Broken Head Blues

March 8 - 14, 2006

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The front pushed through last night and the wind blew up over 30 knots for about 6 hours. I managed to sleep through it, Amy and the ferrets did not.

We got off of the boat and did some chores in town. I contacted Reggie Express in Miami to arrange to have our new head shipped in. Then I called my Dad and had him ship said head to Reggies. If this is confusing, join the crowd.

Back on board, we put away the groceries and then picked up the anchor and motored back over to Monument Beach. Today was the fun volleyball tournament, but we didn't sign up. Our friend Dan on Borrowed Horse was a member of the winning team. Way to go Horse.

We spent most of the day hiding from high winds and watching movies. Not our most productive day.

Thursday, March 09, 2006 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The winds had calmed down this morning. Milo and I made waffles while Amy and Mila slept in. I ate my waffle and Milo used his as a belly warmer.

After breakfast, I went into watch the 4 on 4 volley ball tournament. It was pretty good and my 2 on 2 partner, Jack off of Free Bird, was on the winning team. Not too bad Jackson.

While I was in at the volley ball tournament, Jon (Jack's father) signed me up to play in the beach golf tournament tomorrow. My understanding is that its a pitch and putt style 9 hole thing played along the beach on the ocean front, but I guess we'll know for sure tomorrow.

Back at the boat we made a bowl of popcorn and went into the Queens Dock for a happy hour gathering. Afterwards, Amy drug me into the dance on the deck at the Chat and Chill. One of us danced the whole time and one of us did not, but I leave it to you to decide who was who.

The dance broke up around 10 pm and we returned to the boat and turned in for the night.

Friday, March 10, 2006 - Monument Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Another day in Georgetown.

No breakfast this morning. I am not sure why.

Amy slept in after her dance marathon, while I went in to play beach golf. The game was played on an impromptu 9 hole course laid out on the windward beach on Stocking Island and you only use one club ( a sand wedge).

My foursome teed off at 11:06. I haven't swung a golf club in 5 or 6 years, so I wasn't expecting much. Imagine my surprise when I landed my first shot only 6 feet from the pin. There were no greens to speak of, just a 5 foot circle in the sand around the flag. Inside that circle is a gimme.

To my total disbelief, I played the first 8 holes 2 under par! As we were the next to the last group, word had filtered to us of what the leaders score was. Tee-ing off on the 9th and final hole, I had 3 shots to give for a share of the lead. Hole 9 was a treacherous 50 yarder with a 3 inch deep and 3 inch wide dry moat protecting the green (circle in the sand).

The other golfers who had finished already were all hanging around watching us finish. I was pretty nervous, and it showed. My tee shot went somewhat errant and I ended up 25 feet from the pin, but only 2 feet away from the ocean! Shitty death!

I hurried to the tide line to set up my shot, but a rogue wave washed in and stole my ball! Mega Shitty Death! After consulting the course ranger, I had to take a stroke and drop a new ball. I ended up getting a 5 on this hole and I fell from the top of the leader board in disgrace. Tiger Woods has nothing to fear from me.

I returned to the boat in the early afternoon and Amy and I just hung out until dinner time. We ended the evening with a screening of The Grudge. It was a pretty lame movie. Milo hid under the table during the screening. He does not like scary movies.

Saturday, March 11, 2006 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We moved the big boat over to town in the early morning to take care of some shore side business. We are almost out of water and Amy needs her vegetable fix.

I made 4 trips in for the free RO water at 15 gallons a trip. I might be getting lazy, but next time I think I may just pull into the Exuma Docking Services and fill the big boat up directly for 10 cents per gallon. For 10 dollars I could fill everything we have. Truth be told, I probably burn 4 or 5 dollars in gas to get the same amount of "free" water out to the big boat by dinghy. Oh well.

Tonight is the big grand finale of regatta which we probably won't attend. I'm sure its a good time, but we just aren't excited about doing a large crowd thing. Mila says we are introverts and we need to get a life.

We managed to waste most of the day in town and when we returned to the boat in the early afternoon, we were content to surf the internet, have a few drinks and generally laze about. Dinner was one of the lobsters I shot last month that have been in suspended animation (frozen) in our massive freezer area. I think we only have 4 or 5 left, so it will soon be time to resume the hunt.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are planning on moving back to the other side of the harbour in the morning

Sunday, March 12, 2006 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Our anchorage became a little rolly last night, so we upped anchor and moved just as the sun was coming up. Thats around 5:45 am or so. Amy was unavailable at that hour, so Mila drove, Milo worked the throttles and I handled the anchor. It was a team effort.

15 minutes later Milo backed us down on the anchor in our usual spot at Hamburger Beach right off the Queens Dock. He is an excellent pilot. Anchor chores done I set about making waffles while the ferrets worked on rousing Amy from bed.

They were more successful than I. We recently ran out of Bisquick and as a result we had to purchase the Bahamian equivalent. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like our normal, beloved American Bisquick and as such I ended up with waffles that somehow managed to escape and overflow my waffle making iron. This in turn allowed the open flame to set said waffle spillage on fire resulting in a somewhat panicked response by the rest of crew.

In the end I used Milo to beat out the flames and all was well. The waffles however did not fair well and we ended up resorting to breakfast tacos instead. Such is life.

After the breakfast debacle, I set about doing miscellaneous boat chores while Amy worked on her computer. In the early afternoon I listened to the Nascar race before we went in to play volleyball.

Back on the boat it was spaghetti for dinner and a 7 pm showing of Blue Crush before retiring for the evening

Monday, March 13, 2006 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Today was a day of volleyball. It started off at 9 am where I played in the regularly scheduled 4 on 4 for 2 hours. Following this I made it back to the boat long enough to have lunch and swim a little before returning to the courts for 2 on 2 action at 1 p.m.. That ran into 4 on 4 again from 2:30 pm until around 4 where we retired to the Chat and Chill for a beer or two before returning home.

Dinner was blackened Snapper ala Tom with an essence of Milo (He licked both fillets thoroughly prior to cooking) accompanied by French fries and some weird looking brain like vegetables that I did not eat.

In other news, our new turbo charged, Fran proof replacement toilet is suppose to show up tomorrow. Life is about to be good again. I layed out my tools in preparation. Early to bed in an effort to fortify ourselves for the head replacement tomorrow

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The weather was flat calm today so we took the big boat back over and anchored right off of town to minimize the carrying distance of our new head.

I called Reggie Express to verify the head was shipped to Georgetown today as promised and Reggie had some bad news. It seems the head was shipped in sub-standard wrappings and as such it arrived in Miami with a shattered bowl! Shitty death! Really!

I was pretty bummed about this turn of events. We have been trying to replace this thing for 5 weeks now at its getting very depressing. I told Reggie I needed to make some calls and that I would call him back later.

In the end I decided to have Reggie remove the pump assembly and send that to me. He agreed to do so and also to send the broken remains back to my dad. Thanks Reggie, I appreciate it.

The pump should show up on the plane tomorrow. With nothing else to do, I was about to return to the boat when I ran into Linda and Kenny off of Lattittude. We first met them 4 or 5 years ago in Fort Washington, Maryland. It was good to see them again and I had a few drinks with them while we caught each other up on where we've been.

I returned to the boat around 2, gathered the Amy Unit and we headed out for the afternoon volley ball session. Amy played most all of the games, but I sat on the side line and just watched still suffering from my broken head blues. I may be lame.

Afterwards, we returned to the boat and I made pizza for dinner. All in all it was a long day and we got very little accomplished.

P.S. - If I don't get this head fixed soon, I may stick my head in the oven. (My head, not the toilet that is)