Monday - Wednesday Mar 14-16

March 13 SUNDAY

Everybody get their clocks set this weekend? 

 We invited Stephane and Angelica for supper. Just before they came over Ross [Nauticuss] stopped to talk, so we asked him to dinner as well. We watched Jim and Cheryl heading over to Stephane's boat, and we were parked right beside them [Amazing Grace] so we told them to come too. Luckily I had made 8 burgers and Stephane brought more than enough buns. It was a little crowded but we managed.

MONDAY March 14

Today 40 boats are leaving for the Long Island Regatta, including Nauticuss and Amazing Grace. They will all be gone for about 10 days. C-Soul and Pearl will still be here.

At 7:20 am Stephane and Angelica came by to pick up Quentin. They went to "kill lobster". This will be another first for Quentin.

He didn't get much chance to do anything more than watch. He said he had a pain in his sinuses when he went underwater, so he couldn't go down with Stephane. They caught 3 lobster and a grouper and were back within an hour.

We got ready for town and I went looking for the "Pre-Schoolers" while Rick went to the meat market. Quentin sat at Red Boone on his tablet. He showed up later at the school to see what I needed. Apparently Rick went off to do something?

It was a little harrowing to see that many under-fives in one place. This activity was tied in with Commonwealth Day, and the whole school system participated. Kids form every school came to town, and had displays and marched, with a band. Then the pre-schoolers went off to the GT Primary school and I have no idea where the others went, except that they were back by 1:30 pm

My session lasted about 1 ½ hours. The kids were divided into groups and there was a bouncy castle, a face painting station and mine. So I had about 15 at a time. I had purchased some cheap painting sets from the grocery store and cut up a sponge to use as brushes. But the only paper I had was computer paper, which does not do well under water.  This was not my best idea! Mostly we ended up with soggy papers and paint all over their hands and shirts.  I hope the mothers will forgive me [or the teachers].

C-Soul is leaving tomorrow so we went over for a visit after supper.  They are going to head to Florida slooooowly, but I doubt that we will catch up.

TUESDAY

Wow!  Two weeks off for Easter!!Thursday is a sports day; Friday is report card day so "...most students won't show up" and then 2 weeks for Easter break. I don't go back until April 4. YAY!

The Commonwealth Day was a great Day!   "My School GT Primary took 1st place in the displays. Canada won!  Thanks to the boaters who donated and lent stuff to the kids! Singing Frog had some plastic lifelike animals... wolf, bear, moose and deer. Deja Vue gave them a flag and a $5.00 bill. We gave them the full range of coins. Someone else gave maple syrup and honey. 

We went snorkel

ing with the marine biologist in the afternoon. She showed us lots of different corals and animals in the coral heads. The water was a bit cloudy but we could see everything.

Last night there was a beach wedding at Chat n' Chill. The tables were dressed and there as an altar and an arbour. After dinner there was a DJ and we danced on the back deck of the boat. The boat next to us hollered over at one point, "Get a room!"  Quentin was at a movie night on Singing Frog. He came home at 11:30

Ttyl.

Friday to Sunday sometime in March!

Friday March 11

Today Quentin and Yarika and Cookie Monster went paint-balling! Apparently they had fun!  We stayed on this side because we had stuff to do and I had a wrap-up meeting about the Regatta.  I had the stuff from the Scavenger Hunt so I had to go. It was nice... there was a ton of snacks for us and our first drink was free so Jillian and I had a pina colada.  I, um...think I volunteered to be co-Chairman next year...I must have because Jeannie announced it on the Net the next morning. And Dwayne from BoomDeYada came by to tell Rick he would be crew for the big boat race since I would be too busy with my chairman duties to go sailing. Probably should NOT drink pina colada.

Quentin was supposed to go to this meeting but...hmm paintball? Meeting with old people? Tough choice! Everyone at the meeting came up and told me what a great kid he is...and everyone gave different examples of what they liked about him. They all asked if he was coming back next year...

Saturday March 12

Today we took the boat south to clean the head... not a nice job but somebody has to do it. Quentin was still on Yarika and they were going to spend the day on shore. We thought we'd be back by noon but it took us almost two hours to get down against the wind.

Didn't take long to clean the toilet but then we went into an anchorage and had a salt bath. We were just enjoying the water when another cat pulled in so we had to get out and put our clothes on.

