Our grandma's visit (by Mika)

2 weeks ago our grandma Noa came for a visit. Me, Gur and Arbel were so excited!
Dad went to get her from the airport while me, Mom, Gur and Arbel went to the place that fixes outboard engines, to the  marina office, and cleaned the boat.
When dad finally came back with grandma I was so happy she was here, I jumped onto the dock with no shoes on just to hug her, because I have not seen her in a year and a half already.
When grandma came on to the boat we did a mini passage to Water Island. In the passage the boys, me, and grandma took out of the suitcase everything she had brought with her for us
Finally, we got to Water Island. As we waited for a man named Marvin to pick us up, I was sitting in area where my grandma couldn't see me and then she said "where is Mika?" And then I said. "BOO!!!" When I jumped out...

When we got to the house we played double. Every morning we would come and do school and after that go do something fun. Every night one of us would go sleep with her.
At the end of the week, grandma came to sleep on the boat. I shared a room with her. The next day we left to Caneel bay in St. John. After we ate lunch we went to the beach. Me grandma and dad went  snorkling. After I was in the water for a bit I was cold so we got out.

The next day we went to the underwater trail in Trunk bay. Once again I was cold so we got out.
After that we went to the BVI but they sent us away. The BVI sent us away because grandma didn't have a visa. We went back to Caneel bay and did a hike to the post office. After that we went to the beach. At the beach we met other people with kids, and me, Arbel and the kids made a deep hole. It was very fun!
The next day we went to Xmas cove to go for pizza to a boat named Pizza Pie, which was sort of a pizza place on the water, but they were closed... So we made ourselves 'pizza pie not pizza pie' .
The next day was our last day with grandma. For dinner we went to a restaurant.
The next day I woke up at six o'clock. I quickly dressed up so I could come with dad to the airport.
We waited on the boat for the plane to leave. As we saw it leaving we waved at it  and shouted "Bye Bye Grandma!"

I hope grandma would come again!

Mika

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We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

(Yes I know, It's almost easter... Or Tou Beshvat... I'm behind...)

In the five years we lived in the states we never joined a Christmas celebration. I guess the fact that we lived in Newton, surrounded by many other Jewish families had a lot to do with that. So, we drove around and enjoyed all the Christmas lights, but the closest we got to experience the holiday was when Mika's good friend, Anna, invited her to help decorate their family tree in the last 2 years before we left. That was fun!

This year we have been hearing about Christmas since July... All of our cruiser friends celebrate Christmas, All were about to be away from their families for the holiday and all were making plans (yes as early as July) as for where they will be for Christmas,  how will they celebrate and who they will celebrate it with. We were naturally counted in with our buddy boats. They got to light Hanukkah candles on our boat, so why won't we celebrate Jesus's birthday?
Our buddy boats were Rafiki and Four Coconuts who have been sailing with us since Bequia, La Jeanoise and Picaro who joined further north, and 2 other boats, Reve d'ocean and Oseo also joined the party. We arrived in Antigua a couple of days earlier and mat up in Jolly bay. Robin from Rafiki found a great empty lot right on the beach, and the plan was to meet for some fun ball games, enjoy the beach and then have a pot luck lunch.
13 kids and 14 adults got together for one of the best days we've had on this trip!

Dinghy line up on the beach

No, There was no 'wear red' memo, and yet...

The games were lots of fun, hard to believe this too, but we actually played football for the first time ever. Lots of first that day :)

Mika and I used Chaya's recipe and braided A LOT of Challa

After a great lunch we started the game of secret Santa, In this game each person brings a wrapped gift and adds it to a pile in the middle of the circle, each one draws a number from a hat and in the order drafted each person can either choose a gift from the pile (the gifts are wrapped, so he doesn't know what he's getting) or steal a previously opened gift from another player.If someone stole your gift you can again either take a new one from the pile or steal from someone else... when some of the gifts are 3 sets of gloves and others are digital cameras the game can get pretty funny :)

The day came to an end with our very first beach bonfire. Marshmallows and all! Sweet!

Now as I said, this was our first ever Christmas, and so for all we know this is the traditional way to celebrate the holiday. Merry Christmas!

We spent a few more days in Antigua, before moving to Barbuda for New Year's eve. Before we left, the girls got together to celebrate Carol's 50th birthday. we have decided to make her wish come true and all went Zip-lining together! Scary at first (for me!) but I finally go the hang of it and by the end of the 12 lines even I really enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday Carol!

December 29th was a strange day for me. Exactly one year earlier we had our accident and lost our boat. On the one hand it was one of the hardest days ever. But on the other, it shifted our story in a way that wouldn't have happened otherwise. We have met amazing people thanks to the incident who stayed our good friends till this day and hopefully for many years. Those people, Brooks, Bill, Andrea, Don and Dotty wanted nothing in return for their amazing help, but told us we should pay it forward. I think this is the strongest message I took from that day, and we have been trying to pay it forward ever since.

