Pirates to the Left, Tropical Storm to the Right, and Gunshots Behind (Part II)

So what else did we do to stay busy during our crossing?

7) Cross into French waters

As happy as we were to cross back into the Northern hemisphere, we were even happier to say ‘tchau’ to Brazil. Granted, the reputation of Suriname and Guyana (and less so, French Guyana) are not any better than Brazil, but we stayed far enough offshore to feel safe.

8) Enjoy the full moon

The combination of the full moon and scattered clouds lent the most magical light to our surroundings, and lit up the space around us so brightly that it was hard to believe it was no longer dusk.

9) Enjoy the gorgeous blue water

The color of the water as we got closer to the Caribbean was what we remember from our previous trips to the Caribbean, bordering even on the gorgeous blues we’ve seen in pictures of the Bahamas. Interestingly, about a half day after passing the mouth of the Amazon, the water turned much darker without other changes (depth, clouds, etc) – almost with a brown, green tinge to it. We had spirited discussions about why this would be, including the theory that because the Amazon is so huge, and the current so swift (3 knots), that this color change was the result of Amazon water spilling into the ocean. Now back with internet, we discovered that the Amazon truly does reach out that far – the Amazonian sediment cone reaches 680km (420 miles) into the Atlantic Ocean.

10) Collect sea salt from the life lines

You can only imagine the amount of salt caking the boat at the end of 10 days at sea! One of our first goals when we reached Grenada was to give Ohana a long bath!

11) Take watch with Daddy

Because who can resist taking pictures of your kids when they’re being sweet and cuddly?

12) Read

We loaded up on as many library Kindle books as we could before we lost internet connectivity leaving Fortaleza, and as always, the Kindle was a lifesaver for the girls.

13) Boat school

Once the motion steadied out a few days in, we resumed our schoolwork. The girls complained about school on the weekend, but as we pointed out, better to do some extra days now and take some more days off in Grenada! We’re loving teaching them about early American history, and loving being able to take time out of the scheduled curriculum to delve into things like the Constitution in more detail.

Stay tuned for Part III…