Wow, where did the last 10 days go?
Let's see, since we last spoke, Thanksgiving has come and gone. We spent it with about 120 other cruisers at a potluck held by the marina here at a sort of multi purpose banquet hall owned by the city and located 400 yards from the marina proper. There was a ton of food, of which about twenty two or twenty three pounds actually passed the Tom no-goo guarantee and thus was classified as edible by me.
We had special guest appearances by Pam and Ollie from Dejarlo as well as Donna and Toby, formerly on the cruising boat Carriba, but now classified as XCLODS (ex-cruisers, now living on dirt). It was great to see them all and catch up on what they had been up to. We also made several new cruiser friends that I expect we'll see over and over this coming cruising season.
While at the Gobble Gobble event, we hooked up with Bob and Penny from the power cat Pretty Penny whom we met several years ago down near Long Island. Bob and Penny have a serious Texas Hold-em addiction as well as a massive 50 foot catamaran, so it took very little effort to convince them to hold a private, 10 man, 5 dollar game this past Sunday. Amy was the big weiner and with her 30 dollar winnings, we convinced everyone else to go with us over to Riverside Cafe for Sunday evening football and the "pitcher of beer and 8 wings for 10 dollars" special.
A good time was had by all and several dozens of chickens are now wingless.
On Monday we picked up a rental car from Enterprise and took MarleyWeasel to a ferret specialist to have a couple of health issues addressed. He ended up needing minor surgery to remove a cancerous growth, but by 6 pm he was back with us on the boat recovering nicely.
On Tuesday, we kept our car and ran around like mad people in a provisioning frenzy. When the dust had settled, we were $1500 poorer and the boat sat about an inch and a half lower in the water. Every nook and cranny is crammed full of food, soap, wine and weasel chow and we are rapidly approaching a "go" status.
While we were running to and fro, we stopped at Lowes so I could get Tomato Specimen #5, who we named "Spuds". See, the thing is fresh veggies are almost non-existent in the out islands and so the last 4 trips over, I have tried to carry a young tomato plant on board with hopes of raising him as my very own tomato production facility.
Unfortunately, each year some horrible accident has befallen our tomato specimen. The first year he was lost over board in forty knots of wind; the second he was seized by the DEA as an illegal alien; the third Mila got mad at him in the night and ate him before we woke up; the fourth was decapitated when I tried to set the hook on a forty pound mahi on the port side fish whacker.
Despite my previous failures, I have high hopes that "Spuds" will succeed where his less hearty brethren have failed. Amy does not share my hopes and so she is carrying herb seeds to plant in "Spuds' " home once he is buried at sea.
Man, is it me or is that just mean?
Anyhow, it looks like the weather is going to continue sucking until at least Sunday, so once our final two UPS packages arrive, we will probably start working our way down the coast and getting ready to cross back over to the islands sometime in early December.
Remember, be safe, it's dumb out there....