We sailed back twice as fast as we motored down. We went into Georgetown to get some stuff for the kids for dinner. I made Quentin, Claire and Aran burgers and fries and ice cream. They watched movies and we went over to C-Soul who came in at suppertime.

The kids went home at 11 pm.  Next week when Cookie Monster has some guests come in we said we'll give them some adult time and take the boys for an evening.

SUNDAY, March 13

Fourteen boats headed north this morning, on their way home to various continent destinations. They are taking their time to let the snow melt but still, it seems early. Part of me wants to be heading back but I think it's because I feel the need to change venue, so we are still talking about heading over to Rum Cay for a visit and to drop trees.

Today is Cordell's day at the beach.  Then I have to get some art stuff ready for the 75-80 pre-schoolers who will be at Regatta Park tomorrow. I agreed to set up an art station for them. I also have to go to see the schools Commonwealth Day exhibits.  I'm curious to see what they set up.  Then the rest of the week is back to school.

SO if anything exciting happens, I'll get back to you J ttyl

Mar 5-7

Mar 5-7

Honestly I have only vague recollection of the past 3 day's...mostly because the activities were so scattered and disjointed...

Whatever...Saturday was the volleyball? I told you Quentin won only one game. After volleyball he went back to Dolphin Leap to help Keith recover his halyard again.  Then he went off with T.J to Cookie Monster for a movie night and we went o play cards with Beguiler. They have a cool game called Sequence. It's not as bad losing that one as losing Euchre to Danny all the time!

This was also the day C-Soul left for Long Island we were sad to see them go but they will be back after the Long Island Regatta. We had thought about going but the cost was going to be prohibitive...there are 3 of us, not 2. Also, we are considering going to Rum Cay, with trees from Cordell, which makes more sense to us.

We ran the geniker up the mast and it looks like it will work, so Sunday Rick ran new halyards. Stephane and Angelica went to Long island as well, and they will be back sometime this week, so we should have all the blocks sorted out by the time he is ready to help out.

I am going to take apart my sewing machine to see if I can fix it myself. There is no-on here who can fix it and I have nothing to lose, because it does NOT work. I'm going to have to get someone else to finish Stephane's motor cover. It's no good to him sitting in my sewing bag!

Our wind generator is working well. Everyone says they are only a small part of the system but for us it's working really well, especially on cloudy days.

SUNDAY: Alesto gave a talk on more solar power and we listened, and got a bit more information, but we are really as set as we can be without re-building the back end of the boat. We dropped off some more seeds to Cordell. Then we came over to shore to the wrap up party, missed the presentation picked up my volunteer flag, and left again.  The winds were getting up and we needed to be here for Monday so we stayed.

MONDAY: Immigration day...we got another 30 days. I would really like to know why we are being targeted. Who did we piss off? Rick thinks it's because we are travelling with a minor who is not ours. I could understand that reasoning and I can live with it. But it would be nice if they would take us into the office and TELL US THAT!!! It's the power attitude that pisses me off.

We did some shopping, updated internet and then decided to go for dinner. I couldn't find anyplace that had rice and peas or peas and rice, so we ended up with burgers and fries ...yuck... no bun and heartburn!  But we met Bruce and Gayleen and her brother and partner, so we had dinner together and then went to the |rake and Scrape at Red Boone. Rick took a video of me dancing with |Bahama Obama and he's supposed to send it to the guy's website.  The man is an exceptional dancer and we had a good time.

Coming home there were 4 foot waves under the bridge and we got soaking wet... Quentin didn't but he was wrapped up tight in a poncho like a turtle. He only got his butt wet.

TUESDAY: It was still blowing hard when we went to school. I had a 5th Grade class and had no idea what to do with them until about 2 am. when it hit me. They were having Commonwealth Day soon, so I would have them do their Canada pictures and hope no-one else had done it.  I drew a map of Canada on the board and told them everything they needed to know about the animals the cities and the people. There is a great website with colouring pages, so that's what I printed...25 different ones! The kids asked lots of questions and we had a good class.

My Grade 9 class was cancelled according to the secretary, so I left early. Quentin found me a little while later and told me the students were looking for me but it was too late to go back and meet them.

We came back to the boat and moved back to the island side. Quentin and T>J. Met a new kid boat Yarika and they went for a movie night on it. Quentin took "Pirates" to watch.

