Pie Whacker and the Grouper Mating Season

December 1 - 7, 2007

Saturday, December 01, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Things are definitely getting back into that Georgetown type routine. This morning Amy went to the beach to yoga and I launched my wind surfer.

While surfing, a large powerboat came in to our anchorage and set up a mooring ball inside the swing radius of our boat. The mooring was only 40 feet away from us and definitely way too close to prevent us from hitting each other.

I dinghied over to the offending boat and spoke with the captain and he seemed to think it was ok. I calmly and politely told him if he was ok with the situation then so was I, but that if our boats hit each other we are going to have a serious problem and someone is going to die.

He seemed to reconsider his position and consequently put out an anchor in addition to his mooring screw to move his boat another 40 feet away from us. I hate being a jerk about it, but sometimes thats the only way you can get through to people. We probably won't be anchored here much longer, so I suspect the situation will resolve itself without me having to inflict bodily injury on anyone.

Anyhow, we read our way through the rest of the morning and showed up for 2 pm volleyball. We had enough people for 3 on 3 which isn't nearly as much fun as 2 on 2, but at least we were playing. Tomorrow I think we may start playing an hour earlier so that we can get some 2's in before other players show up.

After ball, we took a swim to wash off the sand and then reported to St. Francis for Saturday night poker. We had 12 players with a ten dollar buy in and after three hours, I came home in first and claimed the 75 dollar top prize. Whew who!

After poker we had a drink at the bar with George and Speedo Ed before returning home and turning in by 10pm.

Sunday, December 02, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The quietness of this morning was shattered at 7:01 am when Michelle on Majolie started his construction style, single cylinder, louder than a 747, gas generator. We are over 200 meters from him, but his generator is so loud that we can't here ourselves speak inside the boat when it's running.

Rumor has it he is deaf and as such doesn't realize what an obnoxious noise he is making, but I cannot confirm or deny that allegation. The rumor mill also says that he has ordered a Honda EU2000 to replace his current generator, so hopefully this will be a temporary problem only.

Since we were up, I took the dinghy to town and Amy took her kayak to the ocean side beach. By the time I ran to the store, dropped of trash, got some water and returned to the boat the generator of death had stopped running and my hearing returned shortly there after.

Amy returned just after me and we tackled a couple of clean up jobs inside the big boat. Amy cleaned out the refrigerator while I re-organized our forward stateroom that we use for storage. The weasels were immensely helpful as you can imagine and with their help it only took an hour and a half to clean a 4 by 4 foot area.

I made two hot dogs for lunch and then sat in the cockpit reading a book until 1 pm when Amy and I met up with Ollie and Ed to play ball. The games weren't the best as we were all a little sore. We probably should have taken the day off, but for what ever reason we played.

Their were a bunch of people watching the games and even more on the beach at Chat and Chill. Sundays are the busiest day for them as they have their roasted pig barbecue and lots of the tourists from town and some of the locals come over when the weather allows.

We hung out talking to friends for a while and then returned home. Amy went up to our cabin and read books with the weasels while I played video games. For dinner we made barbecued ribs on the grill which we ate while watching a James Bond flick.

After dinner and in keeping with our movie selection, Amy made us each a gin martini, shaken, not stirred. To bed by 8:30

Monday, December 03, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to the sounds of yet another boat anchoring right on top of us just off of Volleyball beach. It seems that even without the "A" crowd from ears past, we are destined to be in the path of anchoring idiots everywhere we go.

I decided to move the big boat up to Hamburger Beach, but when I hit the starter key, neither engine would start. Shitty death!

Engine number one seemed to have a short in the ignition switch, while engine number two had a stuck solenoid on it's starter. And suddenly we are in the midst of more engine problems.

Unable to move the boat, we opted to stay put and I took the dinghy out to Napa to try and acquire pieces and parts to fix our engine woes. Unfortunately, Napa was sadly lacking and we will now wait on parts to be shipped in via Reggie Express.

After I returned to the boat, we opted to head in and play some ball. The games were pretty good and everyone got a workout. Amy and I ended up winning 4 out of 2 against George and Ollie, but the games were really close and all but one went into extra innings.

We returned to the boat by 4pm and I made a nacho snack before we cleaned up and headed up to St. Francis for Monday night poker. We had 13 players, including two first timers, both of which I put out on the fifth hand.

With three times the stack of everyone else at my table, I was able to pretty much bully my way to the final table as the chip leader and after a brief scare with Ollie, I went on to win my second night in a row and take home the 45 dollar prize. Amy finished third and Ollie was runner up.

After poker we hung out with George and watched the rest of Monday night football before returning home at the ultra late hour of 11:30.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We didn't wake up until almost 8 this morning and then only because Ollie showed up on our door step ready to go hunting. He, George (Sequel) and I headed north and out the Conch Cay cut into a surprisingly large swell and massive breakers on the reef.

