British Anti-Food or the Original Digital Pack Rat

October 4 - 10, 2007

Thursday, October 04, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The monkey rapists at NOAA are still calling for death and destruction over the next two or three days, so we decided to up anchor and move back to the better protection offered by Kidd Cove.

Once the anchor was down, I hooked up with Sharon and Peter at Eddie's Edgewater to give them the four hour, abridged, computer 101 course work. We spent the better part of the morning and afternoon surfing the web, fixing broken software, removing viruses and learning how to do different things with the computer.

Of particular interest (at least to most cruisers) was the installation, setup and actual use of Skype. Skype is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) program that allows you to make phone calls to most of the world for extremely cheap rates via your computer, your head set, and a broad band connection.

Peter and Sharon had seen the application in use, but didn't know how to go about setting it up so we walked through it together. As a final test, we called my dad in the U.S. and I had him talk to Sharon (whom he has never met) just so she could get an idea of what it's like and how it works.

I also helped them order several parts for their boat and then explained to them how to navigate the perils of internet product ordering and the ever present Bahamian shipping and import duty issues.

As an aside, it was amazing how many problems we had because Peter and Sharon are from the U.K. All sorts of credit card and billing hassels arose when we tried to do a computer based credit card transaction with their foreign credit cards.

Anyhow, I was done with the computer set up and back on the boat by 2 pm. Amy and I did a little swimming and then took showers before heading up to Thursday night poker. We had 9 players and in the end, I came home third and Amy came in second. Speedo Ed won again for the second time in three tries.

When we got home we were both hungry, so we agreed we would sleep in late tomorrow and it was ok to make late night pizzas. We were chowing down by 11:30 pm and to bed by midnight

Friday, October 05, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The bugs showed up last night as soon as the wind dropped off, so consequently we ran our air conditioner for a couple of hours to keep the temperature down and the bugs out.

The weasels were particularly active during the night, so I was up at first light feeding them blue berry waffles for breakfast. We spent two hours online taking care of a web log update, fan mail, and banking. Amy joined us at 9, but Milo had eaten all the waffles so she had vegetable left-overs instead.

Once the crew was fed, we upped anchor and moved back to our spot off of Hamburger Beach. The VHF was buzzing all morning with talk of an impending front coming our way, but my internet research did not turn up any consensus as to what we should expect.

I spent an hour before noon re-tooling the door handle to our head(bathroom) door. One of the bolts that make it work had stripped out, but I found the next size up in my spare parts bin and used it to effect repairs.

In the early afternoon I took the dinghy to the beach and sanded down the two extensions that I fiberglassed on last month. I am hoping to take the dink back in tomorrow and use some of the fiberglass jelly I have to fair out the extensions a little more. Doing this isn't really a necessity, it's just to make them look a little nicer.

I was back on the boat by 3 pm when the wind really picked up and showers and squalls moved in to our area. The rain drove us below decks for the rest of the evening. The wind finally topped out at 20 - 25 knots where it stayed through out the night.

Dinner was a large chef salad shared among all four crew members. Post dinner I watched movies and Amy read until bed time.

Saturday, October 06, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

The wind and rained picked up over night. We awoke to 25 knots of wind out of the south east and overcast skies that dropped rain every thirty minutes.

The rain never let up sufficiently to let us do anything outside, so we managed to keep busy inside doing odd jobs, cleaning up some and surfing the internet.

Around 3 pm we got out the pressure cooker and made potato chips for the Saturday night pot luck and poker game. They turned out really well and lasted exactly 14 minutes once we got up to St. Francis. Speedo Ed and I stood outside in the on again / off again rain drops grilling burgers for the rest of the group.

After dinner we had a 13 person, 10 dollar buy in poker game. I don't remember where anyone finished as I am writing this three days later. Oh well. We were back on the boat by 11 and turned in shortly there after.

Sunday, October 07, 2007 - Hamburger Beach Anchorage, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Another day of rain and wind. The weather was so lousy we didn't even get off the boat today.

I spent most of the day getting our third lap top up and running. It has recently returned from warranty work at HP and as such needed to have all of it's software re-installed. I think we are going to try and sell this one on the black market down here as we don't really need a third lap top.

In between computer stuff, we played with the weasels and did a few small boat jobs to pass the time. In the afternoon we listened to the Pittsburgh Steelers win 21 - 0 and move to 4 wins and 1 loss for the season. I also listened to the Nascar race from Talladega but Jeff Gordon won and I don't like him so it kind of took all of the fun out of it.

We had tacos and rum drinks for dinner and then watched V for Vendetta afterwards. We both thought it was pretty good.

Anyhow, the weather forecast is for more of the same for the next three days. We may never get to leave here again.

Monday, October 08, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Yet another day in the rain. This morning started especially early as an absolute deluge started just before sunrise. The rain was accompanied by thunder and lightning, which in turn drove the weasels into our bed and under the covers. Unable to sleep with weasels clawing my head, I chose to watch the storm roll by from the cockpit.

