Living La Vida...Terra

Well hello from a deck overlooking a marina full of boats...no not Matriarch's teak deck, an actual pressure treated pine (?) deck located on...wait for it...land!

Crazy eh?

That's right, the Harris Family is living land-life for 2.5 weeks and we are about half way in. The boat is living the land-life too, over at Clark's Court marina on the south end of the island while we are based now out of Belmont, which is directly adjacent to Port Louis Marina in St. George's Harbour. This is basically the biggest, busiest town on the island and includes the main shipping port. Painted in bright blue and yellow and sporting a you-can't-miss-it blue roof, our house is tucked up on a hill, not too high to walk to the waterfront, but not too low as to hide the beautiful view (see Title photo where my blurry finger is pointing). The owners living on the 2nd level and the ground floor is divided into two identical apartments. We have one, our friends on S/V Bliss have the other.

We. Are. In. Heaven.

The closeness of these bodies indicates that we had the air conditioning cranked to an environmentally responsiblish 25C…when you live at 40C, 25C feels FREEZING!!!

Wifi, air conditioning, space to swing a cat, a bed that I don't have to literally climb out of, a mattress that isn't moving (unless desired 'wink wink'), a washing machine in which we can do gratuitous loads at will (our underwear has never been so clean), showers that are unlimited and don't require creative positions to reach all your parts, a kitchen with copious space for chopping, washing, drying (and collecting odds and ends), excursions just a walk-out-the-door away. It's a pretty nice change of pace.

Me…walking with intention…to get laundry done in the boat yard. Don’t let the long shirt fool you…it was 40 degrees or more in the sun and I was trying to protect my skin from frying in the 10 minute walk with dirty underwear under my nose :S And I … — Me…walking with intention…to get laundry done in the boat yard. Don’t let the long shirt fool you…it was 40 degrees or more in the sun and I was trying to protect my skin from frying in the 10 minute walk with dirty underwear under my nose :S And I forgot my hat at the boat…

Boat living is great. It's better than great. There are many upsides. But everything you do, everything you want, everything you get is deliberate. It required deliberate action. Even just walking from one end of the boat to the other requires mental focus to avoid banging your toe or your head. Preparing food required planning out what I'm going to get from where and when so I don't get in my own way. Laundry requires a full day and that's after sourcing out where I can do it / have it done. Dining out, getting groceries, even just going for a stroll on the beach requires intention. On the upside of that, we don't take any of it for granted. Truly, the clean sheets smell cleaner when we've spent a few days to get them. The produce is more appreciated when we've traipsed around town or fought through market crowds after a long dinghy ride to procure them. Living slow is wonderful but living slow is not living easy.

So it's been pretty nice to saunter down the hallway totally unaware of my feet and head. It's been pretty nice to make a mess in the kitchen and not have it stop my cooking in its tracks because I don't have to place to put down a pot. It's been pretty nice to grab the keys and just step out the door into adventure (or at least a walk). It's sooo nice to be able to easily grab a beer or some bread or some pumpkin when we want. Land-life is a bit of a relief - respite from the intention that is required every minute when living on the boat.

That said there are things that we miss. The kids seem more bored at the house. I think they are used to jumping in the water when they don't know what to do. Or dinghying over to their friends boats and hanging out nearby. They are on electronics more here which I don't like. They seem to argue with each other more here...might be a symptom of the boredom. Also those little buggers seemed to have forgotten how to handle glassware (we have mostly stainless steel cups on the boat) and have broken not one but two glasses since we've been here (cue my exasperated *sigh* in anticipation of finding some replacements for the owner).

Our home (on the right), next to our friends S/V Bliss (on the left) patiently waiting for us to return…looking very clean, painted, buffed and all that!

Grenada is a pretty big island compared to where we spent the 2 months previous in the Grenadines and it's not very walkable (hello massive hills + 40 degree heat) so getting around requires a car. In order to get from apartment to yard on a regular basis we rented a car for the month with S/V Bliss that seats 5 (there are 9 pp in total between the two boats). Car sharing has been efficient (and cost effective!) though requires a different kind of planning than hopping in our own dinghy and snorkelling in the next bay over. So I guess in a small way we are a little less independent. And of course we miss our little floating house with all of it's strange corners and subtle smells ;) Matriarch really is home to us now.

Room at the counter for Liam and Celeste (from S/V Bliss) to sit together and join their friend Lucia (from S/V Alley Cat) in Panama for their discussion of To Kill A Mockingbird…nothing motivates these students to work hard like the promise of WiFi… — Room at the counter for Liam and Celeste (from S/V Bliss) to sit together and join their friend Lucia (from S/V Alley Cat) in Panama for their discussion of To Kill A Mockingbird…nothing motivates these students to work hard like the promise of WiFi and AirCon!

We were given advice when we started this adventure - hahaha ok that was an understatement, we were given lots of advice - I will be more specific, we were given some advice by a couple in Maryland who had been sailing for 18 years. Their advice focused on how to keep enjoying the way of life once you have begun. They said to take a break from the boat once a year and live on land for a few weeks or a few months if possible so that by the time you are back on your boat you will be so happy to be there and have renewed passion for the intentional life, you will be ready for the next season.

We didn't really think we needed this - until we got to this apartment - and then we took a big breath and thought "huh...well this is a nice change!"...so nice that we extended our stay from 8 days to 18 days without much hesitation (It's a really really good price so that helps the decision-making). After a few days of marvelling how nice it was to have this change we remembered that bit of advice and it all clicked. We accepted this for what it was...not a necessity because we had the boat hauled and we were working on it, but an opportunity to refuel our sailing-tanks.

Hashing! We love a good hike…and with the added community-based design and the fun of a few tricks on the trail, these hikes are a blast!

We haven't felt much pressure to "make the most of our time on land"...we've been chilling out playing games, watching Netflix, walking around the neighbourhood, cooking dinners and of course, driving back and forth to the boat yard ;) (Next blog post will be a long list of all the friggin’ work we’ve been doing and our thoughts and decisions on more work…ugh.)

If we end up leaving Grenada having done not much else than a few Hashes (which so far have been excellent, bespoke hikes with a diverse group of people that end in music, cheap beers and local food) and maybe a waterfall hike or two, we will still leave with the peace of knowing we took a pause and love our boat life all the more for it.

Netflix and free Wifi are calling...and it wouldn't be prudent to not follow the prescription given us by that salty couple who where so generous with their sage advice ;)

Much love, MH