Drake And Maya Up The Mast

Drake had been begging to go up the mast for a really long time, so today was the day. Blayde hauled him up in the Bosun's Chair, and then Drake had to climb out of the chair onto the spreader bars and then into the crow's nest. I had to pretend it wasn't really happening :-) He was SOOOO proud of himself!!

Heading up....

Coming down....

I am sad that I could not get better pictures of Maya up the mast because it was dark. As I have said before on the blog, Maya and Finn from SY Tranquility are little monkeys. It was after our Easter Potluck party that she decided to give the crow's nest a try. If you look closely, you can see her little 7 year old legs dangling to the left of the right light. We ended up drawing the line at the spreader bars, and did not allow her to climb into the crow's nest.

Leigha, on the left, watches with apprehension.....

Oh ya, did I forget to mention that she went up and back down the mast by herself, and by hand up the lines next to the mast? It was amazing to watch!!

Provisioning And Shore Fun

A really wet, uncomfortable dinghy ride to shore to provision. Nathalie is the Queen of her hard dinghy!

Generally when Nathalie and I go to shore to 'provision', it is an all day affair, whether we like it or not :-) We would need to provision (sometimes at as many as 4 or 5 stores). Do all the laundry and haul it back wet to dry on the boat. Get any internet business/pleasure done at the little internet place, get phone cards for the cell phones, get drinking water (in large quantities), carry and haul gasoline and diesel.... etc.... On this particular day Matthew had come to shore with an extra dinghy for the loads of stuff, and ended up taking a nap while he waited around for us!

Just a few of the bags of groceries waiting to be put into the dinghy.

The groceries above were purchased at the store across the lake, so Nathalie walked back to the dinghy dock and came to retrieve me.

Hmmmm.. I wonder how much more we can fit in here :-)

During one trip Valin joined us, and found a cool sea slug in the water by the dock. Be sure to never to set them out of the water onto a wooden dock for only about 60 seconds. It left a weird blue stain behind when we picked him up to put him back in the water.

Campfire Nights & Beach Parties

Our favorite campfire beach in Georgetown, was just East of our anchorage and was named Sand Dollar Beach. There was a great fire pit, benches, a even a picnic table. There were quiet nights on the boat that we could see huge bonfires on the beach. Sometimes we would have to dinghy on over to shore to see what was going on!

Bretton and Blayde enjoying the fire...

I have discovered that Nathalie is a borderline pyro ;-) She LOVES to manage the fire, and while doing that it also tends to get bigger, bigger and bigger!

The potluck table, just getting started.....

Blayde, Paul, Valin, Drake and Oscar, just chillin'.

Valin, Blayde, Paul, Oscar, Drake, Catherine and Bernard, waiting for sunset and a great fire.

The boys had a great time playing with Oscar, who is from New York and does not live on a boat. They were even able to convince him to explore in the woods off the beach in search of land crabs.

This was one of the most enjoyable bon fire nights in Georgetown. We met Bernard, Catherine and Oscar in a little restaurant, and invited them over for the evening. They also came by one day, saw Free Spirit and then took the boys for an afternoon of power boating, snorkeling and swimming.

Yet another beautiful night... Paul was teaching Blayde some basics about guitar playing. My favorite times are on a beach, around a camfire with music.

Conditioning The Rigging

We undertook the project of completely reconditioning the rigging while we were sitting in Georgetown. This was a huge job and everyone contributed to it's success! All the shrouds needed to be treated with a pine tar solution 3 times. Drake is on "drip patrol" in the above picture... This was actually an important job, as there were tons of them and they would leave a sticky black goo everywhere.

Here is Paul, just hanging out with a pail of Pine Tar, Linseed Oil and Japan Dryer. I think that this job needs to be highlighted on Dirty Jobs! Wow, that all even sounds Greek to me and I can make it :-)

Bretton took on the Carpenter's job of sanding down, oiling and reconditioning the spars and blocks. He took them all apart and made sure they were stout and did not need any new pieces parts. Everything looked so fresh and so clean!

They all had to be removed, taken apart, and then soaked for 2 days in linseed oil. I think that Bretton still smells like Linseed!

Local Places In Georgetown

This beautiful sign greeted us every time we braved the wet dinghy ride to head to town! This pic and the following one are borrowed from Ubuntu....

This sign was near the Internet and laundry places in town. The Bahamas never failed to be lively and full of color!

The sunset from a little resort/restaurant/bar called St. Francis. We would also stop in here to use the limited internet access they provided. (On Bahamian time, of course)...

Some sea kayakers came in for a drink, and I jut liked the view, so I had to take a picture.

One day Nathalie and I decided to hitchhike out to the Veterinarian and hardware store about 4 miles out of town. We got a ride to the Vet, who was not there, and then we walked across the street to the Police Station to use the bathroom. While we were talking with the Sergeant on duty, she offered for us to leave all our extra stuff to walk to the hardware store. On the way there we saw this sign ~ need it say more?? After shopping there, we hitchhiked back, pcked up our stuff and returned to Georgetown. A small but fun adventure!