Bahamas or Newport?

The Bahamas are different in many ways from Newport, Rhode Island. One difference is that fish are more colorful then in Newport. Another is that the water is more clear than in the northeast. Even in the winter it is 80 degrees outside in the Bahamas while Newport can snowy and icy.

Barracuda

Fish in the Bahamas have more bright colors. Others are scary like barracuda. Barracudas are curious and they like to show off their sharp teeth and get close to you. If you want to scare them back, just shout "COOODAH!!!" and they will go away. The reefs look more like paradise with lots of colorful fish and corals. The reefs near Newport are in colder murkier water and tend to have more rocks, barnacles and mussels instead of bright corals.

Me snorkeling in clear blue water

In the murky waters of the northeast you cannot see as deeply because the water has more life in it and is a green color. The water color in the Bahamas is a clear blue and you can see coral reefs above and below. You can see sand bars that go for miles. You can even see sea turtles and Man o` war. Man o` war is a big jellyfish that can sting.

 Man o` war have very long tentacles sail on top of the water

top of the water with their sail 
Bahamas are really different from the northeast, but both are great places to be. Newport is really fun to because you can go sledding in the winter. The Bahamas are fun because I can swim every day. I even had a beach party on my winter birthday. I love both Newport and the Bahamas.

Who wants to know?

In this post I want to answer some questions that my classmates have for me.

Matthew wants to know:  Where are you sailing to next?

Our possible route to Beaufort or Charlston

We are in Gainesville, Florida right now. The boat is at Fernandina Beach right near a paper factory. My dad says we will  leave Saturday afternoon and sail all night so that we can arrive in Port Royal Sound (Near Beaufort, SC) in the late morning (about 90 nautical miles). If the weather holds we will keep going to Charleston (another 55 nautical miles). We need to be safely anchored when the next cold front comes through on Sunday night. 

Mason asked:  Will you bring some shark teeth to school when you get back?

I have a lot of shark teeth to bring home and to school.

Brooke asked:  Did you get pictures of the sharks circling the fishermen?No, but they were cleaning all the fish parts the fishermen did not want and that is what the sharks were eating.

Homeschool rocks!

People are wondering about my homeschool experience. I have fun doing homeschool and the blog I am writing right now is part of it.  I will keep doing homeschool until April. It is really fun to have a blog to show the homeschool chapter of my life.

Learning about flowing water, how dams work and how erosion happens

I really liked learning about animals and places I have seen. Most of the time, I think homeschool is more fun then regular school. I get chances to make new friends and see interesting things. For example, the ruins of the Carnegie mansion in Cumberland Island had a fascinating history (I just used a thesaurus to look up "fascinating").

I learned all about sharks in Cumberland Island and I keep learning about them. They are very interesting creatures. I even saw sharks circling where men were fishing. I saw many pictures of wierd sharks. Some sharks look like coral.

Homeschool is great and I am learning a lot. I would like to learn more about fish. I saw two sea turtles one was a loggerhead turtle. I think you would learn a lot more about nature homeschooling. I am having a great time!

Treasure! Argh!

this is not the cave but it looks like it.

Me and my family decided to bury some treasure. We  buried it in a cave which we named Deadmans cave. There is a hidden part with soil that is really easy to dig in. I even saw animal tracks.

We built a beach fire later that day. We roasted sausages and put sweet potatoes in the fire. I saw many strange animals that day. I sure had fun!

I think the cave we that buried our treasure in had pirates hiding out where their ship crashed onto the rocks. They recovered some of their treasure from the sunken wreck and hid it in the cave. Our part of the cave was hidden by a cone rock formation that hid the cave from view.

fun for all!

My sister and me in the dingy

We are having a great time! My birthday was February 9th. We had a party on the beach. My dad made a delicious chocolate cake. After that me and some kids made a fire. We threw old school books in and made the fire huge! I got really cool presents from kids I met that day like a huge shark tooth and 5 Bahamian dollars! We even had a egg toss and a egg race.

This birthday was extra special because we were in the Bahamas. It was the first time I had a birthday where I could swim and play on the beach, since it is much warmer here than in Newport. Making new friends from all over the world is fun and interesting. I will always remember my ninth birthday!

Burning used up Calvert School manuals

My birthday cake

Egg toss on the beach

Bahamian School!

We spent a week in Black Point. I went to school for a day.

In Black Point, Exumas, there is a little village road that my sister and I rode our scooters on. In school I studied Bahamian cultures, superstitions (like never point your finger at a grave or it will rot), earth's natural resources and we wrote letters. We also studied regrouping in math. There is one class room with boards separating it into two rooms. There was a preschool and grades 1-3 on one side and older kids on the other. Everyone dressed in green uniforms and there was an old trampoline.

