We Thought It Was Seasickness… It Was Dengue

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]Casey lifted the mainsail. I had this feeling in my gut.

[00:00:04]The conditions were already rough and we were heading straight into it. Then, high fevers, body aches, and the boys were completely drained. That's when I realized it wasn't seasickness.

[00:00:19]Welcome back to Finding Our Isla. If you're new here, we're a family of six learning to sail while adventuring through the Caribbean. In this episode, we leave Bequia and battle our way through Caribbean Christmas winds to our final destination of the Pitons.

[00:00:36]We left Bequia early in the morning and began our sail north.

[00:00:41]As we sailed along the coastline of St. Vincent, we were given a little protection from the winds and rough seas.

[00:00:48]Which was so nice. The calmer weather gave Casey and Ashton an opportunity to fix [music] the genoa cars.

[00:00:58]With the winds putting heavy pressure [music] on the sails, the genoa cars were taking a beating.

[00:01:04]And since they help control the position and the tension of our [music] front sail, we knew we needed to fix them before the damage got worse.

[00:01:19]Good.

[00:01:19]>> Captain Casey, we got all the men up here.

[00:01:24]All right, what's our speed?

[00:01:28]All right.

[00:01:31]It's a beautiful day, though.

[00:02:00]>> [music] >> The water [music] is so calm today.

[00:02:15]>> [music] >> This is the island where they filmed the Pirates of the Caribbean.

[00:02:20]>> [music] >> We didn't stop here. We're making our way towards Piton [music] today.

[00:02:40]Well, we knew we wouldn't have uh glass seas forever.

[00:02:46]So, [music] here we are. Coming around the tip.

[00:02:53]How we doing, guys?

[00:02:55]>> [music] >> First sailing.

[00:03:02]Up.

[00:03:04]Woo!

[00:03:06]Up crew.

[00:03:07]I don't love thinking right there.

[00:03:13]>> [music] [music] [music] >> What are we doing, Dad? We need to [music] stop. Okay. Before the storm hits us up.

[00:04:13]Yeah, we don't want that.

[00:04:16]Oh, that's a big storm over there, [music] isn't it?

[00:04:20]Oh, boy.

[00:04:22]That's a doozy.

[00:04:25]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, what I'm learning is you turn into the storm in order to take the sails down. We are not going to feed it and get protection there. So, we're going to have to sit through this storm and just fine.

[00:05:20]>> [music] >> Take it back on track. We are being tested in every way possible.

[00:05:44]We have rain now.

[00:05:45]And we are so close to our destination.

[00:05:50]So, we're probably going to ride out this storm. Hey, crew.

[00:05:59]We're just trying to go there.

[00:06:02]Again, we still don't have steering. So, we're just uh like going to wait this one out, too.

[00:06:10]We're going to hold off on trying to connect to um the mooring ball just until this storm passes. Since we're out here, we're not near anything.

[00:06:21]Not getting control of the boat.

[00:06:24]It's going to be a little bit challenging to manually steer the rudder while we get in there. So, we're hoping to just wait out this quick storm pass over and then go connect.

[00:06:36]Just weathered a storm.

[00:06:38]Getting ready [music] to find a mooring ball.

[00:06:45]There.

[00:06:55]We finally caught sight [music] of the Pitons rising dramatically out of the ocean. The Pitons are two volcanic spires located [music] on the island of St. Lucia.

[00:07:06]And honestly, they almost don't look real.

[00:07:11]They are some of the most iconic landmarks in the entire [music] Caribbean.

[00:07:16]And for sailors arriving here feels really special.

[00:07:21]Especially after fighting through rough seas and [music] strong winds. Seeing them appear on the horizon felt like a huge reward.

[00:07:32]For days, something just felt off with the boys. I kept telling myself that it was seasickness.

[00:07:39]But then came the fevers.

[00:07:41]It was low-grade at first until suddenly they weren't.

[00:07:46]103 plus fevers, body aches, [music] and exhaustion.

[00:07:50]Laying between them through the nights, rotating ice [music] packs, and trying to keep the fevers down.

[00:07:56]Then we heard about the dengue outbreaks and it all made sense.

[00:08:01]Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne [music] virus that's common in tropical areas including parts of the Caribbean.

[00:08:08]It can cause extremely high fevers, intense [music] recovering. [music] Lots of rest, lots of fluids, and trying to keep their fevers under control.

[00:08:27]Their energy was completely drained. As parents, it [music] was hard watching them go through it while being so far from what felt familiar.

[00:08:36]But slowly, day by day, they started getting stronger again.

[00:08:46]While the boys were recovering from dengue, we started taking things slowly.

[00:08:50]We took turns staying back on the boat, checking in on who was feeling up for what. And everything slowed down for a little while.

[00:08:57]But in between recovery and rest, we were still able to explore the incredible beauty of the Pitons. And honestly, the snorkeling here became some of my favorite that we've experienced so far. The water was crystal clear, filled with colorful reef fish, and dramatic underwater landscapes right beneath those towering volcanic peaks.

[00:09:29]Did you get it, Lily?

[00:09:32]It's all water.

[00:09:33]It's all water.

[00:09:43]It's all water.

[00:09:45]It's all water.

[00:10:08]>> [music] [music] >> What do you want?

[00:10:39]Hey, here's the passion fruit that Casey had to have at the He bought like 17 passion fruits. It sounded good at the time.

[00:10:47]>> him.

[00:10:48]>> One of that.

[00:10:50]It's probably a better way to do this.

[00:10:52]Well, then just cut them in half.

[00:10:58]And yeah.

[00:11:02]Oh, this one's tiny.

[00:11:03]It's all right. It's awesome. Yeah, I want this one.

[00:11:08]This stretch of the journey tested [music] us in ways we never expected.

[00:11:13]From rough seas and boat repairs to watching the boys battle dengue [music] fever.

[00:11:18]But even in those hard moments, we're learning something really important.

[00:11:22]Life isn't about perfect conditions.

[00:11:25]It's about adapting, [music] slowing down, and leaning on each other through it all.

[00:11:32]Thanks so [music] much for coming along with us. If you're enjoying following our journey, make sure to subscribe and we'll see you in the next episode.

[00:11:38][music]