MM first crossing

We did it! We successfully sailed 500+ miles as our first crossing with MM. Since we've been back in Australia we've only moved the boat one time and if you remember Mark did it with a friend of ours and MM and I drove the hour north. Other than one quick half hour trip out into Mooloolaba Bay on our friend Mike's boat, MM had not been sailing.

MM's not even 5 months old and he's done over a five hundred mile, four day, crossing. My kid is a champ. It was not the easiest of crossings. First we started off with a bit of crappy weather. We knew that if we didn't head out it would be another week of waiting and if we left right away we could use the storm that was coming in south of us for some good wind to push us north. It worked. We had great speed the whole trip and didn't once think about turning on the engine. This also caused a bumpy first couple of days. All three of us were seasick. I got a little scared when MM got sick because I didn't want him to end up dehydrated and I'm really hoping his sea legs are better than mine. He ended up doing great and keeping down everything he ate after his initial upset. Mark pretty much ran the boat for the first couple of days (he's calling it single-triple handing) and I took care of the baby. MM and I cuddled up in the pilot birth and did the best we could. Even though his entire world was rocking, our "normal" (not that we actually have a normal) routine was shaken, and there was an entire new orchestra of sounds to be heard MM did pretty well. He obviously wasn't feeling well the first day and I could see he was a bit scared with all that was happening around him but he just cozied up next to me and hung on for the ride. By the end of the four days we were doing much better.

I have to say it's pretty hard to be the best mother when you feel like your head is about to explode and you're puking even though you haven't eaten in two days. I felt so horrible not giving him a bath for four days but I couldn't even give myself one on this crossing. It took everything in me to just make sure he had a clean diaper. But have no fear he was adequately fed. On the positive side I think I lost the last of the baby weight. Best diet ever, do a four day crossing, don't eat anything and breastfeed the entire way. My shorts are now falling off. I'll be digging out the scale tomorrow to see where I'm at.

So where are we? The Whitsunday Islands. So far beautiful and much better weather than we've had for the past two months in Mooloolaba. It should be a fun place to explore for the next couple of weeks.