​I may not be sailing the ocean blues but I’m still travelling.
After our many issues with the boat we had no option but to have it placed in a marina until we could have it fixed. Until further notice we are living in hotels for the next few months. I don’t mind, I really enjoy staying at hotels. But what child/teen doesn’t?
Speaking of being a teen, I just realized something that is insane. I’m starting 8th grade this August, that means I’m one year away from high school! Highschool! My mind is blown.
Even though I technically start school in August that doesn’t mean I haven’t done any schoolwork this summer. Using FLVS (Florida Virtual School) I have been given the opportunity to take Geometry over the summer so that I can take Algebra 2 during 8th grade. It’s bittersweet. On one hand I’m getting ahead in school, on the other… I’m doing school over summer.
But I’ve been doing a lot besides school this summer. I’ve travelled to Mississippi, where I used to live and got to visit with old friends. While I was there, I also got to eat amazing food. I’m a foodie so I must mention it. There’s a restaurant in Mississippi called Cotton Blues that probably had some of the best fried chicken I have ever had. The restaurant had skillet cookies (the best kind of cookies) and homemade pickles. Yum.
We have a friend in Mississippi named Hampton that owns a restaurant named Sully’s that specializes in delicious steaks. We wet to his house while we were there, and he grilled us some prime ribeye. Anyone who does that for me, is a friend for life. We did go to his restaurant as well, though someone in our group of 15 paid for that meal too. People in Mississippi are so generous.
The day after my mom and I started heading to Missouri so we could visit my grandparents. While we were there I baked, hugged, helped, read, etc. Besides hanging out with my grandma the number one thing I did was write in my Whatever Journal. Which is basically a journal where I write or do whatever I want to do with it. Sooner or later it just turned into a quote book. I would ask people their favorite quotes and dedicate a page to each. I would write MY favorite quotes like-
“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon,” or
“An eye for an eye makes the world go blind,” or
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
One of the peaks of the trip was when I got to meet up with one of my friends from a camp, I went to for two years during the summer. She and I were setting up this trip for long before my parents knew. When they did find out my mom took it over and planned it out more smoothly and with less waste of my and my friend’s money.
My friend was from out of state, so my mom and I drove almost two hours from St. Louis to meet her and her parents halfway in Indiana. But it was so worth it. She and I got to sleepover at my aunt’s house and we would do activities during the day. My favorite out of all the things we did was going to Elephant rocks, which is basically what it sounds like. It’s a park with huge rocks that are so fun to climb on. She and I are both very outdoorsy, so it was the perfect thing to do.
And then we met back up with her mom to drop her off. Right now, I’m stuck in traffic on the way back to my grandma’s after dropping my friend off. The street is backed up because water is overflowing from the fields it’s not supposed to be in anyway and the water is a foot above the street. Sometimes I have a large distaste for Missouri.

It’s Monday the 22nd and we decided to start our day in Key West, with desserts. Yum. Best breakfast ever! We went to a Café that has been around for over 100 years. My parents were craving key lime pie so that’s what they ordered (well I’m actually not sure, I’m pretty sure my dad got a coconut pie). Eric ordered alongside them and got the same thing. I however ordered an apple cobbler. I’ve started to really enjoy all things apple. Apple pie, apple cobbler, and apple cider. It tastes so homey and yummy. I stand by my order. I think mine was the best. My cobbler was crispy  and sugary. It had cinnamon and a big glob of ice cream on top. Bon Appetit!
After our sugary but delicious snack, we parted ways as we had done for the last two days. However, unlike the past couple days Eric, my mom, and I did not check out historical landmarks. Instead we were tourists and just went door to door in shops near the water. My mom and I ended up buying some really pretty dresses that are perfect for the boat. My dress is pink but my mom got two, one is grey and the other is blue.
We finished our shopping and went to join my dad at a bar. We sat at that bar and listened to a woman sing while we munched on some fries. After we left we went straight back to the boat to end our day.
The next day we set out on our sail to St. Petersburg. We started our sail in the early morning and we had a peaceful day. We caught a few fish, none of which we could eat. Everyone took multiple naps to prepare for the night. The height of the day was when a sparrow flew onto our boat and stayed for almost the entire night.
On Wednesday the 24th we continued our sail, but we had an issue. At about 2:00AM a part of our boat broke and pulled the front of our boat with it. My parents had to rig some lines to take pressure off. Throughout this terrifying event… I was sleeping. We had to put down the sails and motor the remaining time. We debated going back to Burnt Store Marina, but thankfully we decided to continue towards St. Petersburg.

