Down Island

I had to get that previous post out of the system before I could tell you more about what is going on with us here in Lala land. 

And since I promised an uplifting post, I'll start with some uplifting shots, to give you an idea of the setting we're at

The view from a peak in the island of Cariacou. 

Our back yard

Sandy island (it's an island and it's sandy, can't get less creative then that)

When we reunited with our friends from Endless pleasure, back in January, we were boat less and clueless and yet Steph, who was sure it's just a matter of time before we're floating again kept repeating these two words like a mantra: "down island". 

"You should come down island with us" she used to say, "see all the different islands and travel all the way to grenada for hurricane season. Our original plan was to go back home in July, making out way north to Florida and never going south of the BVIs. But still she repeated, "come down island... Come down island..."

As you know, she was right, it wasn't too long before we were floating again, and our set back made us prolong our trip and so we found ourselves, just as Steph suggested, going down island.

Some boat work and repairs and other issues made us go slower then our friends on Endless pleasure and Perry, and I guess slower then many other cruisers who and so we were meeting very few boats along the way. That was the case until in Dominica we finally got Lucky! 

Literally. 

In the anchorage there we mat Kevin and Marina from Lucky Seven and have been boat buddies ever since. 

It's good to have another boat close by and when it has good people on board it's even much better!

To make things even better we were blessed (literally) to meet Bendecida soon after in St. Lucia. Bob and Molly are sailing with their fun and sweet (sorry John) teen agers and a great bond has been formed with kids and grownup alike. 

Together we were lucky to celebrate Oren's  birthday! Once again celebrating with friends! With Pizza and cake, just like Mika suggested! It doesn't get better than that!

A few days later we celebrated Molly's birthday too. 

Happy birthday to both!!

Boys bonding while grown up are playing Mexican train domino. 

And so, we've actually made it to Grenada. Well technically we're still  a little north, in Cariacou, but it does belong to Grenada so here we are!

We've been improving our fishing technics, and although the fish we catch are still smaller then we'd hope for, they add up to great meals!

All in all, life is good :)

I'll sign off for the day with some more fun pictures and a hope for storm-free days (and nights). Thank you Steph for talking us into coming here. We wish you guys were here with us! 

Hang in there

Darya

Oren hanging in here 

Challah day

Care-free kids exploring with a glass-bottom bucket. 

Local fruit guy, in the comfort of your own boat, st. Lucia 

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15 seconds

The past few weeks were very hard for me. 

Here we are, enjoying the amazing views of the carribeans, and the total freedom this adventure has granted us, while back home in Israel war is on. 

Thousands of missiles have been fired on Israel from Gaza during the past 3 weeks. Targeting the entire country, including my home town, Tel Aviv. 

Sirens go off on a daily basis, in some parts of the country, on an hourly basis. These sirens can catch you anywhere and they give you a 15 seconds warning. 15 seconds. That's all the time you have to run for the nearest shelter if one is near by, or out to the stairwell if you're not so lucky, stop at the side of the highway leave the car and dodge by te side of the road, cover your kids body and their little ears and hope that no one gets hurt. 

While my sister is doing that with her kids, aged just like mine, and my not-so-young parents are doing that, and all my friends are doing that, on a daily basis now, I'm teaching my kids to snorkel, fish their dinner and run on the amazingly white sand. 

That's doesn't feel right. 

Everyone should be able to spend their summer running care free. 

This war is a first for me in more than one way. It's the first time I'm so far away from home in such a time, it's the first time it is effecting the life in Tel Aviv, the bubble of all bubbles, and it's the first time so many of my friends have kids who are fighting out there. I spent many sleepless nights lately praying for their safe return and,  naively, for peace. 

I hope you can join me in a prayer for peace. 

Darya 

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Camp Del-Max

Friday was the last day of the school year in Massachusetts. That makes my kids 2nd and K graduates, ready to enter Kita gimel and Kita alef (3rd and 1st grade in Hebrew) that's a big deal! Huge! 

