Jan 18 - Jan 22

Tuesday morning Gail from STAR and I went to a ladies only clinic on how to play Texas Hold Em poker at the St. Francis Resort.  This was a lot of fun.  I hope they have a clinic for the guys that don't know how to play so I can convince Bill to go to one of the Tuesday and Thursday night poker games, it only costs $5 to play so it seems like it would be a fun and relatively inexpensive evening out.  Tuesday night we went to a birthday party for Michelle from TEXAS TWO STEP who turned 17.  As the party was starting the full moon was rising over the monument.  She is very luck to have a full moon birthday on the beach in the Bahamas. 

The bad news part of Tuesday was our computer crashed.

Wednesday morning we raised anchor, motored over to town, reanchored, dinghied in, then walked to the computer shop to drop off the computer. Then we dinghied back to the boat, raised anchor, motored back to Stocking Island, and reanchored.  In the afternoon we hiked to the ocean side of Stocking Island with Bob and Gail and spent the afternoon swimming.  The beautiful long sandy beach with sparkling clear warm water is virtually deserted.  We saw one person near us and a few people way off in the distance, otherwise we had the beach completely to ourselves.  It was a fantastic day for a swim since the temperature was in the high 80s to low 90s.

Thursday we spent the morning doing some errands (again requiring the whole raising anchor, motoring, dinghying routine) checking on the computer, going to the library, stopping at the grocery store, etc.  In the afternoon we went to the beach with Tom and Chris from POLAR PACER.  This time there were no other people in view on the miles of beach for the whole afternoon.  I guess the people on the other two hundred boats are too busy socializing in the harbor to enjoy the great swimming. In the evening we had dinner on STAR with Sylvia and Ben from WHISPER. Sylvia and Ben spend most of the year at their farm in Iowa (600 - 700 acres of corn and soybeans that they farm all by themselves).  They spend the winters sailing on their aluminum junk rigged schooner.  They take their farming skills to sea with them and provided the sprouts and basil for the salad.

Friday we had a nice visit with Jeannie and Randy from MUTUAL FUN.  It was nice catching up with them as we have not seen them since Lake Worth, FL.  We then went for our daily trek to the computer shop.  Lunch was at a new place in town, Dennys.  It is a little tiny building with picnic tables.  The owner is very friendly and personable and the food is very good and relatively affordable so the cruisers are all trying to support him and make his business a sucess.  It takes about an hour to get a cheeseburger, but no one here is in a hurry.  In the afternoon about 300 cruisers showed up for a tea hosted by the Tourist Bureau.  Advertising free food is a guarantee of a big turnout!  For a change we stayed on the boat in the evening, and did not move the boat.  Tom from POLAR PACER said the other cruisers have been making comments about our using RONDO to go back and forth across the harbor instead of using the dinghy.  He came to our defense by explaining that RONDO is the size of a dinghy, and we stay drier on the trip.

Saturday we walked to the first ever Exuma farmers market in Fish Fry Village.  After the 1 1/2 to 2 mile walk it turns out it was one booth selling the same produce we bought in town yesterday from the truck next to the dinghy dock.  Oh well, it was nice to see a new place.  Fish Fry is a series of very small colorful restaurants and bars out in the middle of nowhere. The only place open was the farmers market booth.  It looks like it probably comes alive in the evening and is probably a fun place for the locals (people with cars) to hang out. 

Farmers Market

When we got back to town the good new was the computer was finally fixed

J&K Productions Computer Shop.

A sad sight today was a Haitian boat tied up to the dock.  Apparently 60 people were on this boat when they were found.  They were sent back to Haiti via two plane loads.  It is disturbing to think of so many people desperate enough to get on a very small rickety looking boat hoping for a better life.  The masts, spars, and tiller for the boat still look like the trees they are made from.  Several other cruisers also went to look at the boat.  We can't figure out how they physically fit on the boat.  It must have been an unpleasant and frightening trip.  Looking at their boat made us all realize how fortunate we are not only in our well built boats with electronics and charts, but in our lives in general.  Hopefully things will improve in Haiti so people will no longer be driven to such extremes to try to find a better life.