Ground Control to Major Mila

March 3 - March 9, 2007

Saturday, March 03, 2007 - Moss Cay, Georgetown, Exumas
By Tom

Hello and welcome back!

We are currently anchored in between Moss and Crab Cay at the south end of Elizabeth Harbour. Crab Cay used to be a nice place to anchor, but the island has been sold to American Developers who are putting up another mega hotel/casino/marina. Just what we need.

I know it's their country and all, but the Bahamians have sold just about every island down here for development. I know of at least 13 major hotel complex projects going on in the out islands. Everyone of them is most likely doomed to fail. There just isn't the support base for them here. You'd think the governement would recognize this and maybe stop some of the destruction, but no, they keep selling selling selling.

It's a shame to see and several old timers down here say it reminds them of what happened to south Florida in the 70's and 80's, except without all the people. For those of you familiar with the area, word on the street is that the Emerald Bay Hotel just completed about 3 years ago is about to fail. The parent company has decliened to pick up the lease for another 4 year term and so the facility will shortly be closing it's doors.

I'm sure it comes as a shock to no one. This is the same place where the cheapest room in the place is $450 dollars a night and a lunch for 4 with no alcohal runs a mere $230 without tip! Yeah, not.

Ok, I'm done complaining. Sorry.

With our departure from Georgetown imminent, we have reverted to daily logs again. Today, we finished readying the boat for open water. This included finding a permanent home aboard for my wind surfer as well as removing the advanced board from the boat entirely. Jan on Dabbler promised to find a good home for it and so I moved it over to his boat this morning. The board that is staying with us now resides on the starboard rail, out board of the life lines, tied on almost exactly like Amy's kayak on the port side. The sails and wish bone hardware now reside in Wicky-ville with the weasels.

In the afternoon, I dinghied back over to Volleyball beach to meet up with the twins and Freebird Jack for some serious 2 on 2 ball. It was so hot we had to jump in the water after every game as well as take a tv time out midway through each game for a water break.

Afterwards, I had a couple of beers with Brian and Bruce (Jack is just turned 17 today) before returning to the boat to shower and clean up.

In the evening we went in to the Peace and Plenty for happy hour and ended up crashing a surprise birthday party for an ex-cruiser named Jon. It turned out we new Jon from our poker events and so we were welcomed in to the fold. There were mega amounts of free appetizers, so we filled up on wings and shrimp, thus negating the need for dinner.

I spent most of the evening talking with Marie from Foxfire 2. She and her husband Ivy, are currently here in a land based house for a two week visit. There boat tried to sink on them last year heading home and so they are currently boatless. Some of you may remember Marie from last year. She is the only girl who plays 2 on 2 with us and she is quiet a good player. (Be nice Eric !)

We returned home around 10:30, tucked in the weasels and went to bed.

Sunday, March 04, 2007 - Sand Dollar Beach, George Town, Exuma
By Tom

The sky was so clear last night we decided to sleep on the foredeck on the trampoline. We brought out our pillows and a blanket and watched the stars roll by. Last night was also a full lunar eclipse, so it was kind of fun to see it down here.

This morning I met the usual suspects to play ball at 9 am. We hoped that maybe it wouldn't be as hot if we played early enough. We were wrong. The games were still good, but we only managed to play 70 minutes before calling it a day.

I returned to the boat and got cleaned up. We then upped anchor and motored the 1 mile over to Sand Dollar beach and dropped the anchor in 5 feet right off the beach. We spent the rest of the day in and out of the water in an attempt to stay cool.

Around 4 pm, I fired up the grill and Milo and I barbecued a couple of lobsters for dinner. Amy contributed a small side salad and we ate right around sunset. The wind is supposed to fill back in tonight and blow some of this humidity away. I can honestly say I have never seen it so hot down here. We saw 94 degeres on the thermometer today!

Monday, March 05, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The wind did come up last night and by first light our anchoring spot became a little rolly. We upped anchor and unfurled the jib in 25 knots for the short 2 miles sail up to Hamburger Beach. We rounded up in to the wind, started the engines and dropped the hook in our usual space right off of the Queen's Dock.

