Month: February 2010

Feb 7 – Feb 22.

Thanks to you all for your patience.  My lack of writing was in direct proportion to the amount of work(and fun) involved with having guests aboard.   Our friend Carl Pitts spent two weeks with us aboard Dancing Dolphin.   We introduced him to the many activities offered by the Georgetown Cruising community and the enjoyed some of the local flavor of Georgetown and its wonderful people.   Carl’s initiation to Georgetown was filled with walks on the beach, some rounds of Volleyball,  and sampling the pleasures of the Gumbay Smash (with a floater, of course!) at the Chat n’ Chill, then to a St.Francis Resort to watch the Superbowl.    Carl was feeling no pain as we negotiated our way back to the dingy and the boat.   Over the next few days we took Carl out to our favorite snorkeling spots and hunted for lobster and Conch.     The weather was hit and miss as far as sunny days and the water temp was not the warmest but we still enjoyed our swims and our afternoons on the beach.  We would have liked to sail over to Long and Conception Island during Carl’s visit but with the continuing line of cold fronts and squalls that kept coming we had to content ourselves with the beauty and offerings of Georgetown Harbor.      Carl developed a bad cold/flu within a week of his arrival and so spent much of his time relaxing and recovering while enjoying the views from some of our favorite anchorages around Georgetown.   If you have to be sick at least you get to recover looking out over the turquoise waters at the beautiful sunsets here in the harbor.   As Carl’s health improved we ventured over to the local Fish Shacks.   These are a group of small local family restaurants/bars where many of the locals go to enjoy themselves.   We took Mighty Mouse(our dingy) across the bay and over to the Fish Shacks at about 5:30pm only to find out that most of the restaurants don’t even start serving until 7:00pm and the music and partying doesn’t really get going until around 10:00pm.   We chatted with the few locals, enjoyed a couple of beers, had an appetizer of grouper fingers and watched a rousing game of dominos.   We then enjoyed some great Bahamian style snapper with peas and rice and some wonderful BBQ Ribs.   The spices and seasoning were really incredible and we will attempt to duplicate some of them on the boat.   We returned to the boat before 9:00pm (cruisers midnight), I know, I know, were getting old.  Michael was next to come down with Carl’s gift after snorkeling in the cold water for too long and getting quite chilled.    So with one recovering and another getting sick we ran up the black flag and tried to avoid contact with too many other boaters.   I had somehow managed to hold my own during this round of plague that over ran Dancing Dolphin.  I attribute much of that to taking long walks on the beach with Jenny from White Bird and staying out of the water during the cold weather as well as munching on the Acai Berries found on our walks (rich in anti-oxidants).       Carl left the sometimes warm weather and sunshine of the Bahamas on Monday to return to the winter wonderland that is Pagosa Springs.   We hope he enjoyed his stay and I’m sure he will regale you all with many more details from his trip.

Feb 5 –Feb 6^th

Friday we attended a benefit concert put on by a number of churches in Georgetown to raise money for the people of Haiti.   It was a lovely evening of revival type music and they had a great turnout.  We were lucky as we were experiencing the calm before the storm and had a comfortable dingy ride to and from Red Shanks into Georgetown.   Saturday was spent getting the boat ready for Guests again.  Carl Pitts from Pagosa Springs was due to arrive on Sunday and so while I prepped the inside of the boat,  Mike decided to change the engine oil.    We had the tunes cranked up and were surprised when our neighbor, Dennis,  from S/V Son of a Sailor pulled alongside of Dancing Dolphin and hollered up to Mike to ask if he was having trouble.   Mike extricated himself from the engine compartment and as he took a look around, saw that we were not where we had originally anchored.   We had drug approximately 50 yards from our original location.   Mike replied, “ Yes I guess I am, now!”    We scrambled as the engine was not in a condition to be restarted especially without oil.   We raced to get out our second anchor out and Mike jumped in the Dingy and took it out to set it.    We were able to get the boat to stop drifting and Mike hurried to complete the oil change so that we could reanchor back in our original position.   Unfortunately, while we were finishing up, another sailboat came into the small harbor and took our place.   We had to move to a different location altogether.     The holding was good and we enjoyed the comical VHF banter that persisted as cruisers readied themselves and their boats for a squall that built on the horizon and was moving in our direction.    The squall lasted approx an hour and winds topped out at 32 kts out of the SW.    The boat got a good freshwater rinse and we settled in for the last quiet evening alone for the next 2 weeks.   It will be an early morning Dingy Ride for us into Georgetown.  We pick Carl up at 7:30 am.

