Hello from the middle of nowhere! A month ago, we left North Carolina and I left my day job as a public sector
attorney for 2 years of cruising on our catamaran sailboat. Now we’re at anchor aboard Prelude, near Norman’s Cay (pronounced “key”) in the Exuma Islands of the Bahamas. We’re stuck here for 4 days because of high winds (40 mph average). I can’t think of many prettier places to be stuck, but after 3 days of the sound of howling wind, I’m about ready for civilization again.
Life as a “live-aboard” isn’t as luxurious as you might imagine. It’s more like camping in an RV, except with limited access to necessities like fuel and water. We do have a water-make aboard, but it can only make water when the generator is on, and we only run that a few hours a day to charge up the batteries so we can use lights, etc. It makes about 4 gallons an hour, so it gives us a 12 gallon bump each day. That isn’t enough for taking showers and doing the dishes, so we’ve taken to washing dishes on the back swim step in the ocean, then doing a final fresh water rinse inside.
We stayed with our kids on Highbourne Cay last week in the marina (one of the few marinas in the northernmost part of the Exumas). Ours was the oldest, crappiest boat in the marina, at 38’ long and 24 feet wide. The biggest boat there was a whopping 120-footer with a crew of about 10. Think $50K a day for true luxury. Yep. That’s $50K a day! Most of the other boats were 75 feet motor yachts. All of them were perfectly clean and looked brand new. I’m guessing there was upward of $100 million worth of boats. We had dinner at the restaurant on the island. It was delicious and cost about as much as we spend a month at the grocery store for the 5 of us. A once-in-a-very-VERY-long-time treat. A bag of 3 romaine hearts was $12. I kid you not. Which is why we brought a lot of food with us from the US and re-provision only rarely (prices in a big city like Nassau are already 50-100% more than in the US).
Marinas are few and far between, so most nights we drop an anchor, dinghy the dog to shore to do his business, and cook on the boat. We recharge our laptops while we run the generator, take very short showers (rinse, shut off water, soap up, rinse). So far I’m more exhausted than not and haven’t done much writing. But I’m slowly getting used to the work of the cruising life, and, after all, this is paradise.
Stay tuned! Howling winds, luxury motor yachts, white sand beaches and turquoise waters are definitely story fodder. Hugs and happy 2020! -Shira
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Shira Anthony was a professional opera singer in her last incarnation, performing roles in such operas as Tosca, Pagliacci, and La Traviata, among others. You can hear Shira sing an aria from a live performance of Puccini’s Tosca by clicking here: “Vissi d’arte”
Shira is a former public sector attorney, now full-time writer and sailboat cruiser. Shira, her husband, and their dog Sirius, are following the prevailing winds aboard their 38 foot catamaran sailboat, Prelude. Her new Coastal Carolina series chronicles the men who live and work around the North and South Carolina coasts and is loosely based on her own experiences sailing and spending time in Wilmington, North Carolina and the Outer Banks.
Whether contemporary romance, high fantasy shifters, or time-traveling vampires, Shira writes what she loves and never writes a story without a HEA. Her Mermen of Ea trilogy book Into the Wind was named one of the best books of 2014 by both Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words and Hearts on Fire Reviews, and was a finalist in the 2014 Goodreads M/M Romance Member’s Choice Awards. Her Blue Notes series of classical-music-themed gay romances was named one of Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words’ best series of 2012, and the most recent book in the series, Dissonance, was named one of the best books of 2014 by Hearts on Fire Reviews. Her book A Solitary Man, coauthored with Aisling Mancy, won a 2016 Rainbow Award Honorable Mention for Best Gay Mystery/Thriller.
Shira Anthony: http://www.shiraanthony.com