B.A.F.T.A. - Bahamian American Free Trade Agreement

April 15 - 20, 2007

Sunday, April 15, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The wind swung to the south during the night and increased in speed to 20 knots, but where we anchored was so close to the beach that we had plenty of protection.

Most of the day was spent cleaning up the boat. No matter how hard we try, making any sort of sailing trip these days seems to lead to hours and hours of cleaning afterwards. By 2 pm we were done cleaning, so we assembled the dinghy and went in to volleyball beach.

There weren't enough people to play ball, but I had some freshly frozen grouper and barracuda steaks for Arlene. We spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting under the palm trees and watching the pasty white tourists come and go all while sipping rum drinks.

Of special note, the rum drinks were all the more tasty because they were free courtesy of Arlene, who makes a routine effort to honor our fish and lobster for rum triangle trade agreement. I love free trade! Viva NAFTA (or is it BAFTA?)!

Anyhow, there is a 140 foot mega yacht anchored in the harbour and it disgorged 15 or 16 of the whitest, most pale, shade of death people I have seen this year. They were so bright white that you had to have sun glasses to look at them at all. It was funny to watch them, because the owner had 6 of his yacht crew come to the beach and hour a head of the main party to erect a small tent city on the beach. When the crew was done, there were no less than 3 tents, 2 screen rooms and some sort of inflatable play room for children adorning the beach front. All of this to come in and have one of the Chat and Chill death burgers and slightly cool beers. Hmm.

After people watching, we returned to the boat and had grilled snapper with potato wedges and salad for dinner. A bottle of cheap Chilean white wine accompanied the sunset before we turned in for the day.

Monday, April 16, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The forecasted west wind showed up this morning, so we moved into Kidd Cove for protection. I dinghied Amy over to volleyball beach so she could play 9 am ball with her 4 on 4 group. While she was playing, I finally made it in to town and picked up the new battery for Eric and Susan's Mako (big dinghy).

The Mako has been limping along on a loaner battery from Speedo Ed that wasn't powerful enough to start the engine, so once every few days I had to put my generator on it to make sure it had enough juice to keep the bilge pump working.

Of course the new battery didn't have the same kind of leads as the old one and so I had to swap them out as well. Then I had to install the new starter button so that the ignition no longer shocks the snot out of me every time I start the engine. After an hour or two, the jobs were done and the Mako fired right up. Score one for the home team!

In the afternoon Amy and I went into town for some fresh veggies and then we joined up with Frank from Cat's Away to hit the managers party at the P&P. It was mega windy and we had to move the party to the inside bar, but a good time was had none the less.

We returned to the boat and the weasels around 8 pm. We were both stuffed from the buffalo wings (medium spicy) and so we dispensed with dinner. To bed by 9:30.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Another day hiding from the westerly wind. I made a trip in to the hardware store for a few odds and ends early this morning and on the way back I was flagged down by Frank (Cat's Away). He is having a problem with one of his out board engines and wanted to bounce a few ideas off of me.

We looked at his dead Suzuki for about half and hour and we agreed that the high pressure fuel injector pump is broke. He ordered a replacement ($300 bucks, ouch!) from the states that should arrive in a few days.

Around noon, Amy and Frank and I went back up to the P&P for lunch. Frank was talking about it last night and so we agreed to try it out with him. The food was pretty good and the service was distinctly Bahamian.

First, we to ask one person for menus. Then we had to go inside and track down a waitress to place an order even though we were sitting at the outside bar that has dedicated staff. Next, we had to track down a different person to pay for said meals and then finally we had to wave frantically at our meals as they passed us by in order to ensure their proper delivery.

It was quite an ordeal for a fairly basic lunch and it managed to take up the entire afternoon. Such is life on Island Time

The rest of the day was spent lounging about on the boat. In the evening I made some more Mutton Snapper, this time it was olive oil seared, roasted pepper encrusted Mutton served over a bed of linguine. Sounds pretty impressive huh?

The weasels and I watched a movie while Amy read a book and the whole crew turned in around 9 pm.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning we went in for 9 am volley ball. I played a few games and then sat under a palm tree and read a book while Amy continued to play. I wasn't feeling a hundred percent and I suspect the P&P lunch staff probably tried to poison me in an effort to stop my less then stellar review from coming to press (or to the web I guess)

On the way back to the boat, we stopped in the middle of the harbour and dove overboard to clean off the sand. Where we are anchored in Kidd Cove is not the cleanest looking water I've ever seen and as such neither one of us wants to rinse off with anything but fresh water at the boat when it's anchored there.

