Born To Cruise

Greetings from Sand Dollar Beach.

We’re still here in Elizabeth Harbor enjoying all the activities Georgetown has to offer. The boat  count is up to 247. Since we’re here for a while, we’ve pulled out the inflatable kayak and have started using that to explore shallow areas and get a little exercise. Noah enjoys this, especially because other “kid boats” have them and the boys can race. They have also dug a little “kayak lagoon” around the edge of a sand spit where they can just get the kayaks pulled in. Of course they have to do this over and over since the tide, which is about three feet here, erases their work twice a day.

This weeks Ham Radio Lunch was interesting as they talked about the various uses for airmail (the radio email program we use) beyond just email. There are ways to get weather information, find the positions of other ham radio operators, create virtual buoy weather stations and even update web logs.  The last was of special interest since we’ve had difficulty keeping our site updated. It works with SailBlogs.com and we will be testing it to see if it is a viable option.  (Note: We later found: http://svintuition.blogspot.com to be the site we use). There were about fifty people at the lunch, which moved inside the Peace and Plenty Beach Club due to a sudden squall. It was more exciting than we would have liked as two crews were called away because they were dragging, but no damage was done.

We’ve made the complete circle around Lake Victoria and now seen all the shops. There is a second grocery store, called the Shop Rite, on the opposite side of the lake from Exuma Markets. Similar in size and the prices seem to be a bit lower.

Valentine’s day was low key on our boat. Noah and I made some cards for Beth and we had a relaxing time playing games. There was a cruiser’s dance at the Chat ‘N Chill with “Rockin’ Ron” as DJ from one of the visiting boats, but we elected to relax instead.

The only boat project we’ve accomplished in the last few days was to shorten the tiller extension on the outboard. An extension allows you to get the crew’s weight forward and makes it easier to get the dinghy up on plane. The extension West Marine sells is too long for most dinghies so needs to be cut down.

Noah finished his testing after week 100 of school and we celebrated with an ice cream cone in town. We needed gasoline as the dinghy and generator have been used more thean the diesel engine. Gas is $4.29 per gallon at the local filling station. On the way home Wayne & Jill from Born to Cruise (BTC) flagged us down and asked where we were anchored. Beth & Noah jumped ship and rode across the harbor on BTC.  They are from Raleigh and were our marina neighbors at NW Creek.  They showed us a new card game and loaned Noah a copy of a Harry Potter movie.  He has been devouring the stories and is now reading  the fourth book since we found it at the library. That is Wayne & Noah in today’s photo.

Beth made Brownies yesterday afternoon to take to “Death by Chocolate” on the beach. I guess it was a way to share valentine’s goodies. There were way too many yummy treats so we had to leave before sunset to keep from eating them all. Made scrambled eggs for  dinner for a change of pace, then stayed up and watched the Harry Potter movie since we were all wide awake!

There will be a couple of cold fronts coming through over the next few days, so we will probably stay here through at least Monday. We would like to get out and go over to Long Island or Conception Island for a couple of days and then come back for Regatta.