which we hear will only create 5-6 foot waves instead of 15-20. Fine by us. The passage is only about 80 miles across, but for our boat having to motor in calm weather, means it should be a passage of 18-20 hours. Then we will be through the worst of it and it is still another 2 days up into the first island of the Bahamas. It will hopefully be a smooth 3 days total and from other cruisers we've talked to, and the pictures we've seen, it looks absolutely amazing! We can't wait.

Also, it's been too long in shallow waters for us, and we have caught NO fish in the past month. So we are all rigged up and very hopeful to snag a Mahi or two on the passage. We bought a new bottle of spicy Teriyaki hoping it would change our luck. We are ashamed to report it is as yet, unopened :( 

Thanks for your prayers and support and we'll try and drop another note from the town of Boqueron, Puerto Rico before we leave.

See you!

Old San Juan

So the Hemingway's are on the road......quite a difference going 60 miles an hour instead of 5 knots, you have to keep your hands on the wheel the WHOLE time ;)

We drove up from Salinas, the little town where we're anchored, to the north side of the island, only 50 miles or so, and into the historic sites of San Juan. The island of Puerto Rico has been strategic throughout it's history and the King of Spain once called Puerto Rico the most valuable piece of land in his whole empire. 

There are HUGE fort walls and towers all along the coast that have been well used over the centuries and added to and updated as recently as WW2. Now, the whole place is a US National Park, and it's really well maintained. 

Fascinating history as it was, all the little ones wanted to do was run in the grass. This is not unusual, they have a pretty low tolerance for museums. That turned into a PB & J lunch in a park and we had a great day, exploring the narrow streets around Old San Juan. It reminded us all of our months in the different Greek islands, and we were really tempted to pull up anchor and head back across the Atlantic..............OK, not that tempted, but it did bring back a lot of great memories of exploring Europe.

Puerto Rico

Columbus landed here in 1493, on his second trip across the Atlantic, and most of the first settlements in the new world were all here in the middle of the Caribbean.  In San Juan, the capital, lives 2 million people, and is one of the top 15 metropolitan cities in the Western Hemisphere. Also in San Juan, you are able to walk through 600 years of history in 7 blocks all in a walled fort in Old San Juan. Definitely on the to-do-list!

We first made landfall at a town called Palmas del Mar, Palms of the Sea. It is a resort town, full of condominiums and golf courses. Rachel and I took a hike around the town and we saw tons of empty condos and after looking at some real estate magazines, the prices seemed really low for such an amazing area. If anyone reading this has a spare few hundred thousand dollars lying around, this looks like a great place to invest. All the ingredients are there: lush green hills, sea, beautiful climate, and super clean neighborhoods.  

OK, so we spent one night in the marina, our chart showed an anchorage(free) in the bay, but has been replaced with a marina($$) But, no one was complaining with the first hot showers in I don’t want to say how long, and the kids also spent the day at the pool there and were shocked to discover that not all swimming is in salt water! So they were not so happy when we left the next day.

We scooted around the south side of the 100 mile long island, and after another 30+ miles of sailing, we tucked into some mangroves, finding a pretty calm corner. Our first try was up a narrow river between some mangroves, and coming in after dark, we managed to get stuck on the mud bottom. Engines revving, and going nowhere! So, we dropped the dinghy in the water and with Levi pulling from the front with the 15 horsepower motor, and me revving the main engines on full blast, we slowly unglued ourselves from the muck. Next time, we didn’t try to get too far off into the bushes. ;) 

So, we pulled into Salinas, a very calm and crowded bay about 1/3 of the way around the south side, and looks like we’ll use this as a base for exploring inland. We plan to rent a car while we’re here, and do a major provisioning for the Bahamas, also a trip to the capital of Old San Juan, and a huge mall Maggie is really excited about. If we plan it right, we won’t have to shop again until we reach Florida in late April. We’ve heard from our friends on S/V Imagine, who are already in the Bahamas, we do NOT want to be stuck shopping for groceries up there, very expensive and hard to find anything.

See you soon!

