Long Lost Relatives

January 19 - February 2, 2008

Saturday, January 19, 2008 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

This morning I took the dinghy in to town to stock up on perishables and paper towels. I tried to pick our propane tank that was supposed to be filled three weeks ago, but the damn store was closed. I hate these propane Nazis!

Before returning to the boat, I dropped off our accumulated trash and swung by Top to Bottom to get a replacement tie down attachment point for the port side engine.

Back on the mother ship, we put groceries away and set about cleaning up from our trip home yesterday. Bruce came by around 1 and drug me in to volleyball. The games were good and it seems that in my absence, someone killed off the walk on players. Honest, it wasn't me.

Anyhow, we played until 3 pm and in the last game I dislocated my middle toe on my right foot. Ouch! We got it back into place without too much effort and it felt much better.

We returned home by 5 and got the boat ready for the cold front which is suppose to arrive sometime tomorrow. Dinner was home made cracked conch and french fries. To bed by 8:30.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Amy returned to the beach this morning for yoga with her yoga buddies while I got online and updated the website. Brian from Tonga Time (Bruce's twin brother) showed up around noon. They just pulled in to the anchorage this morning and he came by to see about playing some ball.

Sunday is usually our day off, but we managed to scrape enough players together to have some 2 on 2 games. Around 3 we all got cleaned up and then headed up to St. Francis to watch the NFL playoff games. Amy and I aren't really fans of football, but it was fun to get together with everyone and just hang out. I couldn't tell you who won, sorry.

Around 5 pm we returned home and right afterwards, the forecasted cold front moved through our area. Winds went from flat calm to about 30 knots in just 15 minutes. Foretunately, it was a north wind and we were well protected.

Dinner consisted of chicken fingers and a garden salad. Afterwards, we watched a movie before turning in around 9.

Monday, January 21, 2008 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Sometime around 3 am a couple of power boats drug anchor down off of Volleyball Beach. I didn't see it, but judging by the VHF radio traffic, it sounded like it took several near by boats to help sort out the issue.

What is it with power boats and these absurdly small anchors they carry? I've got nothing against power boaters, but since weight is not an issue to the non planing power boats, why can't they carry a properly sized anchor and several hundred feet of chain? The one trawler that drug this morning I later found out had a whopping 35 pound anchor and 35 whole feet of chain before going to 1/2 inch rode!

Keep in mind, this is on a 36 foot trawler that weighs 24,000 pounds! Come on team, my boat has twice that setup and it only weighs 1/4th of what yours does. Hey man, here's a dollar, go buy a clue.

Ok, ok, enough complaining, on with the show. The wind was up this morning, so yoga was canceled. Amy instead spent her morning cleaning the head while I worked in the cockpit replacing the port side starter motor on the engine and then installing a new retaining bracket for the engine tie down on starboard engine.

I was done and cleaned up by 11 am and we hung out reading books until noon when I went in to play hurricane ball with Bruce, Pete, Sky, Ollie and Speedo. The wind was so high we didn't even try to play two on two, but instead opted to go three on three. The games were still pretty bad despite the extra player on each side. We gave up by 2 and retired to the Chat and Chill to have a beer and just hang out.

I was home and cleaned up by 4 and then at 5:30 we went up for Monday night poker. We had 25 players show up and Amy extended her winning streak to two by bringing home the top prize. Willis (Whistling Winds) finished second and Sharon from One Mustard Seed came home in third.

While we were playing cards, torrential rains showed up and we pretty much swam home. The rain was so hard that we decided to pull the dinghy up out of the water to keep it from filling up and capsizing. By the time everything was put away, we were completely soaked.

To bed by 10 pm to the sounds of more calls about boats dragging on the VHF

Saturday, February 02, 2008 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

So where have we been? Mostly we've been here in Georgetown playing ball and hanging out with friends. Here is a quick rundown of what's been going on.

I replaced the port engine starter with the spare one that I rebuilt from parts that I got over the internet. Once I got it put back together correctly, it worked like a charm and now for the first time in over a year, both engines are running, starting and generally behaving correctly. Hopefully they will hold together well enough to get us back to the US in the next couple of months.

We took a couple of fishing expeditions out the north end of the harbour and procured a few more bugs, but no fish. The freezer is filled to capacity and no one is going hungry. Especially Milo.

We weathered two ugly cold front passages since returning from the Jumentos, but we moved the boat to hide from the wind and for us both were pretty much non events.

We attended several beach parties at the various anchorages around Elizabeth harbour and made lots of new friends.

I upgraded our wifi setup on the boat to a 500mw Alfa unit that has more than doubled our range and signal strength and also specked out a complete system for two other boats owned by some of our friends. I'll detail the specs in a later posting.

Ok, that's about it. Tomorrow is the super bowl and then after that we are heading back out for some more exploring. Tentative destinations are Long Island and then a return to Duncantown and Little Ragged Island, but as always, plans are subject to change. See you soon.

We know resume your regularly scheduled logs......

P.S. - That lobster, even minus it's tail, was bigger than my head! Amy says he sort of looks like me and she is convinced that it may be a long lost relative of mine.