Pork Chop Ugly in the Land of the Lobster Emergency

March 25 - 31, 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

It rained off and on almost all day and the wind was still over 20 knots. As a result, the bimini still sits in a pile in the cockpit waiting patiently to be repaired.

Confined to the inside of the boat, we cleaned the head liner today. This isn't too bad a job as Amy keeps up with it pretty well. I used Milo as an all natural dust rag while Mila ran around and clucked like a chicken. She's a big help when it comes to cleaning.

After our big cleaning spree, we lounged about the boat generally bored. In the late afternoon I listened to the Nascar race and then grilled the last of our fish for dinner. It's definately time to start hunting again

Monday, March 26, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The wind refuses to let up, so I sucked up and dealt with it and setup the sewing machine in the cockpit. First I tackled patching our screen door. Milo has used his bulk to tear a couple of small holes in it over the last 6 months or so.

After the screen door was done, Eric and Alice on Sunrise brought over their sail cover and I sewed a patch on it for them. After that, I began work on our bimini repairs. Around noon, I was 3 hours into the job and still not half way done. I stopped for the day and went in to play volleyball.

After more hurricane ball, I had a couple of beers with the guys and Chat and Chill and then went home to get cleaned up and pick Amy up to head off to poker night at St. Francis. We set up our tables and then had cheese burgers while people started showing up.

We had 46 people show up to play, but as I have only enough chips for 36, some people went home unhappy. When the dust cleared, I finished 4th and Amy finished something like 30th, but you didn't hear that from me

Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

I was back at the sewing early this morning. Amy assisted with man handling the bulkier parts of the bimini through the sewing machine. I finished the repairs around 10:30 am and we were in the process of putting the bimini back up when Brian from Tonga Time showed up.

He came aboard and helped us get things back in place. It's probably a good thing he showed up when he did as the wind is still over 20 knots and the bimini is quite difficult to manage in all this wind.

10 minutes later, we had things taken care of. When I re-stitched the seams, I took a little length out of the bimini width wise in an effort to tighten the fit on our aluminum super structure. The fit is now much much tighter than before and it looks a lot better with no sag in the middle panels. Well done team!

I returned to Tonga Time with Brian to help him setup a new external wireless adapter on his computer. Afterwards, I stopped by Speedo Ed's and got a new(used) battery for Eric and Susan's Mako. Ed was kind enough to charge it up all morning.

I swapped the battery in and the bilge pump immediately sprang to life, but the battery is too weak to start the engine. Damn you battery! I guess I need to get in to town and find a new one, but with the Mako not in immediate danger of sinking, it can wait til tomorrow.

Back on the boat we had a late lunch and read books. Volleyball was canceled today on account of the near gale force wind that still both sucks and blows. Around sunset we made evening cocktails and retired to the to watch the sun set. Afterwards, I cooked ribs and potato wedges on the grill. We had an extened running of the weasels and then turned in by 8 pm

Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Another day in the sun. Milo and I got up in time to listen to the weather dude at 6:30 am. I was up because I wanted to hear the weather, Milo was up because he was hungry. The weather dude says that the high winds will start to decrease over the next couple of days. For the record, we have had 26 days in a row with wind over 18 knots.

After the weather I made Milo some peanut butter crackers that he promptly stuck to his fur. Mila then proceeded to lick the peanut buttery goodness off of Milo. I think it might be like that kid who is so ugly that his parents have to put a pork chop around his neck just to get the dog to play with him.

Anyway, Amy got up in time to lead the yoga group on the beach this morning and I braved the harbour crossing in order to get 15 gallons of water. I don't think I've mentioned it before, but Exuma Markets provides the cruising boats here with free reverse osmosis water right at their dinghy dock. Thanks guys! Gold star for you.

I returned from town soaked because of the high seas in the harbour, but I was able to get the water as well as a package of nutty bars from the candy isle of the grocery store safely back to the big boat, so the trip was well worth the effort.

Before afternoon volley ball, I stopped by George on Sequel with my charts of the Jumentos and George showed me his super secret anchoring and fishing spots. I also got him to let me borrow his hedge trimmers (hair clippers) as ours are broke again. Thanks again George.