There were lots of tanks of fresh water that is made by reverse osmosis, just like Lyra's water. The villagers are very kind to share their water and other resources with cruising boats. There were some nice men that played ball with the children. All of the adults are nice and someone is always watching out for the kids when we were playing outside.

At last! At last!

In this picture, I am snorkeling on the Banks.
It was very hot so we stopped and swam.

At last we are at the Bahamas! It`s really warm out so we have to go swimming. I got fins and a  snorkel for Christmas. I go swimming almost every day. I also see a lot of coral reef which is so beautiful.
I am writing this from Georgetown Exumas right now. To get here, we had to stop in Nassau to clear in. Customs keeps track of all visiting boats and inspects them.

This is us sailing across the Yellow Banks. You can see our
self steering on the back of the boat. It steers the boat for us.

From Nassau, we crossed the Yellow Banks. We had to do it in daylight so that we could see where we were going. You can through the water to coral heads and other cool sea creatures.

My dad let us relax in the sail on the way to Allen's Cay. My sister stayed up there for hours!

Matanzas Adventure!

my sister sifting

For Christmas me and my sister got sifters which my Dad made. My sister Juliana took her`s to all the beaches. She found a lot of shells and a couple shark teeth.

the shells left over

Juliana and I found a lots of things in our sifters oyster shells, clam shells and shark teeth.

the tidal pool 

me making a sand girl

   At Matanzas inlet I did a lot of sculpting in the sand I called all the girls I did sand girls. I learned that the rough waves can get in some place but not others.  

Cumberland island here we come!

Cumberland island is really fun! I found so many shark's teeth so did my family we found big ones and little ones. My mom found the jackpot it was huge (the right by my sisters hand)! The black shark teeth are fossils and are between 3 and 6 million years old.

Sharks lose teeth all of the time so that they can grow in new ones. The teeth become fossils if they are covered by sediment immediately - as the tooth dissolves minerals replace the original material.  We found most of the shark's teeth on spoil islands. These are made when they dig the channel for giant submarines as the bottom is moved to the side of the channel by dredges.

Can you find the shark tooth on this spoil island beach?*

This mansion is in ruins. It dates from the Gilded Age, just like our mansions in Newport. You can't go inside this one because the mansion might break even more when you are inside. Newport's mansions might look like this if they had not been kept up. This one belonged to Andrew Carnegie and is called Dungeoness.

My sister and I got to ride on the beach

Me and my family even saw wild horses they were so cool! But we did not get close enough to get any good pictures. There was also a trail to the beach. On the road you could also find shark's teeth.

In this picture I am driving my Grandma to the beach

The boardwalk to the beach has a telescope. My sister and I went crazy for them!

A sunset taken from Lyra at Cumberland Island. I love all of the pretty colors that glow. It reminds me of the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" with a piece of butter on top of mashed potatoes.

My sister inching along a live oak branch

The entire family climbing in a live oak tree. My dad used to climb this tree when he was a little older than me.

*The tooth is the black triangular object in the middle bottom of the photograph

Beaufort SC Adventures

To get to our destination we went on the intra coastal waterway (ICW). It was really fun! We went through lots and lots of marsh. We were coloring wile my dad was driving the boat. We wore harnesses.

Our navigation is set up on our tablet and computer and there's a lots of marsh on those maps! We anchored not far from land. We went exploring in the dingy, we saw dolphins too!

Beaufort is just as fun as Charleston! We went exploring and we went into a really cool looking toy store I got a rock for digging crystals and my sister got a duck quacker. The duck quacker my sister got was so funny! She would go outside and blow in it all day long!

We are homeschooling. We study math, reading, writing, science and geography. I learn about the different kinds of animals that we see along the way, such as herons, cormorants, pelicans, dolphins, sand pipers and ancient sharks.

Charleston Ahoy!

My first watch

We left Southport on Thanksgiving day. When we were sailing I saw dolphins and plankton at nighttime! It was beautiful. I stood my first watch ever. Standing watch means taking care of the boat while it is under way. I made sure we were still on course and kept a lookout for other boats and objects on the water. There is a remote that lets me steer by talking to autopilot. My first watch was one hour. It was fun to be responsible for the boat and it felt like I had a lot of privileges.

My first sunset at sea

Charleston is amazing! When we got on land  we went to the market I saw people weaving baskets. I saw other stuff to like butterflies and jewelry. Then we went to a Charleston grocery store called Harris Teeter's. It was huge!