First of all it made us realize how long we've been on the go; over 6 months have passed since we've raised anchor and started this adventure. The end of the school year was no where near site when we left. It was cold and it was winter, and everyone was thinking of the winter break or the spring break but the end of the year?! Who would have thought we'd still be afloat by then (and of course after the accident, who thought we'd float again...)

But that's not the only reason why it's a big deal. 

In Israel elementary school doesn't start with kindergarten. Kindergarten is still all about being kids and having fun (or so I'm told...) the real milestone is first grade and the fact that Gur just graduated from his pre-school phase even in Israel is mind blowing! 

On the weekend Gur got a letter from a friend back home who told him school was over and he was starting camp on Monday. 

When he told Oren about the letter we both congratulated them on their graduation and Oren suggested that starting Monday they will also start camp: camp Del-Max!

What is that? The kids all asked. "The best camp in the world!" Replied Oren "first of all, it's on a boat! You get to do all kinda of fun activities, like hiking, snorkling, sailing and more. You get to visit new places, learn new things and meet new friends" the kids thought for a second and then Gur said:"you need to make a schedule!"

"I will" said Oren "get me a piece of paper and a pen" Gur quickly got him a pen and paper and Oren started adding activities to the schedule while the kids are throwing in more and more suggestions :) everyone was excited! I explained to the kids that it's an overnight camp, which made it even more exciting. By the time the schedule was on paper we asked them if they think they'd want to sign up for such a camp. Without hesitation Gur took the pen and wrote down his name on the back of the schedule. Mika and Arbel quickly followed and the list was closed. We have 3 campers and camp is officially on!!!

We introduced ourselves as their staff and said we might need name tags for the first few days. Gur quickly grabbed Woden laundry pins and wrote each name on a pin. He then handed them out and he and Arbel proudly wore them. In fact the first thing Arbel did this morning when he woke up was clip on his name tag. Sweet!!

We told Mika who didn't like the clips that we'll try and remember her name without it. We did!

Today wa. The first day of camp. It started with a dinghy ride to the boulangerie for croissant au chocolate to go around and a stop at what is probably the best playground in the Caribbean. 

The day continued with a hike up the mountain to Fort Nappleon. With it's amazing views of the Iles des saintes. Islands of the saints, where we have been for the past few days. 

On the way back to the boat we have continued our on going Mango hunt. Almost every house on the island has mango trees and we are trying to get as many as we can without trespassing. Not an easy mission but we're getting there. 

The afternoon snack today at camp Del-Max was a fresh mango-carabola smoothie. YUM!!

At dinner the kids have all agreed they had a great first day at camp and are looking forward for tomorrow. And the staff? We had a pretty great first day too :)

Stay tuned. We'll tell you how it's going. 

Oh! And by the way! Are you reading these posts or just hitting like when you see the link on Facebook? You might have noticed I haven't posted for a while. Lack of Internet connection was part of the reason of course, but also a mild case of writers phobia. That there's actually no one out there but my parents who actually reads this. I think if it hadn't been for my friend Adi who complained it might have taken even longer (toda neshama!)

So, in the spirit of camp, if you did read this far, and you are on Facebook go ahead and comment with you favorite animal. Mine by the way will be on the first comment ;)

Remember to use sunscreen!

Love you all

Darya 

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A few thousand words

Haven't blogged in a while. 

We are finally back in the Virgin Islands, this time from the comfort of our own boat. 

Words can't describe the beauty we're surrounded with, and so this time I've decided to simply let the pictures tell the story....

On the passage from Culebra to St. Thomas we've had the best sailing conditions and were greeted by a pod of Dolphines who escorted our boat for a while. 

We celebrated the Israeli Independence Day. Flew the flag, sang songs and made a traditional Al Ha Esh (BBQ). 

Yes. We took the flag with us, more then 5 months ago, just so we can fly it on our Independence Day :)

On the short way from st thomas to St. John we we hit by a cold front with heavy rain, cold weather and even hail... 

