Overloading Shrimp and Milo Eats Flip

May 10 - 16, 2007

Thursday, May 10, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We went in to town early this morning to beat the rush at the water dock. I loaded 50 gallons of water into the dinghy while Amy procured vegetables. Back on the boat, we filled up the water tank and stowed the green things in the fridge before upping anchor and heading back over to Volleyball Beach.

We anchored the boat in 6 feet of water and had a late breakfast of barbecued shrimp. We will be eating shrimp for the next several meals as I brought back too much and cannot fit it all in our freezer. George at Saint Francis was kind enough to let us put 10 pounds of the shrimps in his big walk in freezer at the restaurant in the interim. He's only charging one shrimp a day in storage fees which strikes me as pretty reasonable.

In the afternoon, Amy and I took Mila into visit Arlene at the Chat and Chill. There were only a couple of people in the place, so Mila got to run around on the bar and play in the ice chest. By the way, the rumors of there being weasel hair in the rum drinks for the rest of the day were completely false I assure you.

Back on the boat, I started sewing a new sun shade for the foredeck. We're trying to deflect some of the sun in an effort to reduce the heat build-up inside the main cabin during the heat of the day. I only got half way done before happy hour and then poker, so I'll probably be sewing again tomorrow.

Thursday night poker brought 15 players out for a two table event. Several guys from the Army base showed up to help round out the field. I wasn't on my A game, but still managed to finish third. Amy didn't fair as well and she says I'm not allowed to tell you where she finished.

We were back on the boat by 10 pm and to bed 3 minutes later

Friday, May 11, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke around 3 am to the sounds of a squall passing through the anchorage. For thirty minutes or so, we had winds over 30 knots and lots of rain with some lightning. By 4 am we were back asleep, but in the morning when we woke, we realized that we had drug anchor about 15 feet during the blow.

Fortunately, there were no other boats around us so no harm was done. After breakfast we upped anchor and headed over to Moss Cay. We took up a spot in between Red Beans and Green Turtle, two other catamarans that are always parked here.

We spent the afternoon swimming and lounging about trying to stay cool. There wasn't a breath of air today and the humidity was about 1,000,000 percent. About an hour before sundown, we moved the boat back over to Volleyball Beach in case there were more squalls tonight.

Dinner was more shrimp, this time wrapped in bacon and grilled to perfection. Garlic bread was also available to those members of the crew with opposable thumbs. Amy and I turned in early and the ferrets had to run themselves

Saturday, May 12, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Shitty Death!! The squalls got us again last night. This time it lasted over 3 hours and had near continuous lightning. In fact, I've never seen so much lightning in my entire life. We also had lots of wind and rain, but our anchor was up to the task and stayed dug in tight through out the storm.

The light show was actual kind of cool to watch, once you got over being scared to death of electrocution. You could actually track the individual storm cells moving though the area by their lightning strikes. Most of the storms passed north and south of us and we only got one or two direct hits.

I spent 2 am to 6 am in the cockpit wrapped up in my rain coat. The weasels used my conscpicuos absence from bed to muscle in on my turf and claim both of my pillows. They are not loyal animals.

Around sun up, the weather broke and the day turned out to be very sunny and hot. I didn't do much of anything useful today, but I'm blaming it on my lack of sleep last night. Amy did some cleaning chores and also dove in the water to remove some plastic junk from one of our propellers. For my Nascar fans out there, it was kind of like a caution for debris on the speedway.

Around 3 pm, we dinghied over to the mainland for a cold draft beer at the Palm Bay Beach Club. I have mentioned before that this is the only place in the Bahamas that I have ever seen sell draft beer. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have expanded their selection from 1 flavor to 2 with the addition of Yeungling Lager. Go team.

We sat in the cool shade and watched the three big screen tv's for an hour or so before we returned to the boat for Schoolmaster linguine with tequila lime sauce. It was ok, but not great. We played with the weasels for an hour before turning in. Maybe we can make it through the night with any storms tonight?

Sunday, May 13, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Apparently not. It was another night of watching the squalls run through. This time I was up from 11 pm until 3 am. We didn't have nearly the lightning show as last night, but it rained extremely hard for the better part of 3 hours.

The wind hovered right around 20 knots and made for a somewhat bumpy ride in the anchorage. Sometime before first light, the storm blew itself out and calm returned. We met up with Ed, Barb, Andie and Norm for a little 3 on 3 volleyball at 9 :30.

The ball was ok and it was good to get some exercise. We returned to the boat around noon and went for a swim to wash off the sand before we made tacos for lunch.

Afterwards, I went back up to Honeymoon Beach to work on my dinghy training wheels. So far things aren't going as well as planned and I may need to re-think my strategy. Back on the boat I cleaned up the cockpit and finally got around to putting all of my sewing stuff away.