THIs winter has been cold and windy...winds steady at 15-20 most of the time. Everyone is commenting on it, even the locals and it's hard to convince new boaters that it isn't always like this. There are many who have said they will not be back, and now that Cuba is opening up it may have an effect on the boater population next year.

Anyway, here are some pictures...

Mar 5-11

Mar 5-7

Honestly I have only vague recollection of the past 5 days...mostly because the activities were so scattered and disjointed...

Whatever...Saturday was the volleyball? I told you Quentin won only one game. After volleyball he went back to Dolphin Leap to help Keith recover his halyard again.  Then he went off with T.J to Cookie Monster for a movie night and we went to play cards with Beguiler. They have a cool game called Sequence. It's not as bad losing that one, as losing Euchre to Danny all the time!

This was also the day C-Soul left for Long Island we were sad to see them go but they will be back after the Long Island Regatta. We had thought about going but the cost was going to be prohibitive...there are 3 of us, not 2. Also, we are considering going to Rum Cay, with trees from Cordell, which makes more sense to us.

We ran the geniker up the mast and it looks like it will work, so Sunday Rick ran new halyards. Stephane and Angelica went to Long island as well, and they will be back sometime this week, so we should have all the blocks sorted out by the time he is ready to help out.

I am going to take apart my sewing machine to see if I can fix it myself. There is no-on here who can fix it and I have nothing to lose, because it does NOT work. I'm going to have to get someone else to finish Stephane's motor cover. It's no good to him sitting in my sewing bag!

Our wind generator is working well. Everyone says they are only a small part of the system but for us it's working really well, especially on cloudy days.

SUNDAY: Alesto gave a talk on more solar power and we listened, and got a bit more information, but we are really as set as we can be without re-building the back end of the boat. We dropped off some more seeds to Cordell. Then we came over to shore to the wrap up party, missed the presentation picked up my volunteer flag, and left again.  The winds were getting up and we needed to be here for Monday so we stayed.

MONDAY: Immigration day...we got another 30 days. I would really like to know why we are being targeted. Who did we piss off? Rick thinks it's because we are travelling with a minor who is not ours. I could understand that reasoning and I can live with it. But it would be nice if they would take us into the office and TELL US THAT!!! It's the power attitude that pisses me off.

We did some shopping, updated internet and then decided to go for dinner. I couldn't find anyplace that had rice and peas or peas and rice, so we ended up with burgers and fries ...yuck... no bun and heartburn!  But we met Bruce and Gayleen and her brother and partner, so we had dinner together and then went to the |rake and Scrape at Red Boone. Rick took a video of me dancing with |Bahama Obama and he's supposed to send it to the guy's website.  The man is an exceptional dancer and we had a good time.

Coming home there were 4 foot waves under the bridge and we got soaking wet... Quentin didn't but he was wrapped up tight in a poncho like a turtle. He only got his butt wet.

TUESDAY: It was still blowing hard when we went to school. I had a 5th Grade class and had no idea what to do with them until about 2 am. when it hit me. They were having Commonwealth Day soon, so I would have them do their Canada pictures and hope no-one else had done it.  I drew a map of Canada on the board and told them everything they needed to know about the animals the cities and the people. There is a great website with colouring pages, so that's what I printed...25 different ones! The kids asked lots of questions and we had a good class.

My Grade 9 class was cancelled according to the secretary, so I left early. Quentin found me a little while later and told me the students were looking for me but it was too late to go back and meet them.

We came back to the boat and moved back to the island side. Quentin and T.J. met a new kid boat Yarika and they went for a movie night on it. Quentin took "Pirates" to watch.

This winter has been cold and windy...winds steady at 15-20 most of the time. Everyone is commenting on it, even the locals and it's hard to convince new boaters that it isn't always like this. There are many who have said they will not be back, and now that Cuba is opening up it may have an effect on the boater population next year.

Anyway, here are some pictures...

Some pics from the past weeks

Quentin waiting for his ride to a sleepover...excited? Nah!

Mangrove roots...kinda creepy!

Rough surf today still!

Stephane cleaning snails

Angelica turning them into escargot ! Yum

Quentin actually tried one

Ross, angelica and Cheryl

Quentin doesn't like them

Jasmine City's spinnaker

And there they go!

Our last place trophy in the boat races

MAR 8-11 Time flies when you're having fun!!!

