Note : I put the wrong pictures up with the last log entry, so if you go back to that one, you can now see the proper pictures. Sorry, on with the show.

Fish, Pigs and Other Things Christmas

December 24, 2004
By Bozo Deluxe

Friday, December 17, 2004 - Compass Cay, Compass Cay, Exumas

We sailed out of the anchorage at Normans early this morning while waving good bye to the Talismans (Peter and Ginna) Our destination for today was Compass Cay which was about 30 miles to the south.

We had a less then stellar day. To summarize:

1.) I fell on my ass hard on the forward deck trying to wrestle the mainsail into submission and bruised pretty much my entire right side and broke the big toe on my right foot.

2.) Someone (Amy, but you didn't hear it from me) managed to accidentally tack the boat when we weren't ready for it and managed to get both fishing whackers sucked into the wind generator, loosing our Whore Lure in the process.

3.) We broke one of the fishing rod whacker holders in the afore-mentioned wind generators debacle.

4.) The place we were hoping to hide from the impending front is closed due to hurricane damage.

5.) We snapped a clew tie on the head sail in the tacking mayhem as well.

6.) Our forward hatch wasn't dogged down hard enough and consequently, we have a soggy ferret. FYI - A soggy ferret is not a happy ferret.

Ok, I'm done bitching.

We anchored just off the marina at Compass Cay. I called them on the VHF when we arrived to inquire about riding out the impending front on one of there protected mooring balls and I was told that they still haven't inspected them after the last hurricane which was four months ago. I could however procure space at there dock for a mere $1.50 a foot without water or electricity.

Can you say suck it? Twice? I think you can.

I've got to ask, what kind of crack are they on down here? From where I sit now, I can see into the marina. There are exactly three boats there. The cruising guide we have which was printed in June of this year says the fee was a more reasonable $0.80 cents a foot. How is it possible that prices went up almost two fold in that time?

Everywhere we have been in the Bahamas so far, all of the locals have commented on how few cruising boats there are here. Well, duh. If I wanted to be raped and fleeced I could have stayed home and gone to Baltimore. These people need to buy a clue.

Ok, really, I am done raving. On a more positive note, I did notice that as of today, we have officially sailed more than we have motored. Wew Who!

Dinner tonight was the perrenial favorite bourbon chicken and rice

Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Compass Cay Marina, Compass Cay, Exumas

We lounged about the boat this morning, then went out to a nearby tidal island in search of reefs from which to refill our fresh meat section of our fridge. Today's results will doubtlessly astound our readers.

Please note the supporting photographic evidence in which we see Action Wet Suit Bozo Deluxe posing with this HUGE Atlantic Spadefish. I think I might need to change my name to Sniper Spear Fishing Master Dude. With only 5 minutes in the water and just 2 shots, I bagged this 5 pound Spadefish as well as a smaller, but much prettier 1 pound Queen Triggerfish.

I felt like Tom Berrenger in that movie Sniper. You know, one shot one kill? Fish will learn to fear me. Of course the Sniper movie guy never showed any remorse after killing, where as (and you didn't hear it from me) Amy was a little upset that I shot a fish as pretty as the Queen Trigger. This may represent a serious flaw in her hunter-gatherer instinct. Rest assured gentle reader, I showed no mercy.

The Spadefish bled like a stuck pig, and about 1 minute after we got back in the dinghy, sure enough a large 6 or 7 foot shark of an unknown variety showed up.

We beat it back to the mother ship and as soon as we were done unloading our catch, a large squall moved into our area. NOAA has issued a gale warning starting tomorrow night and we have elected to take a slip at the nearby Compass Cay Marina for the duration of the blow.

FYI - a gale warning means winds of over 40 knots ! I hope our dear readers realize the implications. This is our first marina visit since we left the Chesapeake back in September, so I don't feel too bad. We had hoped to wait until tomorrow to come in, but it seems the front is running a little ahead of schedule and as such now was the time to move.

Anyhow, here we are. I tried to call home today, but cell reception sucked, so I got to hear my dad say "Can you hear me now?". He used to work for the phone company, so maybe he can parley this into a role as company spokesperson with that nerd on TV.

Lemon pepper Atlantic Spadefish with assorted mixed veggies on the grill for dinner

Sunday, December 19, 2004 - Compass Cay Marina, Compass Cay, Exumas

The impending weather disaster seemed to have been mysteriously down played on this mornings weather report. I wonder if this is a nation wide Bahamian conspiracy aimed at extracting all possible U.S. dollars from us cruisers. It wouldn't surprise me.

Amy was feeling under the weather this morning, so I spent most of the day by myself working on various boat projects. I spent three hours installing finer meshed screen over our existing opening screened hatches in an effort to keep out the No-Seeums. We'll see how well that works.