​              This blog post begins with chickens. Yes, you read it correctly. On Sunday the 21st we (Eric, my parents, and I) had lunch at a delicious Cuban restaurant before we went our separate ways. While we were there, however, we saw an adorable chicken with even cuter chicks. They were just so cute! Moving on… after a delicious meal of steak Eric, my mom, and I split off to be tourists while my dad found a place to finish up his work.
              We started our tourist journey by stopping by what I think was a cemetery with information on the most important people to live in Key West. We didn’t stay too terribly long because (1) I was bored (2) we read all the information really quickly.
              So after we did that we headed to Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, which is a museum about a man who found a sunken ship off the Keys. He found so much gold, emeralds, diamonds, jewelry, and other goods that he ended up with items worth millions! It was crazy! The museum even had some of the goods inside, it was really cool.
              We continued our day by heading into Mallory square where we ran into a henna stand. I convinced my mom to get one! She got a simple drawing of our late dog, Jett, whom my parents have an actual painting of in their room. While my mom was getting that, Eric and I headed into a restaurant where we waited until my mom was done and she was ready to head to a  candy store called It Sugar. It good…
              After probably too much time in the candy store, we took an Uber to a fort that was converted into a garden. Whoever thought of doing that was a genius because it was gorgeous. There was a butterfly garden, bushes of flowers that smelled similar to honeysuckle, and an ocean view. 😊
              My mom got a text from my dad right as we were leaving telling us that he was done for the day. My mom and Eric got their thinking caps on and decided for him to meet up with us at the lighthouse. We got in another Uber and arrived at the lighthouse with my dad minutes behind. With that we checked out the old Lighthouse keeper's house from decades ago and headed up the spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse. My mom didn’t quite think it through and halfway up she started to get nervous because of her fear of heights.
              She did, however, make it to the top and even spent some time on the ledge, granted it was only like 5 minutes… but still, my dad and I are proud of her. At the top they had little information plates that tell you where important waypoints are on the island and I think I was giving my mom a panic attack every time I would lean over the edge to point or look at the points. Hehe. So eventually my mom headed down with the rest of us in tow.
Once we all made it down, my dad suggested food.  We all perked up and so we started heading towards civilization. Along the way we passed by a restaurant that Eric and my dad went to when they were in Key West previously. We almost missed it because it was so hidden in shrubbery. We were all so ravenous that we sat down and were happily surprised by the food. (The adults were more so excited because of the Bloody Mary bar)… and that was how we ended our day.
You can expect the rest of the week in a post tomorrow, but this is already pretty long.

​We start this post on the 17th of April, a Wednesday. We continue a sail from Staniel Cay to Highbourne Cay. We arrived a little after midday. That night we enjoyed a dinner consisting of jerk chicken, squash, rice, and broccoli. I think of this as an early birthday dinner because it was SO good! Afterwards I cleaned the dishes and blew the conch horn at sundown. We were getting excited because we thought we’d possibly see the fabled green flash. That night I made a chocolate cake for my birthday celebration the next day.
              The next day I woke up very late and by that time we were already going at a quick speed heading towards Key West. My mom setup an area in the salon for me that was similar to a bed and hand hanging pieces of paper that read something similar to: Happy 13! She also laid out some presents for me. I got some GoPro supplies, art supplies, books, and candy. I spent the entire day laying down in that area and reading whilst eating candy. It was great! Until that night…
              After midnight the rocking got really bad and I couldn’t fall asleep because I got really scared.
              Thankfully we arrived in Key West a few hours later and attached to a mooring ball. We didn’t go inland that day because everyone was exhausted! We debated ordering a pizza and picking it up but my dad didn’t trust me to drive the dinghy over to get it.
              On Saturday Eric, my mom, and I discovered the island and checked out may interesting historical spots. We saw six-toed cats at Ernest Hemmingway’s house from before he died, we saw the southernmost spot of the U.S. and we spent time in Mallory square. Throughout this my dad worked in a bar that we ate at for lunch. It was a great week if you count out my seasickness.

​*Multiple days have been left out*
We start this post on Sunday the seventh when we went to a local café. We had our lunch but we also learned the history of the café from the owner. She told us about how she fought hard to turn a small Superbowl party into a popular restaurant on the island. She told us how she acquired a dock outside the building and basically anything we wanted to know. It was very interesting, though I think my parents were a bit more invested in the story than me.
