Life aboard the USS Phoenician!

As there are quite a few of our friends who have not yet heard about the stories of my childhood, not that they are that interesting by the way. I have taken to task to write about the origin of our family, and how we became the wacky, homeschoolin', travel trailerin'' sheep raisin', family that we are; thus providing a history as to how the Lord has brought us hither.
In the autumn of 2001, our family embarked on another adventure to the Isla de Puerto Rico!
Having lived there for 6 years when I was a little bit of a thing, I anxiously awaited our return and arrival to the home of my childhood. This trip however was slightly different than our previous stay, as for six years we had lived in a house like any other Puerto Ricano family. My Dad however thought that we needed a little more spice added to our life so he bought a boat, we packed up, and headed off without a shake down cruise. Having owned various other floating devices for the entirety of my short life, Daddy and Alan thought that there couldn't be that much difference in the small fishing boats that we had owned to the 41ft cruiser that our family was now abiding. So we headed off, Island hopping through the Bahamas and dodging hurricane Ogla which followed us around offering a few waves here and there and blocking our escape inside the harbor of Long Island. Here we spent 4 days fruitlessly trying to escape, but each day driven back into the safety of the harbor. Finally God blessed our efforts and we were able to pass through and we continued on our way. As it would take 3 blogs to tell of all our adventures and they would probably bore you, I'll just stick to the fascinating things. I remember at the island of Staniel Cay, Mama, Daddy, and Alan went diving in the Thunderbolt underwater caves which were in some famous movie that I can't recollect at the moment. We girls hovered near the dingy refusing to enter as it was a pretty tricky entrance. If I can remember right, you had to swim against the current which had been pushed between two islands, and then between two giant rocks that you had to swim inbetween. From there Alan would haul us under water to duck under the wall of the cave and we would reappear inside a most beautiful cave! We girls huddled in the middle of the cave expecting any moment to be devoured by sharks as Alan and Mama, and Daddy explored. There was a wide whirlwind type current that surrounded the cave swirling fish and humans if you got caught, 'round and 'round the perimeter of the walls. We girls survived and returned to our boat thanking God for our deliverance. (We girls though raised and bred on an island are much 'afeared of sharks. LOL) As we girls scrambled up onto the back of the boat we turned as Mama fell into the water. Normally this isn't a problem but as I already stated there was an unusually stron current due to the fact that the ocean was forced between two islands. Mama had her mask on and her fins in her hand so she stuck her face down in the water so as to aid in putting on her fins when she started screaming and yelling "Shark!" As we peered into the crystal clear water we girls watched in horror as the enemy of our dreams swam noncholantly beneath her. Even though it was the size of mama it paid her no mind and kept swimming for the pier. The locals have this weird tradtition of throwing the well...intrails of their daily catch back into the ocean which signals sharks, rays, and puffer fish, that dinner is ready! They swarm about 5 o clock and we have video footage of the sharks and rays fighting over the bits of raw flesh. This is very intersting and exciting when you are out of the water, and we kids soon learned to exit the pleasures of the water 'round dinner time. LOL. Staniel Cay also proved to provide one more tale of which was particularly very amusing. We soon found that our mansion of the seas was by far the smallest sea going vessel out and about 'sides the locals fishing dingy's. Anyways it was not uncommon for us to be tied up beside a 100 footer all shiny and white with a crew of 5 including, captain, two hands, cook, and laundress. Our family had all of the above, yep, Rachie, Alan, Beth, Mama, Daddy and I were all the crew that our little vessel could boast. LOL. Well, we soon got used to seeing such luxury to the point that we quit running to stare at some floating hotel pass by and continued in our duties. One sunny day we noticed an elderly couple with their daughter meandering our way where we were playing on the beach. The couple sat down beside Mama and the little girl joined us in the water. As we started talking the little girl told us about all the things that she had been doing that morning. It consisted to our astonishment of sitting in a class room aboard her 180 ft yacht doing lessons with her private tutor! We girls stood stunned. Imagine, your in the Bahamas, sharks, sparkeling crystal clear water, caves, and the run of a whole island to explore and she had spent her morning working at a desk! I guess that Mama thought that Marine Biology was enough for us and we had a good laugh back at the boat when mama told us what she had heard from the parents. The couple had been astounded that we were actually living on only a 41 ft cabin cruiser, and that we didn't have a cook, or a captain, or a tutor. LOL. Ahhh...homeschooling!