We’ve been in the Caribbean for almost three weeks now and I’m only now waking up in the morning not thinking I’m on a passage. It’s taken Brian and I longer to recover from the lack of sleep than I thought it would. We’ve also been interrupted by two overnights, one from Barbados to St. Lucia, and then this week from St. Lucia to Guadeloupe—neither trip could be done in the 12 hours or so of daylight, so we left in the afternoon arriving at our destination the next morning. Technically, once we got to St. Lucia, there was no need to do any overnights if we wanted to island hop, but we elected to stay with our friends on Magic Dragon, who were going direct.

So far, the Caribbean is mostly living up to our (admittedly, fairly high) expectations. We viewed it as the cherry on top of our adventure, a few months living some of the best parts of cruising life—boat kids, sundowners, beach playdates, swimming, warm water, easy access to provisions and boat parts—basically a YouTube highlight reel. Of course, the reality is we’re still living on a boat! The boost pump on our watermaker packed it up the day before we left Barbados. When we were low on water, naturally. That, combined with difficulties we were having with our batteries and freezer, meant we headed almost directly to a marina in St. Lucia for repairs and general boat clean-up. While a marina isn’t our favorite place to spend time, we were docked just a few slips from Magic Dragon, who were making their own repairs after the Atlantic crossing. While the parents worked, the kids freely ran back and forth, enjoying the company and freedom to roam after long weeks on their respective boats.

A week later with all repairs completed, including a new boost pump shipped up from Trinidad, we very happily headed back out. The passage north was messy. Behind the islands of Martinique and Dominica, we ended up motoring for long stretches in flat water with wind as low as 4-8 knots. Then, between the islands, we were absolutely blasted with wind that gusted to 30 knots with choppy, lurching seas that made all of us a bit seasick. All was forgotten, though, when we arrived to the quaint red-roofed, French-speaking town for check-in to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe. We’ve loved our visits to French-speaking islands, like New Caledonia and Reunion. Not only do we get to practice our (limited) language skills, we also indulge in good meats and cheeses, and warm baguettes with French butter, which I think our kids would live on if allowed.

Now we’re in a beautiful anchorage, within swimming distance of a nice snorkeling spot and paddle boarding distance to the beach, with three other kid boats, including our MD buddies. I haven’t seen my kids for the last two hours, as all eight of the kids in the anchorage paddled together in a group to the beach and are playing on shore. A beach bonfire is planned for the evening and a hike to an old fort tomorrow morning—with a stop at the boulangerie for fresh pastries first, of course! Caribbean life is good.