Potty Training Success and Farewell to STX - May 28, 2020

We have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days here in St Croix, but on Saturday it will be time to start our passage North. Although the Bahamian waters are closed to sea traffic, we have received special permission from the Bahamian government under their Safe Passage program to transit their waters on our journey to Ft Lauderdale. Saturday morning after a couple of administrative details, we will weigh anchor and start the next part of our adventure.

Gurty continues to be a model guest, for the most part. We made a rookie mistake yesterday and left her to her own devices while we went on a short SCUBA dive. It started as a snorkel, and we were keeping our eye on her, then we decided to burn off the remainder of the air from yesterday’s tanks, so we grabbed the tanks and descended for a quick dive. We did shut the salon door and kept her topside but that still gave her plenty of leeway for fun. She entertained herself by shopping through the garbage can (which, in her defense was so full that the lid was not fully shut and was just too tempting – so that was our fault, really) and also for some reason, by moving our passport photos that are required for our Divemaster processing from the cockpit table to the bow. Maybe she was trying to deliver them to our friends aboard Lucky Me for us. Not sure why she chose to take those to the bow. Fortunately, they weren’t damaged and didn’t blow away, so all was ok. Don’t mind the light teeth marks, PADI. This afternoon when we dive, we’ll put her in her house and give her a toy to keep her occupied while we are away.

In preparation for our passage, I am working on getting some meals together that will be nice and easy to assemble underway. So far I have made the aforementioned green chicken curry (I have 4 servings frozen and ready to re-heat), home made granola, today I will be making some chicken pot pie filling to freeze and I really should make a lasagna, but I haven’t done that yet. This is in addition to lunch meat for sandwiches, tuna and eggs for salads, and lots of other stuff. We could use some more fresh veggies and will see if the small local market has anything that we might be interested in. I really should also make a sour dough starter so we can have a treat of pizza one night on the passage. On passage there is really not too much going on (at least that’s true in an ideal situation), so it’s really good to have a nice meal to look forward to. We’ll have to figure out a way to exercise as well. That’s easier said than done, but this is a downwind passage, so we are hoping for the best.

Miss Gurty hit a HUGE milestone today and successfully pottied in the appropriate place on board all on her own! It was a massive accomplishment since at sea, she will absolutely have to go aboard. There will be zero shore options. Once we leave here her paws will not touch ground until Florida. You could tell she still felt guilty and felt like she had done wrong since she went on the boat but we PRAISED and PRAISED and gave treats and pets and hugs and were very excited, so hopefully she figures out that even though it’s counter to her instincts it is what she needs to do in this situation. Dogs figure it out, but she is definitely a little confused about it. She really wants to please and we were THRILLED that she is getting it! We knew she would!

Tonight we had a farewell happy hour aboard a gorgeous Lagoon Seventy 7 (OMG, Boat Envy …) and we took homemade fried won tons and pulled pork sliders to contribute to the snacks. It was lots of fun and it’s going to be sad to say goodbye to all of our quarantine buddies, but we are already looking forward to getting back and seeing them next season.