The rain was very heavy that a few hatches started leaking again. Not fun. 

We finally got back together with our friends from endless pleasure who we've missed so much. Good to have you back guys!!

By the time we got to Maho bay we were greeted by an amazing rainbow. A sign that the storm has passed. 

Maho bay is also home for a lot of turtles who pop up ocasionaly to breath and say hi. Every turtle brought a smile to my face. I smiled a lot in Maho bay :)

In Maho bay we also finally got together with Perry, our new buddy boat, a family with 2 kids who are also going down island. I've 'met' Jen through a Facebook  group of families sailing wth kids but it took us a while to get together. The kids are having a blast playing together and so are the adults. 

With Perry we mat Brit who's sailing solo now on his cat. Brit is a surfer/kite surfer and showed us some of his skills in sandy spit. 

One morning Mat from Perry poped out from under our boat with a Conch he found. We waited for it to come out. 

This one was too young to eat, so we throwe it out. But they did treat us to some conch fritters they made with conch they foun earlier in their journey. Delish!

Mika got her first recorder lesson from dad. She did so well! 

Oren and the other big boys got to go diving in sandy spit. 

I'll sign off for now. More stories next time. 

Leaving AT&T Land again so will have limited reception. Not sure when the next update will be. But you can follow our location using the where in the world map on the web version of this blog. 

Stay dry. 

Darya 

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Happy Birthday Mika

A short post about one big girl :)

Tuesday was Mika's 8th birthday, the second birthday we're celebrating on this trip. 

The excitement was building up with a very serious countdown that has been going on for a little over a month. 

Those who know her know how lucky we are. She's the sweetest, happiest, most cheerful and optimistic person I've ever known. And she's my daughter!

Her smile lights up my day, every day. 

A day before her birthday her brothers were busy preparing their cards. 

Gur made her a flower and Arbel made her a card. Remember he's 3.5. And made this card ALL by himself including signing his name. I was impressed! 

Mika was hoping we can invite Ciro's daughter, Katalina, to celebrate her birthday with us. 

As you remember, Katalina and her mom Laura came to meet us when we arrived in Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic. A journey Ciro helped us with. We spent a nice day at the beach then and there was a great connection between the two families, adults and kids alike. When they heard it was Mika's birthday they invited us over for dinner. We happily accepted, and so, just like the first birthday on this journey, Mika's birthday was celebrated amongst friends. Such a heart warming experience! It made us, but more importantly Mika, very very happy. Thank you Malatrasi's! We love you!

They got the cake! All we had to do was add candles

Katalina naturally took the role of an older sister

Birthday amongst friends, can't beat that

Today we got to spend one last day with them, rode the dinghy to shore and had fun trying out their little Sun Fish (Oren did)

Ciro guiding Oren before sending him off alone into the strong wind. 

Later on we tried fishing from our boat, and Katalina even cought what we think was a huge Remora before he managed to get away, taking our bate with him...

If the weather is in our favor, we will leave to Culebra tomorrow (we are now anchored off off the little island of Isleta )

We will miss you Malatrasi's! But with our low budget production, I'm sure we'll meet again!!

BTW, we got our tracker back! You can check out our location again at http://share.delorme.com/daryaelias 

Or on the web version of this blog. 

May we always celevrate amongst friends!

Happy birthday Mika!

אוהבת אותך עד הירח ובחזרה

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Full Circle

I'm writing this post while sitting in our new boat in Fajardo, marina Puerto Del Ray, back at square one, back to where it all began...

We've spent the last couple of weeks slowly making our way along the Puerto Rican coast while making a ton of work on the boat. 

A partial list:

- During the passage from the Dominican Republic one one of the cables keeping the mast from breaking when the main sail is up poped and broke. It had to be replaced in a 3 step plan: take the rest of the cable off, find someone who can make a new cable, and finally install the new cable. Sounds easy when it's not you going up the mast or pulling the father of your children up the same way. 