The ‘bio-luminescence’ that wasn't :(

We had a bit of not-so-fun sailing/motoring straight into the wind to wrap around the southern-most island of Vieques. It is the largest island in the SVI’s and has roughly 9000 inhabitants.  The first stop was an enormous bay with lots and lots of ‘hurricane’ holes. Hurricane holes are places where people can bring their boats during hurricane season, starting officially in July. Boat owners not wanting to risk the path of a hurricane, need to be either pretty far north (South Carolina) or West to Honduras or Guatemala, or south past Grenada or to South America by then.

At a hurricane holes, you tuck your boat in as far as you can in a mangrove slot, and tie lines from all corners to the trees themselves, often putting out an additional anchor (or 2!) then hope for the best. So people that are sailing through the islands during hurricane season, typically don’t want to be too far from one of these spots, really cutting down their mobility.

Anyway, since we’re no-where near hurricane season, it just wound up as a super calm anchorage and with steady breezes, and made for a few nights of VERY quiet sleep!

The next place was a bay where there is supposed to be a large concentration of ‘bio-luminescence’ a strange phenomenon in the water from little one cell organisms that glow when disturbed. When the conditions are right, the water glows and there are various kayak tours, swimming tours, etc. etc. to come and see the magical waters they create. I don’t know if we ‘zigged’ when we should have ‘zagged’, or the stars didn’t align, or somebody spilled “anti-bio-luminescence” in the water, but we didn’t see anything.  Nothing.  Bupkus.

I mean, we’ve certainly seen ‘em……all over the Mediterranean and all the way across the Atlantic, but for some reason, didn’t see ‘em in the place they were supposed to be thick as ants at a picnic.  Oh well, I guess we left ‘em there for whoever is reading this to see them when you go. When you go, please tell us how great it was!

So, after another couple days, we’ll be on toward Puerto Rico, another 25 miles away. 

Hems 

Rollin' on the river

We're in the Gambia river!
After a couple of days of sailing down the coast of Africa in Senegal, we are officially on the river, about 18 miles in next to James Island. It's famous as the place where Alex Haley's: 'Roots' came from in Africa.
We have another 100 miles to go before we're in the fresh water section, which is where we are supposed to be able to see the crocodiles, monkeys, and hippos, so we're excited for that!
Today we had a dolphin pod escorting us most of the day to here, and it was dead calm on the river, just ripples from the dolphins jumping and splashing around us.
There are lots of cool places to explore on the shores, so we're trying to decide how we're going to choose or fit it all in!
Talk to you soon,
~Hems

Passage pt. 2.......fish on!

By the second day, we were well clear of the coast and the fishermen, and all the other boats we’d left with were nowhere to be seen.  We were trying to get in our groove, and the wind was fairly steady out of the north so we settled in. It takes a couple days before your body gets adjusted to the constant motion and no one on our boat had any appetite, just trying to get though the first days and into a routine.

The good news, we finally got all of our fishing gear sorted out in Gibralter and picked up some proper lures for Atlantic fishing. Levi also got some lures as a birthday gift from the crew on Imagine, our friends on another sailboat. We were anxious to try them out and so we dropped a hook and let is troll about 50 yards behind us as we went.  5-6 hours later, we heard the reel spinning and had a fish on! Finally! Levi worked it for a while and let the fish tire himself out and reeled in a beautiful blue fin tuna, not huge, but plenty for our family.

We were all really excited to grill it, so we cleaned it and soaked the fillets in sea water for a bit before we threw it on the grill. All it needed was a bit of lemon salt, and several minutes on a hot grill, and it was done. It really perked everyone’s spirits and it was delicious! We all ate every scrap of the fish and couldn’t wait for the next one.

The next fish came the next day, and the day after, and we ended up catching 3 on the whole trip.  I’d let the reel out when I woke up at 7 in the morning and by 10, we’d caught another tuna, and we’d grill it up for a late lunch. It was a fun few days, living on the bounty of the sea and we thought this was a pretty cool way to live!

On from Morocco

We were able to stay in Morocco for almost two weeks, and it was time for us to head south to the Canary Islands, the next stop for us. The situation of the marina in Rabat is a very narrow entrance from the ocean, and it has a sort of criss-cross of sand bars that are very shallow at low tide, and with any sort of wind pushing a ‘swell’ eastward, makes the entrance difficult or even dangerous to enter or leave. Often, the marina will close the entrance and boats are not permitted to enter or leave.