Dawn was delayed almost an hour as the sun had trouble fighting through the low cloud cover. For a brief instant, the sun actually shined through and I shot these pictures of this huge rainbow that came right off the beach in front of us.

The sun didn't last and the rain drove me back below where I made waffles for the sleeping crew. The smell of breakfast lured everyone (even Amy) from the bed and all four of us sat down for waffles and maple syrup.

After breakfast, I made a trash run in to town. I also dropped our one empty 10 pound propane tank at Forbes to be filled and then I hit the market for pitas, potatoes and Pepsi. Hmm, the three P's.

The ride to and from town was rough as hell with solid 3 foot chop in the exposed areas. Needless to say, I got soaked going both ways. Back on board, I finished doing a couple of computer things while Amy put away supplies. Around 1 pm I got out the sewing machine and made a new screen door for the salon.

Peter and Sharon on Care Free brought over two sails of theirs that needed repair and I sewed those as well. They also suggested that we come to their boat for dinner on Wednesday. I countered and offered them the use of our boat to make dinner as we have about four times the seating room and they readily accepted.

After the Care Free's left, we upped anchor and moved down to VolleyBall beach to be closer to poker night and to hide from the south winds. We had 8 players for poker and in the end, Amy finished second, I finished third and Linda from Lattittude won. We were back on the boat by 9 pm and to bed shortly there after.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - Volley Ball Beach, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

Yes, it's still raining.

During a lull in the rain, I dinghied over to Elysia and ran the bilge pump on Eric and Susan's Mako. There was only about a billion gallons of water in the boat and it took thirty minutes to get everything squared away.

Back on the boat, Amy was driven from bed by tag team weasels and she made us grilled cheesies for breakfast. After breakfast, I broke out the pressure cooker and made deep fried, Colonel Sanders style, fried chicken. By the way, is it just me or does the Colonel look like Ho Chi Mihn? You decide.

We cleaned up the kitchen mess by 11 am and then I worked on transferring Amy's stuff over to the newest computer and getting all of her applications up and running. This took the better part of the afternoon as she has never deleted anything from any computer she's used in the last 10 years. She is the original digital pack rat.

The day passed without incident and by 6 pm we decided it was time to make dinner. Tonight's menu featured baked potatoes, a steamed vegetable medley and cracked pepper coated shrimp, all done on the grill. Of course, half way through cooking, the rain started back up and I looked like a jack ass grilling in the rain, but there you have it.

In other news and mostly because I have nothing else to talk about, I have included a couple of items and their prices as of today, here in Georgetown on Great Exuma in the Exumas, Bahamas. Consider yourselves lucky.....

Milk : $7.15 / gallon

Gas : $4.98 / gallon

Budweiser : $42.00 / case

Tomatoes, slightly wilted : $6.40 / pound

Oil : $6.25 / quart

Potatoes : $3.25 / pound

Pear : $4.00 / pound

Diet Pepsi : $6.25 / 6 pack

And there you have it. See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 - Kids Cove, George Town, Exumas
By Tom

We moved the boat over to Kidd's Cove in the midst of a driving rain storm at first light as the wind had clocked around to the south-west leaving us completely unprotected. Fortunately, the wind was fairly mild at 10 -12 knots so the swell through our anchorage was only moderate.

The NOAA brain trust is predicting three days of west or south west winds, so we opted to move the boat to the opposite side of the harbour. We dropped the anchor in four feet of water very near to the Care Free's who are coming over for dinner tonight.

Once the boat was secure, I took the dinghy in to the market to get a couple of fresh veggies for Amy and a 6 pack of beer for me. I also deposited trash and got 15 gallons of fresh water to boot.

Back on the big boat, we cleaned up the interior in preparation for tonight's dinner. Sharon and Peter invited us to dinner on their boat, but since we have more room to host, we all agreed on them making dinner and bringing it over to our house. Sounds strange I know.

It rained all afternoon and we mostly passed the time computing and reading books. Around 5, the Care Free's showed up along with their dog Annie. Annie seemed more than a little upset by the presence of weasels, but the weasels lost interest once they determined that Annie was in fact, not edible.

With the Care Free's being British, I was expecting the worse as far as dinner went, but I was pleasantly surprised when the main course turned out to be a pot roast with potatoes. Yay, something I will eat!

Of course I won't go on to mention the decidedly British dishes that accompanied the roast. I personally thought that it might be have been Anti-Food, but Sharon swore it was in fact real food. I exercised extreme caution and never turned my back on the Anti-Food, but Amy showed no such fear and ate some of everything. She reported it as being "interesting".

After dinner, we hung out in the salon telling stories and having a couple of drinks. Dinner broke up around 9 pm and everyone returned to their own boat. Thanks for dinner guys, it was a great time.