Speaking of the engines, they are both giving us a little trouble at low rpms. If you aren't careful, they tend to stall out when shifting into gear. I suspect that the injectors may be a little crudded up, but if they aren't careful, I may have to smack them around a little and show them my power. Outboards fear me.

Safely anchored, we both went ashore to Volleyball Beach and played a little hurricane ball. The wind was blowing at least 20 knots the whole time and it made for some pretty pitiful play. After wind-ball we retired to the bar with several friends for a few drinks. While sitting around talking, I gathered up 6 players for a private, impromptu poker game at 6 pm.

We returned to our boat, cleaned up and then headed up to St. Francis to play. George, the owner wanted to play and I found Willis (Whistling Winds) and Ron (Island Siren) up there and invited them to play as well. In the end, we had 10 players including Amy who usually deals instead of plays at our table. It was a good, friendly game and Ron on Island Siren ended up the big weaner (winner).

Speaking of poker, our esteemed Jackass regatta chairman took all of the chips we have been playing with and locked them away. Excuse me? I mean, we use regatta volley balls all season, and the regatta sound system for dances all season, so why can't we use the regatta chips as well? Could it be because your an ass? I think it may be so.

This guys just kills me. I may have tp dedicate a separate page on the website to document his antics.

We returned to the boat around 9 pm and Amy turned in while the weasels and I watched a movie. They both fell asleep in my lap during the opening credits.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

As you can see, we are still anchored off Hamburger Beach. The wind is still steady at 20 knots and there are 6 foot swells out in the sound, so here we set.

Amy spent the day reading books and I played on the interent. In the afternoon I went in to the beach to play ball. We struggled through hurricane ball again and the games were ok, but not great.

Back on the boat I cleaned up and we made some corn bread to take over to Sue and Paul's boat (Independence) for dinner with their two guests and Deb and Bruce (Different Drummer). Paul is an avid fisherman and as such we had fresh grilled Wahoo with sticky rice and some un-identifiable vegetables that Amy said were excellent.

Afterwards, we sat around enjoying a bottle of wine (or two) and just talking. It was a good time and we returned to our boat around 9:30. The wind is forecast to continue blowing for another day, so we probably won't be leaving tomorrow

Wednesday, March 07, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Still no luck with the weather. NOAA says at least one more day. I think NOAA blows goats. And by the way, so does the regatta chairman. And maybe Steve's mom.

Anyhow, Matt and Michelle, Independences' guests, mentioned last night that they are in the market for a PDQ 36 and so we invited them over to tour ours. Of course this means we spent the morning doing all of those evil cleaning jobs that I always try to avoid. I got stuck using hull cleaner on some nasty stains while Amy used bleach to kill pin mold colonies.

We finished just in time for Matt to call and say the wind and weather was too bad to come up today, so we rescheduled. Damn, I've been tricked!

In the afternoon we went in to the beach to watch the final game of the 4 on 4 regatta volleyball tournament, but it was already over. None of the people I play with participated in the tourney as the organizers definition of "regulation" means any and all lifts, bad hands, double hits are completely legal.

Since we missed the game, we had a beer and sat on the beach. While we were there, Speedo Ed on Joybells managed to punch a hole in the bottom of his boat on a small coral head just off of Sand Dollar beach.

His wife Bea put out a call on the VHF for assistance and we all raced to the scene. With the help of 5 or 6 high volume pumps, Ed was able to turn back the flow of the incoming water. We ended up pulling his boat up on the beach so that he can effect repairs tomorrow morning at low tide.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, but it's kind of cool to see how everyone pitches in an emergency. I mean Ed has been a friend of our's since our first year down here, but at least half of the 20 or 25 people I saw show up to assist didn't know Ed from anyone. It's a good feeling to know that there is such a great support system in place if and when its needed.

With Ed no longer sinking, we returned home and made fried grouper sandwiches for dinner and then hid below as rain fell off and on for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, March 08, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to the sound of rain pounding down on the deck. As soon as it was light enough to see I put on my swim trunks and went outside to scrub the decks off. This may seem bizarre to those of you at home, but we do not have unlimited fresh water to scrub the salt off of the boat like you may do at your marina and so we make do as best we can. The rain lasted long enough for me to get two scrub and three rinse cycles.

