​Although Ocean is always suited up for a swim, some of her activities require some extra gear to get the most fun out of everything she does.

Here is her Top Five list of “Must Have” Activity Gear for the Cruising Dog

#1 Sunglasses
These great sunglasses protect Ocean’s eyes from the saltwater spray when we take her around in the dinghy. Oh, and they look pretty cool too!

#2 Dog Ramps
Ocean has two! She has a sturdy one that she uses for swimming off the stern of Wild Horses. That plank won’t work for snorkeling off the dinghy so for that we purchased a Solstice PupPlank. Hot Tip – It also helps us get back in the dinghy too 😉.  ​

#3 Hiking Boots
Trails are not always sandy and smooth! Our hike to the Pool Cave at Farmer’s Cay was full of sharp coral rocks. We needed our running shoes and Ocean needed her hiking boots. Problem solved!

#4 Fitted Lifejacket
Ocean wears her lifejacket whenever she swims off the boat or off the dinghy. Styling as always!

#5 Paddleboard
This is one piece of gear that we haven’t yet purchased. Thankfully our buddy boat Caretta let Ocean borrow one of theirs. Ocean isn’t quite in love with this piece of gear yet but give her time!​

What else?

Our time in the Exumas hasn’t just been about Ocean. Her staff (aka Me, Mike and our sailing buddies on Caretta) have also enjoyed lots of activities in the Exumas.
​
At Rudder Cay, we got in some great snorkeling.  One of the highlights there is “The Musician”, a full-scale sculpture of a mermaid and a baby grand piano. This was an incredible gift to snorkelers by the illusionist David Copperfield, who owns the nearby island Musha Cay. In 2011, he commissioned the sculpture and then had it sunk in 15 feet of water as a surprise for anyone who happened upon it. These days, its location is well-known and snorkelers, like us, make sure to dive down and get a good look.

​We also took our dinghies over to the nearby Guana Cay to search for conch and see some of the underwater beauty of the area. It was a gorgeous place to snorkel and we were rewarded with several conchs for a feed later that night with our boat buddy Caretta. 

​At Farmer’s Cay, we got a chance to hike to “Pool Cave”. This is a well-formed cave with dripping stalactites and mounds of stalagmites (both are formed calcium salt deposits) as well as a natural swimming pool.

We have done a bit more hiking at Black Point Settlement, getting to see the Atlantic side of the island.

And, yes, a few cool aquatic and land animals have crossed our path.

​Oh and we may have enjoyed a few good meals and a couple of drinks in between it all!

Check out where we are today and where we are headed next!

​George Town has been a wonderful place to relax, stock up on a few things but also to prepare for the next leg of our journey.  We have had very easy days of sleeping in and very full days of hanging out at the beach, hiking the many trails on Stocking Island and exploring George Town and a good portion of Great Exuma Island.

And all of this has been with our pup Ocean alongside.  She has truly made this trip so much more colourful and fun.
​
When we were planning this journey, so many years ago, we knew we would have our dog with us.  We have always sailed with our dog, first Brecken and now Ocean, and they have been nice companions to have along.  But easy?  Well, having a dog on board means extra gear, extra cleaning (the dog hair is no joke!), extra trips to shore and extra worry about safety and comfort.  With this bigger journey, there is also the extra expense and work to meet the requirements for entering a new country.  So far, we have only had to enter the USA and the Bahamas (both were easy) but in the next three months we will be entering and exiting several countries as we make our way south to Grenada.  Many of these countries require a vet check before arriving and another once we have landed, plus a check on her vaccinations and identification.  Plus, a pet permit and, of course, import fees.  Yeesh.  So, is it worth it?  YES!!!

The biggest surprise for us with this journey is how much better it is with Ocean on board.  It is incredible to us how many more people, locals and cruisers alike, that we get to meet because of Ocean.  She always gets attention.  Her size is the biggest draw with locals.  They can’t believe such a big dog is so sweet.  Add to this her beautiful dark fur and a frisbee, well, it is the rare person that walks by without wanting to meet her.  All of this is making her a bit famous.  Our first day in George Town, we were strolling down the street and we heard a shout out to “Ocean!” as a local car passed us.  Wow, we hadn’t even met anyone on shore yet!  Does Ocean enjoy all this attention?  She loves it!  Meeting people is definitely her jam.  She has even started to join in with a good old howl during the evening sundown conch blowing.

A few people have asked some logistical questions about our Ocean girl.  So here is the low down on the top five questions:

How does Ocean get her daily exercise?  Oh my gosh, this is rarely a problem.  She swims, she hikes, she strolls around town.  Long sailing days actually end up being necessary rest days for her.  Time to catch up on some much-needed sleep!

Where does Ocean do her business when we are on a passage?  She has a pee pad at the bow.  She uses this for her nightly business and also when we are on a long passage.

How did we get Ocean to pee on the boat?  Ocean is stubborn so this took a long time and lots of tricks.  We started with collecting Ocean’s pee and pre-scenting a piece of carpet at the bow.  No go.  We then got a fake grass pee pad.  No go.  We even tried waiting her out but, after 41 hours, she peed but on one of our boat cushions.  Geez.  In Miami, we bought two pieces of sod and put them on her pee pad.  Surely, she would go on actual grass?  Nope.  But she did figure out that we wanted her to pee and that she would get a treat if she “looked” like she was peeing.  This started a round of “fake peeing” that we had to correct.  Finally, we took the advice from another sailing couple to “super saturate” her.  Every fifteen minutes we gave her a cup of water with tuna flakes in it and then took her to her pee pad.  It took three hours but she finally did it.  The celebration was huge!  She now consistently goes on her pad, which has made all of us rest much easier. 

What about the salt water?  Yes, salt water is terrible for dogs.  They can’t drink it of course but having it on their skin, fur and paws isn’t good either.  It dries out their paw pads and makes their skin red and itchy.  We always make sure we have lots of fresh water for Ocean to drink, whether we are on shore or on the boat.  She also gets a fresh water rinse off EVERY TIME we return to the boat.  This gets both the salt and sand out of her fur and off her paw pads. 
​
How does Ocean stay safe when we are underway?  She wears her harness or lifejacket and is tethered to the boat.  She also stays only in the cockpit unless the conditions are calm or we are at anchor.  Luckily, Ocean is a very chill sailor.  No matter the conditions, she doesn’t get anxious.  No, she just sleeps.  😊

​In amongst all of this Ocean fun, we are planning and preparing to head further south.  We are watching the weather carefully and have connected with some buddy boats who are also making the same journey.  We hope to find the right weather window to head to Long Island early next week.  After Long Island, we will continue through the southern Bahamas to Great Iguana.  Then we have a 160 nautical mile (30+ hours) to the Dominican Republic.  The journey continues!