Even though we are living on a sailboat, technically not working (the 9-5), we sure aren’t sitting around sipping rum and cokes and basking in the sun all day long. Quite to the contrary, being onboard with small children, or anywhere with small children, has made it that our lives are rather scheduled. Now nothing is set in stone and the hours may flex here and there, but our average day looks quite like this.
6am : Our girls usually start the day with the sun, the baby starts wiggling around. It doesn’t take her long to wake Arias up since she needs a partner in play, and Eben and I are trying to catch any last seconds of sleep possible as they climb all over us. Eben gets up with them, gets them their first and second breakfasts, and entertains them until I get up. I am usually up nearing round three of food, yes our daughters are like little hobbits and eat astronomical amounts of food in the morning, and mooch off of everyone else’s breaky too.
8:30am : We all pile into the dinghy and head towards town. There’s the walk down the pier, past our local “colmado” around the dirt corner, and up the neighboring street to arias’ school. She is there Monday through Thursday  (another schedule we need to remember, meaning we have to keep track of what day of the week it is, not easy for us.) Even though its still early it’s already hot out and you aim to walk on the shady side of the street, if there is one.
9-11am : Arias is at school, and we are either at the beach with Ellia, trying to stay cool, or using these couple of hours with only one child to get errands or small boat jobs done. These are our most productive hours. 
11 am : Pick Arias up from school and walk to the nearest store to buy what we are lacking for lunch and supper. We have our regular fruit and vegetable shop that we hit up for all produce, which usually arrives on Mondays and dwindles down from there, and we have another store that we go to for our meats and dried goods. Unfortunately the second store is at the far end of Luperon, which isn’t that big, but at this hour you want to be avoiding the sun and heat as much as possible. Walking there and back to the dinghy means we are all covered in sweat and in need of an immediate rest. Dinghy rides are probably the point where we feel coolest, not attitude but heat, since we can drive fast enough to catch a breeze. We often joke about dinghying around all day.
Noon : Naptime. Both girls still nap, which I love. I fear the day Arias will stop napping, it is such a wonderful time to relax or be productive, depending on the day. The girls usually nap for an hour and a half, during which I either nap with them, do blog stuff, or clean (usually in that order of priority). Eben uses this time for boat projects, such as today he has pulled out the sewing machine, or he is prepping lunch. (Eben does almost all of the cooking on our boat. We both enjoy cooking but he finds it to be a nice time to unwind, relax, and be creative with our food.)
1:30 -2:30pm : Lunch time. Yes it usually takes us an hour to get done eating, that is mostly because Arias seems to be the slowest eater ever. At first we thought that maybe it was because we were letting her watch a show while she ate and she was too distracted to keep a normal eating rhythm going, so we took the shows away and instead she just talked the entire time, still not eating any quicker. Sometimes it can be completely painful watching the pace at which she eats.
2:30 – 5pm : This is playtime or land time, with variations of course. But most of the time we are coloring, doing play dough, reading books, playing with blocks, etc. Or if we are doing land time we either driving around discovering new places, or returning to old ones that had fun activities for the whole family, like a new beach or playpark, or we are at the local drinking holes, either Wendy’s bar or JR’s, hanging out in the shade of the bar, with refreshing drinks and friends to hang out with. If we didn’t go to the beach in the morning this is often the alternate time we may go, the beach gets visited almost daily. These girls love it and it gives them time to run around, release some energy, and explore the world around them.
5pm : Back to the boat to prep supper and start the winding down process for the girls. While Eben makes supper I feed Ellia her meal (she eats before us since she goes to be earlier), and do schoolwork with Arias. For Arias we either do homework she was given that day or we do one of her educational activity books of which she has many.
6pm : Ellia gets ready for bed, brushing teeth, showering, changing clothes, reading a book, and then laying down on her own. (the sleep training is new to her, she was nursed to sleep and coslept up until a month ago, and now she is getting used to falling asleep on her own. She is not always a fan, and the neighboring boats have to endure her for about 5-10 minutes most evenings).
6:30 – 8pm : This is when we sit down for supper. After Arias has finished up (an hour later) she gets to watch a show. Depending how long the show ran she either goes straight to bed when it’s done or she gets one-on-one reading time with her Papa. Then she is off to bed and the boat is quiet.
8-9pm : Eben and I do our own things, he is usually playing some sort of game on one ipad while I am on the other checking emails, Facebook, blog, etc. it is our winding down time, and time to geek it out.
9pm: Movies and drinks. We snuggle up in the vberth, kick up our feet, and watch a show of the latest episode we are on and relax with our drinks and snacks. We spend a couple hours doing this until one of us, usually me, gets too tired to keep going, and then we crash. 
It’s an odd thought that we keep such a schedule even though we are living on a boat in the tropics, but these schedules are what keep our girls happy and thus keeps us all sane.