Volleyball Tournament

Unfortunately, as timing would have it, Holly's first day here was our Volleyball Tournament. So, while Brad and I played ball, Holly just sat on the sidelines and watched. Luckily, it was a short tournament and in the meantime, we had a great cheerleader and photographer!

There were six teams of four players each; Brad and I were on separate teams and we played each other the first game. My team was a bit rough and Brad's team easily defeated us. But, we came back, rallied and won all of our other games! Brad's team did great as well and also only lost one game. So....we met again in the final match for the championship!

Everyone thought this was great and there were cheerleaders for each side, with sly comments about whether Brad was ever going to eat again if his team won, or if I would get a ride home in the dinghy if my team won. It definitely made for an interesting final match for everyone. Though everyone was exhausted, it was a good game with lots of good rallies. Unfortunately, my team did not come out on top. Brad's team was the better team and we just couldn't seem to get ahead. But, in the end, we got two more Regatta Flags to add to our inventory AND a bottle of Rum and Wine!! So, I think it was a win win for everyone (it has only taken me a week to be able to say this without bitterness ;-)).

That night, we had dinner outside in the cockpit and then Brad headed in to the Poker Tournament while Holly and I stayed on the boat and had sundowners and carried on with my poker night tradition of popcorn, wine and movies. We had a fabulous night catching up and when Brad came home I was so proud to learn he had won First Place in the tournament!! This was his second big win of the day! And he even got a plaque to commemorate his win, along with cash winnings - always a welcome addition on this boat!

It had been a very successful and enjoyable day aboard All In and we have more Regatta events in store!

First Guest!!

Since we were involved in so many things yesterday, the boat cleaning had been totally neglected. So, I was up with the sun this morning in an attempt to reestablish some semblance of cleanliness to our floating home. Cleaning wasn't a huge task as I try to keep the boat mostly clean anyway and it is so small that it usually takes no longer than an hour. The biggest task of my day was to empty out our Vberth. While we are traveling, we use the front berth area as our garage. Everything is stored up there - sails, food stores, pet food, extra blankets and towels. This works great 95% of the time. But, when we have a guest visit, suddenly everything needs to find a new home - not an easy task on a boat that is already stuffed full. This task took my significantly longer, but finally, after much shifting, readjusting and lots of cramming, I managed to safely find everything a new home. Add sheets and pillows and voila! guest quarters!

Since we had a bit of extra time on our hands, due of course to my incredible ability to multi-task - we headed over to watch some of the fun volleyball games that some of our friends were playing in. Fun volleyball happens everyday at 2pm on the main beach. During the regatta, it is only held once during the week and it is turned into a competition. Although, I will use the term competition lightly. Fun volleyball consists of 9 people on the court, any types of hits are legal and there is no maximum number of times it can be hit on any one side. Their motto is "No one moves, No one gets hurt." It is the antithesis of the regulation volleyball that we play, but everyone has a lot of fun and it is fun to watch.

Finally, at 2, Brad headed in to pick up Holly and I finished getting the boat in order. By 3pm, Holly was safely on board and moved into her new room! It was perfect first day for her - the wind was light, the sun was shining and the sky was clear. We headed to the beach for a bit just to let her get a taste of our paradise. At 5, we dinghied over to the middle of the harbour where a dinghy raftup was in progress. This is pretty much exactly as it sounds. Everyone meets in a predetermined location and ties up to the dinghy next to them. People bring their own drinks and a snack to pass around and we all just sit, float and chat it up until sunset. It was a great time for Holly to meet some of our friends and a really fun event for her first night in town. Hopefully we can keep up the excitement for the rest of her visit!

Baby steps

While we have been having so much fun here in Georgetown, we have absolutely been putting off getting any boat projects done. By the time we get home in the afternoons, we are too tired to do much of anything except have dinner and watch a movie. But, begrudgingly, we have actually gotten a few projects done recently.
We have started changing out some of the lines on the boat - some of our lines are sure to be the originals and thus 20 years old. Although most are in good shape, some are showing signs of age and are chafing. We bought some line before we headed over and have been slowly replacing them on some of our afternoons.

Before:

After:

Major Chafing:

We have also starting catching up on some cleaning that has been neglected. The bilges and the window hatches all get a bit mildewy (is that a word?!) if not kept clean. So, armed with gloves and bleach water, I have tackled a few of those as well.

Our XM antennae, which we had so cleverly wired into our main panel and run through the ceiling and outside where it was sewn in to the dodger, was sheared off in an unfortunate sail incident. Not having XM for a few days was devastating as we quickly realized how often we use it and how poor our CD collection is. Once we reached Georgetown, we found someone with a spare and made sure to make an immediate repair. After all, baseball season is almost upon us....

Although these are all small tasks and the master To Do list grows daily, we are lucky to have accomplished at least these things. With an impending guest visiting next week, we are sure to eventually get our butts in gear, but for now - we are enjoying dragging our feet and living life here in Gtown.

The Gtown Workout

Coming to Georgetown is always a shock to the system. While we lead a somewhat active lifestyle, we are not against lounging around the boat for half the day after spending the morning at the beach. Once we get to Georgetown, there are so many activities and friends to spend time with that we barely even see the boat!

We definitely stay active here and have in fact been doing so much that we are exhausted by the time the sun sets and are frequently in bed by 8pm (mind you we are up with the sun...so don't judge!) Not only are we exhausted but we are finally realizing that we are no longer in our 20s and exercise comes with a price - pulled muscles, aching muscles that we haven't used in forever and bruises galore.

Regardless, we have joined the cruisers softball team and practice twice a week for a couple hours. We also wormed our way into the competitive beach volleyball group = a "prestigious" group of about 10 men who play 3 on 3 and are very good. Somehow we have been allowed to play and we do that every day for a few hours. Add to that at least an hour on the beach swimming and playing with Koa in the afternoons and before we know it, it's dinnertime and we can both barely keep our eyes open through an entire movie.

On the nights we have sundowners with other boaters, we come back from the beach, do a quick rinse off so we are presentable, grab a snack and some drinks and head over to socialize until just after sunset. On those nights, we don't even bother with dinner - some lite appetizers and a few drinks and we are good for the night.

In our "down time" we work on boat projects, blog, check the weather and explore all the trails on the island with Koa. Brad also participates in poker twice a week - he has to live up to our boat name after all....

So on those few days when we play softball all morning and then decide to skip volleyball and lounge on the beach all afternoon, we love to just relax and soak in the sun and the leisure. And although we stay busy here, we love it and wouldn't have it any other way. So bring on the sun, sand, muscle aches and pains, and bottles of advil - we are here to cram as many good times and memories into our short visit as we can!