Sailing With Teens (And Their Parents)
On the bow with the wind on her face, the sounds of waves splashing against the hull, and the sun shining overhead… Kayla exclaimed, “this is what I love about sailing!” That’s music to Luke’s ears. He always looks forward to his time at the helm, hopefully with some brisk wind. Knowing his family is enjoying the ride makes it all the better!
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Sailing with our teen grandchildren aboard was the perfect way for us to wrap up our spring 2021 trip. Coffee, high winds, beach days, good humor, stimulating conversation, and more coffee, what else do you need for an adventurous and relaxing week sailing in the Keys!
Marathon City Marina
Marathon city marina works well as a base camp for family visits. After rescheduling their 2020 trip due to Covid, our son Luke, daughter-in-love Christie, and their three children; Travis, Lee, and Kayla, joined us for a week in the Keys. They flew into Miami and rented a car to drive to Marathon. With extremely rough weather the first few days, we were thankful their rental car happened to have two jumpseats in the back so all 7 of us could go explore by land until the winds calmed a tad. Luke loves going out in high winds but also wants his whole family to enjoy the sail.
Curry Hammock State Park
Tony & I have been wanting to check out Curry Hammock State Park so we suggested it as one of our land adventures. Fun Fact: we learned it is an overflow park for when Bahia Honda is at capacity, interesting! Curry Hammock has more of a natural setting than Bahia Honda. Lee especially enjoyed the wildlife. Crabs and fish were easy to observe in the roots of the mangroves and on land we spotted a couple of iguanas. Kayaks are available for rent at the park to explore the mangroves or have fun at the sandbar during low tide. Fun at the sandbar was the choice for Luke’s family. I think Luke’s memories from his childhood sailing trip in the Everglades (swarms of big bugs) dampened his interest to paddle through mangrove tunnels.
Bahia Honda State Park
We went to Bahia Honda once by car and later by boat. It is one of our favorite spots to visit in the Keys. We practiced snorkeling, had a picnic, and kept our tradition of getting ice cream for our crew. The view from the old railroad bridge provided some great photo op’s for the dancers and of our boat in the harbor.
While anchored at Bahia, a funny thing happened after one dinghy ride back to Terrapin. Not funny at the time, but all is well so it is humorous after the fact. During their whole trip, Christie had been very diligent to make sure her phone, and everyone else’s, were transported in their waterproof cases whenever they went in the dinghy. This time, as Christie stepped aboard Terrapin with her waterproof phone case strap around her neck, the closure broke free from the strap and her phone went for a swim. Luke kept his eye on where it sank and Tony quickly donned his snorkel gear to retrieve it. Good thing he can dive 10 feet down because that is where Christie’s phone was. A bunch of curious fish were circling around it wondering what had just dropped to the bottom. I dug out a bag of rice and after a full day sitting in the rice, her phone worked!
Snorkeling Sombrero Reef
We ventured to Sombrero Reef a couple of times and had to practice patience to get a mooring ball. Unfortunately, not all boaters are courteous or observant of which boat is next when a mooring becomes available.
The wait is worth it though because snorkeling on the reef is one of the highlights of a trip in the Keys! It’s a whole different world on the reef with interesting topography, a variety of coral, schools of colorful fish, and other sea life. Crystal-clear blue water made visibility perfect! And swimming with barracudas was memorable!
It’s one thing to practice snorkeling close to shore at the state parks and another to jump off our boat to snorkel a coral reef. Kayla was a bit hesitant to take the plunge, but she overcame her fear and was glad she did.
Daily Life Aboard
How do we manage everyday life onboard with 4 adults and 3 teens on a 32’ sailboat?
Coffee
While preparing for their trip, one looming question in my mind was “how am I going to make enough coffee each morning for 7 avid coffee drinkers on our small sailboat?!” (I think I was more concerned about the coffee than the meals, but meal planning was definitely on my mind also.) Our French Press had worked well for past trips when only a few adults were drinking coffee, but I didn’t want to be standing in the galley making one pot of French press after the other while also wanting to get breakfast underway. I decided the Eureka Camp Café 12 Cup Coffee Maker was the ticket. It heated up the water quickly and made a large quantity of coffee.
On one hot, sunny afternoon, we decided to have cold coffee straight from our fridge. Luke in particular thought this was a special treat since we sailed with no refrigeration when he was a child. We made room in our tiny fridge for 7 cans of Mocha or Coke Coffee. Later in the day, everyone enjoyed a cold coffee beverage onboard.
Meals
All the meals worked out fine, except for one. I asked Tony to dish up the chicken noodle soup while I was doing something else. He filled a bowl, handed it up to the cockpit, then filled the next one, handed it up to someone, and so on. Luke’s family were all in the cockpit enjoying a generous portion of dinner when Tony looked at me holding two empty bowls, there wasn’t any left for the two of us. We didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so I made a PB&J for me and a jelly sandwich for Tony (he doesn’t like PB). After that, I lined up the 7 bowl plates next to the stove and portioned the meal into them to ensure everyone got some.
Showers
Our teen grandchildren liked to shower whenever they had the chance. When we were anchored out, then a sea bath or a rinse using Bahia Honda beach showers did the trick. When we were at our mooring ball, then multiple dinghy rides to use the city marina showers were the norm. We established a meeting spot onshore, although it didn’t always work. Sometimes we would be waiting for one of our group to finish their shower only to discover they were watching the crabs scurry into their holes or on a dinghy dock visiting with another cruiser. Oh well, we’re on island time!
Hanging Out
On Terrapin, there’s plenty of time for daydreaming, conversation, game nights, music, and drawing. We had recently purchased a hanging chair for Terrapin and Luke was the first one to try it out. He offered to keep “testing it out” often during their trip.
Lee spent a lot of her free time drawing. Here is a sample of her artwork.
Trav is a music man and either is playing the Ukelele or using garage band on the iPad. He took some time to teach his sister how to play the Uke, what a kind brother!
In the evening, we often played Anomia and enjoyed the banter between the teens and their parents. Tony & I were definitely slower with the answers, but we had fun trying and appreciated the humor, and learned something new each time we played.
Sleeping
For sleeping, there’s 2 in the V-berth, 2 on the dinette berth, 1 on the settee, and 2 in the cockpit. Trav and Kayla were our cockpit sleepers with an air mattress and a folded down, go-anywhere seat on top for an extra cushion. We were fortunate it didn’t rain and there weren’t many bugs for cockpit sleeping! Kayla liked seeing the sunrise from the comfort of her cockpit berth.
Seasons of Life
Luke & family have routinely joined us for sailing trips over the years on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and now Florida. So, they have experienced sailing with us at different ages and in different places. Travis, their oldest child, has also come sailing with us on his own starting at a young age. During his first trip at about age two, we purchased “boat bear”. Boat bear doesn’t get cuddled much anymore, but he still rides along on our sailing adventures and reminds us of the passage of time. Our children are grown, and now our grandchildren are growing up fast. It was delightful to have these 3 teen grandchildren, and their parents also, aboard for a week in the Keys!
another wonderful post, keep em coming! 🙂
Wow! That looks like a fun time with the teens boating and sailing out there. So many things done and so much smile on everyone’s faces. Enjoyed reading your blog and looking at your pictures.