Today we headed down to the Coco Banderos to help our friend, Julie, celebrate her birthday along with several other boats. When we arrived at the normally crowded anchorage (large area, but few good spots out of the ocean swell that works its way around the islands), several other boats had "cleared out" to make room for those of us coming in. We were even able to get our "favorite spot" in the anchorage--what luck!! As soon as we had the hook down, we scrambled around to get our dirty laundry organized, the detergent, 5 gallon bucket, and toilet plunger ready. Then we were off to the little island of Dupwala to do our laundry using the brackish water from a hand dug well in our favorite laundry spot in the San Blas. The sequence goes like this...add water from well to bucket, add detergent to water and swish around with plunger to get it a little sudsy, put in some of the clothes, use the plunger to agitate for a few minutes, let them sit and soak, plunge some more, sit, plunge, (repeat--depending upon how dirty the clothes are) wring out the soapy water, add fresh water from well to bucket, swish items to rinse, wring them out as hard as you can, hang on line strung between 2 palm trees, repeat until all clothes are washed & rinsed, stuff them back in the 5 gallon bucket, head to the boat and hang all of the fresh clothes along the lifelines, turn them frequently (including inside and out) to get the sun and the breeze to dry them as quickly as possible. We didn't have THAT many clothes and we actually accomplished the task in record time--about 30 minutes at the well. Whooo hooo! That meant we had time to prepare a decent appetizer for Julie's birthday pot luck on the same island as we did laundry. We shredded veggies and let them "sweat" with some salt and then made Korean pancakes (add eggs and some flour and fry them like pancakes). These are yummy and we dip them in a sauce of ketchup, mayonnaise, Tabasco sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Several boats were in attendance and we had freshly baked bread, coconut rice, and lobster jumbalaya for the main meal with several folks bringing other appetizers--wasabi peas and tortilla chips with cheesy salsa dip. The palm covered island was a lovely setting for Julie's birthday with an old ulu propped up on some logs serving as the buffet table and a fallen palm tree serving as the seats. Everyone brings their own plates and utensils and whatever they like to drink and there's always lots of food. Our friend Dianne made the chocolate, coconut, banana rum cake--complete with candles--and we all sang Happy Birthday to Julie as the sun set.