A Day in the Life (1/3)

Following on from the popular series of posts about life mid-Ocean, Gesa has written about one day in our life together here on board. There's not a 'typical' day, really, but this one is as close as it gets, as we try to maintain some semblance of daily life with shopping, school and other activities. We're not sailing on this day, which is fairly typical - we spend more time staying put than sailing places. Anyway, here's part the first - up till 10am

A Day in the Life of Ty Dewi and her crew. Location, Deshaies, Guadeloupe, French West Indies.

5am I wake up to the sound of rain and do my usual rounds of closing hatches and checking on kids before falling back into bed

6am The church bell at Deshaies tolls!!!! And the cockerel crows. A few minutes later, Max crawls into bed with Mummy and Daddy.

7am Nick and Max wake up, dress, and go on a morning adventure. Issie is still fast asleep and I am too exhausted from a very vivid dream to get up just yet!

730am Nick and Max return from their trip ashore to dispose of the rubbish and visit the bakery for fresh baguette and pain au chocolat (we are back in French territory!!) Issie is busy drawing mermaids while I have started to plan for today's 'Reading' lesson, having been too tired to prepare it last night.

8pm Breakfast on deck, which included our French finds as well as fresh pineapple and coffee (mocha for me, with proper foamed milk, although UHT!). Max shouts 'Look turtle!' Nick immediately dismisses his sighting, Issie follows suit, while I quickly scan the water, and sure enough, there is a turtle out making his rounds of the bay!! We also watch as all the boats slowly disappear from the bay and head off to their next destination. We expect the early departures are heading back to Antigua.

830am I escape back down below to finish preparing my lesson, while Nick tidies breakfast, does the dishes and the children clean their face, hands and brush their teeth (note: I have yet to accomplish any of this!!)

900am, only half an hour behind schedule, Nick takes the kids to the foredeck to do today's register. This records the date (day, month and year) along with the weather and attendance (Issie and Max write their names). Just as they do this, a dinghy approaches us and they suggest a book swap. 'Sure, but can you come back in a couple of hours, we just started school?' This gives me the chance to set up the treasure hunt for the kids, which will be the final part of their reading lesson. I manage to wash my face and brush my teeth before the kids return to start their lesson.

910am Reading lesson starts. Max is introduced to some more new words while Issie finds anything that starts with 'B' for the alphabet book. We stick these in and write them down, Issie reads two more pages of her phonics words and we sing the alphabet. We move on to a rhyming phonics game. A little bit like the card game, 'Fish', but with words. The idea is to match up and make a column of rhyming words like: dad, had, bad, mad or cat, sat, mat, rat. Now, understandably, these are easy for Issie, but she has fun doing it, and it helps Max to learn the words. As the hour draws to a close, Max is starting to fidget, a good time to finish with our treasure hunt. Issie and Max make a great team. Issie reads out the clues, while Max is very clever and figures out where the next clue is. Their reward is some Oreo cookies hidden in the games cupboard.

10am It is now officially snack and play time. Nick in the meantime has prepared his science lesson, and managed a quick trip back to shore to the fish man to purchase an ENORMOUS Tuna steak for today's lunch.

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