Speaking of sewing, we now have a new screen door, a new flat screen tv cover, a coozie for our new Igloo cockpit cooler as well as a foredeck sunscreen to help keep the temperature down inside the main cabin.

Around 5 we went in to the Chat and Chill to say by to Frank from Cat's Away. He is heading north towards the States tomorrow, but promises to be back by November. We are quickly running out of happy hour participants and dive buddies. Pretty soon, I may have to start taking Mila hunting with me.

We returned to the boat by 8 pm and had a light cheese cracker and pepperoni snack for dinner. We turned in by 9 in an effort to catch a few winks before the storms start up again.

Monday, May 14, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

After three nights in a row of having to stand anchor watch, we finally got to sleep through the night. The wind even picked up to 10 knots in an effort to drive off some of the heat. When it hasn't been raining, it's been windless and mega hot here.

I got up with the weasels around 5 am and we played video games and surfed the net until 9 when Amy woke up and made us all breakfast. After eating, I headed over to the beach to continue work on my dinghy pontoons.

By 2 pm I was back on the boat and I dove in the water in an effort to remove the fiberglass dust from my person. I hate working with fiberglass, I hate it so much.

We loaded the laundry, Milo and ourselves in to the dinghy and headed up to St. Francis by 4 pm for poker night. Amy did our one load of laundry while Milo ran through the bar terrorizing the patrons as well as Flip the parrot who is temporarily living at the bar while his owners are stateside.

Flip is an African Grey about 1 year old and has a really extensive vocabulary. Flip was terrified of Milo, but made the mistake of learning how to make the clicking noise we use to call the ferrets. Milo, of course, like any well trained weasel, knows if he comes when he hears the clicking noise he's going to get fed.

Well, in a true comedy of errors, Flip wouldn't stop calling Milo, but was so scared to death every time Milo got close that she shook violently. Milo, on the other hand assumed Flip was the snack and pursued her relentlessly. I managed to grab Milo before too much damage was done, but the whole experience leads me to believe we are in no danger of parrots taking over the world.

I took Milo back to the boat before poker. We ended up having 3 tables and 24 players. I finished second overall and walked away with $40. Amy did not place. After poker it was home for the running of the weasels and then bed.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to torrential downpours that stayed with us off and on all day. Confined to the boat, we did a few small cleaning jobs and spent the rest of the time reading or surfing the net.

I used a brief lull in the monsoons to run to town to drop off trash, get sodas and score some beer. The rain drops chased me back to the boat and I got my purchases stowed just in time.

On the way back to the boat I passed this mega yacht raft up (pictured side right) in the middle of the harbour. The two yachts in the middle of the raft are 140 feet and 195 feet in length. The two outer boats are a 65 foot and an 85 foot sport fishermen. You'd think with all of the millions of dollars that these four boat cost, they could have come up with more than one anchor. I guess not.

We spent the remainder of the day huddled below decks watching movies or reading before we made Schoolmaster Snapper and potatoes on the grill. The entire crew turned in by 7 pm. All in all, it was a mega boring day

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The rain continued throughout the night an at times was coming down so hard we couldn't hear each other over the pounding on the coach roof. The wind stayed in a favorable location, so at least our anchorage wasn't rolly.

I ran to town again today to drop off some more trash from our cleaning yesterday as well as to get a six pack of sodas. The rain started up on the way back across the harbour and I got drenched.

Back on the boat I changed the oil in the starboard engine and adjusted the injector idle in an attempt to get the engine to idle a little better when it's cold. Of course its currently 90 degrees so I probably won't get to see if this helps for some time.

Post oil change, we had afternoon lunch tacos and then went for a swim. There hasn't been any sun for days, so I had to run the generator for 3 hours in an attempt to prop up our dying batteries. I fear that they aren't long for this world.

In the future, I will not buy batteries from Sam's Club (Walmart) as although they are half the price of good 6 volt Trojans, they don't last long at all. We have tracked down 4 new Trojan T-105's here in G'town, but I have been balking at the $115 asking price as these batteries can be had for 60 - 65 back in the U.S. My current self denial is that I'll wait til we get up to Nassau in June to see if they are any cheaper.

While the generator was running Amy and I both used our laptops and surfed the net. Around 4 pm we headed in to St. Francis so that I could watch the America's Cup sailboat race. We lost to the Italians and now trail 2 - 1 in the best of 9 series. Go America!

Back on the boat I fired up the grill and cooked a few ribs, a small steak, 4 shrimp, some potatoes and 2 pitas. It sounds a little odd, but it was quite good. A post dinner running of the ferrets and we were to bed by 9 pm.