On the No Goo Content

December 2 - December 9, 2006

Saturday, December 09, 2006 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

And welcome to week three of life in G'Town. The wind still continues to blow unabated. As I sit and compose this log on Saturday morning, the wind outside is howling at 30 knots. The lying bastards at NOAA keep saying just one more day, but this is the 13 th day in a row that it's been just one more day.

With the wind still so high, not much is happening here. There was a brief 10 hour lull on Tuesday that Ollie and I took advantage of to go outside hunting, but between the rough swells and poor visibility we didn't shoot at a single damn thing.

We still get together everyday on the beach around 2 pm to smack volley balls around, but the games aren't that good yet. Again the wind seems to be the major contributing factor.

With mostly usable internet access (St. Francis hasn't worked all of the bugs out yet) we spend a lot of time getting on the internet and just generally surfing around. I have finished my network utilities program that I've only been working on for 18 months and it seems to work reasonably well, not that it has any practical use in cruising mind you.

Our Monday night poker game had 10 contestants show and about 20 spectators. Amy dealt again and I managed a respectable 4th place finish. Not in the money, but better than 5 other contestants. Being the only female at the table as well as the dealer entitles Amy to free drinks for the entire night, so I like to think we're making money even though I didn't win any.

Tuesday night we went over to Ollie and Pam's boat Dejarlo with Gary and his wife off of Hoobabaloo for deserts and drinks. We sat around telling stories for a couple of hours before returning to the mother ship. Gary and his wife are en route with their powerboat to their new home on St. Lucia. I think he is a retired Orthodontist and might have a slightly (read 25 times) higher cruising budget than most of us out here. Oh well, at least we all share the same view.

Wednesday night we had the first beach potluck of the year. You could tell it was the first because people actually put some thought and time into the dish they brought. By the middle or end of the season, 50 out of 65 people bring some white goo spread for crackers and the other 15 people bring popcorn.

We brought homemade chicken quesadillas which were second in popularity to Pam's Grouper fingers. The whole of Georgetown was a buzz for two days after words with the news of real food showing up on the beach, but by the third day people had pretty much convinced themselves that the talk of real food was just a rumor and by tomorrow everyone will be convinced it was all a viscous tissue of lies.

The whole thing has been kind of like watching the birth of an urban legend, cruiser's style. I'm sure years from now in some far off anchorage some boat that wasn't even here this year will say over cocktails : " You know, one time I heard someone actually brought Grouper fingers and Quesadillas to the beach happy hour! What a crock!"

Of course, they will probably be sitting in our cockpit eating chicken quesadillas or grouper fingers, but that is beside the point.

If you needed any indication of how boring things are right now, my little beach food diatribe should be sufficient evidence. We are starving for entertainment.

As an aside, I think we should institute a no goo content requirement for all food brought to beach parties. Can I get an amen?

Thursday we tried to play ball again in the almost gale force winds. but it wasn't much fun and we gave up after three games. In the evening we went over to Don and Mary's boat Dark and Stormy with Ollie and Pam to play a card/board game called sequence. We played boys versus girls and they beat us three to one. Girls, girls, girls, girls....

Friday found us playing volleyball in the afternoon. George and Julie off of Sequel showed up yesterday and George made his way to the courts today. We had decent games despite the wind and after words I went swimming to wash away the approximately two tons of sand stuck to my body. With George here, I now have enough players to start playing two on two, so thats at least something.

After volleyball, we cleaned up, took actual fresh water showers and headed in to St. Francis for a few pre-birthday celebration cocktails as tomorrow is Amy's birthday. Happy birthday to her.

Milo has been getting better, but he still isn't a hundred percent and we have adjusted his medicines accordingly. If he doesn't kick it soon, we may have to seek professional help or resort to electro shock therapy.

Ok, that's all there is to report. If the weather ever lets up I promise to try and do something exciting or at least funny so that I will sound interesting in the next log. See ya next week...