Life In GT

Dos Libras with Kelley Nicole 

Into every life, a little work must come...  We moved the boat early the next day in preparation for some forecast west wind.  The harbour can become quite choppy when the wind is up and it's a wet ride across from Stocking Island.  Being close to "town" is nice when provisions are needed and it's easy enough to pick up the anchor and just plop it down in a new neighborhood, especially when this neighborhood is like floating in someone's giant swimming pool!

The dinghy dock at Exuma Market, in Lake Victoria

This being Sunday, we hustled through our morning routine, coffee, breakfast, dishes... then we hopped into the dinghy just in time to make it to the Exuma Market before they close (early on Sundays) at 11:00.  

I wish I had a photo to show the dismal offering of fresh fruits and veggies at the market this morning.  Signs promised fresh supplies on the shelves by 3pm on Monday... that doesn't help us for Sunday!!!

We picked up a few sad looking veggies to make a stir-fry for dinner, cruised by the cat food aisle and checked out with our purchases.  

Back on the boat, we put away the groceries and started a load of laundry.  Well, that is we plunked a handful of clothes into a bucket full of soapy water and gave them a swish with a plunger... then we were off again to Stocking Island where there was to be a free seminar on boat electrical systems.

We joined a whole bunch of other cruisers interested in picking up a tidbit or two about how to properly and safely provide for our energy consumption needs.  

It was very informative and we learned some things we wish we had known before spending money on our solar panels... well we will know when it's time to replace them... We also learned that we need to make a few modifications to be more safe and picked up some hints on conservation as well. 

Toward the end of the seminar during the Q&A... my attention began to wander.  There were three adorable little boat-kids setting up a restaurant just behind the speaker.

One little girl came out to solicit business so I decided to play along and be a customer.  I picked up a couple of sticks on my way to the food counter and ordered a sandwich, which consisted of a sandy piece of real cheese between two round things that looked like hockey pucks...  I nom nom nommed and paid with the sticks, thanking the young entrepreneurs with a smile... until one of the little girls picked up my sticks and tossed them to the sand with a look of disdain...  She stated forcefully "We don't want sticks, we want REAL money!"  The look on her face meant no nonsense.  She meant business.

I had no money and if I had, I was certainly not giving it to this little barracuda... I tried to talk her out of it, pointing to my lack of pockets and shoes... She wasn't having it.  Until a lady behind me, a mommy I think, reminded her sternly to "pretend"...  I slunk back to my table and tried not to make eye contact again...  

The smell of greasy roast pig was making my mouth water and my stomach clench and I told Bruce that if he didn't want to buy me lunch, he had better get me off of this beach and pronto.  We said goodbye and sped back to the boat.  No really, we sped.  We actually got our lazy dinghy to plane!  It was awesome flying across the glowing waters of Elizabeth Harbour!  

After a quick lunch, we went back to work on our laundry.  The white clothes I had left in the bucket all had blue blotches from the sleeves of one of my white nightshirts.  I never know if I should include it in the whites or the colors.  Until now it hasn't been a problem, but with the long soak, it became a problem.  So we will have blue blotches on our clothes... whatever.  We're CRUISERS!

We washed four small bucket loads of laundry using about 7 1/2 gallons of water we brought back with us from the dinghy dock.  No need to use our RO water for laundry when we have free water from the Exuma Market!

We are still working out our systems and had to mount our wringer onto a board we picked up back in Florida. It works but is still a little awkward and takes both of us to hold it down.  We are looking to improve this process but haven't figured out how just yet... It's still better than hand wringing, which greatly limits the number of pieces we can do in a sitting.

We maxed out our drying space with clothes pinned to all the lifelines in hopes of getting them all dry before sunset.  Where DOES the day go... 

Longing to sit and enjoy the evening, I still had one more job to do... I figured that if I let myself sit down now I wouldn't be inclined to get back up again and cut up all those veggies for the stir-fry... so I got busy and did all my prep before settling to watch the sun set.

I finished just in time...

That's it.  Life in Georgetown.  Little bit of work, little bit of play.  All of it in this gorgeous setting.  Today we had light winds for the first time in a while.  It was glorious!  

After dinner I popped my head up topsides and found the water looking almost as flat as a mirror.  The lights from boats and the few from town sparked on the slick surface.  It was just awesome.  Cruising life is awesome.