Our first opportunity to reconnect with George Town friends was Melanie’s birthday. Does two years in a row constitute a tradition? Yes, if you are a cruiser me thinks. Cort likes Grand Isle (Palapa Grill) and we all like it too. So off we went in his “new” car, getting the low down about the car on the way up. Five squeezed into the gray Impreza with right hand side steering wheel. Max had to fend for himself but we brought him leftover pizza!

 

By some miracle we were able to move over to anchor off Cort’s Place at Monument Beach and Max had caught fish with some local Bahamian friends he fishes with on occasion. I baked brownies (always a crowd pleaser, especially when Cort’s Place has no oven!). If you haven’t gotten word yet- Ghiradelli Triple Fudge Brownie Mix is the one to buy! and we enjoyed a great evening of stories (you should have seen the shocked faces when we told our Bristol Liquor Store tale), Q&A (Cort loves to ask us about our plans, etc) and catching up on life since last March.

 

Fresh caught that day and prepared entirely by the fisherman himself; does it get any better?

 

Since most days were too windy to dinghy down to TOTW we accepted an invite to bring the big boat in for the night. Thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with the walking trails, lovely beaches and since the tide was low, we walked one section in the shallows, looking for sand dollars to place in the rock crevices.

Dinner was delicious: I provided the pork tenderloin that Melanie marinated and Paul grilled. She made homemade bread and the yummiest mashed sweet potatoes ever; and then Melanie outdid herself with lemon squares baked using lemons from the tree in their grove.

Those who know me well, know that I am not a fan of baked fruit desserts. This dessert could lay claim to perfection; the lemon not tart nor cloying sweet and the crumb crust (not graham, not pastry) paired with the lemon filling like a parrot on a peg-leg pirate’s shoulder. I reluctantly declined a second piece (cuz everyone else did).

And then there was an ARG meeting. Silly cruisers want to be clever: Alcohol Research Group. In other words, a beach party: bring what you want to drink and an appetizer to share. We finally got to meet a new sister PDQ34, Float Her. Just John this time as his wife Janice had flown back home to Canada for a few weeks.  We got to know John better over lunch a few days later at Lumina Point where the service, food and drinks rated an A.

I saw another cruiser’s posting on FB, calling the party an ART meeting- Team instead of Group- but hey that works too, only ARG sounds better doesn’t it?

 

Then, the moment we’d been waiting for… our BBB, Traveling Soul arrived. Yes, they were two days behind their intended day thanks to a very rough “we need to turn back” Exuma Sound, but their very brief stay miraculously coincided with days of hardly any wind. Such days being in very short supply this winter. And days of low humidity too, so that was a blessing.

Hugs all around and sniffy kisses with Spot. Hospitality is always abundant with Mike and Ann and this time included a surprise beverage designed to make Russ happy; and he was!–surprised and happy with Ann’s homemade ginger beer to which we added Gosling’s Bermuda Black Rum that I had to sneak over, as we always have it in stock. She and I enjoyed vodka and tonics made with her homemade tonic. The homemade tonic and ginger beer are far less sick-y sweet and to me, while fizzy, not as burpy. Yummy libations!

Sadly, TS was off to Cat Island which sits east about 50 miles and is famous for The Hermitage (click to see photos from our visit there). If only TS was a power cat and not a Jefferson 52, then you’d have a cat with a cat on Cat. 🙂

We missed Apollo II, Barefeet and Soulstice. One didn’t cruise this winter (but they will next season we hope!), another didn’t cross over (too windy?) and another didn’t come down to George Town.

Around March 7 we looked ahead to see a window for leaving the harbor we’d called home for six weeks. Happily we’d also be able to anchor with the big boats and have a farewell get together with Cort and Max. The day we moved over to the Monument Beach anchorage was the Regatta in-harbor race which we managed not to interfere with. 🙂

Our dinner invite to Cort turned into a counter invite to the house as Walt and Lee (Cort’s friends and former co-owners of sail cat Celise/Spirit) were in the harbor on m/v Linda Lee. Wow and what a feast!  New friends of Linda Lee, s/v MoJo (Molly and Joe) who are also huge fisher people and a youthful under 30 years old!, came along and we feasted as never before. Russ eating Tuna Poke- gasp! -only like this.

And yes, those two new Adirondack chairs came in handy.

One day while anchored in The Litter Box (just before we headed over to Monument for the last time), we had several special visitors, namely larger turtles than the ones we’d seen only ½ mile away behind Rolle Cay. The older and wiser one came up by our stern enough times so I was able to get a good shot. In case you are keeping track, I’m making good on that promise.

We think he/she was looking for nibbles just below the waterline, as they often do on the sides of docks where the fuzzy stuff grows. Don’t you love this photo? Lacking an underwater camera and the desire of one of us to even be IN the water, a great shot like this is a rare event.