Afternoon ball was pretty good inspite of the wind and by 2:30 pm we were worn out. The beer was also suprisingly good today at the Chat and Chill. Usually it's not very cold and they are almost perpetually out of one of the three beers they actually serve, but today they had all three brands and they were both cold and frosty. Nice!

I returned to the boat and showered (read jumped overboard) and then made corn bread for the ARG (Alcohol Research Group) meeting tonight at 5 pm. ARG was attended by over 100 people, so you can rest assured that lots of research was accomplished.

Back on board I fired up the grill and the weasels and I cooked a steak and some potatoes to go with a small side salad that Amy made. Dinner was the usual free for all with the weasels constantly trying to steal food from the table. We were to bed by 8 pm.

Thursday, March 29, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Amy had yoga first thing this morning, so while she was doing pretzel bends (or whatever they do) I went wind surfing. There is still a ton of wind and I struggled to keep myself upright. I rode and fell alternately for about 45 minutes before I got tired. This surfing thing is a lot of work.

We both went in to the beach in the afternoon. Me for volleyball, Amy to meet Charlene (Tonga Time) and go for a walk on the ocean side beach. Afterwards I got cleaned up and then we went up to St. Francis for poker night. Amy did really well and came home in second place and winning the $45 dollar prize. Of course she got beaten by a guy who was so drunk he could barely stand, so I don't know what that says about her playing abilities. Of course she made it a lot further than I, so who am I to say.

As an interesting aside, our esteemed, former regatta chairman called me several times on the vhf today. I of course ignored the calls, but when I was off the boat this morning, he made contact with Amy and requested help with a computer emergency. Needless to say, I was kind of surprised that he would ask me for help seeing all the run ins we've had in the last two months.

Well, he showed up with his computer at poker and asked if I'd look at it. I didn't want to, but Amy made. Women are way too nice. It turned out to be something really minor that I fixed in 10 minutes, but it would have been more fun to beat Mr Chairman senseless with his own computer.

Don't ever say I wasn't a nice guy.

Ok, that about wraps it up for today. Oh yeah, by the way, Carl did you know there is some guy who looks an awful lot like Jimmy (Zealous) living on your boat? Maybe their squatters or something?

Friday, March 30, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

It looks like we are heading south again. Sunday or Monday look to be promising, so we spent the morning getting the boat put in order. This involved putting all the things away that I had taken out and been too lazy to clean up. That took about three hours and after it was done it was time for volley ball.

I forgot to mention it, but Jack (Freebird) left the harbour a day ago. He is on his way back to Jacksonville, Florida to catch a plane to Alaska for the summer where he is crewing on a fishing boat. Have fun Jack, the volleyball isn't the same without you.

After ball, we hung out on the beach talking with our friends. We planned on going in to town to the P&P for the managers happy hour, but the wind picked up around 4:30 and I didn't feel like getting soaked on the way over and back, so we opted for a quiet evening aboard alone with the weasels.

We watched the sunset and then read books until our 8 pm bed times

Saturday, March 31, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

I injured my knee yesterday playing volleyball, so the season has probably ended for me. It was going to end tomorrow anyway as most of the other players are leaving for the states, but I'm too sore to play. Speedo Ed is also side lined as he broke his toe getting back onto his big boat last night.

With no ball to play, it was kind of a slow day. I actually did boat chores in the morning and was surprised by how much I accomplished. Somebody may have secretly replaced me with Foldgers Instant Crystals.

Around 1pm I took the dinghy into town to get more water and a couple of vegetables for Amy. I had to ask the store clerk which were the broccoli and which were the cauliflower for the third time this year. Man am I lame.

By 2 pm I was back at the boat and Amy and I dinghied in to the beach and just sort of sat in funny colored lawn chairs enjoying the sun and a rum punch.

While on the beach, I met up with a guy at the Chat and Chill who has the same dinghy as us only he has added an 18 inch swim platform on the back for extra flotation. I've been working on this in my head since our last dinghy turtle incident and seeing his was a big help. As soon as we get back from the upcoming week or two excursion, I'm going to try and replicate his design.

We returned to the boat around 5pm and as the sunset I made grilled pizzas for the crew. The only available topping tonight was pepperoni as we are now out of lobsters. I feel a lobster emergency coming on.