On Friday the 12th we had some issues… we arrived in Staniel Cay the day before but that morning my mom walked into our guest room and was utterly repulsed. It smelled like sewage! We started working out the issue and determined one of our worst nightmares was the issue: the pipes were blocked. We would have to send someone down to unplug the pipes. My dad was the generous “volunteer”. We couldn’t find a plunger so we used a rolling pin (which we later threw away) and the actual plunger part of a plunger. I don’t know how else to explain it.
So after a little preparation my dad was sent down plunge the underside of our boat and swim away quickly before waste overtook him. Well that didn’t happen. I don’t know what went wrong but it didn’t work, so my parents continued to crack the case while I went back to school. They eventually got it working again while I was in my room (thankfully).
Afterwards a boat pulled up.
Do you know what that’s boat name was? Dragonfly! Do you know what they also had? They had an only child who just so happened to be a girl who was exactly two days older than me. Where have these people been?! On their way back from Thunderball Grotto they stopped by and invited us to join them and a second boat, Sandy Feet, to the yacht club for some drinks and food. We happily agreed.
We arrived at the yacht club and met up with everyone, I was introduced to the two girls from Sandy feet who were 11 and 14. (Where have these people been?!) After drinks were ordered everyone sat down at an outdoor table and enjoyed talking, but the kids didn’t stay long. The four of us set off for a tour around the island. We stopped at everywhere from grocery stores, to docks, laundromats, the airport which was only too easy to get onto the runway, and outside liquor stores.
After some struggles we found our way back to the yacht club where a partially melted virgin mango daiquiri was waiting for. I slurped it down quickly before we set off once again, but not as far as before. We walked out onto the rocks lining the dinghy landing and sat down, after some failed attempts at communication I pulled out my playing cards and taught them BS. By the end we dropped only two cards into the water and recovered them successfully (they are waterproof thankfully) and I won all but one of the four rounds.
I was getting hungry and so were the others so we headed back to the adults where one was missing to look for us. Oops. My parents already ate so we were preparing to go. The others left after I exchanged Instagram accounts with them. My mom and I ordered food to go but we all stayed longer to enjoy what would probably be our last time eating at a restaurant in the Bahamas. It was a great way to end the week, we got new friends and fixed a major boat issue before it could get out of hand.

​The beginning of this blog post starts with the 23rd of March (yes, I realize that was last week and month, but not much happened that week and it would have been 2 paragraphs for the entire week.) That day we had a rental car parked in the marina parking lot; it was… different from the rental cars in the U.S. To which I reply, “It’s the Bahamas Man!” We took our rental car around the island to buy groceries and check out the best restaurant on the island, Big D’s Conch Spot.
We got back to the boat, but my dad got one of his headaches that he had frequently since he got back from Australia. My mom and I used this time to go down to the beach after my dad repeated multiple times, “I just need rest, I don’t think there’s anything you can do for me.” On the way to the beach we passed 6 jet-skies and started to talk to their owners. The owners have a television show where they cross crazy distances of water on the jet-skies and they just crossed the Gulf Stream! My mom and I were both surprised that their lower body wasn’t in extreme pain. After we finished talking, we spent the remainder of the day sitting by the pool.
The next morning, we used the last few hours with the rental car travelling to a French restaurant that, for some reason, only had French customers. After an okay breakfast, we drove to a little pier and checked out a near non-existent dock.
On Monday night my dad’s headaches got worse. My mom came up with a brilliant plan to make him feel better. We sent him off to the showers while we prepared without him knowing. He returned to us in our hippiest outfits and my parents’ cabin was transformed into a spa room. Afterwards he said that it felt good and distracted him from the pain in his head. Fast forward to Saturday and our dock neighbors came over to  have after dinner cocktails with my parents. Unsurprisingly during this time, I was reading and not being very social. I know I should but I have serious social anxiety.
The following day, much to my dad’s pleasure, we left the marina! It was an easy-going sail after we passed through the cut out of the marina. We had our Code Zero sail out, music playing on our portable speakers, and me occasionally going to the helm between my reading breaks. On the way we caught about two or three fish. Sadly, they were ALL BARACUDA and inedible. Also, during our sail, we relaxed on the trampoline and watched as we neared our destination.
 I guess now is as good a time as any to reveal where we were heading. We were originally going to Big Farmer’s Cay, but we were making good time, so we decided to go further North. Do you want to guess where we went? Timer starts now! 3…2…1… we arrived in Black Point a couple hours before sunset. I know we’ve probably spent too much time in this town, but we all agree it’s just so quaint and friendly.
