Drifting Grapes Passing in the Night

January 13 - January 19, 2007

Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

And welcome back......

I guess about 5 or 6 years ago, I had a chance to try a friends wind surfer. I remember it being fun and I thought I was pretty good at it, so when a boat on it's way back to the states offered up two complete boards I convinced Amy to let me get them.

Well, I was either much younger and in better shape then or I have secretly been replaced with instant folgers crystals because the board is kicking my ass. I've only managed to stand up with the rig two or three times and it never lasts more than 15 or 20 seconds. Most of the time I try to pull the rig up and it instead pulls me over the top of the board and throws me down in two feet of water.

Amy says she is working on photographic evidence of my foibles, but that I need to stand on the board a little longer for her to get the picture. She's just mean.

In other news, I was the big winner at our Monday night Texas Hold-Em tournament. There were 25 contestants and I ended up walking away with the 90 dollar first place prize. Of course after buying the two wind surfers I need to win the next four weeks to break even, but who's counting?

Tuesday night we actually had dinner on our own boat for the first time in over a week. It seems our social schedule is getting pretty booked. If your interested, we had grilled shrimp, potato wedges and a mega salad served with your choice of rum based drinks.

Wednesday the wind was down low enough for me and George to go out spear fishing. I am still getting over a head cold and I wasn't able to equalize during my dives, so I was pretty useless as a hunter. We did manage to find two lobsters in the kiddie pool end of the reef (read less than 10 feet), so the trip wasn't a total waste.

Later that same afternoon we had our 2 on 2 volleyball matches. It rained the whole time, but we didn't care. It was just nice to be able to play in less than hurricane force winds for a change and we were all impressed with the level of play.

In the evening we went over to Brian and Charlene's boat Tonga Time with the crew off of Freebird for drinks and appetizers. I made cracked conch and Amy added corn bread and we came home without left overs.

Thursday found Amy running her yoga class on the beach. I think she is up to 20 members now, but I'm not sure as I have never been. While she was yoga-ing, I dinghied over to Mic and Mary's boat Escargo to help Mary with some laptop problems.

Afterwards, I spent a couple of hours trying to straighten up the boat. One of my wind surfers is an advanced model and I don't think I'll be needing it anytime soon, so I stowed him opposite Amy's kayak. I also found storage below for the 4 other sails that came with the surfers as they are much bigger sails than I need with the wind we currently have.

In the afternoon, Amy went in to play volleyball with her all woman's group and I tagged along for moral support. Later I went in to St. Francis alone for the Thursday night poker game. In an incredible display of card savvy (or luck) I managed to bring home the big bucks for the second night in a row! We had 35 players and 4 tables running, but the other contestants were no match for Team Weasel. Tonight's take home was 120 bucks and I'm now one victory away from paying for my wind surfers.

Friday arrived and found me getting run over repeatedly by my own wind surfer. I mean damn, it's bad enough when you get thrown, but then to have the un-manned board run over you after the fact is just plain wrong. After my morning wind surfing debacle, I joined the rest of the boys for two on tow volleyball at 12:30 pm.

Amy accompanied me to the volley ball courts, but strictly as an observer. She is almost over her cold and didn't want to push it. Back on the boat, we showered away the sand and then loaded the dinghy up and trekked across the harbour for the managers happy hour at the P&P.

We usually like to go over every Friday to town, but the weather has been so bad here that this was the first time this season that we've been able to negotiate the trip across the harbour. Not much has changed at the P&P and we still had a good time. As an aside, I ate 9 of the free meatballs and munched down 7 of the chicken wings. Remember, free is good. I also smuggled one meat ball home for Milo.

Saturday arrived and found us busy with boat chores. I had several small items to fix or replace and Amy busied herself cleaning up inside. At 1 pm, we made the trek in to volley ball. I played 2 on 2 with my partner Ollie and Amy played 3 on 3 with her all woman group. Afterwards, we snagged a few rum and pineapples under the palm trees and just hung out with our friends.

Speaking of friends, almost all of our long time friends have returned to the harbour now and there is usually something going on almost every night. I never realized how much work it is to have so many friends.

While still on the beach, we were approached by two more cruising boats that have been reading our logs. This has become a two time a week thing and it's pretty entertaining. It's nice to know someone out there is reading along.

On our way back to the big boat, we were shanghaied by Eric and Susan on Elysia in their large Mako dinghy. They had Barb and Andy from Moxy on board as well as plenty of rum, so we tied our dinghy to theirs and just drifted through the evening with rum, peanuts, grapes and good friends.

We returned to our boat around 8:30 and then turned in for the night. Good night Georgetown, good night everybody.