The Luxe Life

It’s been a beat since we’ve had ALL the things- strong WiFi, access to food stores, showers, water for finally rinsing off the boat, laundry AND all-day views of popped collars and driving loafers, but here we now sit in Harbour Island, and here it all is!

Wild Acadia meets Harbour Island. (Think these folks do much camping?)

Time for another photo blast, to include our final days and islands of the Exumas. Once again we changed up our game and hit new anchorages, explored new areas (still thanking the settled weather to allow for it all), and felt like we greatly expanded our Exuman opportunities. While always beautiful and amazing, we were beginning to feel a formulaic quality to the repetition and tradition of our anchorages and ‘favorites’. Very cheap thrills made for SALVio in finding new nooks and crannies to explore.

I feel like this I’ve said this a million times over, but really, THIS is the most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen. Standing in the water, it looked like we could walk to the horizon on beautiful white sand.

We made our trip north to Eleuthera (the area where Harbour Island sits) via a new jumping-off point called the Sail Rocks, and it was beautiful and eerie and exciting to be anchored in the slight protection of a series of tiny rocky outcroppings perched so far away from any civilization, including any other boats. Again, couldn’t have done it in years past due to weather.

Chickadee and Coral, a buddy boat of friends who we met up with for a few days. This anchorage in Shroud Cay was like glass.
A failed attempt to take advantage of the calm early-morning weather to work my free diving skills for purposes of making it look like I was casually lounging on the sand below us. Wind picked up, and Squiggle Susan was born.

Life aboard has settled into its usual rhythm for us all minus one. While Violet’s noise-cancelling ear buds coupled with her intense series-watching habits mean she misses the wildlife that we call her up to see most times, and she can only do her schooling in the fits and starts of our terrible wifi, she’s otherwise seems to have found a happy medium of really missing her sister and friends while also remembering what she loves about being on the boat, even despite Lily’s absence and nudging. Dealing with that process while also fretting about Lily in Spain was rough, but now however many weeks in, the edges are smoothed, and it all feels much calmer in my motherly brain.

I sat on a new friend’s boat to utilize their Starlink for an evening meeting. This shot of Chickadee has V and Andy on the bow, lamenting that a giant mega yacht anchored way out, plopped directly in view of the ocean sunset, ha.
Exploring Sail Rocks.

Today we head north still, making the bigger passage to the Abacos. It’s still quite settled, so we’re expecting to have to motorsail, but hoping to land some fish while also taking care of a very important task: tossing our message in a bottle overboard. (WITH important details included for future beachcombers.)

A whole lot of conch graveyards on one particular island of Sail Rocks. Interesting spot for them to end up?
Lily and friends from home were lucky enough to meet up for breakfast in Sevilla this past weekend!
V made dinner for us one night, and not only was it delicious, I REALLY enjoyed the night off!
Enjoyed the night off so much that Andy and I went on a first-time-ever-in-Chickadee-history date night off the boat. Found some beautiful spots on this schwanky rock.

Walking back from the grocery store the other day, Andy found a trail of Trivial Pursuit cards on the ground, so tested me as we schlepped our bags. I failed at 90% of the answers, but now the hope of finding more cards has led us on a weird ‘treasure’ hunt.
A great mural on the local school gate.

Googly-eyed garage doors and vines trying to choke them.
Found the pool. Barely left it. (In fact, we can count this trip to Harbour Island as the time none of us had the energy or interest to go to the beach. Shhh, don’t tell the chamber of commerce.)