It's springtime here in the Pacific Northwest. Living on a hill--which might be tall enough to count as a mountain if it were some other places--I get to enjoy the flowering plum trees and daffodils in town well before my own flowers open up. It's gorgeous, with the bright yellows, hot pinks, sultry purples and snow-like white petals on display during moments of sun and blue skies crowded with fluffy clouds. And the next moment a shadow falls and then there's hail rattling on the roof and jumping around on the ground, forming pockets of crystalline white that rapidly melt away. 

As beautiful as all that may be, my mind is still back in the Bahamas. I was invited to stay on a gorgeous sailing boat, a Catalina 350. I jumped at the chance. During my week on board I was essentially camping on the water. Meals were canned foods, pasta, boxed meals. Snacks were protein bars and landjaeger. I shrugged off the fact that the water on the boat didn't taste great, because we were in the Bahamas on a sailboat. I felt lucky. I was very, very happy. I was with my husband again--he'd been on the sailboat for months, helping his friend get to the Bahamas--and we were in love and we were in paradise with our friend on his amazing, magical boat.

Sunset in the Bahamas. A nearby catamaran is silhouetted near the horizon by an impending sunset.

There was some weather during some of our time at sea. Fortunately I had brought with me some anti-motion-sickness patches and never once felt unwell. I thought the bouncing around might keep me awake at night, but it never got rough enough to throw me against the ceiling (the ceiling in the berth we had was pretty low so I wouldn't have had far to go) and I slept really, really well. And, of course, when I woke up I was still in paradise with the man I loved.

Pictures try to do the waters of the Bahamas justice, but they can't. Sometimes the water looked iridescent, with violet, green, gold, silver and navy tones shimmering over the classic aquamarine waters. The gradient from the soft white sand to the pale blue green near the shore, to aquamarine, to rich, warm blue to deepest navy held me mesmerized. And then at sunset, or sunrise, the colors glowed over all those blues. I'm shocked I didn't go blind from staring at it so long every morning and evening.

It was winter (hence the storms) and so it never got really warm. I didn't have a single sweaty day, though I don't mind sweating and basking in the heat. It was warm enough for my purposes, though. I'd get up, dress into a bathing suit, brush my teeth, have a protein bar and some tea for breakfast, and then swim. I did some snorkeling, which was awesome and I got to see parrot fish and surf perch and loads of tropical fish that I couldn't name, and conch, but just being in comfortably cool water was awesome and I wouldn't have cared if I never saw a thing. Just floating in the sea near the boat, just being there, was enough.

So I felt really spoiled when I saw wild dolphins making a run toward a storm front where there would be good fishing for them. And I felt spoiled when we were invited to another boat hanging out in the same bay on the same Cay (there were about a half dozen of us) for cocktails, and spoiled when we went to another boat for a birthday party. We were invited for dinner, too. We were part of a little community that watched out for each other, took care of each other, and played together. Three of the boats, including ours, had dogs, and so at times a dingy would pull up to our boat and ask if Arya (the dog on our boat) would want to go play on the beach for a while with their dog. Of course she would. Everyone was just so nice to us. I felt like I couldn't possibly be nice enough to them to repay their kindness.

When I wasn't swimming, I was writing, or reading. But writing on a computer wasn't something I could do just any time. We relied on solar. Which meant I could only replenish my batteries during the day. If I stayed plugged in at night, I'd be depleting the stores the boat needed for critical operations. And I couldn't just plug in first thing in the morning. The batteries had to be charged to a certain point before we could afford luxuries like charging up computers and phones. So I had to pay attention to my battery use. But I didn't mind. Because the owner had so many interesting books to choose from, and I had only a week to finish the one I picked. I managed to do it just in time.

Our time there went by so fast. So fast. And now it's gone. All I have are a few pictures and some memories. And yet the experiences linger in my heart and have soaked into my soul. 

This is why I love travel. It isn't even about unwinding or getting away from it all. It's about experiences.

More please. More. Because life is too short, and it goes by so fast. So fast. And then it'll be gone, and all that will remain of me are a few pictures, and some memories ...