So, with this scenario, there were a lot of boats, like us, wanting to head to the Canaries.  So, when the weather finally showed a window that was OK to leave, they ended up with 22 boats all scheduled to leave the same day!  The customs office, and passport control people, etc., had a very busy day checking everyone out of the marina and the country.  They wound up going from boat to boat throughout the marina and checking us all out one by one instead of everyone going to the office and overwhelming them.  It worked out pretty smoothly for a country and for officials who don’t normally like to bend the rules, and of course LOVE stamping papers and things.  So, they brought the ‘drug dog’ around and he climbed on everyone’s boat, sniffing for illegal stuff, while the officers were clambering around, sorting out the documents.  All in all, it struck me as a pretty funny sight. These guys did not look at all natural in their suits and ties trying to climb over scruffy boaters, all waiting on their decks and just wanting to leave. 

The whole process took about 3 hours and we were off, at around 4:00 in the afternoon, and although the swell had “died down” from an off-shore storm a few days earlier, there was still a pretty large roll waiting for us as soon as we headed through the entrance. I could understand why the marina was cautious about letting people leave, as we plowed over some big waves and having to time it just right so they wouldn’t crash on our decks. Once we were past, by several hundred yards, the sea calmed down a bit and although the swell was still 3+ meters, it was a more gentle roll and not breaking.

So………we were off for our longest passage yet, just over 500 miles, and our first real introduction to the Atlantic Ocean. We’d heard from a lot of other boaters,

Lost and Found in Fez

Despite our better judgement, Maggie, Levi, Emma and I made a venture into Fez for a long day-trip, taking the earliest train (7:20) and planning on coming back on the last train, whenver that was. Fez is closer to Rabat, where the boat is, and is only a 3 hour train ride. We were “experienced” (HA!) travelers now, so no problem.  We got to Fez, and headed out of the train station, and saw a huge line of Taxis. One quickly offered to take us to the 'medina' (downtown) for only 70 Dirhams. We knew that was wrong...... and after walking down the street 100 feet, we found one for less than half, 30 Dirhams. That’s more like it.

First off, Fez has a much different vibe than Marrakesh. It’s more of a music, hippie, earthy place. As we arrived in the medina, our taxi driver was so excited to be speaking English and using hand gestures, he HIT a pedestrian walking across the street who wasn’t watching where he was going either. No harm done, a lot of Arabic yelling back and forth, and we were there…..almost. As we got out, Emma spotted some puppies on a blanket near the wall, and as she approached, the mom of the litter, not pleased at all, ran after Emma, biting at her ankles. OK, two for two. We went into the medina, parked at a café, and had some breakfast. Cheese omelettes, chocolate crepes, mint tea and coffee for 4 people for $12. Not bad.

Fez is known for a lot of handicrafts and leather goods. There are also huge family owned tanneries in part of the city and we were able to tour those, even though the free tour came with a high pressure pitch to buy leather goods. The workmanship was absolutely beautiful, and I was very tempted with a large leather duffel bag, made of camel. But, the boat and the sea is no place for leather goods and I didn’t dwell on it too long. Maybe in another life.

All the guide books say Fez is a circular city and sloped to the middle. Going downhill takes you toward the center, walking uphill supposedly takes you out. Well, we managed to get fairly lost and wound up going down streets that were progressively darker and narrower. All of the sudden, no one we met could speak English. Most Morrocoans speak some English, but now we couldn’t find anyone speaking English, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, nothing but Arabic. Rut ro. We finally found a school boy who took us back into the main part of town, and started the process of getting out. He didn´t speak English either, but with enough hand gestures, he got the idea we were pretty lost!

We were fairly famished by this point, and made a pit stop for some dinner before heading back to the train station. We had ‘tagines’, a Moroccan dish which are clay plates with clay cones that are baked with meat, potatoes, veggies, and rice, olives, and spices inside. All four of us had a fantastic dinner and Cokes for $22. From there, it was a taxi ride back to the train station and wait in the rain for our train.

