Damaged People

January 13, 2005
By the Bozo

Friday, January 07, 2005 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas

We made it to George Town today. We now bow our heads for 5 seconds to worship the Cruising Mecca. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ok, so the trip down here sucked mega big. We had 20 knots on the nose the whole way and we fought 5 foot breaking seas most of the day. Normally, we would have waited where we were for a better weather window, but the weather dude Chris says the weather is going down hill for the next 10 days.

We arrived about 1 pm and after finding a suitable anchorage and dropping the hook, we went ashore to Volleyball Beach, oddly enough to play volleyball. Go figure.

The volley ball played here is divided into two classes, the ultra serious, reasonably good players and then everyone else. We played with everyone else. In this game, all hits are legal and there is no spiking.

I didn't know the no spiking bit and I bounced one off the melon of this really annoying French toad. He was being a dick, so I figure he had it coming.

Speaking of the french, there are a lot of them here. While I don't consider my self a Francophobe, I have not yet met a Frenchman who isn't a dick. The french women seem completely normal, but the French guys must have a serious self esteem problem.

The French men here walk around in these tiny nut hugger bikini shorts with their fat asses and huge guts busting out everywhere. Now I'm not a small guy by any stretch, but I know better then to dress like an ass.

I think they are damaged people.

Anyway, we are finally here. This is kind of a milestone for us and we plan on being here for some time. Amy's friend Chris is flying in here in a couple of weeks and we have some reprovisioning and laundry to do as well as several small boat projects. We hope to base out of George Town for a while and take 3 or 4 day long trips to some of the more remote Out Islands from here.

It's island time mon.

P.S. - Maggie says the French f@#$ing suck. She is not a tolerant ferret

Saturday, January 08, 2005 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas

We moved the mother ship over to the town side of Elizabeth Harbour this morning to facilitate doing laundry and getting our grocery supplies. There is a pretty decent market here called Exuma Markets and they had the best selection of foods we have seen since Marsh Harbour.

$70 later, we are back in business with fresh veggies, some frozen meats and taco shells. We also did our second and third loads of laundry since we have gotten to the Bahamas. Clean clothes rule.

After our morning chores were done, we moved the boat back to the Hamburger Beach anchorage and promptly went ashore to play volleyball again. We were much better this time and we won most of our games.

After about 12 games, we retired to the Chat and Chill for a beer or two with some of our co-players. After that it was back to the boat for rice, pineapples, and left over lobster.

Another day in the books

Sunday, January 09, 2005 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas

A lazy Sunday.

I polished a little bit of stainless steel this morning while listening to the NFL playoff games. At about 2 pm we headed into the beach at Chat and Chill.

We played a little soccer and then a lot of volley ball. That one really obnoxious french ass was here again and he kind of sucks the fun out of playing. What is it with these french toads?

If they played baseball, they would only play left field and no one would be safe!

After volleying for a while we hung out with Bruce of Different Drummer and Don off of Double Trouble ( A Catana 581) and had a few beers. Don's boat is a 58 foot catamaran and I think ours would fit on his fore deck.

Later we made dinner out of left overs and just sort of hung out on the boat. We may be falling into a routine here

Monday, January 10, 2005 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas - Amy

Headed back in to George Town this morning by dinghy. This sounded like a great idea at the time. Turns out the waves deceived us. We made it about half way across the Elizabeth Sound when we found ourselves pounding into two-footers and shooting spray all over ourselves. But we were half way, so why go back? Because the worse was yet to come. By the time we made it in across the breakers in the cut into Victoria Lake, we were literally soaked head to foot. We looked pretty cool walking around town drenched to the bone.

In town, it didn't take us long to blow lots of money. We called home to get mail sent, went to the dive shop to pick up a Hawaiian sling, some more tips for our remaining pole spear, and other miscellany. With the outrageous Bahamian mark-up, that ran us more than a hundred U.S. Oh well. What better way to shake it off than a game of volleyball and drinks.

Our respective volleyball games are improving. Today was the first day we returned to the dinghy without feeling as if we had been beaten with a stick. Perhaps we are getting back in shape a bit after sitting around on the boat for so long.

Dinner was some excellent pizza. We declined going across the harbor again to attend the "rake and scrape" at Eddies. Maybe next time. For now, it was bed and books by 8 PM

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas

We read books this morning and recovered from volley ball soreness.

In the early afternoon, we tried to get over to the ocean side of the island, but we forgot to bring shoes and had to turn back half way. The need for shoes is a new one for us.

When we returned, I made a loaf of bread and then we went in for afternoon volley ball. We played 10 or 12 games then retired to the bar for a post work out beer or two.

Back on the mother ship I made lamb fajitas for dinner and they turned out quite well.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas

We awoke this morning with every intention of getting some boat chores done. We were mildly successful. I washed all of the windows to remove the half inch thick salt crust that has formed over the last 4 months.

Amy went to Hamburger Beach this morning for beach yoga. Maggie and I don't see the appeal of getting sand in our swim suits/fur, and consequently we stayed on board.

While she was gone, Maggie and I made another loaf of bread and worked on our Logbook application. When Amy returned, we had a light lunch of hotdogs on the grill and then went into beach soccer on Volleyball Beach.

Actually, I played soccer while Amy read a book. On the soccer front, it was Big People versus Little People and the little people beat us 5 - 4.

Afterwards,we both participated in the action on the fun volleyball court with the Geriatric group. It was fun, but it's losing its appeal.

I think we are going to leave George Town this weekend and spend a week or two in some of the less inhabited areas, but we will be back here at the beginning of February to pick up Kris from New York.

Thursday, January 13, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

After an early breakfast of hash browns and coffee, we up-ed anchor and headed across Elizabeth Harbour to the town side. The wind is over 25 knots today and the harbour had large, lumpy 4 foot swells out in the middle.

We dropped the hook off of the town dock and took the remaining dirty laundry as well as an empty water jug, and our trash into town. Maggie wished to go, but thought better of it when she saw how rough it was going to be coming in in the dinghy.

With the trash disposed of, the water jug filled and the laundry spinning merrily on its own, we hiked just south of the docks to the Exuma Cyber Cafe. They had DSL internet access for reasonable prices and they also seem to run some kind of gambling book establishment at the same time. I had trouble figuring out what they were actually betting on.

With email checked, we returned to drying laundry and then retired to the grocery store for more fresh veggies and other various dry goods before risking life and limb to get back out to the mother ship.

We unloaded our groceries and returned to the east side of the harbour. This time we choose to anchor right of VolleyBall Beach in about 8 feet of water. There is more protection from the waves in here and it puts us within 100 feet of the volleyball courts.

In the afternoon, I went in to play volleyball and Amy met me around 5 at Chat and Chill for a burger and a beer. Afterwards, it was Scrabble in the saloon and then books in bed. As a side note, I am reading Dean Koonts - Sole Survivor, Amy is reading Wind, Sand, and Stars by some French dude and Maggie is reading (or sleeping on) The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.