A Christmas Update
A brief update, it's been a long while
Merry Christmas, everyone!
It’s been a long time, and I really want to get into a regular cadence, but things have been super busy for us for a while. Since it will be a bit before I get into anything of length, we just wanted to let our families and friends know, we’re alive, we’re safe, we’re in the Bahamas.
We checked in on December 5th at Lucaya in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. We got locked into the marina for a couple of weeks waiting for a weather window. So did a lot of other people. When it finally opened, it was a mass exodus heading south.
As I write this, we’re anchored at Bond’s Cay waiting on a weather window to sail south to West Bay, New Providence. We’ll be there either Christmas Eve or Christmas, depending on the weather and/or our appetite for a couple of hours of less than champagne sailing.
Communicating with us
Communication with the states is always a bit of a pain for us. We typically use Mint Mobile, which is perfect for us in the States, but utterly useless if you’re abroad for more than a week. Last year, we picked up a SIM card for the Bahamas that would let us make international calls, but that was less reliable and almost as expensive.
This year, we’re caving in to the crowd and giving what everyone else does around here a shot. We got an eSIM with a data-only international plan. The pros are that the cost is reasonable, I pay only for what I use, it never expires, and with one or two exceptions, it works in every country in the Caribbean.
The con, which everyone deals with here, is that we need to use an app to communicate. WhatsApp is the standard that most people seem to use. I’ve even seen WhatsApp numbers on local business cards right beside the telephone number.
Because you can only call other WhatsApp users, it means that anyone who wants to call us directly needs to use WhatsApp. Not everyone wants to install a new app for the occasional phone call to 2 people, and we get it. I’d find it annoying too.
Having said that, if you want to get in touch, you can obviously reach us through Substack. Debbie can send and receive texts through her regular number (I can only receive, not send, due to the new eSIM). Facebook is an option, but we’re on that less often. Email is always an option, of course, and finally, if you already use WhatsApp, or you’re interested enough to install and set it up, you can call us directly on WhatsApp. For what it’s worth, it’s pretty trivial to set up.