Backtracking: Bahamas Bound

We knew when we moved on board last January that our transition into a cruising lifestyle would be temporary. The cruising kitty we built up after selling our house in Denver would eventually run dry and we would need to find employment again. I think that knowing this adventure is finite has helped us overlook the negatives (there are a couple) and really appreciate every incredible moment of this journey. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s always been an adventure and that is exactly what we set out to find when we left the dock last February.

But the time has come for us to make our way back north. For now, we plan to retrace our steps back to Mayaguana, Bahamas. From there we are looking forward to exploring the secluded and rarely visited Out Islands: Acklins Island, Crooked Island, and the Ragged Islands. Last year, we flew through the Bahamas, only stopping to really explore the Exumas. We can’t wait to return to the white sandy beaches, the turquoise clear water, and of course the excellent fishing and lobstering. The Bahamas is truly a cruising paradise.

Before we can feast on mahi mahi and lobsters on secluded beaches again, we must first tackle the nearly 1000 miles from St. Anne, Martinique to Mayaguana, Bahamas. Backtracking has been a slightly different experience. We now look forward to revisiting our favorite places instead of sailing with the anticipation of visiting someplace new. And while I think I will always prefer the excitement of the unknown to the comfort of familiarity, I will say that it’s been pretty nice knowing the ins and outs of anchorages before we arrive. It’s made route planning a breeze.

Even though we aren’t visiting new islands, we are still finding new experiences and making new memories. In St. Martin we met Brian and Rebecca on s/v Summertime Rolls and visited new places in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. In St. John, we reunited with Bo and Allison (s/v Selah) and finally connected with Brian and Lauren (s/v Nightingale Tune) in Hansen Bay, where I had my first paddle board experience and we visited the infamous floating bar. In Culebra, we met up with our dear friend and third Musketeer, Sergio. We rented a golf cart and explored all of Culebra’s gorgeous beaches, many for the first time. The anchorages that we are revisiting are in many ways the same, but are also a little different.

When we visited the luxurious Puerto Bahia Marina in Samana, Dominican Republic last April, the resort was very quiet. Besides the buddy boats that arrived with us, there were few others there. The resort didn’t even bother turning on the hot water for the showers. This year we happened to arrive the same weekend as a Regatta. During our three night stay, we spent our time attending promotional events and watching the races by the glorious infinity pool. We stayed up late listening to live music, drinking free beer, and socializing with local sailors and transient cruisers. We met a group of 7 young cruisers heading south on three different boats. They quizzed us on down island anchorages and sailing conditions. We happily offered up as much information as we could, realizing that we were in their shoes just a year ago. Though the Puerto Bahia Marina looked exactly the same as it did a year ago, we had a totally different experience this visit.

Right now, we are back in one of our favorite places, Luperon, Dominican Republic. In most ways it’s the same. The chicken shack still serves the best value lunch and cruisers still gather at Wendy’s. A large Presidente still only sets us back 125 pesos and our favorite Luperon dogs still roam the streets. We even found evidence of our previous visit, when we first walked into Wendy’s to find that our Polaroid pictures are still tacked to the wall. But there is one thing that is different, and I’m finding it to be the hardest part of backtracking. When we say goodbye, it’ll be for good this time. As we were heading south, we had the luxury of knowing we could return to our favorites spots once we started heading north. Now we don’t know when or if we will ever return. And because of that, my heart twinges a little each time we sail away.

So, what’s next for us after we explore the Bahama Out Islands and return to Florida? Well, we don’t know. For the first time since I can remember, I don’t have a plan. I’ve always known what’s next: graduate high school, go to college, get a job, buy a house, get married, etc. Even making the decision to leave the rat race and start cruising was well planned. Now, I don’t know if we’ll return to Denver or decide to live some place new. I don’t know if we’ll return to engineering jobs (though I think it’s likely for me) or explore different careers. I don’t even know if we will keep or sell our boat.

When we made the decision to turn around, the fear of uncertainty hit me like a freight train. We are sailing back to the States, but I have no idea what we are returning to. I guess I expected at some point during this journey, we would have an epiphany and figure out exactly what we want to do next. While this adventure has given us so much, it hasn’t given us that epiphany. We still don’t know exactly what we want to do for the rest of our lives. While I was having heart palpitations and fretting about our future, our wise friends Deb and Pete (s/v Delancey) pointed something out that eased my stress immediately. Whatever we decide to do next, it doesn’t have to be forever.

