Journey Dispatch #5
From the British Virgin Islands 🇻🇬 to The Bahamas 🇧🇸
Hello from the Bahamas! Believe it or not, this is the LAST dispatch I’m writing at sea (at least, until we try to cross another ocean). Less than a week to go until we reach the continental United States, at last!
There’s not a lot of breaking news in this dispatch because we spent most of the week doing a ‘passage’: a nonstop sail from the BVIs up into the Bahamas.
After six weeks in the calm(er) blues of the Caribbean Sea, crossing back into the Atlantic Ocean was a big milestone for us. It was also lovely to get into a rhythm of night watches, chores, and cruising for a few days. This leg of The Green Journey has been anything but predictable, reliant as it is on sail-hitchhiking and the weather. We’re looking forward to resting at my parent’s house for a few weeks, getting into a more stable routine before heading into Central America.
There was just one major downside to the Atlantic route: rougher waters brought the return of Polo’s seasickness. I’m pretty amazed that he’s been able to persevere through it over the last four months, and I’m excited for him to get a break.
After exactly 102 hours at sea (our friend Benoit tracks statistics religiously using his watch’s ‘expedition’ mode) we touched down in Clarence Town, Long Island, to clear customs. Population of Clarence Town? 85. Population of Long Island? 3,094.
By Bahamas standards, that’s actually a pretty big settlement. The country is made up of a chain of more than 700 islands, but just 30 are populated. More than 2/3 of the country’s entire population lives in New Providence, home to the Bahamian capital, Nassau. And since Long Island is at the very south of the country, it’s pretty remote.
We took a bit of time to visit the area, heading to Dean’s Blue Hole, which was a true highlight. This place is the 2nd deepest Blue Hole (giant sinkhole that the worms from Dune would be happy to call home) in the world.
From there, we’ll spend the next week sailing through the Bahamas, touching down on a few more islands before arriving in Miami. Then, it’s time to share what we’ve learned with other climate and nature leaders in the 1st U.S.-based conference of what we hope will be many to come!
🌳 Solution of the Week: Mangrove Mania
The Bahamas is very much on the front lines of an increasingly volatile climate. With 80% of the land lying less than 5 feet above sea level, the country’s very existence is threatened by a warming planet. In particular, massive storm surges caused by increasingly severe hurricanes, like Dorian in 2019, have and will continue to wreak destruction on the nation.
Enter Mangrove Mania: a community engagement and outreach effort courtesy of Waterkeepers Bahamas centered on incentivizing community members across the nation to plant and protect mangroves.
Mangroves are a critical and readily-available coastal resilience solution, applicable in the Bahamas and beyond, as mangrove peat absorbs storm surge and heavy rain, reducing the risk of flooding.
📣💚 Shoutout to: Benoit Bérard
I’ve already mentioned Benoit extensively in our last two Journey Dispatches, but this week, it’s time to give him his own shoutout. We’ve been sailing together for an entire month (!) now, and with each day that passes, we’re more and more impressed by what a friend, teammate, and all-around guy he is. Some of the amazing things he does:
He puts incredible passion and care into his cooking (and trust me, a good meal is the most critical thing when you’re at sea).
He doesn’t have his own cabin on the boat, sleeping every night in the open air and enduring weeks without privacy to make it to Miami.
He’s had a series of bad personal news from home since starting the expedition, and still is maintaining an upbeat attitude and persevering.
If you haven’t already, I really encourage you all to follow on Instagram and visit his website to learn more about his one-of-a-kind triathlon expedition!
❌ 🎒Travel fail: Attack of the swimming pigs
We don’t usually fall for Instagram-ready destinations, but when we saw that Pig Beach was right on our path, we had to drop anchor for the night. It’s named for, yes, a community of semi-wild pigs who live on the beach (and swim in crystal-clear blue waters!). And it’s all over Instagram.
We thought we were pretty clever, visiting the beach just before sunset to enjoy it all to ourselves. These pigs must be pretty relaxed, we thought, having seen photos of people kissing them and cuddling them on the perfect white sand.
Well, imagine our surprise when, in attempting to beach the dinghy, we were accosted by a GIANT HOG swimming straight towards us, and trying to board. As it turns out, we would have probably actually been happy to have some day tourists with us. We were outnumbered by pigs, 4:1!
📸 Photo of the week: The biggest wimps in all of the Caribbean
If you didn’t know this already: Polo and I are both HUGE weenies when it comes to cold weather — it’s why we both moved to California in the first place.
One of the reasons we’ve loved the Caribbean is because it allowed us to live in eternal summertime weather. But as we head North, we are confronting the reality that we’re going to have to get our cold-weather gear back out. Toto, we’re not near the Equator anymore!
Yes, we get teased a lot for our lack of cold tolerance…
Do you have any suggestions for climate hotspots or heroes to visit in the Southern United States? Drop us a line!
So Happy you made it in time for the Conférence.
Enjoy!!