The Beautiful Bahamas...The end is near !!

Beautiful Bahamas

Well, we could have spent 7 months just in the Bahamas alone. There are over 700 islands and cays in the Bahamas alone and we have only been able to see a few of them, but what we have seen has been incredible. During our visit to the North West side of Long Island we had the pleasure of spending another hot day building sandcastles and playing on the beach. At the end of the hot day a storm approached from the East which brought along with it a science class up close; 2 huge water spouts up close and personal. These waterspouts are tornados on the water, very exciting and scary.



Kiana taking some time out to make a scarf, she says that she feels like a grandmother.

A game of monopoly where the captain took everyone to the cleaners, no sympathy spared.

Movie night every Saturday has been a cherished tradition for the last 7 months with popcorn and candy included.



I think that Dad will need a few days off from the kids when he gets home.



The kids went ashore by themselves to check things out and they found a ‘friendly’ snake. It did not take them long to have a home built for it.

Luke and Tyler spending some quiet time playing with their K’Nex. I am so thankful that we brought these with us, they have filled many hours.

Well, after the last blog entry I received quite a few emails that said that I sounded really homesick. OK I will admit that when I wrote the last entry I did get a bit homesick but it only lasted for the 2 hours it took to write the entry. All of that missing the 4 seasons and spring stuff went out the window when I received an email on May 8th that said Calgary was having snowfall warnings. Also when we met up with the Jackson family in Georgetown, Bahamas ( a family that we had originally met in the USVI who have been out sailing with their 3 children in a boat that is identical to ours for a year and a half), and another family from Quebec who is just starting their adventure (Mike, Soto and their two boys) and had my first campfire of the season, with s’mores and breadsticks I decided that I no longer wanted to come home. I tried to talk the captain into extending our stay, but he would not go for it.




A lot of fun was had at the small island of Staniel Cay where golf carts are the only vehicle on the roads. We rented a family sized one and off we went to explore the island. The James Bond movie “Thunderball” was partially filmed on this island and we were fortunate enough to be able to go snorkeling inside the famous cave that was in the movie. It was beautiful, with 3 different entrances and one sky light to let just enough natural light in, we spent two afternoons checking this sight out.




It has been amazing the number of Sharks that we have seen since being in the Bahamas. Thank goodness the majority of them have been Nurse Sharks, but none the less they still have that SHARK name. The local fishermen feed them their scraps and some of them will actually eat from the kids hands.



Just around the corner from Staniel Cay is a beach called Pig Beach and it is named this for a very good reason. Just when we thought that we had seen absolutely everything we once again had our eyes opened. We also ran into our new great friends the Jacksons and enjoyed their company for a couple more days.




Our next destination is the Exuma Cay island of Warderick Wells.



This group of islands is a national park and so there is no fishing here but great snorkeling. We spent a great couple of afternoons here snorkeling and seeing many fish that are hard to find out anywhere else. We saw many huge Lobster, Lion Fish (which are very poisonous and not native to the Carribean but have been introduced by foreign ships), lots of big Grouper (which drove Cole nuts as he has been looking for these for months to shoot with his Hawaiian Sling) and a huge spotted Eagle Ray. The tide was an amazing thing here as it caused a very strong current that caused a river like feeling that we could float down.



Our next exciting stop was an island that was loaded with Iguanas. Now before we arrived at Allen Cay, we knew that we would be seeing some beautiful Iguanas and we were all very excited, what we did not know was that there was a group of biologists from the U.S. that were down here doing research on this island and the surrounding islands. Now this is the best science class we could ask for. Dr. John and his team have come down to Allen Cay every year for the last 20 years to monitor, count, measure, and track the Iguanas on the island. We happened to be in the right place at the right time. We tried to help by catching as many Iguanas as we could, at the beginning it was easy as they came to the beach to be fed by the many tourists that come to see them, but after a couple of days we had to go inland and be as one with the creatures, this is where it got interesting. Thanks for the team and their patience with us as many, many questions were asked.






There were also Curly tailed lizards on this island which are much smaller and Tyler found out that if you turn them over they play dead.




And last but definitely not least our final Island…..New Providence….Nassau Harbour.


