Dream of the Dancing Lamb Chops

January 20, 2005
By Tom

Friday, January 14, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

This morning we went into town for round two of laundry. The wind is still blowing, so we moved the mother ship over to the town side of the harbour. We were the only ones in the laundry place and consequently, it was much easier to get it done.

While laundry was tumbling round and round, we trekked down to the internet cafe to receive emails and to attempt to update the website. As you are not currently reading this, you must assume that I was not successful. We will try again soon.

We collected our laundry and then did some shopping before returning to the boat and then back to the other side of the harbour.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the boat back in order, folding the laundry, and then playing volleyball and generally hanging out at the Chat and Chill meeting other cruisers.

Dinner consisted of grilled Lamb chops and salad. Does it strike anyone else as odd that lamb seems to be the most plentiful of meats here in George Town? The nearest living lambs must be at least 500 miles away. Go figure.

Anyway, visions of dancing lamb chops helped us to sleep by 8 pm.

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

Yahoo ! Amy is fishing person too. Now that we are a two spear family again, we both went out hunting today. We went north above Hamburger Beach in search of some coral that would be reasonably protected.

We were pretty limited in where we could go because the wind is still blowing 20 knots and kicking up 6 footers on the ocean. We finally found some stubble coral in about 5 feet of water. It was a little lame, but better than nothing.

I spied a 14 inch Big Eyed Toro hiding among some rocks and decided to point him out to Amy. She spotted him (it wasn't hard being that he is BRIGHT RED among gray rocks) and moved in. After a couple of drive by's, she dove down and WHAMMO! Right in the head.

This is her first kill with a spear and I was impressed.

Back on the mother ship, Amy cleaned her catch with a few pointers from me and then I fried him up and we had fish sandwiches for lunch.

Afterwards we had the running of the ferrets and then we went into VolleyBall beach for sports. I know its suppose to be the fun volley ball court, but I think they may need to limit participation to only those that have knees and know how to use them.

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

There is a cold front moving through tomorrow morning that is suppose to bring rough weather for several days, so we had planned to go spear hunting again today.

As soon as Amy returned from the Yoga we headed south into the supposed "park" area. It was still rough with 3 - 5 footers knocking us from side to side. We found several isolated coral patches and dove in.

Visibility was only about 10 or 15 feet and it took a lot of energy to fight the swell. Amy took a couple of shots, but today she didn't score. I finally saw something big enough to shoot and capped a 2 foot, 3 pound Margate.

This is my first fish with the hawaiian sling and for those who are interested, the sling easily has a range of 10 feet and although it is harder to use, once you get the hang of it, it is a much more lethal weapon than the pole spear.

Back at the mother ship, I cleaned our dinner guest while Amy put away our dive equipment and then we went into Volleyball Beach for afternoon exercise. We were both hungry so we splurged on a few burgers and decided to save our fish til tomorrow.

Back on the boat, we battened down the hatches in anticipation of a big blow

Monday, January 17, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

The cold front that pushed through last night continued to howl all day long. The wind never dropped below 25 knots.

We had a bit of excitement last night with one of the boats in our anchorage dragging up onto the beach, not once, but twice. Needless to say, no one here on board happy home got any real sleep.

This morning's sunrise found us in the same position as before we went to bed, so the anchor is working as advertised. During the day, Amy read books and napped while the ferret and I played hide and seek.

In the afternoon I went in for my daily ration of volley ball and afterwards I collected Amy and we went over to Hamburger Beach for a cruisers happy hour. We took popcorn.

The happy hour was fun, but the wind was blowing so hard that it was actually cold and no one stayed too long. Afterwards, it was back to the mother ship for pizza night

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

Another day in George Town. The wind is still howling and it topped 40 knots last night. Its virtually impossible to do anything on the boat with this much wind.

There's not much really to report. We went in to play volleyball, but the rain showed up shortly there after and we decided it was no fun to play in the rain. We sat at the bar and talked to some of our friends and watched CNN instead.

For dinner I made bacon cheese burgers on the grill with rice. We read books and had the running of the ferrets while waiting for bed time. We are lame.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

And the days keep rolling on....

I awoke this morning at 4:30 am to the sound of french people yelling at each other. Apparently, the anchor drill is the same in french as it is in english.

With so much time to kill before Amy and the ferret would wake, I put in 4 or 5 hours working on the log application and made good progress.

I stopped long enough to watch the sun come up and snap a few pictures. The ferret woke up before Amy and I proceeded to let her get under the sheets with Amy. It's kind of funny, nothing quite wakes you up like a ferret sand-paper tongue kiss to the arm pit. Amy was not impressed.

The day was another mega wind/rain storm fest and we spent the morning and early afternoon doing odd boat jobs. I did venture across to town in my wet suit and fowl weather gear to drop off trash, score some free water (RO no less) and grab a few things from the grocery store.

While I was off running errands, Amy made chocolate chip cookies and a loaf of bread. It's nice not having to be the bread slave today.

In the afternoon, I went ashore in the hope of finding a game of volley ball. Lo and behold, the rest of the geriatric crowd showed and we had a decent set of games. The old folks had to return to their convalescent homes early, and we were left with 6 youngish (under 50) people to play three on three. This was by far the most fun we have had playing volleyball here.

Some friends of ours showed up the other day. Anton and Suzanne from Feelin Irie are one of the few cruising boats we have met in our age bracket. We met initially back in Palm Beach, Florida and had made loose plans to hook up here. It's good to see them again.

After mega volley ball, we returned to the mother ship for the evening edition of the running of the ferrets and a light dinner snack of rum drinks, fresh bread, chocolate chip cookies and bruschetta.

Tomorrow we plan on moving the luxury yacht over to town to try and get internet access, so hopefully you our faithful readers will be able to read this soon.

P.S. - I met a golden retriever the other day that only speaks french. How messed up is that?

Thursday, January 20, 2005 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas

Today's log is written in the future tense. Mostly because I hope to get internet access this morning and if this log is done a head of time, then I will be able to post the entire week up on the website. If I don't get some internet access soon, the French may die.

Judging by past days, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that we went into town today. We probably got really wet doing so and I bet the wind was really blowing hard too.

Maggie most certainly enjoyed the running of the ferrets and I bet she chased random dust bunnies around the boat.

Amy probably read books today and she might have even gone to the book swap in town. I probably checked the engine oil and bitched about my dinghy's lack of performance, to which Amy probably responded that I suffer from dinghy envy.

In the afternoon we probably went into play volleyball and I bet we won lots of games. The french people definitely are going to suck ass again as they are still damaged people.

There are probably a few beers at the Chat and Chill in our future as well. Maggie may have put in an appearance at the bar too. She is way more popular than we are.

Later today, we will eat dinner and then go to bed, but Amy has to wake up before this can happen.

Wow, these logs are a lot easier to write when I just make wild ass guesses. I may be on to something here.