My Coral Adventure

Right now we are going to Spanish Wells, but yesterday we went on a beautiful coral reef adventure at Egg Cay and Royal Cay. Anyway, when Riley and I were still sleeping dad said, "let's take the kids on the paddle boards to look at some real coral reefs".  And mom said, "Okay, that sounds great to me!"  About 10 minutes later we woke up.  Then mom and dad told Riley and I the plan during breakfast.  So we packed up our snorkeling gear, beach toys, and some snacks and got into the dinghy and motored to Egg Cay.   On the way over there, dad put out his fishing line.  Mom took the rod and felt a few nibbles.  She caught a fish and reeled in in as fast as she could.  All it was was a sea robin and they aren't good eating.  That was quite cool.   Then we went to the beach.  When we got, there I took the SUP (stand up paddle board) out for a look around.  All I saw were a few purple and yellow tangs.  When I got back, I took mom out to look for some conch.  We found one but it was empty.  We paddled back to pick up Riley.  That was fun,  Too fun!  After we picked up Riley, we put our masks on and put our faces in the water while mamma paddled us around.  That was awesome!  We saw lion fish that were red and purple, trumpet fish, angel fish, tangs, Nassau grouper, I think I saw a moray eel, great barracuda, sand tile fish, squirrel fish, red snapper, Pompano, rainbow runner, schoolmasters, blue striped grunts, high hats, spot-fin butterfly fish, french angel fish, blue angel fish, gobies, blue head, hog fish, queen parrot fish, blue tangs, sharp nose puffer, and a Kemp's Ridley turtle!  Then dad said it's time to go back to the boat.  Mom paddled us back home but dad stopped to spear some fish with a Bahamian sling (slingshot with an arrow).  About an hour later he got 3 blue striped grunts and a schoolmaster (or barred snapper).  Then we headed home from an awesome and fun day.  When I got back to the boat I looked up all the fish that I saw on the coral reef in "Corals and Fishes of Florida, Bahamas, and Caribbean" a new book we bought in Spanish Wells.  We ate the fish dad speared for dinner.   They were awesome.

Hope all is well!

Wrenny pooh, pooh, pooh

Comparing life on a boat to life at home

Boat school is different than going to Perry School.  First of all, I'm not surrounded by all my classmates all day.  Now, I am surrounded by my family and sometimes my new friends, like Fiona, Jack, K, Melissa, Franklin, Immogen, Betsy, and Eric.  These are friends that we've met on other boats.  Second of all, I had only one teacher at home, now I have two, my mom and my dad.  Sometimes that's fun, like learning about sea beans (seeds that float across the ocean from the Amazon river all the way to sand beaches in the Bahamas)  and sometimes it's not fun, because they make me write journal entries.

Sea coconut, mermaids purse, sea heart, and sea patty

The space here on our boat is very little.  It's 40 feet, like a school bus!  At home there is a lot of space.  Instead of having two bedrooms, Riley and I have one and share it.  It's called a v-berth because it's shaped like a V because it's in the bow of the boat.   It's not always but sometimes claustrophobic when it's raining and the hatch is closed.

Me, in the V-Berth

Power on a boat is different than power at home.  First of all, instead of having electricity lines we have a batteries that we have to charge now and then.  We charge them by solar panels, a wind mill, and running the engine.  We can't waste any power.  We have to turn lights off when we are done using them and we have to turn off the computer and ipad off when we are done.

Wind power generator

One of two solar panels

Water on a boat is very different and here are the reasons why:  Instead of using as much water as we want, now we have to use a teeny tiny bit of water.  We bathe in salt water and rinse off in fresh water and we're done!  We only have 55 gallons of water on the boat, not a well full.  Our water comes from a marina and we have to pay for it.  It is 20 to 75 cents a gallon.

Catching rain water in Hope Town harbor

Food on a boat is way different than food at home.  Instead of buying as much food as we want we have to look at the prices.  It's very expensive here because it's harder for the market to get the food.  We can't buy more than one cart full of food because we bring our bags and backpacks and if we buy 2 carts, we couldn't carry it all back to the boat.  We've been eating less frozen food (like blueberries, peas, and ice) because we don't have a freezer on the boat.  Instead we just have a refrigerator.

Shopping in Marsh Harbour.  How will we carry it all?

Half mile hike to the dinghy!  Whew.

And that's how life is different on a boat than at home.

Hope all is well!

Wrenny poo, poo

How the Bahamas water became so blue

Blue water adventuring!

Introduction: 

The reason I'm writing this entry is because for school I am reading the story "How the Night Came from the Sea", and it talks about how people explained how darkness came and darkness came from the sea.  My mom asked us how we thought the Bahamian water became so blue.  This is my story.

Story:  

Once upon a time, in a castle on Paradise Island in the Bahamas  there sat a king and he sat on his throne all day.  The queen had just died and the king was very lonely.  All of a sudden, the king heard a crack.  The roof of the castle began to collapse.  The king yelled, "The sky is falling, everybody, the sky is falling!"  As soon as he jumped up he knew why the sky was falling.  The Gods wanted the golden ring the queen had given the king before the queen died.  Later the next morning a peasant woke up and he was covered up with bricks and wood.  He said, "Oh, no!  The king!"  He ran to the king's room.  He dug, and he dug, and he dug, through bricks and sticks, but he couldn't find the king.  A few minutes later, he heard the rumbling noise of the king erupting from the darkness.  "King, you're all right!"  The king said, "I am, but the castle isn't"  They laughed.  When they looked out the window and saw the water they said, "The water is so blue!"  

After the storm, the king looked under his bed searching for the treasure chest that had the golden ring in it but he couldn't find it.  He said, "Oh, no!  The Gods stole the golden ring!"  but instead of the Gods stealing it the peasant took it from under the bed so it wouldn't get crushed.  The king walked out of his door and ran into the peasant who was delivering the treasure chest back to the king.  The king was surprised.  He said, "peasant, why do you have the treasure chest?"  The peasant said, "I was just protecting it so it wouldn't get crushed"  The king tossed the ring into the water because he wanted the Gods to have it because he thought all people and gods should share.  The ring was magic and made the water stay a beautiful teal blue.  

Thats how the Bahamian water became so blue.

Hope all is well!

Wren

The Crossing

Right now we are anchored near Fox Town.  Yesterday we left from West Palm Beach at 3:00 am.  Mom and Dad got up at 2am and pulled the anchor at 2:20.  It started out rough and then it got less stressful.  The first place we saw land was Mangrove Cay.  When we couldn't see land I was very nervous.  The second place we saw land was Great Sail Cay.  It was so fun!  On the way over to Great Sail Cay, we saw a dolphin in the clear blue water.  She was right on the bow of the boat.  We were wondering what she was doing and all of a sudden I said, "She's trying to play with us!!"  I really, really, really, wanted to jump in the water with him or her.

Bottle nose on the bow!

Earlier that day we caught a dolphin.  Not a mammal dolphin but a MAHI-MAHI!!  They are the best Bahamas fish!  We gaffed (sharp hook) it and I went down to our room because I don't like killing fish.  The Mahi-Mahi turned blue, green, yellow , gray, purple , and black when we killed it.It was very sad when we killed it,it felt like we were sucking his or her life up in a straw.

Fish on!

My dad with the Mahi on the gaff

The Mahi changed color as it died ):

Fish dissection!  

Oh,I almost forgot "Happy New Year"!  

Hope all is well,

Wren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!