Afterwards, I listened to the Philadelphia and Dallas football teams battle it out in the frozen tundra of PA. I missed the last 10 minutes and have no idea who won. I also rebuilt the last of our 96 turning block today. I am actually getting pretty good at it and managed to strip, clean, re-bearing and rebuild this double block in about 20 minutes.

If we ever get attacked by aliens and rebuilding turning blocks is the key to our survival as a species, rest assured the world's fait is in good hands.

With that job complete, rain clouds set in and in a moment of brilliant insight, I decided to put my dirty clothes out on the life line in the hope that if they get rained on and then dry tomorrow, they will be clean. Amy is sceptable (or sceptical depending on how you look at it).

With Amy incapacitated up front with the under the weather blues, Maggie and I spent the remainder of the day listening to football, drinking a beer or two, and chasing dried fruit around the salon.

One of us was better at drinking the beer and one of us was better at chasing the fruit, but I leave it to you to decide who was who.

Thats life in the fast lane. We hope to leave the marina confines tomorrow

Monday, December 20, 2004 - Compass Cay Marina, Compass Cay, Exumas

The wind continues to howl and we are still sitting in the marina. We are leaving tomorrow either way as it is becoming too expensive to stay here.

A general malaise has taken over the crew here on the mother ship. Amy and Maggie both layed in bed most of the day reading books. I did a little work this morning on the rear arch, but other than that, I also layed around and read books all day.

We hope to find intelligent life in Staniel Cay tomorrow

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas

We left the Compass Cay Marina today. A nice enough place, but nothing to really rush out and see.

We sailed the 12 miles down to Staniel Cay in search of flour. We've been out flour for about 2 weeks now and it is really cutting into our bread making abilities. We anchored off of the little town and took the dink in.

Staniel Cay is a very pretty little town with much to see and do. More importantly, however, there are other cruisers here and some of them invited us to a beach party happy hour tonight. There is even going to be a bon fire after dark.

After shopping, we upped anchor and sailed 2 miles back to the north to Big Majors Cay. This is the site of the beach party, so we wanted to be close. Amy and I are making mini soft pretzels to take to the get together.

After pretzeling, we went into the south beach on Big Majors where there are wild, swimming pigs. No kidding, check out the pictures. They were friendly enough although one accidentally tusked me trying to eat my carrots. Bad mister Piggy!

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas

The beach party last night was a real blast. About 30 other cruisers showed up and a good time was had by all. The nominal theme for the get together was to celebrate the winter solstice. From here on out, the days get longer.

The folks from Alligator were the organizers of the festivities last night and they did a good job. The had apparently slipped ashore earlier and laid out a scavenger hunt for us to partake in. Amy and I came in second place out of about 14 teams. Bruce on Different Drummer was the big wiener.

I think we won some chocolate cookie things. We hung out until about 8pm and then went back to the boat and to bed.

Today most of the anchorage was recovering from over indulging last night. Last night, the women at the little shindig decided they would get together and practice their singing. They are saying that they are going into the little town here the day after tomorrow and carol through the streets.

Amy went along to the singing practice and then afterwards all of the women went into town for lunch. Maggie and I spent most of the day working on small boat projects(Me) and eating bananas (Maggie).

We kept a pretty low profile this evening having dinner on board and then watching Fahrenheit 9/11. What a piece of shit. Michael Moore is a joke. He should be ashamed of himself and Maggie says if she ever sees him she will fart in his general direction. She's a wild one that ferret.

Thursday, December 23, 2004 - Big Majors Key, Exumas, Exumas

Amy went to practice Christmas carols again this morning while I took laundry to shore. The big caroling event happens tonight at 4.

During their practicing, someone decided that all 20 of the carolers should come to our boat for a pre-carolling happy hour drink. Hmm, sounds suspicious to me.

We spent most of the day doing a major cleaning of the inside of the boat. I also made brownies.

The crowd showed up on time, but was only here for an hour before everyone had to report to the town dock for caroling. I think they had about 15 or 20 singers. I heard they did a decent job, but I can neither confirm or deny this as I waited in the bar for their return.

After about an hour and a half, half of the carolers deserted the leadership and returned to the bar. The story I got was that a few of the women organizing the effort were something akin to caroling Nazis.

"You must zing! Ve have vays to make you!" Girls from the caroling party started showing up at the bar and before long, it was a pretty happening scene. Most folks stayed for dinner, but we returned to the mother ship for a taco dinner.

We have plans with the Eldridge C's (Evy and John) for dinner tomorrow night on board their Nordhaven trawler