01/06/2010, Staniel Cay

January 2nd, 2010 Big Majors Spot, Exumas
"Sapphire" rolled around most of the night and we did as well. It's hard to sleep when you're under constant motion. I'm getting better at wedging myself between vertical and horizontal surfaces to remain in one spot and doze. There were no squalls with this front and much less wind but it clocks much faster than the waves, which puts us beam-to and rolls us for a few hours.
We listened to the nets and read for a while in the morning. I put some cranberry beans on to simmer while I made some breakfast. They cooked most of the morning with garlic, onions, bacon, and celery.
Corn bread sounded good with our rice and beans so I made a batch. By lunch time the beans were still too crunchy so we had left-over potato soup with corn bread and left the beans for supper.
Craig (from Tilt) came over around noon to check out the settings on our Pactor modem, which just isn't working correctly. Everything seemed to be fine but there are some strange things happening. At some point we'll be able trouble shoot on line or find someone who knows more that we.
The wind abated gradually during the day and so after lunch I went to shore to pick up our propane tank at Isles General, dropping of one of "Fine Lion's " at the same time. Then it was over to the yacht club for 5 gallons of gasoline.
On my return from town Suki, a lady that we met last Fall in Annapolis stopped by for a visit. They are heading to Cuba eventually.
The basketball game was on at 6:30 tonight, followed by the football game so we had lots of entertainment on tap.
We ended up saving the beans and I made pizza for supper just as the first game started.

January 1st, 2010 Big Majors Spot, Exumas
After breakfast I headed for town to fill a gas jug and get rid of garbage but once around the protection of Big Majors there was too much wind and the outboard started missing. It had not idled at all yesterday and had been on a downhill slide for a week or so. Rather than a good soaking, I turned around and went back to the boat to work on the motor.
I removed the carburetor and using liberal amounts of Carb Cleaner and an E string from my guitar began to work through the tiny ports. After an hour everything looked ok so I moved on to the filters, checked the oil and gave all tubing a dose of WD-40 before putting things back together.
It started and idled on the first pull.
Kim came over during this time span at some point for another weaving lesson.
Kathy made tuna sandwiches for lunch and then we joined "Fine Lion" for a ride to Sampson Cay to get on the internet. We sat around in the shade outside the office with Mike the manager, chatting and working on the internet for an hour before heading in to the dining room where Kathy finished up and Steve and Kim ordered lunch. I had some hot wings that were .... just ok.
It was late afternoon when we got back and the wind was coming up. There is a front coming through tonight so we'll be rocking and rolling again. We spent the remainder of the afternoon reading in the cockpit as the wind clocked for the south to the west.

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Mike
01/01/2010, Happy New Year from Big Majors Spot

December 31st, 2009 Big Majors Spot, Exumas
After breakfast we headed in to the Yacht Club to watch the C-Class Regatta. We found Steve and Kim who had come over earlier for the drawing. Cruisers sign up to race on the Bahamian sailboats and Steve was drawn as crew on the second race. Kim, Kathy and I took the dinghy out and bounced around as the first race was run and then returned to the dock for the start of the second. We went back out again to watch Steve's race but with the wind going down and Steve's captain losing momentum running to close to the wind... the race was a letdown with "Slaughter" coming in dead last.
We returned to the boat for a late lunch... (I made potato soup with some milk that needed to be used) and spent some time reading in the cockpit.
Later Kathy needed some fronds so we went ashore and picked enough for her to weave for a few days. We stopped by "Tilt" for a minute on the way back to chat and then ended up on "Fine Lion" for cocktails. We played "Rummy Cube" into the evening with Kim winning all three games.
Before bed we watched an episode of CSI and read for a while... no staying up until midnight for we old folks.

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Mike
01/01/2010, Big Majors Spot, Exumas

December 30th, 2009 Big Majors Spot, Exumas
We headed for shore before noon to pick up a package that we had delivered on the Captain C (the mail boat) It wasn't to be found on the government dock but one of the guys that was fishing there told us that all unclaimed parcels were taken to Isles General... one of the grocery stores here. We motored over and sure enough our package was on the porch. Since we were there we picked up some groceries before leaving.
Then it was back to the Yacht club for come lunch and an internet connection. I had forgotten to bring cash so I ran back out to the boat to put deliver our stuff and pick up some money.
The Yacht Club was hopping ... there was an auction scheduled for this afternoon and the Regatta committee was offering free food and drink at 4pm. Some of the local artisans set up tables with their stuff for sale as well. It was quite the festive atmosphere with folks preparing fish to fry or grill as well as conch for salad. The docks were full...primarily with mega-yachts. One came in with an actor aboard that Steve recognized but he looked a little non-descript to me.
Kathy worked on the internet checking the bank and contacting her friends on face book. The blog entries weren't edited so they will have to wait.
As four o'clock approached, we positioned ourselves outside near the grill where we anticipated the line for food to form. Before they were serving I walked up and asked to test the conch salad and got a nice cup full. That sort of started the action as people followed my lead and formed a line. The fish on the grill were wrapped in tinfoil with a large spoonful of diced vegetables and citrus. I had to wait a few minutes as they finished steaming but was able to get one of the first off the grill. It was excellent.
There was a huge vat of rum punch ... slightly watered down with ice, but tasty, and a complete bar set up.
Kathy, Kim, Steve and I sat on the dock and had a picnic with folks milling around everywhere and nurse sharks swimming just below our feet.

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