December 25 , 2013 - Jan 16, 2014 Ocean Reef Yacht Club

Christmas and New Years at Ocean Reef Yacht Club

Dec 25, 2013 Wed:  Merry Christmas,   We celebrate Christmas at Liz and Ricks with folks from the Marina. There was a yankee swap and gifts for all.  There were many swaps. 

Our weather window is closing for the Exuma departure so took advantage of the extra time and worked on the boat, went  kayaking, played tennis, did major shopping for provisions, had a few dinghy adventures and hung out with friends. 

We did the bad dinghy landing on the beach but somehow managed to survive.

I stepped on a wine glass and cut the bottom of my foot which prevented me from playing tennis. The weather was pretty bad anyway. 
We did enjoy some dinghy beach time with John and Arlene, their dog, Shirley and I.  What a great way to spend and afternoon.

We met Liz's daughter Jen and her new boyfriend Dom from Australia for a very nice New Years Eve Dinner at Rick and Liz's. 

We missed the fireworks in Lucaya, it was getting too late and we are getting too old.  

Jan 1, 2014:  Happy New Year!  
Unfortunately Shirley leaves this afternoon. 

Hank brought us to airport, since he was picking up Tom who had been at Cindy’s for several days. 

Junkanoo with Tom and Bob was interesting, they liked the food, I like the pina coladas, and we all like the people watching just as much as the parade.  OMG what a hoot.

I started off the New Year slipping on the foredeck and slicing my leg as it went part way through the forward porthole. I am not sure just how I did that, I am not a happy camper but I cleaned it up and closed the gash with  butterfly band aides. So more time off from tennis yet again.  This time I did make an appointment with Dr Bethel, he remembered me from last year when I injured the other leg (do we see a pattern here).

Bob did the intro to scuba, he liked it, and had no problems with his ears. 

  

As the weather continued to deteriorate, howling wind and sideways rain, we hunkered down and watched movies for  a couple of days. 

 Oh and Bob put up his special string of lights. 

We had dinner on board for Judy, Anthony and Tom, pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, garlic bread and after dinner drinks.  Everyone was nicely stuffed and Judy and Anthony spent the night.

 Liz and Rick had a cocktail party, I made brochette and it was a big hit. We had a great time talking with several other cruisers. They did discourage us from leaving the next morning for the Exumas.   They had been listening to Chris Parker and he had advised against because of potential squalls over the next several days. ( there were no squalls)

The un-departed cruisers thought it would be a good idea to have a navigation meeting sharing charts, notes, tall stories and good information about where to stop and where not to. It turned to be a very useful gathering. 

We were disappointed that we didn't leave as planned.  But it did give Bob more time to work on the generator, impeller and battery charging. Bob and John spoke about the battery charging and came up with a good solution.  

Bob went out with the boys on shopping trip, got a battery charger, roadie, beer, stopped at the $2 bar, he said he was the slower shopper, but a good beer drinker. 

I guess I was getting stir crazy because  I started cooking, I made potato salad and hand dried some basil leaves. 
More weird weather all day, rain on and off, big black clouds, squalls. So that calls for a dinghy ride, some reading and dinner with Judy and Anthony.

Jan 16 2014: we finally play some tennis even with a cold wind, and very overcast skies.

Bob rented a bike and went shopping for ingredients for his wings. There is a  Big competition tonight ;-}  The boat smelled delicious again.  
Bob did quite a bit of exercising on his rental bike, he forgot and Item of importance and had to go back to Freeport to get it.  He was sore for a few days. 

Liz stopped by and we played a couple of hands of cribbage, she has been very busy with family.  

Lots of folks at the wing night event and lots of food.  I liked Bob’s wings the best, but he did not win.  I don’t think we made enough for the number of people that turned out.  It was a good night.  

We all got back to boat and hit the sack so we would be ready for our early am departure for the Exumas.  Yeah!   ABOUT TIME!