For New Years Eve we arrived in Barbuda. Everyone told us what beautiful beaches Barbuda has, and although we only had one day to spend there we have decided to make the D-tour and see what it was about. New years day also marks our personal anniversary. 12 years! Never thought we'd celebrate it in such an amazing place!

The day was fun, Happy hour included bubbly as expected, but as cruiser's midnight is at 9pm the new year came a little earlier then expected.

Happy New Year to all, I hope you live up to your resolutions, spend time with good friends and loved ones, and have a great new 2015!

Darya

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1 Year anniversary!

Yesterday, when I finally found a good wifi connection, I got a message from a friend back in Israel.

She wanted to catch up, and was wondering how was life in Boston...

So much has happened during this year, and yet my reply was: " We've left Boston a year ago yesterday, and have been sailing the Caribbean ever since, a bit of a bumpy start (hit a reef, lost our boat) but now everything is great"

That's it. our year in a nutshell.

it was exactly 3 days and one year ago when we said our last goodbyes to GilGil, and wearing Crocs and socks got into a taxi in 20 degrees F. ready to fly out to San Juan, board our boat and start the adventure of a life time. One year and 3 days later, the adventure is still here.

Kids at the Boston airport, December 2013

Same kids, one year later, December 2014

Mika lost 5 teeth and grew new ones, Gur learned to read and write in Hebrew and English, and Arbel started the trip with night diapers, which now looks like a light years away...

And they're all about four inch taller...

A short post it is, but deserved an entry of its own.

Happy 1st birthday Crazy Boat Trip!

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

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Made in Del-Max

Life on the boat brings out all the creativity we have. 

Some things are hard to find, others are out of our budget, and in some cases we run across local creations we just have to recreate. 

Here are some of the things we have proudly manufactured:

The Rain Catcher (RC-001)

Water is limited on the boat. We have 2 water tanks that can hold up to 100 gallons (about 400 litters). This water is used for drinking showering cooking an dish washing, and when they're gone we either have to find a marina with a fuel dock to tie up to, or do water runs with our jugs. Since we only have 16gallons of jugs this can meen many back breaking runs. Not fun. 

On the other hand, it does rain so often out here... Which is why we have decided we must have our own rain catcher. 

Oren came up with the design and we have dusted our brains to pull out all that high school trigonometry to optimize  the angles and size. Then it was down to me and Marina's old sewing machine... 

And it's working! We have been catching rain!

The Dodger

When sailing in strong winds and rainy days, especially when going up wind, sitting at the cockpit and specifically at the helm can be very uncomfortable. unless you have a dodger protecting you. Which we didn't. We got a very high quote from the canvas guy for manufacturing one for us which is when Oren came up with the brilliant idea of me making one...

With the help of Marina's sewing machine and the moral support of Carole from La Jeanoise (who basically told me it can be done) I have set up to create the dodgy dodger. But hey! It works!

Window covers

The boat originally had very dark window covers. Once again Oren had a vision... Replace the dark opaque covers with semi transperant ones, that would block the sun heat but let the light come in. 

Done!

Home made Sorbet de Coco

After tasting it in Guadaloup, Oren took upon himself the mission of Re-creating the flavor of the local speciality, Le Sorbet de Coco. 

Trial and error with the help of Mr. Google have helped him bring this creation to perfection. Served only on board Del-Max. 

The Chanukiya (menorah)

It is the Jewish month of Kislev and Jews all over the world are lighting their Menorahs. I tried to prepare (as Liron must remember) to all the holidays we were supposed to celebrate on board, but since we left right after Hanukkah last year, we weren't supposed to make it on board to celebrate another one. Yet here we are...

And so we have collected bottle caps, Gur painted a paint mixing stick and Oren was in charge of connecting them into our very own Menorah. Four candles are already behind us and four more to go. 

Happy Hanukkah! 

Homemade Yogurt

We like Yogurt. We eat it with Granola in the morning, and use it to thicken our smootheys. We like Yogurt. The problem is, that Unlike the French islands, where the dairy fridge is packed with a huge variety of yogurts, other islands don't stock them at all. 

Little did we know, if you have just a few spoons of good Yogurt, you can recreate it and make more and more and more. It's a miracle!

Our friend Ida from s/v Cheers came over for a Yogurt workshop and introduced us to the secret (yet oh so simple) world of yogurt making. 

We have been making it for a while now. 

Love it!

We are constantly learning more and more tricks, recipes and ideas for making our lives better and easier and implementing them one at a time. 

Wanna see for yourself? Come visit!

Stay creative!

