Thursday, April 26, 2007

Still in G'Town

Waiting for parts in Georgetown.

This is the part that I am still not good at. Not good at all. Waiting. Waiting for weather. Waiting for parts. Waiting. I tire of a place after about 3 days. Most places 3 days is enough to learn the essentials of it, get fuel, water, groceries, laundry. Then I’m ready to go. Everyone tells me to relax and enjoy the retirement, the place, the books, etc. I do . . . but not for long. For me I have to nearly always feel that I am on a voyage. Living in a place is what I did the first 55 years. Now I want to be on a voyage. So it is hard for me when these delays occur but surely harder on Sue who has to live with me.

AND a new feature for us (thanks Leah!). We always have more photos than we really want to put directly in the blog. Now when you click a photo you'll see an album of photos of that topic. Below is a picture of our walks on Monument Beach. Click on it and you'll see a number of pics from the walks. Enjoy!
monument walk

So to break things up a little in Georgetown we have recently moved the boat over to Monument Beach. We’re on the other side of Elizabeth harbor now from Georgetown as when we started at Volley Ball beach but now we are further to the north. Certainly too far to dingy into town and that’s ok as it is town where money gets spent! The last two days we have taken the dingy to shore here and explored the trails that wind about on Stocking Island. Truly beautiful and pretty rough. It is steep but do-able climb to the monument itself which is simply a 6 sided monolith about 30 feet high. We sailed toward this many days ago now coming from the north as a steering guide. Great view from here and another path leads you to the ocean side of the island and miles of untouched ocean front. We walked north until we found another path leading up and over and found ourselves nearly back to where we started but actually at a little structure called Peace and Plenty Beach Club. Inside we met Dora who had been cooking there for 28 years. We see that they have beer and we have been hiking for about an hour or more. Yum. Unfortunately, I tell Dora, I’ve left all the money on the boat. She uncorks two Kaliks and tells us to pay her tomorrow as she is closing in 15 minutes anyway. Nice. The next day we did just that and had lunch and two more Kaliks. Smart business woman is Dora!


We miss our friends Jay and Jen on Rum Runner but have become addicted to Dominoes which they taught us. So much so that we bought the deluxe suitcase of dominoes so that we could host an entire domino party if we wanted.





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Well, maybe not!










We attended a fishing seminar the other day and learned a lot. We need rod, reel and gaff at a minimum. The main tip was to NOT buy new stuff but look for good used so we will. We also need a fish identification book since if it ain't a bass we don't know what the heck it is!

The refrigerator is still not working but my wallet is another$150 lighter! I’ve probably spent as much on repairs (that never take) as I have on the original installation. I’m not throwing any more money at this thing for some time. In fact I’d like to couple the real fix (how do I guarantee that?) with the purchase of solar panels so that I could relax the engine a little when we are on the anchor. For now we’ll learn to be cruisers without refrigeration which there are still several of. It means more canned food, rice, pasta, but fresh meat only when you find it and eat it that day...or FISH! Eggs last without refrigeration especially if they’ve not been refrigerated. Bacon will last long enough to eat over several days. Canned hams, chicken and tuna can fill in. While we miss our ice cubes for cocktail hour we are enjoying not worrying about the batteries. Now there are only a few cabin lights, the water pump, radio, and, occasionally, the inverter to supply 12 volts to.

We hear on the radio that there are other boats waiting to head south as we are. While we don’t really look to ‘buddy boat’ we may try to get with them to compare routes and plans especially if they’ve gone before.

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Thursday update:
Our package WILL be here later today. Customs in Nassau was holding it for ransom ($75). What can you do? You pay.

Family Regetta is going on and going on right by and through the anchorage! Exciting. We'll see some more of that today probably. Yes this is another album of pictures. Click on the photo below and enjoy.

Exuma Family Regatta April 2007



Go Cubs. . . oh why bother.

6 comments:

Jason said...

6 sided monolith about 30 feet high

Could you feel yourself evolving?

LeahC said...

nice picasa web album.

daughter = so proud.

Anonymous said...

I agree! Great picutre feature, Leah!

Scott, you're like me when it comes to needing to be on the move. My wife, a special ed teacher, says I've probably had ADHD my whole life!

I never figured they got that much unsailable weather out in the Bahamas that would keep you from moving along. But then, why not? Is is, after all, in the middle of friggin' Atlantic Ocean!

Anonymous said...

Back in water tomorrow. watching weather and wind again after a long winter. your pictures look great. Thanks to Leah, the web album is wonderful. Chicago here we come!!

Anonymous said...

Great pictures!

Anonymous said...

the bird in the web album is a wilson plover..just happened to have a bird book handy..