I stood on the deck as my husband gripped the helm of our 41 foot sailboat. Below, our daughters, Rachel and Hannah stowed the last of the provisions and made sure all the bags as well as anything else that could move around, was secured. Ray yelled for our sons, Keegan and Tanner, and our niece Abi to release the lines from the dock and with quick precision they followed his command. Thus began our Bahamas adventure in the summer of 2010. So many struggles had led up to this one point and for a long time I never thought it would be possible. However, here we were, seven crazy people with one crazy dream…..the dream to save our family! 
On July 21st, 2009, Ray and I got the worst call imaginable! His son had been shot by his ex-wife! Tanner was just 15 years old and lay in the hospital with gunshot wounds to the left arm and the chest. Since his divorce in 2006, Ray’s ex-wife refused to let his younger children see him, talk to him or have any part of his life. I had never even met Tanner but that was going to change in a heartbeat! We drove from Punta Gorda, FL for eleven hours to reach Anderson, SC. When we got to Tanner, his arm was bandaged, his wounds were cleaned, but the emotional scarring would just start to form. I was a woman that he had only heard horrible things about and now I was holding him as he screamed out for understanding… understanding that I could not give him! He was so afraid and rightfully so as the bullet seemed to miraculously stop before entering his chest. The woman that he had called mother for 15 years had pointed a .38 at him and pulled the trigger!!! Why??? Because she could not keep him from loving his dad, so she sought to end his life. This story is not about her though. Its about Tanner and Keegan, Hannah and Rachel as well as myself and my wonderful husband.. our captain, Ray!! We were awarded permanent custody of Tanner and one week after his brush with death, we brought him home to a new life. 
Tanner had never met his new sisters, but they quickly showed him that he was now part of their family. We had a three bedroom condo and Hannah (13) gave her room to Tanner and slept on the floor of Rachel’s room. We meshed into a new family without the awkwardness that usually accompanies blended families. I think mostly because I never thought of Tanner as my step-son. I squeezed his hand during his surgery, changed his bloody bandages, held his head while he violently reacted to the pain medication and loved him so much that my heart almost burst with grief! I wanted to take away his pain and though I am a loving person to almost everyone, I hated the woman who had inflicted such pain on a child…. my child! We went through some horrible endeavors as a new family. My husband had lost so much time from work which put us in a financial bind. We got behind on our rent and to our dismay; the landlord evicted us after only two months of being a little late! We were now without a home with three teenagers and nowhere to go and no money to get there. Thankfully we had wonderful family members who gave and gave without expecting anything in return! My wonderful Mother-in-law gave us money to put as a deposit on a new rental home. Sadly, she also passed away three days before Thanksgiving and never got to see our new house! She also left us some money so that we could mend our new family. We were able to pay off what was behind and save some money for a family adventure! We circled dates on the calendar and dubbed it the Bradford/Harris 2010 summer adventure. Two weeks before we left, our son Keegan called to ask if he could join us on the sail. The elation was unimaginable!! All of our kids would be with us along with my 19 year old niece Abi. So fast forward to June of 2010 and there we all were… all seven of us, aboard NuTrix our 41 foot sailboat bound for the Bahamas. Not many things can heal such wounds, but we were determined, full of love, dreams and hope and nothing was going to stop us!
Isak Dinesen once said that the cure for anything is salt: sweat, tears or the sea. In the canal outside of our new home, floated all three cures, together, in one. Here on land it is too easy to find somewhere to go to escape each other, to build walls and hide away from problems, but out at sea on a 41 foot boat there’s nowhere to go but to each other. When we told the kids about our pending trip, they all took to the idea more quickly than I expected. Each of us had an idea of what this trip would be, but I don’t think any of us knew what would transpire during our three week adventure. We left our dock and ventured out into Charlotte Harbor. As we rounded the point, our friends Wes and Sabine waved bonvoyage from Ponce De Leon park. They called on our cellphone and laughed that the water line on NuTrix was almost at the deck. With seven people and all our provisions, we could believe it!! The first night we found our way into Pelican Bay and anchored off the shoreline of Cayo Costa. It was so hot but the evening sky was beautiful so we piled into our dingy and headed to shore for a swim. Soon the mosquitos found us and the kids started running up and down the shore, quickly ducking into the water to escape being eaten alive. Ray and I decided it was better that we head back to the boat before it got too dark. We had to make two trips because we could only hold four in our dinghy. In a brotherly gesture, the boys decided that the girls should go back first to get out of the growing mosquito population. Back aboard NuTrix, I doled out calamine lotion to everyone and waited for the complaints of heat, bites, too much sun and overcrowded sleeping arrangements, but to my surprise all I heard was, “what do we have to eat!” No one complained…. No one!!!! Our first day was a success and I thought maybe this was really going to work!!