We kept true to Tim and Stephany's old saying "nothing says I love you more than 3 wraps on the winch" 

Yes. It is scarier than it looks.....

But hey, mission accomplished!

- We ha to take down the Jib (front sale) and get it repaired and the put it back up

- during the vicious passage we realized almost all the hatches leak. We're almost done scraping off the old gaskets and gluing in new ones, guaranteeing dry beds

- endless engine repairs, let's just say that thanks to Oren's skills and resourcefulness (now that's a long word!) our engines now start with a turn of a switch, don't heat up, don't leak water and actually report RPMs and temperature. 

On the upside of having so many issues, I can tell you you learn to appreciate everything that simply works! 

We also used the time to do some major shopping and are finally the proud owners of a new espresso machine and an inflatable standup paddle board. life is good!!!

Of course the minute we inflated the SUP Oren used it to go under the boat for yet another repair

As we were moving along the coast we got to see some beautiful places such as Isla Caja de Muertes where we were all alone, and where we got to see our first Dolphines!!!!

No. Didn't have time to take any pictures. It was either going to get the camera or enjoying the moment... Sorry my friends.

Just before getting back to Fajarfo we've decided to make a short D tour and visit the island of Vieques. Those of you who've been following us might remember we spent 10 days there shortly after the accident with our friends John and Vicky. 

I remember us standing on amazing beaches looking out at catamarans anchored right in front of us and thinking sadly: "that Should have been us..." 

Actually getting there with our new boat made me feel so strong! For me that was a huge triumph and quite a closure. 

We were that boat in the water!

I paddled to shore with Mika and Gur while Oren rode with Arbel on the dinghy. We ended up chatting with a couple of very nice locals while the kids played with their kid. Turns out a year ago they lost their boat right there in Viequese when their chain broke and the boat drifted off off the mooring and on to the rocks in a matter of minutes. Total loss. 

We told them our story and Id like to think our story helped them continue following their dream and getting a new boat. 

         Sun bay in Viequese

When we were here in January I went with John and Vicky to see the Bio luminescence Bay. A unique phenomena which makes the water sparkle when moved at night. We anchored just before a new moon and I realized the bio bay is just around the corner and since the phenomena is caused by tiny creatures who live in these waters we just may be lucky enough to see it from the comfort of our boat. We turned off all the lights used the paddle to move the water and as though tinker bell herself sprinkled some pixie dust,  the water starte to glow. Magic! This was declared Mika's first birthday gift!

Yesterday we got back here. To Marina Puerto Del Ray in fajardo. The place where, back in December, our trip has begun. The place where only 2 weeks later a salvage operation ended with what used to be our boat laying 'on the hard' with a hole the size of the hull torn in her side. 

Yesterday we docked our new boat here and got to load it with all the toys, books clothes, tools and gadgets that waited for us  in storage for 4 months. We got to take some last items off the boat and say a final goodbye. And today, exactly 4 months after the accident, we signed the boat off to its new owner, a local guy who plans to repair it and sail it. Yes. Prairie Dream will sail again. 

Fairwell, dear boat. We finally got our closure and can move on. 

Good night,

Darya 

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Exodus

Where did you leave us? 

Oh yes, we were just getting ready to head east, from Marina Zarpar in Boca chica, to Casa De Campo in La Romana, both in the Dominican Republic.  I don't know how long ago it was, but it feels like months have past...

So much action! 

It seems fitting that I'm writing this post just before the Jewish Holiday of Passover. You see, the story behind Passover, is the story of the people of Israel, who were slaves (in Egypt) and then at some point decided they don't want to be slaves any more, and that they want to go back to the promised land. It took some struggling, ten plagues, and one miraculous crossing of a see before they got out of Egypt, and then another 40 years in the desert before they finally made it home. 

Those were 30 seconds about maybe the most important Jewish holiday. Now Back  to our story...

