Ghosts of Regatta Past

December 22 - 28, 2007

Saturday, December 22, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning we took advantage of being on the town side to top up our water tanks, drop of our trash and get a few things at the grocery store. We were back on the boat with everything put away by 11 am.

The wind pushed far enough around to move the boat back up to Hamburger Beach, so we assumed our position just off the beach in 4 feet of water. Once the anchor was set, we headed in to volley ball. Players kind of straggled in, but by 2 pm we had some pretty good 3 on 3 matches going.

Pete and Adam from Scud were on the court today. They (along with Pete's wife Trina) have just returned from a three year circumnavigation. Congrats guys, way to go. Anyhow, I teamed up with Pete and George from Sequel to make the "Old Guys" team while Adam, Freebird Jack, and Skye from Whisper made up the "Young Punk" team.

After splitting the first two games, the "Old Guys" rallied and proved once again that wisdom and experience wins out over youth and well, just youth I guess. We win, we win, we win!

Ball lasted until 4 pm and then we returned to our boat and went for a dip to clean off the sand. Dinner tonight was barbecued, pressure cooker ribs, which were pretty good. While preparing dinner, Steve from Euliad (Kanter 51) stopped by with his 8 years old son Emmett.

Steve is apparently a long time reader of our web site and as such he brought by a bucket of beers to say thanks for giving him something to read while he finished up his last three years of being a family doctor and finally got to come out cruising. We invited him and his son on board and we shared his beer and let Emmett play with the weasels.

It always makes it seem like the effort of keeping up a web site and the logs and all that is really worth it when something like this happens. Way cool.

Anyhow, we hung out for about half an hour and then Steve and his son returned to their boat and we had dinner and then went to bed.

Monday, December 23, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning Amy went into the beach with Colleen from Mandalay to do her yoga thing and I went wind surfing. The wind was a little light, but there was enough to keep the board moving. I spent two hours sailing around and returned to the boat completely dry! That never happens.

While I was returning, I passed by Sequel and George yelled over and asked if he could go next. I said sure and once I got back to my boat, he came over and spent about 45 minutes sailing around. It's only the second time he's done it in like 10 years, so it was great to see him able to move around on it.

Anyhow, while George sailed around, Amy returned and made breakfast and I jumped overboard and scrubbed off the growth on my hull. For those interested, my hull is the port side and Amy's is the starboard. She said she is going to do her hull tomorrow.

For the non-sailors out there, we have to scrub off the bottom of the boat every month or two as plant life tries to grow near the water line and that really slows the boat down as it moves through the water. The hulls are painted with a special paint that is supposed to kill off the evil things trying to grow, but the paint needs to be re-applied every year or two and ours is actually four years old, so it doesn't do a whole lot anymore.

Anyhow, when I was done scrubbing my hull, George returned the wind surfer and asked if I wanted to go hunting with him. We headed out the north end of the harbour and into some nasty chop and swells. On the first dive down, we found a hog fish that we finally chased to ground after 10 minutes of flailing about.

Shortly after that though, I was no longer able to equalize the pressure in my head while diving. Not sure what happened, but I couldn't go more than 4 or 5 feet down before the pressure started pounding in my head. I tried forcing an equalization, but ended up bleeding from my nose, so the hunting trip was pretty much over. I think I might have a sinus cold.

Back on the boat we headed into the beach to socialize. We hung out until 4 pm or so and returned home for fresh grilled lobster served over a bed of lettuce and veggies. Amy retired after dinner to read her book, while the weasels and I stayed up and made phone calls to my family back home to say Merry Christmas.

Monday, December 24, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By

This morning I met up with George from Sequel and we did some wind surfing until 11 am. Back on the boat, Jon from Freebird came by and picked me up to go spear fishing. I had expected to stay in the dinghy and just drive the boat, but the first place we stopped to hunt was only 12 feet deep, so I jumped in and gave it a try.

For what ever reason, I was able to equalize without problems today and had no trouble clearing down below 25 feet. We hunted for two hours and I came home with four lobsters and two Hogfish, which we placed under our Christmas tree. Jon bagged four bugs of his own, so we did pretty good all things considered.

