well the weather did not exactly clear for the birthday event but we managed in spite of it. stu and sandy called to say they where underway (via car) around 11am. the slapas called to say they where moving over to the anchorage about the same time and karli and could see them anchoring as we had brunch on shore. we did one final run to the farmers market for provisions. as i was finishing up my shopping looking for a sword and a bird (did not find either) i ran into stu on the street. i vectored him and sandy to the kebob hospital as they where starving and headed out to palapa with karli and the final load of provisions.

we got stu and sandy out to palapa before the next storm hit but we could not say the same from the slappers. by the time they arrived at 5pm it was full on pouring. they where in charge of appetizers and drinks and arrived with them and a rum punch kit (complete with pirate bucket) and goody packets for everyone (see photo). we took photos in front of the pirate flag for the costume contest (see karli's blog in a few days). stu won for the hook arm, sword, eye patch and parrot (actually sandy should have won for preparing stu's costume).

after we finished the slap appetizers i got going on the grill. this was in spite of the torrential rain. the original plan was to do the first part of the event on slap dash but we where glad we had aborted this and glad we had pushed stu and sandy to stay on palapa so we would not need to dingy them home. we had a full on meat fest for the second round of appetizers. after this we had to pause for a few hours before we again fired up the grill for the final kebob course, this was along with the massive greek salad karli put together.

we followed this off with the most delicious birthday cake ever courtesy of sandy (again check the karli blog for pics in a few days). i even got presents, the best being a new dingy painter!! we finally called the event when stu was falling asleep in the recliner. the slappers managed to get back in the rain and stu and sandy found the aft cabin. a great success in spite of the weather many thanks for everyone's contribution. we will be working on stu's trophy.

cheers, roger