We made it on the last train, and after riding back for 3 hours, we were trying to figure out which stop was ours. We thought we’d arrived, and all got off. After looking around, we didn’t realized it was NOT the right stop and were climbing back on the train, when it lurched into motion, heading away. Maggie, Levi and I jumped into the open doorway, while Emma was trying to catch up. Levi saw she wasn’t catching up, jumped off to get Emma on and then as the train was speeding up, Levi was running to catch the train car behind us. He jumped on, trying to find a handle, and FELL off the train, sprawling out on the platform! We were going too fast now, and Maggie was hysterically looking for the red handle to stop the train!! We were all in shock, trying to figure out what we do now as Levi was already far in the distance, with no money, no Arabic, in pain, and at 11:30 at night. As we calmed down, we realized as we crossed over the river, that he WAS at the right stop and we were off to the wrong one. No problem. That was the least of our worries. I knew Levi would figure it out and probably walk the ½ mile back to the boat, while we figured out where we were and took a city tram that would take us backwards towards the boat.

All in all, everyone was back safe, just after midnight, with a few bruises, and we were really glad to be together on our little boat, having a late coffee, and telling Rachel about the day’s adventures and mis-adventures!

Thanks Morocco, for an amazing, unforgettable, experience!    

  

Marrakesh pt.2

Marrakesh pt.2

Moroccan Shoes.....Shops like this were everywhere!

So we wandered into the downtown, right at late afternoon, which is when the main square and streets come to life. As we walked in, we were hit right between the eyes with a huge plaza bustling with street vendors, selling everything from fresh squeezed orange juice to silver tea pots, Morrocan drum bands, people carrying monkeys, motorcycles weaving around, basically chaos.

It was quite a bit to take in and right as we came in, a man wanting to show us his snakes, threw one around Levi’s shoulders and then put it on Miles’ lap in his stroller where Miles naturally grabbed the snake’s head. Rachel screamed right as a bicycle rode by with about 25-30 dead chickens hanging off the sides, and while Emma was trying to get me to look at that bizarre sight, a woman was starting to paint Henna tattoos on Lily and Zoe, assuming we’d pay as soon as she was done. It was full immersion!

We huddled together to re-group and make a plan to pick a direction and see about a youth hostel in the old city we’d found online before we’d come. We decided to make our way there, drop off our bags and find some dinner. Easy enough, right? After asking 6 people for directions and getting 8 different answers, we found someone who offered to walk us “directly” there. Without him, we would probably still be looking for the place, as it was located in a narrow street, off of another narrow street, off of another narrow street…..…you get the idea. Is there something wrong with a street sign or two?

This is the door to our Hostel....Pretty small opening
from the street view...but great place!

The youth hostel was an oasis. The owner Mustafa, had a big pot of mint tea on for us as we arrived and was extrememly proud to show us around the rooms he’d arranged for us up through the 2 floors and roof terrace of the hostel. It was very quaint and felt like we were sealed off from the chaos outside. 

Our dinner: Chicken Kebaps and Lemon Olives
plus other yummy stuff

We rested a bit and then headed of again into the madness, and found a great street café, set up for serious volume with bench seating, and stacks of skewers of chicken, beef and lamb. We had plates of cous-cous, lots of grilled meat and veg, loads of fresh round Moroccan bread and were pretty spent after dinner. We did OK the second time finding our way back, and drug the extremely tired kids back to the hostel, had some hot showers, and crashed into our bunks, while the lobby in the courtyard below was filled with conversations and music. We had a tour planned early the next morning, so we didn't stay up late, the kids were asleep in about 2 seconds, and we weren't far behind………..:)   

Marrakesh Express pt.1

Once we got settled into the marina, we wanted to make a trip inland and see some Moroccan sights. First stop was Marrakesh! We buddied along with another family boat we met in the marina, a family of four from Chicago on a boat called Begonia. The father Sebastian, is originally from Argentina, and the mom, Carla and their kids, Sophia (8) and Benji (5) are living for a year aboard. They had sailed from the Caribbean earlier this summer and have spent their time in Portugal and Spain / Gibraltar. They are on the same path we are on, though Morocco, the Canary Islands and hopefully, Senegal/Gambia and crossing the Atlantic in December also. It is always great to hook up with other families and we planned the trip to Marrakesh together.

