No, we've not disappeared :{))

Volleyball is mostly old fogies such as myself, and thus the scenic
enhancement of bikini-clad lovelies is nowhere to be found, unfortunately.
There are the occasional bikinis on the beach, but the courts are well off
the shore, and aside from passing them on the way in, I don't see them :{))

The closest seen on the courts is a hardbody couple in their 30s; she
usually has a short-shorts and halter outfit, gentle on the eyes, but far
more significantly, she also sports a lovely tattoo just above the beltline
of said shorts. Her play is exemplary... I've enjoyed playing in the "fun
volleyball" group each afternoon in which we've not been otherwise involved,
as it's great exercise, albeit proving the aphorism that white men can't
jump which I fortunately overcome sometimes by virtue of my 6-4 height and
38" arms.

We've been bouncing around, as you can see on our SPOT page,
tinyurl.com/flyingpigspot, from beach to beach to town, and, yesterday, a
circumnavigation of Elizabeth Island. All this activity has much to do with
my son and his wife's visit with us, ending tomorrow.

Lots of little sails between scenic sites, music activities (we 4 aboard did
the anthem last Sunday at beach church, e.g., and have enjoyed singing
barbershop harmony as well, aboard, plus the weekly jam at the Sand Bar
restaurant along with the weekly ARG [Alcohol Research Group] meetings held
on Hamburger Beach), shore excursions, hikes, snorkeling and the like.

Before my son and daughter-in-law arrived, we were doing much the same sort
of thing ourselves, along with some boat chores. Fixing the PortaBote's
leaking stern bladder (it has to fold when you flatten the boat, so it's
much thinner than the body parts), caused by a malfunction which happened in
Marsh Harbour, undo-able until the special material arrived with them was
the first order of business, successfully concluded, allowing me to resume
rowing (with the special alteration I made to allow me to use the racing
sculls I kept from my racing scull I used to row on Lake Lanier, home of the
96 Olympics rowing venue). Other chores were tiny, as we're rounding the
corner on stuff which either needs replacing or repair, so we've just been
enjoying ourselves with the full schedule Georgetown offers.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the trips to the library, where we've swapped
books we've read for new ones. In my yout' I was a voracious reader,
dropping off that level of intake as family and work intruded; cruising has
allowed me the luxury of time to resume, which I've taken greedily; I
generally read a book every other day or so.

Since most of the rbc traffic of late has had little to do with our cruising
lifestyle, and, worse, has dozens of meandering responses in a thread which
might have had some interest, for the most part, rbc has not been on the top
of my reading list :{))

So, we're alive and well and, aside from an intentional grounding for bottom
cleaning (which concluded with the rising tide a few hours later), there
have been no "exciting marine moments" aboard. The closest to such was our
topping lift fouling on the headboard shackle screw head as we dropped the
main yesterday; it was resolved in due time and we anchored off Volleyball
Beach to go in to enjoy the Monday Night Dance put on each week by Rockin'
Ron aboard Sea Dancer, held at Chat'n'Chill...

L8R, y'all

Skip and crew

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 08:59:22 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Lots of little sails between scenic sites, music activities (we 4 aboard did
the anthem last Sunday at beach church, e.g., and have enjoyed singing
barbershop harmony as well, aboard, plus the weekly jam at the Sand Bar
restaurant along with the weekly ARG [Alcohol Research Group] meetings held
on Hamburger Beach), shore excursions, hikes, snorkeling and the like.

Sounds like you and Lydia are having way too much fun in George Town.
Just checked our logs from last year and we passed through there in
late January on our way south. We only stayed one night because we
were well provisioned and eager to be on our way to the Turks and
Caicos. That's a trip you might think about if you get tired of
sitting at anchor. For us it was a relatively easy two day run with a
quick stop behind the reef at Abrams Bay, Mayaguana. The winter
weather in the T&C is considerably better than in the Bahamas, and the
social ambience at South Side Marina in Provo is quite good.

Has there been any progress resolving the 30 day visa issue in the
Bahamas or are people just ignoring it?

Hi, Wayne,

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 08:59:22 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Lots of little sails between scenic sites, music activities (we 4 aboard
did
the anthem last Sunday at beach church, e.g., and have enjoyed singing
barbershop harmony as well, aboard, plus the weekly jam at the Sand Bar
restaurant along with the weekly ARG [Alcohol Research Group] meetings
held
on Hamburger Beach), shore excursions, hikes, snorkeling and the like.

Sounds like you and Lydia are having way too much fun in George Town.

Yah, we are. Two dolphins just swam by us, right next to the cockpit,
saying hello on their meandering relaxed way somewhere else. It looked a
bit as though they'd stick nearby, in which case I'd have jumped in with
them, but they kept moving.

