Learning process

Eventful morning a few days back after we arrived back in Virgin Gorda from Nanny Cay. It strikes me “Fille de Joie” -The newest member of the family is pretty similar to having a new baby. The prep to leaving to go anywhere reminds me of the hour it takes to organise a baby for all the possibilities the day may entail. It causes us a lot of sleepless nights & you need to figure out its nuances. Other people offer a lot of advice, but really you need to figure it out as a team. Figuring out what all the cries mean- in this case annoying beeps & flashing lights can seem never ending!! Hoping it doesn’t take 9 months for it all to get easier like a baby. We’ ll get to know each other & figure it out in time!

This week the beeps & flashes meant..,

-We were loosing water due to a split in a hose.
-The water maker is unhappy.
-The water prefilter needed servicing & judging by the state of the filter we’ve been making water in some spirious places.
-There was no water left in the tank!
– There’s an airlock.
– We re struggling with battery capacity.

Another time to worry with a baby is when it goes quiet…. Having slept on deck due to the heat I was surprised to wake at 430 to no noise of the tender butting the stern on Saturday morning. I was grateful & relieved the obvious thief hadn’t disturbed me in anyway. Chris was a little more sceptical of my knot tying capabilities. Sure enough at 1st light with the binocs out it was obvious to me that the thieves had seen our tender as unfit for purpose & dumped it on the beach which just happened to be dead downwind of us. My gallant husband rode his trusty kayak to retrieve our tender (did I mention how much he hates the kayaks). I could almost hear how happy he was to be on the beach at dawn cleaning weed out of Timmy & trying to get it to start. But hey, when you re just downwind of Eustasia & Necker Island there is only so pissed you can be. I had coffee and brekkie waiting for his return, but using leftover water as our tank was empty…you’re welcome!

Off to find the tender

So happy with his wife right now

In actual parenting news we are trying 2 hours of homeschool for Harry (max) and much less for Lily. Easy they say….just English, maths and write a journal they say. I actually wish to jump off the boat at points & remember this is very early days. To be honest I think everyone has just been testing the boundaries. For Chris & I one child each pushes all of our buttons…fortunately it’s different children for each of us. I desperately want the learning to be fun as possible for us all, I want to foster the projects they lead blah blah blah, but day 3 saw a lot of frustration involved for all of us!! Conversely this morning was awesome. Harry devoured the rest of Harry Potter, was speedy with his maths & there was even some giggling over Badger biffing in comprehension & he’s started his own shark research. A healthy break time featuring the “America’s Cup” game on the bow helped a heap. When it works it’s magic- much like parenting in general!!

In other news- Bitter End Yacht Club was awesome. The welcome committee of the friendliest Englishmen, Alec, helped as did the fact that the kids loved the hobi sailing, the sailing team & finding a tonne to do. The bonus for me was that I got kitesurfing. “Stitch” of Carib kiting had me up & riding in an hour- pretty stoked about that. No pics of me nailing up wind or working on transitions as Chris was busy getting sand out of the tender engine!!

Oil Nut Bay was another gem of Virgin Gorda. Protected by a reef and quiet as can be, we had the beach to ourselves. Thanks to Ian, of Oil Nut Bay resort, for letting us loose on the water trampoline & explaining the finer points of cooking conch. The kids had some close encounters with loads of nurse sharks hidden in the shallows amongst the sea grass as well as more pelicans,turtles, trumpet fish & jelly fish. Chris had a long cross shore right hander to himself and was loving his new cabrinha kit and strapless board. Happy days indeed. We snuck around the corner to Deep Bay to a protected anchorage overnight.

This morning we’ve had a good check of the rig & are looking to make the jump to St. Marten over the weekend. We have loads more exploring to do in the BVIs, not least to Anegada, but we know the weather windows are closing up & we need to get moving. Oh and my legendary husband fixed the watermarker – and we are now full of water – my hero!