Very few decisions are actually permanent. There’s no need to pressure ourselves into picking the perfect plan. If we try something new and find we don’t enjoy it, we have the ability to do something else. We’ve proven that we aren’t scared of change. So, if ever our circumstances aren’t making us happy, then we have the power to find something that does. With that state of mind, I’m going to focus on enjoying our final cruising months and enjoy the excitement of not really knowing what’s next.

10 thoughts on “Backtracking: Bahamas Bound”

  1. Very sad to see you make a u-turn. All things end eventually. We hope to see you out here again one day. Keep it in your plan.

    We are currently hanging out in the Turks and Caicos Islands doing some serious eating, diving and snorkeling. Perhaps we will pass you as we head to Puerto Rico in a couple of weeks. We wish you a safe passage back.

    If you head up to the Abacos Islands of the Bahamas, Hope Town is worth a stop for a few days, It is absolutely beautiful there.

    Keep an eye out for us as you head west 🙂

    Mark and Cindy
    sv Cream Puff

  2. Safe travels – have fun on your return! And you’re right , whatever you choose can and will change and evolve. Just roll with it and enjoy the ride! Maybe we will cross paths when you head back from the Bahamas.

  3. Your thoughts on not really needing a full plan are wise. Life should be lived, not planned. But engineers are amongst the worst (ok accountants too) at dealing with no plan (thus speaks a geologist!). So here’s to you finding a new path! Well done. And guess what, you’ll probably be better at your jobs now because you see the world differently. Thanks so much for sharing your journey. I’ve love following your trip. Please keep us informed of where you do end up and if (when?) you guys take off again…

  4. Don’t forget all the amazing experiences you have already had, now you are about to enter a new set of adventures. Different, perhaps maybe not as exciting but not permanent. You have shown that you are capable of taking risks and that you are prepared to accept change in your life. I see wonderful things ahead for you, some boring, some amazing some just plain ordinary but hey that’s life. Enjoy your next few months of cruising and who knows what life may present to you after that, your already way ahead of a lot of other people so don’t sweat it too much.
    hmmmmmm crewing on a luxury yacht springs to mind …………….
    Have fun guys.

  5. I emailed you a while back about Puerto Rico. We’re there now. So thanks for the pointers to other blogs and such.

    I write mobile iOS apps. I programmed my whole career for companies up until we bought the boat. We’re also from the Boulder/Denver area coincidentally. It’s been challenging to build a completely remote contract only client base but it’s coming along. If anything I try not to work too much. Jumping to coding from ?? was it chem eng or mech eng? isn’t a huge stretch so just throwing that out as a possible career path.

    Shelly Scott-Nash
    http://www.scott-nash.com

    1. Hi Shelly! Did you end up doing the big hop from Bahamas to PR? I hope you’re enjoying it. Too bad our paths didn’t cross. It would be so ideal to find work that we could do remotely. I was just talking to someone that jumped into software engineering for that reason. I’m pretty decent at writing VBA code…so maybe not a big stretch at all. We’ll keep it in mind. Fair winds!

      1. Yes. We went from Providenciales direct to PR. On programming, my advice is to focus on 3 or less technologies. It’s easy to get distracted. So do like SQL/C#/Azure or Mongo/NodeJS/Javascript/HTML. If you learn even parts of these, an employer will often train you on the gaps.

  6. First of all, I love your blog and all the pictures that you post! I am using WordPress for my blog and I am having a hard time getting a group of pictures to align properly? Do you use a plug-in to get all your pictures grouped together? I am a newbie at this and any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jen

    1. Thanks Jen! I was also a wordpress newbie when I set up my site and it’s still a work in progress. It can be frustrating at times, but stick with it. I usually just use the galleries provided by the JetPack plugin for pictures. However, there are a couple of others that I use from time to time: WP Gallery Custom Links lets you add links to individual pictures in galleries, WP Responsive Header Image Slide lets you add a slider to your homepage header, and Slider WD for slideshows. I hope that helps. Good luck!

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