After lunch, I did a few odd jobs before returning to the beach with Brian (Tonga Time) and Amy. We were going to just hang out and be off the boats, but it turned out that the Army guys showed up and wanted to play ball. Brian and I played 2 on 4 the first game and beat the Army 15 - 0. Come on guys, I haven't seen a beating that bad since the first gulf war.

The second game the Army increased the size of their team to 8 with 2 substitutes. They ended up beating us 15 - 12, which made me feel a little better for them. Of course they had no legal shots in the entire game, but it was fun none the less.

We went swimming for a second time to get cleaned up again and then we headed in to St. Francis for a private, 1 table Texas Holdem game. We had 9 players with a 10 dollar buy in. It came down to Amy and George (St. Francis) in the end and George took all of Amy's money. She did receive the 20 dollar second prize, so she covered our expenses for the game. Way to go team!

The ferrets greeted us at the door around 8:30 and we played tunnel tag under the blankets until 9 or so before they wore out and fell asleep inside my pillow case. Milo refused to get out and so I had to sleep on a rolled up t-shirt. He is a selfish bastard when it comes to sharing the bed

Thursday, April 19, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

I woke to the sounds of chickens doing that cock-a-doodal-do noise thing at 4:30 am. I don't sleep much, but that was kind of pushing it a little. If those feathery bastards do this again tomorrow morning, I'm taking my fishing spear and going after a little free range rooster.

I hear they taste just like chicken....

The sun rose around 6:15 and with it, the weasels too awoke. Mila and I surfed the internet until 8 am while Milo ate breakfast for an hour and thirty minutes. That shooting at V Tech really sucks and in my opinion that ass munch who did the shooting got off light. It's senseless shit like this that make me glad we don't live in metropolitan US anymore.

Amy woke up in time for breakfast and then we both went in to play volleyball. Somehow the games weren't all the great as everyone was thinking about those kids that got shot back in Virginia. It's hard to justify playing ball on a beautiful beach in a foreign country when things like that are going on back home.

Ok, I'm done being a downer.

In the afternoon, I talked with Brian off of Tonga Time about helping him sail his boat back to Florida. His wife Charlene isn't much of an ocean going sailor and so he is trying to scare up someone to help him get Tonga Time home. I told him I'd go with him, provided he helps me get Amy and the weasels (and Dream Catcher) safely tucked away in one of the holes behind the Chat and Chill. He's also gotta fly me back to G'town, but all things considered thats probably a hell of a lot cheaper than having to pay crew to help him.

I think we'll know in a couple of days if he is going to need my help or not. It will kind of be nice if he does as it will give me a chance to do a day or two of shopping in Florida before flying back here. There are several things we need from the states and this would be a great opportunity to get them.

In the afternoon, we headed up to St. Francis for poker night. The evil poker dictator and our formal regatta chairman tried to muscle in and take over, but George (St. Francis owner) said it was my show to run. The evil do-er is leaving in 5 days, so I tolerated his presence and we all just got along.

I had four morons at my table who despite repeated instruction could not manage to play within accordance of our very generous and extremely lenient rules and I just got frustrated and pretty much threw away my chips. Amy, however, did much better and she ended up finishing 3 out of 27 players and recouped our 10 dollar combined entrance fee. We played for free and as we all know, free is good.

On the way back from poker, we stopped by Brian and Charlene's boat for pumpkin pie (for Amy) and a beer (for me). Brian also gave me a half dozen books that he has read, so our book emergency has been averted.

We returned home at the un-godly hour of 11 pm. The ferrets had already taken up their nocturnal residence in my pillow case, so the four of us promptly turned in for the evening. For the record, Milo is still a pillow hog and Mila snores in her sleep.

Friday, April 20, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The ferrets roused me from bed at 5 am in desperate need of dried blue berries. I guess sometimes a ferret just needs it's berries.

Amy got up and made us breakfast grilled cheesies before we left the boat and picked up Brian to head across the harbour for volleyball. We had 10 players and so we played 4 on 4 with 2 men sitting out at a time. The games were pretty good and we ended up playing until 12 pm.

The crowd broke up and Amy, Brian and I went in to the Chat and Chill and had a beer or two and just hung out. We returned Brian to his boat and then we did two water runs in to town to resupply our on board fresh water reserves.

Amy picked up a few sodas and a bottle of rum from the market and then we moved the big boat over to Hamburger Beach and our normal anchoring area. The hook was down by 3 pm and after putting the boat to bed, Amy decided to take an afternoon nap and I went swimming.

Afterwards, I showered off on the back deck and then watched a movie until Amy woke up. Around 6 pm I lit the grill and cooked barbecued ribs and french fries on the grill. We watched the sun go down over a 7 and 7 and a gin and tonic and by 8:30 pm the crew retired for the evening