“The Difference between an Ordeal and an Adventure is Attitude!”  No truer words were ever spoken!

With a tongue-in-cheek byline of “Over 1 Million Lives Ruined”, hey – that includes us!  For several years, we had subscribed to Latitudes & Attitudes, a “cruiser lifestyle” magazine – much different than the scores of other boating magazines we used to read.  Rather than all flash & professionally authored fluff articles, most are written by cruisers, from weekend dreamers to weathered circumnavigators.

The demo life raft stated “BOARD HERE” – Lori was all in!

They also offered a Cruising Seminar once a year near their base in California – a weekend of learning & tales for us dreamers.  One year, in 2009, they announced a Cruising Seminar weekend right in Mystic, CT – just 20 minutes away from us, so we had to attend!  Well, it worked!  We got so pumped up with their stories & energy, we moved up our cruising plans by 2 years.  Only 2 weeks later, we signed a contract to buy our new Maine Cat catamaran.  Then, in just 14 months, we went from dreaming to departing on our own cruising adventure of 11 years & counting!

Bob Bitchin

Bob “Bitchin” is the mastermind of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine & one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.  His “Bitchin” nickname was given to him in the 1960s by Tommy Chong, of Cheech and Chong fame.  Bitchin was the editor of Choppers and Big Bike magazines in the 1970s after working as a bodyguard for motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel, along with living the crazy biker life. He started Biker magazine in 1974 and Tattoo magazine in 1982.  One day looking out into the harbor from a biker bar, an ancient 74-foot square-rigged topsail schooner called out to him.  After walking down to talk with the Captain to see what the deal was, he was soon crew aboard on his way to Guatemala!  “It changed my life. You can’t be high and sail”.  That first taste had him buying a few different boats & cruising to the South Pacific & back for many years – quite the switch from drugs & biker gangs.

Fast forward to 1996, after having sold his biker & tattoo magazines, he decided to publish the type of boating magazine which would have inspired him. Within just a few years, it became the largest cruising lifestyle magazine in the world.  Since then, even though 2/3 of boating magazines have folded or merged into media conglomerates, Lats & Atts continues to thrive by bashing conventional magazine wisdom, from giving away free ads to advertisers encountering tough times, to having the largest percentage of editorial content to ads, to now offering his magazine to everyone in the world as a free download!  So whether just dreaming or freezing your butt in the cold, you can download Lats & Atts here for free: Lats & Atts Magazine free download/

Read, enjoy, dream …

LORI’S TWO CENTS

In addition to fun gatherings at Cort’s, we were generously invited to dinner aboard S/V Kohina, a sister ship to Ortolan, our Maine Cat 41.  It’s an odd feeling to still feel “at home” on a MC41.

And yes, we have more music to mention!  For you non-cruisers, this may be somewhat “greek” but in the interest of time, I’m keeping it short.  In harbors where cruisers gather, a morning Net often occurs to pass along information, request assistance, welcome new arrivals… and more.

The job of moderating the Net, or Net Controller, can be shared or just one person who does it daily.  For the past few years, one of George Town’s Net Controllers has been a Canadian on sailboat Loca Lola. Ian Michael Townsend not only is great to listen to on the Net, he’s emcee’d the Variety Show event of the Cruising Regatta and is a worthy musician, especially on trumpet. Breaking news the other day was that his music video, “Here Comes the Day” is in the running for a Juno nomination in Canada.  That song, along with “I Can’t Get Outta My Head”, are both on YouTube and one or both available on Spotify, etc.  Worth a listen.

This is what 22 knots, gusting to 40 looks like … in our anchorage.

As soon as we learned of our recent week+ forecasted high winds, we left the main harbor to head to one of our protected hidey-holes.  With our shallow draft, we also aim to anchor close to shore, not only to reduce the wind’s affects, but so that no one can anchor in front of us!

Our third worst nightmare would be to have someone drag into us in the middle of a windy night (1st would be fire & 2nd would be flooding/sinking).  Out in the main harbor, a surprising number of boats have been dragging.  Not only is it gusting up to 40 knots, there are 1′ – 2′ waves which result in additional strain yanking at anchors.  It is very distressing to listen to the frantic calls & yelling on the VHF radio as it’s happening.  Not only can a boat drag down & hit you, their dragging anchor can then catch on your anchor chain, tethering them to your boat and/or pulling your anchor out as well.

While we could drag anchor ourselves, we go to extreme measures not to,

including having the best, most expensive anchor (an Ultra) with Italian-made anchor chain (Maggi), we choose our anchorages very carefully.  We also use a great anchor app on our iPhone (Anchor!) which will wake the dead if our boat drifts or begins to drag outside of our preset circle.

We learned our lesson early on with a scary incident dragging anchor during the wind shift & gusting of a strong cold front back in 2010 on our sailing catamaran – of course, in the middle of the night! We luckily didn’t hit any boats & settled bouncing against the forgiving mangrove shore.  Fortunately Benj was with us & helped us to self-rescue ourselves, surprisingly without even a scratch.

We will often move, even in normal winds, when someone anchors nearly on-top of us.  Sometimes you just get a bad feeling about a boat, or more properly, it’s owner.  Several weeks ago we moved after a large, older sailboat anchored in front of us – seemingly too-close, immediately taking off in his dinghy.  The “too-close” was confirmed when we had trouble picking up our anchor as it was now under the stern of his boat.  Ironically, this same boat, we heard, later dragged twice during the high winds, requiring rescuing by other cruisers, especially as now his engine no longer runs!

A bald eagle? Probably not, as that would be an extremely rare find in the Bahamas. Likely just an osprey (which are now fairly common here), but it’s nearly completely white head & other features had us wondering.

George Town this year, has had 15 – 25 boats with kids aboard – many more than normal.  COVID, family’s change in priorities, concern with conventional schools & social media have likely pushed more families to “get away”. For over 20 years we’ve read fantastic stories of “boat kids” & for the last 10 have encountered them often in-person.  Most boat kids become extremely independent, mature, creative, smart & fearless.  Not glued to any device, they’ll sit around with adults holding their own with surprisingly thoughtful insights.  Most are a year or two ahead of their peers, all while condensing traditional 6-hour school days into done-by-lunchtime half-days so they can play, plan & create on the beach with other boat kids.  Throw in real-life science lessons, varied life experiences, exposure to other people & cultures from around the world & learning other languages first-hand result in some pretty amazing kids!

After the winds finally calmed down to a more reasonable 15 knots, we moved back into the main harbor to feast with friends at “Cort’s Place” – a former cruiser friend who loved it in George Town so much, he bought land on Stocking Island & built a house.

It’s been a great winter(?) here, but it will soon be time to depart George Town, slowly beginning our trip back north while enjoying more of the Exumas, before returning to Florida in early April.  We caught a bit of a break with Bahamas Immigration due to COVID precautions – when we can’t obtain enough days from Immigration initially when we clear-in, we usually have to apply for an extension, in person, during limited days/hours, not more than 5 days before our expiration & never after.  Easy? Not really – as once we leave George Town there are no other Immigration offices in the rest of the Exumas!  During the pandemic, they are allowing electronic extensions via e-mail.  Not only did we get ours approved within 24 hours, we were able to apply weeks early, giving us more flexibility with our travel plans. So with the next favorable weather window, we’ll be headed off.  Who says this is “Chicken Harbour”?