Sunday....A day of rest

Kristen here - What an amazing day! We didn't really do anything exciting today, but after being so busy lately, it was such a joy to have a lazy day. Well...ok...our version of a lazy day.

I woke up this morning and decided to take the plunge and go into town for a run. Once again the ride over was pretty calm, but I had a saltwater shower on the way back. I ran around the inner lake where we park the dinghy. That only took 10 minutes, so I went on a road out of town that we hadn't been on before. There were a few houses and shacks along the road. There seem to be a lot of buildings with a roof, a floor and supports, but nothing else. I'm not sure what these are for, they kind of look like a place to set up a table and sell stuff, but most of them are empty. Farther along the road was February Point. This was a gated community of huge vacation homes. It was kind of odd to pass all these shacks and dirt roads and then come to a landscaped, paved road community. The sign said you could rent, buy or lease the homes.

When I got back to the boat, the kids were awake and making themselves breakfast. I decided it was time to do something about the poisonwood rash. A bit more cropped up last night, and I really don't want a full body rash. So, it was time to take a full body shower. This was quite an undertaking. I had to tie up the tarp so it covered my showering area from the other boats in the mooring field. I was pretty sure only the boats in front of us were occupied, so I focused my tarp coverage in that direction. Once the tarp was up, I had my showering area. The tarp was also usefull for blocking the wind. When the wind is blowing, it makes it difficult to shower because you always have to be downwind of the water stream. Otherwise the water blows away from you. Unfortunately half way through my shower a dinghy load of adults went by. Oh well, they'll probably just think we're European!

After the shower I gathered up all of my clothes and our bedsheets to bring to the laundramat. I am determined to be rid of this rash! Chris said he thought that St. Francis, the place that owns the moorings, had laundry. This was excellent, because they are on this side of the bay, so no wet dinghy ride! They didn't open untill 11AM, so I would have to wait to do laundry.

After breakfast, Casey was quite eager to go to Liberty. We met them and their sons Chris and Josh two days ago. Chris, Josh, Parker (from Side by Side), and Casey all hung out together yesterday. While all the boys were together they made plans to unite our X-Box 360 with Liberty's television. This was it! Casey had finally found someone with a TV! So after much VHF planning, Kaitlin ended up on Side by Side with Sabrina, and Casey went to Liberty with Parker. And you know what that means!!!!! A WHOLE late morning AND afternoon with NO KIDS!!!!! Whooooo Hooooooo!!!

Ok, ok...don't get me wrong, we LOVE our kids, but 24/7 gets tiring sometimes. Today the silence was deafening. I immediately got out a book and plopped myself in the cockpit with my coffee. I had till 11 to do absolutely nothing! After reading for a bit, I got to thinking about fishing. I remembered seeing that huge fish when we entered the harbor. That's it, I'm going to go get him! So I took the dinghy out with the fishing pole and started trolling. I went along the shoreline for about 1/2 and hour. When it got to the point where the dinghy couldn't handle the wave height anymore, I turned around and trolled back. Once again, I caught nothing except bits of grass and a ton of saltwater.

Back at the boat I tried my hand at Kaitlin's Barbie fishing pole. It immediately caught a small fish. You know, if they would only make an adult size Barbie fishing pole! I don't know what it is, but that pole never fails.

At 11AM, we radioed St.Francis to ask about doing laundry. They said that their water was pretty scarce and laundry was reserved only for guests of the resort. Bummer! Then Chris remembered it was Sunday, and laundry in town may not be open. This brings me to explain the cruisers net on the VHF. Every morning at 8:00 on VHF channel 72 there is something like a radio show. They make announcements about what is going on that day, and then they let other people make announcements. People will radio in that they have lost or found items. Anyone flying to the states generally askes if anyone wants to share a cab to the airport, a water taxi ride to shore, and they will offer to take flat, stamped mail with them. Bahamas flat mail can take up to a month to deliver. We're trying to arrange a kids bar-b-q tomorrow night, so we will announce that. They also have a section where people will talk about items they have to trade.

Then after the show everyone switches back to channel 68. This is the common hailing channel. We leave 68 on all day. It's like our telephone. 68 is also used during the day for general inquiries. You can just ask on channel 68, "What time is the band playing today?", and some other cruiser will answer you. It's awsome! So today we asked on 68 if the laundramat in town was open on Sundays. Unfortunately the answer was no.

Oh well, that just left more time to read my book. We'll just have to make do with no sheets tonight.

The kids finally made it back to the boat at 5PM. We had reservations at the St.Francis restaurant for 5:30. Mark and Angie from Side By Side were joining us, and all the kids were going to have dinner on our boat. We had an awsome dinner of non-Bahamian food. There is only so much conch fritters, fried fish, and rice and peas one person can eat! Half way through dinner we saw the dinghy full of kids pull up to the St.Francis dock. Oh no, I thought, what's wrong. Turns out, they just stopped by to tell us they were all going to Volleyball Beach. Just be back before dark, we told them.

It's funny, only in the cruising community can you let a group of 4 kids 12 and under head out on their own in the "family car". Actually, they were in the blow up dinghy, so it was the "kids car". But most of the kids here are good, reliable and trustworthy. And Casey is a better dinghy driver than me! The kids know a lot about safety and its importance and they all follow the rules. Well, for the most part. We saw them heading back to the boat just a tad bit after dark.

We played darts after dinner and the girls absolutely crushed the guys. Then we headed back to the boat. The kids were safe and sound and had polished off most of the food. I'm so glad that Casey and Kaitlin have found such wonderful friends. They have been having so much fun together.

I'm off to bed with the wind howling at 28 knots. It's good to be on a mooring!