The next day, Ray was up early with Keegan and Abi. They used the spotlight to pick our way out of Pelican Bay. It’s a wonderful harbor but the water shallows very quickly from nine feet to two feet. We didn’t want to spend our second day aground!! Even with our GPS, Ray likes to use his eyes or in this case our son’s eyes! When we were out of the bay, Keegan and Ray raised our headsail and as the sun rose, NuTrix took our family through Boca Grande cut and out into the Gulf. The sun soon was high overhead and the winds were light so we had to get help from our engine. Ray was slightly worried about our batteries that were lower than they should have been. With the engine running to top off the batteries, everyone came topside to enjoy the breeze and watch for dolphins. It was a long run from Boca Grande pass to the 10,000 islands but we did it. The sun was just dipping to the horizon when we came upon Indian Key. I took the helm and Hannah, Keegan and Tanner pulled in the sails. I watched them pull together, grabbing the lines and successfully rolling in the headsail. They worked as a team!! Ray and Keegan then went forward to drop the anchor. Rachel helped me get our dinner ready which was marinated chicken, pasta salad and carrots. Because of the heat, we all ate in the cockpit. Again, there was no complaints only happy chatter about the days adventures. We let the kids pick the music, sadly they are not jazz fans, but this was all about compromise and learning each other’s likes and dislikes. Rachel talked about how many pages she had read that day, Tanner and Keegan discussed trying to fish later. Hannah and I laughed at Abi’s attempt to exercise on the deck.
We pulled up anchor early the next morning and pointed NuTrix south towards the Keys. It was a HOT and windless day, but excitement built as the water went from the dark mangrove tinted brown to a brilliant blue! With music playing, we approached the Channel Five bridge. The sun was starting to set so we decided to drop anchor in Jewfish Hole on the gulf side of the bridge. We were totally out of ice, so Ray, Keegan, Rachel and Abi decided to dingy ashore and search for a bag or two. Nothing was opened!! As they were motoring around, a couple from the KOA campground flagged them down and gave them a bag of ice from their camper. We will forever be grateful to the wonderful couple who allowed us to have cold drinks on a hot summer evening! Jewfish Hole is a nice anchorage on the Gulf side of Channel Five bridge. The holding is excellent and it is very quiet. We settled in for a quiet evening of fishing, listening to music and of course, EATING!!! With five young adults on board, food is a necessity and constantly asked for! We keep cards and board games on board which with the lack of TV and internet fast became a favorite pastime. I made a nice dinner of hamburgers and baked beans and to my complete surprise all of our crew helped clean the galley!! Then we all went up on deck, opened the cookies and watched the stars. Our captain told us stories of his younger days sailing with his friend, Hank. We listened and laughed at the tales of sailing with no engine, sneaking on to cruise ships for free food, finding cannons on the bottom of the ocean, getting attacked by flying fish and other crazy stories of life on the sea. Ray and I sat on our deck chairs and quietly gave thanks that so far the, "yours and mine" had meshed into the "ours". Captain Ray, with the help of Keegan made an inspection of NuTrix and deemed us safe for the night. After a long day trip, great food and wonderful stories, we all fell fast into our bunks and let the soft breeze lull us into a deep sleep.
The next morning, Ray and I quietly pulled anchor and turned NuTrix into the gulfstream. The sun was playing with the horizon and all was still and quiet. Ray took my hand and smiled. We had a 10 hour crossing to the Bahamas, 10 hours of nothing but ocean, nothing to pull us apart, nothing but each other. We had truly found the cure..... salt, in the water, in the sweat and in the tears. We had two wonderful weeks in Bimini with our family. We snorkeled and swam, found treasures and dreamed of riches. Working together got us anchored, together, we caught our dinner, together we kept our boat cleaned and safe, together we took on life and together we won!!! We explored a different world that what we knew and we all came away changed for the better. That summer on our sailboat, will always hold a special place in my heart. We left Florida on a crazy quest and we came home a family! We have added three new members to our crew since 2010 and getting ready to add one more this summer. No matter what life throws at us or where it takes us, I know that we can handle it..... I found that summer that life on the sea is a wonderful place to be.
