We had spent five months of absolute bliss exploring the islands of the Guna Yala (San Blas), but it was time to move on. We were ready to leave for a couple of reasons. The main one was that we had exactly one month before our scheduled haulout of ¡Pura Vida! in early July and […]
Posts with the OurLifeAquatic tag
Game Changer
Two doctors, a firefighter, three tanks of pure oxygen, a defibrillator, and a team of fellow cruisers doing non-stop CPR couldn’t save him. What happened in our anchorage recently, in the San Blas islands off the Panamanian coast, only a few boat lengths away from ¡Pura Vida!, was a sadly enlightening experience for us. One […]
Questioning Everything
Since we sailed away from land-life in August 2015, we have gotten quite a few questions from friends and family. We realized by some of the questions being asked that we were taking a lot for granted about their knowledge of what we do, and how strange our aquatic life may seem to our […]
Exploring the Land of the Fat Virgin
At noon on January 20th, inauguration day in the United States, something very special happened. We glided across an invisible line in the water in an area called “the Narrows” and we entered foreign territory! This was not some grand political statement on our part, just a fun coincidence caused primarily by a weather window […]
Once Was Not Enough
If we had to pick a single word to describe the island of St. John, it would be “pristine”. A whopping 60% of the landmass of the island is within the lush Virgin Islands National Park. The park boundaries also extend to most of the sea around the island. In addition, even more underwater areas are […]
An Ode to the Unappreciated Saint
“It’s only an overnight stopover.” “We’re sailing right past it.” “We’re skipping it altogether and going straight to the British Virgin Islands!” These are just a few of the rumblings we have read from other cruisers about the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In their defense, the massive cruise ships […]
Big City Living
Although the city of Charlotte Amalie (“Am-ALL-yeh”) on the island of St. Thomas has a population of just under 20,000; it feels like a huge city after the small town, laid-back vibe in Culebra. Heading east on a sailboat in the Caribbean is always tricky, since the prevailing winds are almost always from that direction; […]
In Hot Water
The marina warned us. Our friends warned us. Yet we thought we knew better! Everyone said to arrive at the Marina de Salinas before 9am or the winds will be too high to dock your boat. “Seriously, they must be exaggerating. The winds do pick up late in the morning, but never above 15-20 knots.” […]
Regatta, Friends, and Frivolity
I am the biggest whiner when it’s time to leave a happy anchorage, especially one that offers crystal clear, still waters and fantastic scuba diving. Leaving Conception Island ordinarily would have had me pouting, but we had the best reason for departing – our friend, Ashley, chose to celebrate her 30th birthday with us on […]
“Stuck” in Paradise
Sticker Shock in Fox Town We decided we couldn’t continue our passage through The Abacos without a stopover in Little Abaco. The first town we visited there was Fox Town. This is a very small, clean, and friendly village that runs along the shoreline to the Sea of Abaco. They have three small grocery stores […]