So, after an early morning stroll to the train station, we were all aboard the early train (well, early for people travelling with 8 kids!) and took the 3 hour train ride South to Marrakesh. For starters, the train was an experience all in its own! It was clean enough (except for the bathrooms, more later) and it is basically a hallway with little cabins on one side, each seating about 6-8 people. You kind of just cram in wherever you can and with all of us we wound up spread over 3 cabins, mixed in with Moroccans off to someplace or another. The Moroccan people are just beautiful and extremely friendly. Rachel and I were in one cabin with the little girls and Miles, who of course, is just a magnet. There were 3 ladies in our cabin and they instantly had him on their laps and were feeding him something or another, doting on him. Miles just soaked it up like a sponge and was doing his little devilish grin, looking much smarter than only one year old. We were soon all passing around snacks we’d brought and one of the 3 spoke English, so we soon learned about them, and had 2 invites to come to their houses for a meal. It was a lot of fun. The bathrooms on the train, however, left something to be desired in the way of cleanliness. The bathrooms we’d seen so far, had usually been a porcelain hole in the floor, with raised places to stand over the hole, and no toilet paper, just a faucet near the hole and a bucket. I guess you need to be a little creative to make the components provided get the job done. Well, the train had a hole also, right down over the track, and let’s just say the people earlier had not been careful in the bathroom at all. It was a bit stressful for poor Lily and Zoe, but they managed, and it certainly makes you appreciate some things we usually overlook.

Arriving in Marrakesh, we were a bit disoriented as we got off the train, not knowing where the main downtown was or how to get there, and I’m sure easy prey for a tour guide. Naturally, one spotted us looking clueless and offered his services, basically a glorified taxi ride into town, stopping at some sights on the way. It was reasonable and not worth hasseling to find our own way and he called up a van “he knew” that could fit all 12 of us and we were off. Driving around the outskirts of Marrakesh was very impressive. It had a lot of upscale development and in the desert surroundings, reminded us a lot of Arizona, particularly Scottsdale! Even with a couple of golf courses, and not what we’d expected at all. Closing in on the old city, however, was a quick trip back several centuries and we could see the old city walls, with Moroccan sweeping arched entries and as the streets got increasingly crowded and chaotic, we knew we were heading into the heart of the city. Our new friend the tour guide, offered to pick us up the following morning, and take us on a trip up into the Atlas mountains, stopping at a Berber village, having tea with a Berber family, and hiking to some waterfalls. We knew we didn’t want to spend our whole time in Marrakesh just shopping and wandering, so we agreed to the trip the next day, arranging a time and place. Then we were off to wander the downtown, and headed into a truly unique experience……..pt 2: 

Corrida de Toros (The Bullfight!)

Last Sunday, Levi and I had a uniquely Spanish adventure:

We'd been trying to find a local bullfight event for Levi's birthday and we found one about an hour and half back up the coast from here. It was in a seaside town/city (300,000) called Fuengirola. So, we rented a car and headed up there, hoping to find tickets. They wouldn't let us order or purchase before hand, you had to be at the bullring, so we headed out in hopes for the best. 

It was a pretty incredible experience! We made it up to the town and hunted around for awhile to find the bullring. It is in an older section of downtown and not a lot of signs to get us there, so it was good practice using our Spanish and trying to narrow down where it was. 

Once we'd found it, thankfully, there was no trouble getting tickets. The ticket booth was open, although of course, the cheapest tickets (30Euro) were already 'sold out', so we only had to pay another 5 Euros each for ours. You can buy either 'Sol' (Sun) or 'Sombrero' (Shade) tickets and the price doubles to sit on the side not facing the sun, but we figured the sun would set halfway through the event and we'd have at least some shade. 

We had a great authentic meal at a bar/restaurant next to the bullring, completely lined with posters and framed photos of bullfighters over the years. It was really a cool spot, hanging out on the terrace with the locals and tourists eating and drinking, waiting for the event. A few locals were hanging out at the bar, sipping their beers and trading lies. 

It was a leisurely meal and we wandered to our 'seats' (our spot on the concrete steps) and waited for the start. 

The whole affair uses a lot of tradition and there is a full brass band playing along with the event and the different phases of the event. Without going through the gory details, and culminating with the killing of the bull, it as at the very least a pretty amazing peek into the Spanish culture and history. 

Of course, none of the bulls left the arena alive, and we were both a little shocked at the bluntness of it all. We were a little quieter on the ride home and glad we were NOT bulls in Spain. 

Certainly not a day either of us will ever forget!

~Hems

Gibralter wanderings

Emma and 'friend'

We made a few trips across the border into Gibralter from the marina in Spain, and really had a great time on this little corner province of the UK.