This is the mother-baby (now not so small any more) pair who show up
frequently in the harbor; last year there was a cat which had them visit for
quite a while and the family had a great time in the water with them...

Just checked our logs from last year and we passed through there in
late January on our way south. We only stayed one night because we
were well provisioned and eager to be on our way to the Turks and
Caicos. That's a trip you might think about if you get tired of
sitting at anchor. For us it was a relatively easy two day run with a
quick stop behind the reef at Abrams Bay, Mayaguana. The winter
weather in the T&C is considerably better than in the Bahamas, and the
social ambience at South Side Marina in Provo is quite good.

We'll keep that in mind. Right now the weather pattern is for unrelenting
(very few fronts) trades, so it would be a challenge. We're thinking we may
have trouble making it to the Jumentos in time for the Valentine's Day party
at Ragged (well, Raccoon, but put on by Maxine of the Ragged community)...


Has there been any progress resolving the 30 day visa issue in the
Bahamas or are people just ignoring it?

No, to ignore it is very risky, though we've not heard of boardings in this
area. However, yes, the problem has been resolved. That doesn't change the
reality of a maximum of 8 consecutive months (which they calculate in 30 day
months, which is how we lost 5 days on our 8 month window) for visitors.
Staying longer involves a re$idency permit. The Bahamian government
apparently presumes that nobody stays longer, instead, flying home or
leaving and returning in the boat. We're stuck in the middle, although
we'll be leaving the area of our own choice, having the wedding and
grandbaby gift this spring calling us stateside - we have yet to decide
whether to try to fly under the radar as our visas expire a bit before we'd
otherwise have left.

Still having way too much fun :{))

L8R

Skip and crew


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand."
(Richard Bach, in "Illusions of a Reluctant Messiah"

On Thu, 3 Feb 2011 08:24:24 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We'll keep that in mind. Right now the weather pattern is for unrelenting
(very few fronts) trades, so it would be a challenge.

Yes, the trades are good for going south, not so much for east. You
have to try and time the oscillation between north easterlies and
south easterlies. There's also a window that occurs for a day or two
prior to a frontal passage. Van Sant has a good explanation of that.

Last year we went down the west side of Long Island, hid out for half
a day at the south end, and then went east across the north side of
Crooked, Acklins and the Plana Cays to Abrams Bay. We ducked in
behind the reef at Abrams to get some rest and then pushed on to the
T&C in the morning.

Under sail in the winter it might be tempting to hide out at the south
end of Acklins waiting for a window to go east.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7...uthtothetc.jpg

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 3 Feb 2011 08:24:24 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We'll keep that in mind. Right now the weather pattern is for unrelenting
(very few fronts) trades, so it would be a challenge.

Yes, the trades are good for going south, not so much for east. You
have to try and time the oscillation between north easterlies and
south easterlies. There's also a window that occurs for a day or two
prior to a frontal passage. Van Sant has a good explanation of that.

Last year we went down the west side of Long Island, hid out for half
a day at the south end, and then went east across the north side of
Crooked, Acklins and the Plana Cays to Abrams Bay. We ducked in
behind the reef at Abrams to get some rest and then pushed on to the
T&C in the morning.

Under sail in the winter it might be tempting to hide out at the south
end of Acklins waiting for a window to go east.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7...uthtothetc.jpg





First time I ever saw a sailor mark a chart with lipstick. LOL!


Wilbur Hubbard

On Fri, 4 Feb 2011 14:18:12 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 3 Feb 2011 08:24:24 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

We'll keep that in mind. Right now the weather pattern is for unrelenting
(very few fronts) trades, so it would be a challenge.

Yes, the trades are good for going south, not so much for east. You
have to try and time the oscillation between north easterlies and
south easterlies. There's also a window that occurs for a day or two
prior to a frontal passage. Van Sant has a good explanation of that.

Last year we went down the west side of Long Island, hid out for half
a day at the south end, and then went east across the north side of
Crooked, Acklins and the Plana Cays to Abrams Bay. We ducked in
behind the reef at Abrams to get some rest and then pushed on to the
T&C in the morning.

Under sail in the winter it might be tempting to hide out at the south
end of Acklins waiting for a window to go east.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7...uthtothetc.jpg





First time I ever saw a sailor mark a chart with lipstick. LOL!

LOL!!

Well, now we ARE sorta going to disappear. Tomorrow, absent a major
forecast change, we'll be under way to the Jumentos and Raggeds, remote,
unoccupied islands in the south central Bahamas. It's entirely possible that
we'll be out of internet contact until we return to the states for weddings
and births (well, one of each), late March/early April.