The Del Maxians

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Thanksgiving

I am sitting in the quiet saloon of our boat, a stone-throw from the beautiful beach of the island of Bequia (pronounced back-way). Everyone already went to bed, and I should probably do the same, as tomorrow we plan to head out very early, towards the island of St. Lucia.
When we first got to Bequia, on the day of Oren's birthday, over four months ago, I had no idea we would ever be back here. And yet here we are again, this time heading north. Up island as Steph would say.
Weren't you supposed to be home by now?! is a very common questions these days...
Well, we were...
The original plan (well, perhaps I should say, the last plan) was to head south to Grenada, spend a month or so there, and then sell the boat and head back home. But as we finally got to Grenada, and spent more and more time with other cruisers and cruising families, we realized we still haven't had enough.
Going back home, or to reality, as some of our realistic friends call it, means going back to the endless rat-race. We realize it and we accept it. But we're just not ready yet...
And so instead of selling the boat and going back home, We have decided to extend our trip, turn around and head north, towards the Bahamas.
You see, so many cruisers we've mat told us the Bahamas were the most spectacular part of their trip, that we just have to see it with our own eyes... so we've waited for the Hurricane season to end, took the time to paint the bottom of the boat and do some other 'boat projects' and when the time was right, lifted our sails and headed back north.
I just realized that although we've figured out our new plan a few good weeks ago, I haven't had the chance to update you personally. sorry...

And so This year, as the holiday of thanksgiving is just about to start, I find it easy to be thankful:

Thankful for my amazing family. Spending such a long time together in such a small space takes some special people, tall or short. I am thankful for having such great companions for this trip!

Thankful for our family and friends, patiently waiting back home, sometimes baffled by our current way of life, but constantly supportive. We love you all!

Thankful for the amazing new friends we have made along the way, giving this experience another dimension, one of a strong, supporting community (more about the community in the next post)

And finally, thankful for you. if you're reading this you probably belong to one of the above :) and yet knowing you're reading our stories, makes us feel that in a way, you're taking this journey with us.

I want to take a minute and wish 4 happy birthday wishes: first to Oren's dad, Saba Ezra, who celebrated 70 today!

To my beloved brothers, Eyal and Erez who celebrate this week!

And finally to our friend Vicky who invited us to our first ever thanksgiving dinner, six long years ago.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Darya 

(you didn't really think I'll only post 1 picture did you?! here goes:)

Gur swimming to shore from the boat

My back yard yesterday

Mika at the turtle sanctuary

School time on Del-Max

Who said Lego are the only Legos?

(Thanks again for the extra pins, Molly)

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Camp Grenada

 Today is our last day on the island of Grenada.  They say time flies when you're having fun, but still it's hard to believe that it has been almost 3 months since we first got here.
Before we came our friends told us about 'Camp Grenada' with endless activities, a strong community and hurricane-safe anchorages, it sounded too good to be true, and the fact that we were robbed the very first night we got here made us very skeptic about just how real those promises were.
But guess what? it was all true.

Following Perry we set our base at the cruiser-friendly Prickly Bay. Ever since our boat was broken in to we have been sleeping with the hand held radio in our room, standing by on channel  68, and thus, every morning at 7:30 our day would start with the VHF announcing:"good morning Grenada, good morning cruisers, The Grenada cruisers net is starting in 2 minutes on channel 66" and so, every morning, kind of like in ground hog day, we would listen to Cruisers just like us, who volunteer to run the cruisers net, 6 days a week, and provide every possible piece of information you can possibly need, from local weather, to cruisers social activities, to help with parts and services you might need or want to sell or trade, and finally a slot for local businesses (ones with access to VHF radio) with a chance to blow their own horn.

Cruisers social activities anyone?
In Prickly bay alone you have to choose from the following activities, all provided by volunteer fellow cruisers, who want to make their stay here in Grenada a better one:
Mondays and Thursdays 8:30: Yoga with a smile provided by Pier-Ives from S/V umido at the very same time, Gabi from S/V cool change is teaching Yoga to kids 16 and younger.  seeing Gur and Arbel practicing Yoga poses and challenging each other to extreme combinations is simply priceless! ("while doing a tree pose, touch your toes and make a candle. Can you do this Gur?")
Tuesdays and fridays 8:30: Tai Chi, again by Umido
On Sundays and Wednesdays 2pm: Grenedian train Dominos winner gets the fame of being announced last week's champion on the morning net
Then there's chess twice a week at 3pm, volleyball you can play and shopping buses that will be happy to oblige you, and take you anywhere you want to go.
Every Saturday there's a HASH, a hike/run followed by beer consumption, a great experience where locals and guests explore different parts of the island.

Book Club
of course morning are dedicated to school work and then in the afternoon the kids want to get together at the pool or on the beach, either way they coordinate their rendezvous in the sweetest VHF calls you would ever hear...
On Friday morning the kids had a book club.where they would discuss books they have read,  read poems, play games and learn about different countries.
I was amazed to see how serious the kids take the activities at the book club. here are some shots:

One book club sessio was dedicated to geography and every kid presented a country

All pieces were then connected into two big global balls

Every family brought a tipical dish to share - what a feast!
I am so moving on board 4 coconuts as soon as I get a chance

Learning Kapuera from Regina and Helena

Tomorrow is a long day, as we plan to start our journey north. and so I think I will stop now.
I will post more Grenada stories later.
The last few days were filled with goodbyes and left me very sad and yet very happy and feeling really blessed. The friends we have made here, and the memories will stay with us long after we say goodbye.

Thank you Camp Grenada, and thank you to all our new friends who made this Hurricane season such a special one
fair winds, where ever you might head - we hope to see you soon
Darya and the Del-Max crew

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