Feb 2nd & 4^rd

The boat feels both big and quiet now that Mom and Dad are gone.  Not that it was crowded or noisy while they were here but just having the responsibility for 4 lives instead of 2 seems to makes the days fly by and feel very full.   Spent the last couple of days housekeeping did all of our laundry in the Sputnik our hand crank washing Machine and got caught up with some maintenance issues and in the evening spent time visiting with Sue and Mac of s/v Suemac, a Tartan 40.   We attended a HAM Radio seminar on Hamburger Beach and then finished the day by heading back out to Fowl Cay with our friend David to do some spear fishing.   Michael found and speared a large lobster to add to our freezer and we also found a large conch bed that we had not swam over during our previous snorkels.   We brought home 6 conch.   We stopped at Sue and Macs as Sue had commented on how much she likes conch and has lots of recipes.   We finagled Sue into making us some conch fritters in exchange for some conch and enjoyed a nice evening only later realizing we had forgotten to hook up with David as previously arranged.  Ooops!  The great person he is he graciously forgave us after we promised to buy him some beer.   There is a cold front approaching again and along with it winds expected to blow at 20 – 25 kts out of the SW and W,  so we have moved the boat back over to Red Shanks where we are protected.    We made conch chowder with the rest of the conch.  Sue and Mac also came over to Red Shanks so we had them over for drinks and dinner aboard our boat.   Lee and Charlie from Windstar 4 also came by and gave us some fish identification books as we had mentioned that we had left ours in storage back in Pagosa.  They also loaned us another by a writer detailing his experiences buying a place and living in San Miguel Mexico.  They also stayed for cocktails and we had a great evening of funny and stimulating conversation.

Jan 21 – Feb 1^st

Mom and Dad joined us on the boat for a vacation and look into this new lifestyle we have embraced.   I arranged for our Bahamian friend, Vencil on Taxi 23 to pick me up and take me to the Georgetown Airport to meet Mom and Dad.   I was able to stand outside the fence and wave as they walked from their plane into the customs and immigration office for clearance into the country.    We traveled the 10 miles back into Georgetown and I called Mike on our Handheld VHF Radio to let him know we had arrived.    Mom and Dad packed well and only carried 2 small bags each, which is amazing in itself as I had given them a list of a number of small items that we needed from the States.   They waited patiently and we watched as Mike motored Mighty Mouse (our Dingy) under the bridge into Victoria Lake and up to the Exuma Market Dingy Dock.   He took Dad out to the boat with the luggage first and then came back for Mom and me.    We had brought Dancing Dolphin(DD) into Kit Cove next to Georgetown as the winds had picked up and we didn’t want to soak Mom and Dad upon their arrival by taking them on a long Dingy ride.   We welcomed them aboard and settled them into the Master Cabin.   We put Dad at the helm and had him take us back across the harbor to the anchorage off Honeymoon Beach below the Monument.    We introduced Mom and Dad to a number of our friends during their stay.   Our friends David and Trudy whom we had met in Warderick Wells treated us all to a wonderful Lobster Linguini dinner aboard their Sabre 40, Persephone.    We shared a few of our favorite anchorages around the Georgetown area.    Mom and Dad got their sea legs quickly and other than some mild queasiness when Dad was reading his book while we were underway, neither had any problem with seasickness.   We passed the time with them with a number of different activities.  Mom kicked butt at Mexican Train Dominos on the beach and Dad cheered us on at fun volleyball.  We shopped at the local straw Market where I purchased a mat for our Galley and Mom picked out some baskets and a doll.   We stopped at the local library and in the spirit of a true cruiser, Dad scored a Pilots guide to the Bahamas and Caribbean that was in the free box.   We took them out to our favorite snorkeling spot near Fowl Cay where Mom enjoyed a number of swims using her Underwater Camera to take some great pics.  Dad also learned to snorkel on this trip and after an afternoon of learning the basics and practicing near the beach he also ventured out to enjoy the underwater beauty of Fowl Cay.   We fished with both pole and hand lines, hiked the trails on Stocking Island, and walked the beaches looking for shells.   Mom got a little over zealous with her shell collecting and had a minor injury when she placed what she thought was an empty whelk shell into, (what she refers to her high pockets) the top of her bathing suit.  As she exited the water she felt a sudden pinching pain and reached into her bathing suit and hastily removed the whelk shell and its owner, a hermit crab, who had latched on with the grip of a teething baby.    Her injured, ah? Ego? was addressed as soon as we could stop laughing long enough to find the Neosporin.   We enjoyed Lobster & Fish Dinners, Lobster dips, Lobster Eggs Benedict, Conch Fritters, Conch Salad, and the classic Cheeseburger in Paradise.  Mom gave Michael some great digital photography tips that she learned and got him taking more pics with his new camera.   Together we were able to share with them the incredible beauty of  the Exumas turquoise waters and its plentiful undersea life as well as some amazing sunrises and sunsets in this small corner of the world.    Mom and Dad have always looked forward to visiting their children each time they moved into a new place so that they could imagine them in their new environment.   I guess we have given them quite a lot of food for their imaginations.   On Monday Feb 1^st we went to lunch at Peace & Plenty and then we met Vencil at Exuma Market and with hugs and tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes.   When I asked them if their experience was what they had imagined, they responded, “ it was all that and so much more”  We’ll be back!