You can still follow us on tinyurl.com/flyingpigspot, our sharing page for
the SPOT locator beacon; the last pix still up are of our circumnavigation
of Stocking Island - but that page only stores a week's worth of locations,
so that part may be gone by the time you have a look.

If you zoom in after clicking the hybrid tab, you can see the shallows we
have to avoid in our travels to the Jumentos - once there it's a bit less
hyperactive to route around them!

L8R, y'all

Skip and crew, out living the dream

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

"Flying Pig" wrote in message
...
No, we've not disappeared :{))

Volleyball is mostly old fogies such as myself, and thus the scenic
enhancement of bikini-clad lovelies is nowhere to be found, unfortunately.
There are the occasional bikinis on the beach, but the courts are well off
the shore, and aside from passing them on the way in, I don't see them
:{))

The closest seen on the courts is a hardbody couple in their 30s; she
usually has a short-shorts and halter outfit, gentle on the eyes, but far
more significantly, she also sports a lovely tattoo just above the
beltline of said shorts. Her play is exemplary... I've enjoyed playing
in the "fun volleyball" group each afternoon in which we've not been
otherwise involved, as it's great exercise, albeit proving the aphorism
that white men can't jump which I fortunately overcome sometimes by virtue
of my 6-4 height and 38" arms.

We've been bouncing around, as you can see on our SPOT page,
tinyurl.com/flyingpigspot, from beach to beach to town, and, yesterday, a
circumnavigation of Elizabeth Island. All this activity has much to do
with my son and his wife's visit with us, ending tomorrow.

Lots of little sails between scenic sites, music activities (we 4 aboard
did the anthem last Sunday at beach church, e.g., and have enjoyed singing
barbershop harmony as well, aboard, plus the weekly jam at the Sand Bar
restaurant along with the weekly ARG [Alcohol Research Group] meetings
held on Hamburger Beach), shore excursions, hikes, snorkeling and the
like.

Before my son and daughter-in-law arrived, we were doing much the same
sort of thing ourselves, along with some boat chores. Fixing the
PortaBote's leaking stern bladder (it has to fold when you flatten the
boat, so it's much thinner than the body parts), caused by a malfunction
which happened in Marsh Harbour, undo-able until the special material
arrived with them was the first order of business, successfully concluded,
allowing me to resume rowing (with the special alteration I made to allow
me to use the racing sculls I kept from my racing scull I used to row on
Lake Lanier, home of the 96 Olympics rowing venue). Other chores were
tiny, as we're rounding the corner on stuff which either needs replacing
or repair, so we've just been enjoying ourselves with the full schedule
Georgetown offers.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the trips to the library, where we've swapped
books we've read for new ones. In my yout' I was a voracious reader,
dropping off that level of intake as family and work intruded; cruising
has allowed me the luxury of time to resume, which I've taken greedily; I
generally read a book every other day or so.

Since most of the rbc traffic of late has had little to do with our
cruising lifestyle, and, worse, has dozens of meandering responses in a
thread which might have had some interest, for the most part, rbc has not
been on the top of my reading list :{))

So, we're alive and well and, aside from an intentional grounding for
bottom cleaning (which concluded with the rising tide a few hours later),
there have been no "exciting marine moments" aboard. The closest to such
was our topping lift fouling on the headboard shackle screw head as we
dropped the main yesterday; it was resolved in due time and we anchored
off Volleyball Beach to go in to enjoy the Monday Night Dance put on each
week by Rockin' Ron aboard Sea Dancer, held at Chat'n'Chill...

L8R, y'all

Skip and crew

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half
so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about
in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do,
and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

On Mon, 7 Feb 2011 10:23:23 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

If you zoom in after clicking the hybrid tab, you can see the shallows we
have to avoid in our travels to the Jumentos - once there it's a bit less
hyperactive to route around them!

The Raggeds and Jumentos are certainly one of the roads less traveled.
We ran into a few other cruisers there last year but not very many.

Have fun and be safe.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

The Raggeds and Jumentos are certainly one of the roads less traveled.
We ran into a few other cruisers there last year but not very many.

Have fun and be safe.


There were 30 boats there a few days ago, as heard on BASRA's checkin which
also includes the number of boats in a given harbor. George Town is now up
to about 270 - time to move on; the view from the town side, however, at
night, is impressive - a city of pinpoint lights all along Stocking Island!

L8R

Skip, still going, but not quite yet.

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-half so
much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats; messing about in
boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Given PC Tools' bargain-bin pricing--at $50 for a one-year, three-PC license (as of 12/2/2010), it's nearly the cheapest application we tested--as well as its solid security performance, it's tempting to give this suite heavy consideration. And to that, we say go for it--provided you don't actually want to use your computer for anything else while scanning it for malware.