TUESDAY, March 8

The last few days have been very windy and blustery...not so much

The little kids were easy this morning, since they were doing a commonwealth day, we coloured pictures of Canadian animals, which was quite timely since they hadn't done that yet.  The Grade 9's never showed up because, according to the secretary, they were studying for exams. I waited for 25 minutes. So I went to the Grade 4 class to meet that teacher, and then went to meet Rick at Red Boone. Quentin showed up and told me I was missing the class, a bunch of them asked where I was.  Oh well...

We came back to the boat, and moved back over to the Island side. Quentin went to shore to hang out with new boat kids and do whatever they do...

WEDNESDAY, March 9

I don't remember... nothing special, I guess. We went over to Amazing Grace so I could give Cheryl Stephane's motor cover. I can't fix the sewing machine without completely dismantling it, so it would take forever to get the motor cover fixed. Cheryl is into heavy-duty sewing, so she can finish it for Stephane.   We were there for a coupe of hours. Quentin was left on board to get homework done.

We spent all day around the boat, doing small jobs.

THURSDAY, March 10

 We went over in the morning to Kidd Bay, because Quentin had 'volunteered ' to help at the Music Festival.  We also took Yarika  [Claire, Aaron, -kids; Steve and Melissa- mom and dad] and TJ and John  Cookie Monster kids over as they were volunteering as well.

I went to St. Andrews school in the afternoon and taught 5-6. They sketched portraits of each other...I think the lessons are paying off... they were remarkably good, most of them. One pair of boys that always give me grief, were paired up, just because I figured it was better to condense the chaos then spread it. Turns out they are twins and one of them is exceptional as an artist.  When I got to the Primary school to talk to the teachers, he was there.  Turns out, his Mom is the GT school principal!  And they all look alike. Don't know why I couldn't see that?!?

We came back over to the island because we were having dinner on Jasmine City with Amazing Grace and Nauticuss. Angelica made a traditional Columbian stew and Stephane caught and cleaned snails. Cheryl made a salad and I made strawberry cheesecake.  Great meal!! Quentin and Rick tried the snails but didn't like them.  The stew was great!! I can't remember the Spanish name. I am going to help Angelica with her English and she will teach me some Spanish.

SO, I will try to post some more pictures today. The winds are calmer, the boat not bouncing so much. Maybe the internet will work!

If you haven't checked out the video yet, have a look: www.cruisesailboat.com. We look great! ttyl

Race #1 Feb 29

Feb 29

Today was the big in-harbour race!  We were one of 7 multi-hulls in the slow category.  The race started in 15 minute intervals with the fast multihulls first, then us, then the two categories of monohulls. [that's regular sailboats for you non-sailors].We were alone. C-Soul decided to stay home and we couldn't get Ross on the radio to see if he and Carol still waned to come . Probably for the best...

We were lined up, ready to hit the starting line on time when some little jerk in a monohull ran at across the start line. I had to change course and he sucked our wind right out of the sails so we backed up...not easy in a boat with no engine.  They thought it was funny...we couldn't get turned and wind until the last category o boats had crossed the start.  We figured we would be disqualified but the committee boat must have seen what happened and let us continue.

There were two channels on the radio being used. 78 was the race channel and 74 was the commentary channel. We turned off 74 because it was interfering with our argument about tactics, so we missed the narrative about us n the race. Apparently it was hilarious because every time we passed a boat at anchor, people were laughing and hooting and cheering.

The race was supposed to be two laps around the harbour. By the time we got to the first mark, most of the boats had passed us he second time. When we reported that we had rounded the mark, the committee boat advised us that the rules had been amended and that boats with yellow hulls and initials "OG" in their names should only go round once!

We took 4 hours to go 4 knots ...we are not a fast boat. Now everyone believes us when we say that. In all fairness if there had been any WIND...not a light breeze between 6-12 knots ...we would have been a lot faster.

Tomorrow is the round-the-island- race and we are seriously thinking of dropping out if the winds are not better...it will take us 2 days to go 18 miles without the engine!

Quentin had a good day...he spent the whole day with the kids. They went cliff jumping...before you panic, Mom, think Oliver Lake with no rocks on the bottom.  We know where he was and there were a bunch of adults with them...and it was safe. It must have been...he's back with no injuries.

Early bedtime...we're all tired from so much activity!!