The next day I was preparing to make some pizza dough when; Oh no! The bread machine paddle was missing! After a little bit of investigating, I concluded that the day before, when I was emptying out my first failed attempt at pizza dough, the paddle went with the dough into the water. My bad! So, it was decided that later that day we would all go into the water (we went in later because the water was cold in the morning) to look for the inch-long paddle. Sounds like a great idea, right?
The morning came and went and, alas, it is the time for us to search. My dad and I were swimming while my mom was on the paddleboard. We searched and searched but the only thing we found were adorable white-colored crabs. At some point, when I was losing my patience, I found another crab and started following him. By some miracle, I looked to my left a little and, lo and behold, there was the paddle! I quickly swam down because my dad was only a few feet away and I wanted to be the one who found the paddle. And I was!
Later that night we went into town to do I don’t know what but ended up staying for pizza. We tried pranking each other over dinner since it was April Fools day but none of the jokes lasted long.
Skip a day and we’ve landed on Wednesday the 3rd and we made one of our best dinners yet. Pizza! I made a successful dough earlier that day and it grew 20% before we put it onto a pan and put margherita pizza toppings on half and pepperoni on the other half. It. Was. So. Good.
The last day on this post ended the week with a high note. SV Stargazer (I know we were supposed to see them for the last time many weeks ago) joined us in the anchorage. We had Terry over and visited. Sadly, Aeriss left their boat a while ago so I mainly read before we began playing BS.

​*Many days have been skipped due to dullness, we’ve been in a marina so there isn’t much to do. *
              On Sunday the 16th of March my dad got back from Australia! He gave us a thirty minute or so warning with a simple text that read “Did you hear a plane pass over you about 3 minutes ago? I’ll be there in 30-45 minutes.” I was really excited because I knew that upon his arrival I would be freed from chores! My mom and I had been cleaning the entire day, we were given the task of cleaning the inside of our boat thoroughly by my dad before he left. We wanted it to be clean when he arrived, so we were planning to clean on about Thursday.
              Well… that didn’t happen. We couldn’t clean on Thursday because we were busy with school and work. So, you may be asking, “Why didn’t you clean on Friday. Were you just lazy?” The answer is no, the reality is that my mom got SUPER sick with what we thought was the flu, so I took care of her until we went to bed.
 The next day she was still sick, so she decided to get off the boat and take shelter in the upstairs of the marina office (which is a lounge). I spent most of the day delivering crackers, water, ginger beer, and anything that could remotely make her feel better to her. A little after noon she came back to the boat and together we created a to-do list for me to complete so we could get some work done. So, no I was not lazy!
Back to my dad’s arrival: My dad walked down the dock to us and after a quick outfit change and boat look through, we decided to have lunch out. We went to the same restaurant at the nearby resort and had sandwiches, wings, and drinks.
On Monday it was the first day of my spring break and oh my could it have gone any worse? I slept in far passed what I usually do and spent most of the morning in my room chilling. My mom  invited me to join her in the upstairs lounge that she frequently used as an office so, that afternoon I started heading over. We were going to play some checkers, but that plan was cancelled when I accidently slammed my toe into the front door and staggered my way up the stairs with a bleeding toe.
After a little freaking out my mom bandaged my toe which I would later learn I had a high likelihood of losing my toenail. On the way back I started off all fine and dandy but suddenly, my vision was (this is the only way I can describe it) being saturated. Everything started getting darker and I was having a hard time not stumbling, but my mind was set on the boat. I got onto our dock before I was forced to sit down. I closed my eyes for a few moments until I was able to regain my vision.
Apparently from the point of view of my dad when I continued walking down the dock he thought my lips looked blue. He also said that I was extremely pale and that as I was getting onto the boat, he was grateful he was there because at that moment I fainted. He told me that had he not been there I would have fallen into the water, who know if I would’ve hit my head. I did come to in a matter of seconds.
It’s a strange sensation to faint because I remember trying to get onto the boat then I open my eyes and my dad is leaning over me while I lay on the dock. I felt utterly fine, but my dad insisted on helping aboard, so he did and thank goodness for that because not a moment after we got inside my vision blurred again and I fainted for the second time.
Apparently, I was out for a little longer but not more than about 5 seconds but nevertheless in that time I was on the floor again as my dad was asking a man on the dock to get medical help. It turns out that the man was an EMT earlier in life, so he helped/supported my dad in the process following my fainting. They checked my blood pressure, pulse, and eye dilation. They also checked my blood sugar which was probably the most frightening part to me because I realized the would need to draw blood. I still don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that that’s the only point where I started getting nervous.
