SY Scrabbler

Again! We have so much to do but we can't stop! And look at this!! Absolute mean dice have given me all of four vowels. Nasty, but I got them after all. And look how pretty the result is. I am for extra points for beauty but James won't let me have them!

hold some magic power over us. Every day during breakfast we have to play four rounds of Scrabble Dice. Can't help it! We are addicted and this form of Scrabble is our favourite so far. Fast, fun and with some luck involved. I played over the winter with Pat, Marci, Val, Sarah and sometimes Jackie and now lots of them have The Dice. I am looking forward to meeting up again after our secret training sessions. We are awesome!

The thorough defeats by the real Scrabble Queen Jak have faded in our memories and we have plucked up the courage to meet and play again. Every Monday after yoga we get together and play with Scrabble Dice! 14 dice and 2,5 minutes equals a lot of stressful fun! Helped by steady infusions of caffeine in the lovely café Artesão Here we have initiated Marci and helped her as a newcomer only to be defeated again! The dice version is really good fun and currently my absolute favourite. I found this set in the States and got it shipped over by lovely Helen from SY Micheline for James' 40iest birthday. Then it got forgotten in the games cupboard and now we can't stop! Sadly, this beautiful version with wooden dice is not been produced anymore and was only available in the US. Very strange. I haven't looked for a German version yet, but for English players I can only recommend to try to get your hands on one of these vintage editions.

We did not write about the last time we were up here near the Rio Grande and stayed for an evening of food, drink and words at a finca with Jak. We played Scrabble and lost badly. SInce then we trained very hard and had amazing scores and boards. So today we challenged Jak again, using our little travel Scrabble, which she never played with (no chance of rigging letters there!) and after just two rounds we were ready to jump ship or at least to cast Jak adrift. Two 7 letter words, both on triple word scores, scoring 83 and 95 points. How can we compete? Anyway, she kept going like that with another 7 letter word for 86 points later in the game, and properly kicked our little butts. So we are now ready to rename our yacht. Any suggestions?

I believe, there is some witchcraft involved.....

Wir sind nicht, entgegen weitverbreiteter Vermutungen, im Winterschlaf versunken. Die Tage vergehen unter blauem Himmel und Sonnenschein und sind gefuellt mit Arbeiten an Baby-Scrabbler (ein bisschen aufhuebschen...) und an Big-Scrabbler (Bett groesser machen - noch groesser! Und zusaetzlichen Stauraum schaffen) und dann natuerlich baden und am Strand entlang wandern und nicht zu vergessen, dem gesellschaftlichen Treiben in der Marina. Ich habe den Winterscrabblescramble wieder ins Leben gerufen. Der erste Abend war schon. Leider ohne James, denn er ist wieder unterwegs. Aber habe es trotzdem auf den zweiten Platz geschafft, trotz staendiger Ablenkung, denn ich musste nebem harten Scrabblekampf ja auch noch allen Teilnehmern die Regeln erklaeren und alles im Auge behalten. Aber jetzt sind wir alle versierte Gambler und naechstes Mal ist alles einfacher. Musikabende stehen auf der Tagesordnung und die Lagos Navigators Band wird vielleicht wieder zu vollem Leben erweckt. Zwischendrin sind kleine Scrabbleabende Boot geben Boot. Unsere bisher beste Gamblingnacht war auf SY (Fatty) Vadrouille mit Christian from Bermuda and Kirsteen from Schottland. Das war auch meine erste Pokernacht! Man lernt ja nie aus... Und dann hat Lagos nach 8 Jahren endlich wieder ein Kino! Mit weichen Sesseln, viel Beinfreiheit, wenigen Besuchern und aktuellen Filmen. Und da die Portugiesen ihre Filme nicht synchronisieren, kann man alle Filme im Original kucken. Wir haben schon den 'Buttler' und 'Gravity' gekuckt.

This time we got quite a few rounds of different card games going. Ligretto was a great success after 3 bottles of wine! The English version of Scrabble cards went down well, even though I have been accused of cheating with the score. I never do in Scrabble, ever! That would be losing my honour big time. La Perle Noire, Northern Shadow, Sandpiper and Reveller vs. Scrabbler! Since we were 8 people the game was over after 3 rounds and despite getting bombarded with minus-cards at my last go and NOT adding the remaining cards of the others to my score I did it! Single-handed since James is upside-down on the other side of the world.

Almost at the end of our winter in Cartagena we finally managed to get some traditions going – The Gambling Wednesday! took part the second time with an amazing turnout. It was quite funny since we were actually too busy chatting, eating and drinking to play games or come to that get the rules right in the first place. But it was a very enjoyable evening and who knows, people may get a taste of Scrabble and we can finally challenge a few more boats in Cartagena to a match to beat Scrabbler.

Having withdrawal symptoms I challenged Marcel to a round of German Scrabble Cards. After lots of moaning that Swiss people do not speak German and the rules would have to be all changed, we had some great words and good scores. Finally, in round 5, after first saving a triple word score card for later (what later???), Marcel was leading with ONE point and promptly declared the game over and won by Dakini! What can you say... He simply is one of the greatest Schummlers in the world. But I would say, this game is not over yet, Marcello!!!!!

All the fun we had in Lagos and not once did Helen and Marcel take part in the Scrabble Scramble. Can't have that and so we first had a lovely roast from the Cobb and then The Scrabblers took SY Dakini on. With the German Scrabble Cards. James being fluent..., Jana being German, Marcel born and bred in Switzerland and Helen a long-term immigrant in Marcel's beautiful country. Guess, what happened again! James kicked our little butts big time with almost 40 points ahead of everyone! He is the master of the nasty cards as Helen can confirm. She never had a negative score for a nice word in Scrabble before! But we are a little scared already because she challenged us to 3D-Scrabble in English and Marcel said, she is unbeatable. Have we found another Scrabble-Queen? What fun that will be once The Dreamers with Jac, Scrabble-Queen of Lagos, onboard will arrive here for the winter. If...

Auch wenn Maria und Peter von SY Bonita hier ein wenig traurig kucken, hatten wir viel Spass beim Scrabbeln mit deutschen und englischen Scrabblekarten. Die 'Scrabblers' haben ihre Ehre verteidigt und den Sieg nach Hause getragen. Aber fairerweise muss man sagen, dass Maria und Peter komplette Neulinge waren. Niemals zuvor haben die beiden gescrabbelt und dann beim ersten Mal gleich gegen uns :-) Aber wir haben sie ins Team der Scrabblesegler geholt und wenn sie wieder zu Hause sind, fuehrt der erste Weg in den Spieleladen!