I think I know why I was able to clear today when diving. You see, last night I was visited by the Ghost of Regatta Past. As long time readers will already know, our former illustrious regatta Chairman managed to piss off and alienate just about everyone during his two year reign.

In a bold display of Christmas initiative, Mr. Chairman took timeout from his busy schedule to drop me an email:

"Tom, just been reading some of your web site, interesting. Didn't realize you disliked me and christians so vehemently. Merry Christmas. (name removed for his protection)"

Wow, I feel warm and fuzzy inside. Now, he and I will never be great friends, but it's nice to see the Christmas spirit moved him.

Merry Christmas to you and yours Mr. Chairman. And for the record, it's called humor, jackass.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By

Good morning and Merry Christmas. For the record, we saw no fat men in red suits nor any hooved mammals with antlers.

Amy slept in this morning and I joined Ollie and George for two hours of wind surfing. The wind was kind of strong and several times I had to take the dinghy well down wind to pick up one of my surfing companions, but they are both getting much better.

When I returned home, I made a double batch of bread for the Christmas potluck this afternoon and then we moved the boat down to Volleyball beach to be closer to the festivities.

We joined 160 other cruisers on the beach around 2 pm for ham, turkey and about 100 other dishes that I could not recognize. A great time was had by all listening to live music from some of the more musically inclined cruisers among us.

The only bad side to the event was when Ollie got a huge (2 inch) splinter pushed all the way through his foot. We had to take him to a near by boat where there was an ex-Navy Corpsman who was able to give Ollie a local anesthetic and then use a scalpel to remove said splinter. Yuck.

After the beach event, Amy and I dinghied up to St. Francis to say hello to George and Jillian who had invited us for dinner after we had already made plans to attend the beach shindig. We spent an hour or so up there and then returned home and to bed after a very busy and very festive day.

Tomorrow morning at 2 am we have guests arriving for blue berry waffles before we all head in to town for Junkanoo which starts at 3 am.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Breakfast came very early. Ollie, Pam, Willis, Cathy and Jack and Greg all showed up for sizzled ham and home made waffles. The weasels of course were excited to see this many people on the boat and so they joined us as well.

By 3 am we were all fed and on our way over to town. We took up station next to the judges booth and spent the next 3 hours dancing away the night as the bands came marching back and forth. It was a great time and we returned home exhausted just as the sun came up.

We went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 3 pm when we moved the boat back up to Hamburger Beach. Dinner was a low key affair of left over rolls and some ham from this morning's breakfast. Back to bed by 8 pm.

Thursday, December 27, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning Amy went back to her yoga and I got online to update our web site. The stores were open today after a couple days off due to the holiday, so I took trash in to town, got some water and picked up some sodas and other essentials at the market.

Back on board, I spent an hour cleaning up stuff that we had lying about. When Amy returned from the beach, she made us breakfast before we took a quick swim to the beach.

Around 12:30 I headed in for volleyball and we had some great 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 matches over the next two hours. Back on the boat we washed off the sand and then put on our poker clothes and headed up for poker night.

We had 31 players at four tables and in the end, Norm from Carpe Diem beat me out for first place. He won 95 bucks for his troubles, while I had to make due with a paltry $45. Oh well, it's better than nothing. Home by 9:30 and to bed right after.

Friday, December 28, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Another day in the sun. This one started out with Amy yoga-ing and me and George wind surfing. The wind was pretty strong and from a great direction, so I was able to surf up and down the entire length of the beach in a whopping 2 feet of water from end to end.

Around 11 am we were too tired to surf anymore, so George went back to his boat and I to mine. Amy made us a light lunch and we sat around eating and reading until 1pm and volleyball time. We had some good two on two games, but after about 5 matches, my shoulder hurt too bad to continue playing.

I'm not sure what it is, but this year we seem to have a better caliber of player overall and as such I am getting much better sets at the net, which in turn has led to a lot more spiking and thus the sore shoulder.

Anyhow, we hung out with the other cruisers under the palm trees and listened to a couple of guys playing guitars until 5 pm. We returned home for a swim and then made little English muffin pizzas for dinner while watching a movie. To bed by 8.