The two men tried talking out what could be the issue and finally reached the conclusion: dehydration. After a few questions like, “How much water have you had in the last two days?” which I answered with about 2 cups the answer became plain. Just to be sure however my dad called his sister who is a nurse to double-check and ask what else he should have done to check me (but not before he called my mom who I’m surprised didn’t go into full panic.)
For the next two hours I was given constant water until the time came when we agreed for my parents to go on the date night, they already had reservations for. Of course, they wouldn’t let me off that easy and gave me a few water bottles I was required to drink that night and a reminder to text every 30 minutes to make sure I was okay.
The next few days I had lazy days the one huge difference being that on Wednesday I made a delicious and utterly irresistible teriyaki turkey dish.

​On Friday the 8th my mom and I kicked off our girl weekend with a festival. Sadly, it was a major let down. We spent a total of 15 minutes at the festival if only for the food before beginning to venture through Georgetown. My mom and I didn’t really know what to do so we just went for food. We found ourselves at a restaurant named Choppy’s where we had gone to with Jonah and my dad once before. We enjoyed some wings and drinks before calling our driver (CJ) to ask if he would pick us up an hour early. Before he could pick us up my mom and I bought a butt load of groceries from the store which we happily stuffed into the driver’s backseat.
On the way back from the disappointing trip to Georgetown we had a picture taken of us in front of three rocks out in the water called The Three Sisters. Via the internet we learned that the rocks supposedly represent three sisters who all loved one man. The sisters all decided to confront him and express their love but before they could reach him they drowned, creating the three rocks. One of the sisters was pregnant so that’s why one of the rocks has a tiny bump on it. A little dark but sweet and fun all the same.
The next day was a pool day. My mom paid for us to have a pass to use the nearby resort’s pool, beach, service, and towels. It was a great day of reading by the poolside and sharing lunch with the occasional mango daiquiris. It was great! The day only got better, however, because as my mom and I started to eat our homemade pizza after showers four of the boys from SV Hekla walked onto our boat and asked, “Permission to come aboard?” I was so excited!
The rest of the night the boys stayed while we watched a movie, only stopping to have their own dinner. (Though they ate a bowl of Cheeto puffs and some of our homemade pizza…).
On Sunday everyone (the boys’ parents included) headed to the beach for another day of pretending to be resort people. We had people bring us drinks while I read, Tommy (one of the kids from Hekla) snorkled for golf balls, and Kenneth (another kid from Hekla) kite-surfed. Unlike the day before, I did end up getting in the water and after a few failed attempts at boogie boarding, I settled for swimming before heading back to our setup to read.
That night I sat with the family while they ate. While everyone ate the conversation of Harry Potter popped up so thus created, me guessing what all the boys houses would be if they went to Hogwarts. (For all non-Harry Potter fans that probably made no sense and I’m sorry because more references are in the next couple paragraphs). So, while his brothers did their chores Duncan (yet another Hekla child) took the pottermore quiz to see what house he was in. Lo and behold, he got Hufflepuff! He wasn’t very happy, and having to pay me a dollar because I guessed his house correctly and probably didn’t make him feel any better. Let it be known that even though he eventually took the test again, he originally got Hufflepuff and, therefore, is a Hufflepuff!
On the 10th of March I joined the kids from Hekla at the marina lounge for school. We all did our individual schooling, taking frequent breaks to play and test the other boys for their Hogwarts houses. I guessed wrong on two of the boys’ houses. I’m extremely happy that I did not bet on those. I’m also extremely confused, both boys got Ravenclaw, which is the same house as me. Sooner or later the boys left to prepare their boat to leave. We waved them off as they rocked out of the marina.
The next day I finished school early so that my mom and I could enjoy another beach day. We were supposed to go snorkeling but I had a hunch that there were no interesting fish at the nearby reef. I was correct in thinking that as my mom went to check it out while I read only to return with a frown and saying that there were only two fish. I never stepped into the water but read my book silently until we left.
That night we waited anxiously for, guess what, PIZZA! On our way to the beach we talked with a person who agreed to deliver pizza to our boat, meaning that I would have my first slice of margherita pizza since we arrived in the Bahamas. The. Pizza. Was. Delicious.
Wednesday went by smoothly and uninterestingly while my dad worked far away in Australia taking too good of sunset pictures.