In the Dominican Republic you can not sail anywhere without a dispacho. A piece of paper signed by the police, coast guard and national security all these guys have to come to your boat right before you head out. Not a day before, which means that if you plan to leave at 6am, you have to arrange for them to meet you at 6am and then hope they get there... 'Tip' them (mandatory) and off you go. Unless they don't come...

We were ready to leave at 6. Pedro, the local Marinero who was to join us was there on time, but the police and coastguard guys simply weren't there. 

They missed an amazing sunrise 

At 7 Pedro and I drove down the street to the police station. I was surprised to find the policeman who promised to be on my boat at 6 sitting at his desk. Why didn't you come? I asked. He replied calmly that his colleague headed our way and should have already been there. The station is on the end of the road. The marina is on the other end. We just drove from A to B and didn't see him headed our way and yet we turned around, drive back to check in the Marina and guess what? He wasn't there! Long story short he finally arrived non chalant an hour later. It took 3 policemen to write down our passport details and we were off. The long way was uneventful except for an unlikely encounter. After we bought the boat, our broker sold our seller a new boat which he was supposed to deliver to him from Puerto Rico. Against all odds, the only sailboat we crossed was the new boat captained by our broker.... 

Remind me to tell you about my theory about the production budget of this movie we live in...

transaction completed full circle. 

When we got to casa de campo we finally took out the hammock I've been optimistically carrying with me for almost 4 months and could finally relax!

And as things always go with this trip, coincidence and good people found us again :) about an hour after our arrival, while we were busy scrubbing the deck a family walked by our boat and stopped when they heard us speak Hebrew. Turns out they're Israelies who live in te capital, but own a house in La Romana. Ten minutes later it was agreed that we will spend the following morning with them ;) 

The kids were excited to play with other Hebrew speaking kids and we all had a great time! Thanks guys!

La Romana is a huge complex including the Marina, a complex with restaurants and stores, luxury houses, beaches a hotel, golf courses and even an old restored village. We rented a golf cart and explored for a couple of days. 

Amazing place !

Altos de Chavon

As you may recall, our old boat, or what's left of it, as well as a lot of our stuff, are still waiting for us in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. And so our next destination was  to cross the infamous Mona passage and get to Puerto Rico. We've made a decision to use help for this passage. We knew it would be rough and long, and wanted to make sure we could tend to the boat and the kids. So we called Ciro. Ciro was the surveyor sent by the insurgence company to inspect the dammage after the accident. We liked him, both as a professional and as a person and when it was time to do a surey before buying this boat we hired his services. He was happy to assist with the passage. We are so happy he joined!!! The passage was VERY rough! The wind was on our nose the whole long journey. the waves were high and we were pounding through out. Everyone (except for Captain Oren) was sick, but 26 hours later we arrived in Boqueron Puerto Rico!!!

We were tired, dirty and weak, but we made it! And it felt good!

The next day, after Avery good night sleep we went to shore were we mat Cito's wife and daughter who came to pick him up. It took about 30 minutes for the ice to break and the kids became great friends, they spent the morning playing on the beach, jumping off the jetty and collecting sea shells while we got to know Ciro's lovely wife, Laura of whome we've heard so much. Such fun! We hope to get together again soon!

Mika and Gur jumping in hand in hand

We ran into another cruising family who came onboard as our first guests! They also have 3 kids and we spent a nice afternoon together. 

Calm seas, Happy Chaos!

Obriens and Eliases playing Set

So why excudus you ask?

We lost our boat in December. For almost 4 months we've been vagabonds, leaving out of 5 bags, drifting with the winds looking for our new home. Then came the crossing of the see, and now we are finally cruising!!!

It's been a week since we said good bye to Ciro. Our first Solo sail came 3 days later and I'm proud to say we've been doing well! Now in Ponce, PR we are slowly making our way back to Fajardo. The original starting point of this journey. Like the people of Israel, we're learning how to be independent again, and know for sure, that if we really want something, we can make it happen. 

Thank you all for your support,

May we never be slaves!

Happy Passover!

Darya 

And the floating Eliases

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