We took a trip up to the top of the mountain, and saw the infamous apes, saw some caves converted into a concert hall, the Great Siege Tunnels from 1779, and the quaint downtown with it's endless shops of duty-free booze and watches. I mean, does the world really need this much booze and this many watches? I can't believe all the shops survive.
There are other plenty of other shops such as toy stores and music stores that are fun and it's a cool place to wander around. It feels a bit like a miniature London without the fog. The most important thing is they have Cornish meat pies, and our ancestry from Cornwall, England instilled in us (or me at least) a deep love of 'pasties' Very tasty!

Miles wishing he was just a little older ;)

We also found a bowling alley and went bowling with the family from s/v Imagine. It has been several years since any of us bowled and we had a lot of fun sliding around, trying not to throw too many gutter balls! Lily and Zoe had never seen a bowling alley and were NOT excited, up until they got their shoes on and saw what was going on. Now they can't wait until the next time, whenever that may be and they were talking about it for days afterward. 

From the Rock, 

~Hems

Gibralter sites

Gibralter has been a pretty amazing stop and we're really glad for a week of NOT moving after a few pretty long sails. The most recent sail left us all a little frazzled, we wound up in a Force 8, which means we had 30-35 knots of steady winds and very large seas. Some waves were at least 20' +, a few even crashed over the whole decks sending small waves of seawater through latched hatches. Not fun. We lost about 15 dishes after one wave sent all the plates and cups out of the cupboard and all over the floor at 7:00 am. It doesn't start getting light at this latitiude until around 8:00 so it was a bit of crawling around in the dark, picking glass out of the rugs while we were rolling around.

We ended up had steering the last 16 hours, because with large swells, especially from behind (thanks goodness to on the nose!!) it shoves Mehari's back end around and the autopilot just cannot compensate for that adjustment. 

The good news: it was easily the worst conditions we've sailed in, and the boat performed really well. Also, it wasn't that rough for days and days, but really bad for maybe 6-8 hours before it finally "calmed down" to only 20 knots! It was kind of a relief seeing how Mehari (and the family) did and while no one was having much fun, we managed to make light of it and had quite a few laughs just being drenched, cold, tired, and hungry. 

Needles to say, we were very glad to pull into the Gibralter bay and the sea flattened right out and we motored the last hour up to La Linea (the line) Marina at the border of Spain and Gibralter. so, for a week or so we'll be exploring and shopping as this might be the last place to do some big provisioning before the Atlantic crossing. The trick will be NOT eating the food we stock up on. It might be a real challenge when we can't get to a stoe right away in Morocco or the Canary Islands. 

We'll post some pics soon of the last few weeks. 

~Hems

Headin' for Spain

After a couple weeks in the absolutely gorgeous Balearic Islands of Spain, it’s time already for us to head on to the mainland of Spain. We have a few stops we want to try and see while on the mainland. Levi and Erik want to see an authentic bullfight and we all would like to see some Flamenco dancing (and flamenco guitar for the boys!) So we’ll be aiming to stop in at Categena, Spain and maybe Granada or a bus trip to Seville.  

We have heard that it’s a good idea to be sailing out of the Med by October 1^st and heading down toward the Canary Islands and on to the Cape Verde Islands getting ready to cross by December. At first we thought that was kind of early…….isn’t it always warm in the Med?? Last night I finally checked to see where we were compared to the U.S. as far as which latitude we are sitting at. We’re still quite a way north! We are about the same latitude as New York City from where we are sitting in the Island of Mallorca, and as you can imagine, by late September it is getting cool and by October we’ll be in full autumn. So I guess we need to keep keepin’ on as we say, even though these coasts in the Balearics have been some of the most beautiful coast line we’ve seen anywhere in the Med. It’s taken a lot of self-control to not stop in at real estate offices to see if anyone wants to trade for a catamaran ;)

So, as soon as we exit the Med in the next couple of weeks, it’s time to make some major passages heading south towards the Cape Verdes Islands. It’s basically getting to the same latitude as the south part of the Caribbean, which is where we are aiming for as we head across the Atlantic. We are looking forward to stopping in at Morocco and spending a few weeks there, taking an inland trip to Fez and Marrakesh, maybe a trip to sleep in a tent in the Sahara desert………we’ll see.

Anyway, that’s the latest from the sailing Hems! Love you all!