All through the morning rain came and went and visibility was down to 40 or 50 feet at times. The regatta yahoo's decided that it was the perfect time to have their one boat race of the entire regatta, so consequently we watched 30 sailboats fade in and out of fog banks.

The fog actually went away about half way through the parade, but then so did the wind. Then we got watch sailboats bobbing in stationary positions. It took over 3 and a half hours for most of the boats to do 2 laps. Now thats racing.

Anyhow, with the weather less than great, we opted to stay rooted in our position one more day. With no travel scheduled, I got the twins and Jack together for some afternoon volleyball. The games were pretty good and it was mega hot despite of the rain.

After ball, I scheduled an invitation only poker game for 6 pm up at St. Francis. I don't want to sound like a snob or something, but if you don't set limits ahead of time, people down here will just barge right in and try and take over.

Around 6 everyone showed up and we had a quiet 2 table, 12 person game. I will not reveal my final standing as it is not worthy of mention. I think my card playing has been going down hill lately.

In other poker news, I think we have finally convinced Willis from Whistling Winds to take over as poker chairman for next years regatta. We promised to help him organize and even train the dealers like this year, but we just don't want the hassle of dealing with grumpy old white people in boats.

After the game, we said our good-bye's to everybody. We are leaving in the morning and heading to the Jumentos for a little out island relaxation and decompression. A lot of our friends will have turned their boats back towards the states by the time we get back. This is always the sad part of the season.

We returned home for the evening and watched Chicken Run before turning in. The movie basically portrays egg laying hens as the opressed victims of a World War II concentration camp.

The movie was kind of funny, but it was a little weird listening to the lead rooster save all of the oppressed chickens because the voice was done by Mel Gibson of recent "I hate jews" fame. Kind of ironic huh?

Friday, March 09, 2007 - South of Hog Cay, Hog Cay, Exumas
By Tom

Hooray! We finally left the harbour! Hooray!

At 9:12 am this morning, we stowed the dinghy and lifted the anchor. Two minutes later the sails were set, the motors were off and we were underway. That lasted 7 minutes until fish whacker #3 started peeling off line. We hadn't yet cleared the anchorage.

The first fish of the day turned out to be a 3 foot, 7 pound barracuda. "Hello and welcome aboard, Barry. Thank you for flying Ferret Airlines, now get the hell off my boat!"

Needless to say, we tossed his scaly ass back.

Our destination for the day was Hog Cay, just inside the Hog Cay cut which if your interested lies right on the tropic of cancer. We're officially back in the tropics. We were one of 12 or 14 boats heading south, but we turned out to be the only one heading to the Jumentos. I think everyone else seems to have been heading for Thompson Bay on Long Island.

The wind was 12 - 15 knots right on the beam and the seas were fairly large and confused. It wasn't a pleasant two hours down to the cut, but we did get to sail the whole way. We even sailed through the cut under main sail alone before rounding up and setting the anchor in 4.5 feet of water.

Right before the cut we got another hit on fish whacker #2. Some huge and massive leviathan of the deep started peeling line off at an alarming rate. The reel was spooling so fast it actually started to smoke! I'd like to say it was some behemoth from the uncountable fathoms, but as we were only in 6 feet of water I suspect instead that the lure snagged a small rock on the bottom.

In any case, the reel was almost stripped when the lure separated under the weight of our 8500 pound boat trying to force it to follow at 8 knots.

SNAP !! TWANG !!! BOING !!!!

I'm pretty sure the subsequent tension released in that single parting resulted in enough rotation lift to properly place a normal sized ferret and a small cache of banana chips into a geosynchronous orbit around our planet. Not Milo mind you, but perhaps his sister. God speed Mila (John Glenn) !

Anyhow, once inside the cut, there was a little bit of chop in our selected anchorage in the lee of Hog Cay, but as evening approached it settled down and by 6 pm it was smooth as glass. We spent the remainder of the afternoon reading or fighting for ground in the Ardennes region of occupied France circa World War II 1945. I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide who was doing what.

Dinner was a large chef salad accompanied by grilled potato wedges seasoned with Old Bay and rock salt. Very tasty. Tomorrow we hope to get the spinnaker out at first light and run dead down wind to either Raccoon or Flamingo Cay. Stay tuned, more to follow