We will be flying out of Nassau on Saturday May 24, 2008.
First we must spend a night at the famous Atlantis Resort and Marina. So in we pull in our home on the water to this absolutely amazing facility which is really built for Mega Yachts, but who cares as we pay for one night in the Marina we are granted full access to the whole facilities for two days. So off go the Matwichuks for a grand finale to an absolutely amazing adventure. First things first, we are off to a huge outdoor waterpark in the beautiful Carribean sun. Water slides, relaxing tube rides and swimming pools everywhere you turn. Then it is off to see ‘The Dig’, which is an amazingly massive aquarium filled with every possible ocean creature you can imagine. I never realized until we were in here how much our kids have learned about the ocean, they were rattling off the names of everything they saw. And finally, since we missed movie night this past Saturday, we had to take in a movie or 3, since they were free. A great time was had by all and we were sad to leave and move on to our final Marina to meet the new Captains of ONE LIFE.




All settled into the Paradise Club Harbour Marina anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new crew, we decided one more adventure was in the books for us. The Dolphin Encounter…..we have been blessed with travelling alongside these beautiful creatures many times during our trip, but always from a distance. So now we get to see them up close and personal. How fun it was.




And here we are at the end of our journey, who knew one winter could fly by so quickly. We have been blessed with many things: a happy and healthy family, great friends new and old to share our adventures with, calm seas, a safe and secure boat, beautiful anchorages and marinas, Carribean islands with their welcoming peoples and communities, and finally a beautiful ocean and all of its amazing creatures. We have all learned and grown a lot during this past year and the memories that were created will last a life time.


Cole – We have enjoyed 7 months which seems like a long time but felt really short. One of my favorite parts was arriving in Grenada and seeing the boat for the first time, this is definitely the opposite feeling from what I am feeling now. We leave for home tomorrow and I am feeling very excited but at the same time wishing we still had another month. I think that through this experience I have gotten better at swimming, fishing, putting up with family members, being on the water, snorkeling, talking with the locals and learning to SCUBA dive. If I had to pick I would say that my top 3 islands are; 1. Bequia – Scuba for the first time ever, nice people and nice beaches. 2. Tobago Cays – Nice clear water, nice snorkeling with lots of turtles, sting rays and eagle rays and eels, 3. Barbuda – Huge beaches & pink sand. I am so glad that I got the chance to do this and I hope that someday I can do this with my kids.


Tyler – Seven months is not very long when you are having fun. My favorite activities to do were Scuba dive, snorkel, and fish. My favorite island is Barbuda with pink sandy beaches. I really enjoyed having company to play with and talk to. In the USVI we met a nice family that we met up with again in the Bahamas, there was Sam, Soloman and Summer. They were a very nice and polite family, we had fun playing with them. I liked the boat how it had four bedrooms and four bathrooms, I like sailing a lot better than motoring because we could go a lot faster. Right now I am in a hotel room writing this and getting ready to leave tomorrow at noon, I do not want to leave because I love our boat and the kayaks. I hope that we can come back next year and enjoy all of the activities on the boat. Bye for now can’t wait to see you all.

Kiana – When we left home I thought that these 7 months were such a long time, a long time that I would). Now that we are at the end of our journey I am not sure that I want to go back to civilization. I will not miss pumping toilets, taking short showers, having only brothers to hang with and sunburns, I will miss scuba diving, snorkeling, beaches, shopping, sailing in the middle of the ocean, meeting new people, cute boys, and an hour of school a day. Right now we are in the hotel room and I just had a shower which was beautiful. We just got news from home that it is only +10 degrees, here today it was +35 degrees, need I say more. I can’t say that I have a favorite place because they were all amazing. There are some guys on our boat now and I don’t really like them there because it is my boat, I am jealous. I have learnt so much about sea life & plant life on and around the islands. I have really started to love the ocean and sailing, there is so much more to it than just the surface that you see. This was definitely an experience that I will never ever ever forget.


Luke - I never thought 7 months would go so fast. I liked the boat boys the best because they were entertaining. The most fun was playing on the beach, we would play in the sand, build sand castles, swim, use our skim boards, snorkel and look for shells. I can't pick a favorite island because they were all good. I did not like when we had to walk a long ways in the hot sun. I am going to miss swimming in the ocean the most. I am going to miss the boat alot. I am glad that we did this.

We hope that you have enjoyed sailing along with us through the last 7 months. Our sincere thanks to those who have taken over for us back at home and have allowed us to fulfill this dream. We apologize for not updating the blog more often, but those beaches were calling our names (and with how fast the time has gone I am glad that we answered every call).

Thanks for following along on our adventure, we hope that you all follow your dreams as we all only have…….

ONE LIFE…DREAM IT…LIVE IT !!