The visibility was good despite the rough conditions and we scored 5 lobsters over a 90 minute period. Ollie and I cornered an absolutely huge Grouper (20 - 25 pounds), but he pulled a Houdini and disappeared into thin air (or water) after diving into a cave in 30 feet of water. Oh well.

Nassau Grouper mating season is almost upon us and the Nassau's are starting to gather in huge groups and generally act stupid. I had to smack two small morsels in the head with my gloved hand to get them to stop licking the zipper on my wet suit. They are strange fish when they are mating.

We returned to our respective vessels by 11:30 and then I made a trip into town to drop off trash and score some free RO water. Back on the boat we dumped the water into the big boat's tank and then loaded into the dinghy to head in for more volleyball. We played for an hour or so and then we all got tired and retired to our usual spot under the trees.

In other news, Jason Biggs, who was is a film star from the American Pie movie series was on the beach with some friends and I got to meet him and call him Pie Fu@!ker. Since I cannot say Fu@1ker here on the website, we shall refer to him as the Pie Whacker going forward.

All kidding aside, he seemed pretty cool for a movie star and was very down to earth for the five minutes or so we talked. It's nice to see not everyone in Hollywood is a jackass.

We returned to our boat around 5 and I cooked 3 lobsters worth of lobster legs for dinner. In honor of meeting Pie Whacker, we watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which has a scene with Mr. Biggs in it in which he gets called Pie Whacker by about twenty people. Take my word for it, it's pretty funny and we laughed through the whole thing.

To bed by 9.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The wind went flat last night and the power boat that put down a mooring inside of our swing radius hit Amy's kayak sometime early this morning. I know this because the line to her kayak was sheared and as the wind was a whopping 2 knots, I suspect it wasn't the force of the wind that did it.

Fortunately, Speedo Ed found it on the beach and returned it to us. After a last dirty look at the evil power boaters, we picked up our anchor and moved back up to he seclusion off of Hamburger Beach.

The anchor was down and the boat settled by 8:30 and then we made breakfast. Amy went in to the beach to do her yoga thing and I finished installing a new sewage hose in the aft lazarette. Our head problems are now behind us.

After clean up and a swim, I took the dinghy into town for some veggies and water. On the way back to the boat, I passed Jon and Joann from Freebird. They had just arrived in Georgetown and we exchanged hellos and Jon asked about when we are playing ball.

Speaking of volleyball, Amy and I joined Ed, Ollie, George and Jon for a little 3 on 3 action around 1:30. We played for an hour and a half and then had a beer before returning home and cleaning up again.

Dinner was Hogfish and potato wedges on the grill. We hung out reading our books and playing with the weasels before turning in at the late hour of 8 pm

Thursday, December 06, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning I went with Ollie and George out the north cut and onto the reef. We were in the water by 9 am and proceeded to hunt for an hour and a half. George and I managed two bugs between us while Ollie upstaged us again and got 5 by himself.

I was back on the boat with our catch cleaned by 11. Amy and I made a quick trip into town to get to the book swap at the library as well as score 10 more gallons of water. We were back on the big boat with our stuff put away in time for 1 pm volley ball. We had 7 people show and the games were pretty good.

After ball, it was a quick rinse off before we headed back up to St. Francis for Thursday night poker, where we had 17 players and I extended my winning streak to three nights in a row by coming home in first place and claiming the 55 dollar top prize. For the record, Amy finished a respectable 4th. We were home and in bed after a very busy day by 10 pm.

Friday, December 07, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning I took the dinghy over to town to grab our rental car that we scheduled the other day. By 9:15 I had it and went down to the dinghy dock to pick up Amy, Ollie and Pam.

Once we had our wheels, we headed north up the Queen's Highway to the airport where I picked up all of our waiting packages from the surly customs agent. After the obligatory hassle, we were able to get our stuff for the measly sum of 38 dollars which has to be some kind of record as we were both expecting several hundred dollars in fees, bribes and out right thievery.

We loaded our stuff into the trunk and continued our way north. We made it all the way to the north end of the island and to Barraterre where we toured the remains of the Fisherman's Inn, which burned down over the summer.

We took a few pictures then started working our way down the island stopping where ever we felt like it. We hit the Bristol Liquor store up near Emerald Bay for two cases of wine and then stopped off several places to take pictures.

Around noon we stopped at the Three Sisters Rock Lodge which has just re-opened and had a drink. The place looked great and I'd definitely recommend a stop in if you happen to be going by.

Back on the road, we crossed back south of Georgetown and headed down to the south side of the island. We stopped off at Santana's for lunch and a few more drinks. Ollie and I had the ribs while Pam and Amy had chicken and all the food was reported as being excellent.

Around 4 pm we were back in town and I dropped everyone off at the dinghy dock while I returned the car to the rental people and then we hauled all of our supplies back to the mother ship. By the time we got everything cleaned up it was 6:30 and we decided to fore go dinner in favor of cheese, crackers and a bottle of wine.

To bed by 8 pm.