Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2015

They Came Bearing Gifts

Sv Hermosita

June 15th
No!  Not the three fabled wise men.  Even better.
Childhood friends united after many years
Two separate sets of friends decided to charter sailboats for holiday in the Caribbean.  We were honored when both made us part of their itinerary.  The gifts they came bearing were just icing on the cake to seeing them.  Well not icing.  Something even better......TP.  Yes that's right - Toiliet Paper!  Sv Hermosita gave us all their extra rolls of TP.  They also gave us choclate, wine, spices, napkins and water at the end of their charter.  But the toilet paper was most exciting because we were down to our last roll and had forgotten to buy when we were last ashore. 
Sv Buzzbee
Nazar - protection from the evil eye

The other group (sv Buzzbee) arrived with a pineapple (the traditional welcome gift in many parts of the world), rum and limes - a party in the making.  Brilliant!  Later on their boat they presented us with a Nazar from Turkey for protection on sv Honey Ryder from the evil eye and special lounge pants that are specific to this group.  Lounge pants?  Yes.  You know how a group of friends can develop inside jokes, stories, traditions and in many cases, clothing.....like funny hats, t-shirts, wigs, sunglasses?  Well, this group has these awesome lounge pants made out of paero (the colorful swimsuit wraps that are sold on every tourist beach in the world).  These pants are uber comfortable.
Tom, James and Claire

Cate, Jane, Dan, Mark

Later in Carriacou we met up with both groups again.  Sv Hermosita joined us aboard sv Somewhere (full time cruisers) for a wonderful evening, sharing some of their yummy and fancy provisions.  Sv Buzzbee sailed in a day later.  We were having a lovely dinner aboard sv Ocean Rainbow with sv Freebooter.  The plan was to meet sv Buzzbee ashore later for some music.  But we never heard the music from shore, so we opted for plan B - invade sv Buzzbee for a jam session on their boat.  As proper Brits, Sv Ocean Rainbow and Sv Freebooter were aprehensive about just popping over.  But I assured them it was no worry, stressing the fact that "Their Americans.  They won't care that we invited you along.  The more the merrier."  And it was true.  Sv Buzzbee were thrilled to play hosts to a cruisers jam.  Claire brought her guitar.  Tom took his bongos and various percusion instruments.  Sv Buzzbee had a uekula and traveling guitar.  All twelve of us sang songs at the top of our lungs for all the anchorage to enjoy hear.  Note -We did shut it down around 10pm -only slightly later than "cruisers midnight" (9pm).  It was a total blast.
Steve, Sabrina, Annemarie


Big jam session

We were able to introduce them to other full time cruisers, giving them a glimps into the life of cruisers other than just us.  In exchange, both charter groups shared their bountiful charter provisions at happy hours, boat visits and a pot luck dinner with us and these full time cruisers.  A win-win for everyone.
Claire and Cate fine tune their singing act

Brett, Heather, Tom, James (on the vibraslap) and Claire

*Hint - if you are a charter boat that wants to meet some full time cruisers, tempt them with ice and your fancy charter nibblies.
Mark, Dan and Brett
Thank you to both groups for making us part of your holiday.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Pirates in the Palace - Kevin and Lisa Visit

Kevin and Lisa in Deep Bay 

"Pirates in the palace, pirates in the palace".....aka "cruisers in the resort, cruisers in the resort!"
Their own private infinity pool
Our dear friends Kevin and Lisa flew into Antigua from KC and spent a week at a very nice, all inclusive resort near Jolly Harbor.  Of course we crashed the place nearly everyday and thus "Pirates in the palace" reference.  It was immediately obvious that we didn't belong.  The guests were lily white or tender pink.  We are not.  Tom "looks like a piece of ole bacon" (inside joke) with his cruiser tanned skin.  The resort guests had on nice resort clothing and swimsuits.  We had our swimsuits and boat clothes (more than likely with holes or stains or both).  Resort guests wore flips flops or sandals.  We were barefoot.  The women had on big, sparkly jewelry.  I had on jewelry made of colorful strings, shells and local seeds from the Caribbean.  The guests also had stylish hair no doubt cut/trimmed in nice, proper salons on a regual basis.  Tom's hair is long in length and mine is just straw at this point.   And on and on......Tom and Kevin eventually were busted as a woman at the resort beach bar asked cautiously "Is that man staying at the resort" pointing to Tom.  D-oh!
Lisa enjoying her veranda for the week
But we didn't get into too much trouble because they had their own infinity pool out back of their bungalow so we hung out there.  Sweet!
One of these two does not belong

Yep, one does not belong.  Can you guess which one?

The gang
We had a blast during the week, getting caught up and seeing some of the sights of Antigua. We took them via local bus (aka crowded mini van) to the capital St John one day.  Another day was spent exploring Falmouth and English harbors with the historic Nelson's Dockyards and mega yachts to make our mouths drop open in awe of the opulence.  We even managed a lovely day sail up to Deep Bay on the NW corner of Antigua.  It was Lisa's first time sailing - 19.1 nautical miles logged that day!
Lisa's new office?
Of course as visitors from the USA, we turned them into our personal Sherpas by ordering hard to find in the islands and/or too expensive in the islands items/parts and had them cart it all down.  It was like Xmas on s/v Honey Ryder when they arrived with our loot.    Thank you SO much Kevin and Lisa for playing the Sherpas.
One dinghy, two buddies?

We had a wonderful time and look forward to them coming back next year.
Or three dingies?
Special Note  - Kevin emailed after they returned to KC letting us know they got home safe.  Lisa's comment while cleaning out the calf pen in the barn was "This is certainly different than what I was doing a week ago in Antigua!"  HA!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Alternative Uses For Boat Parts

The prop came from Seattle
Yes, that is a big boat prop.  Yes, it's attached to a piece of farm equipment behind a tractor.  Any guesses on the use?  Bueller?  Bueller?  That is used for the annual stirring of the hog lagoons at Rezac Land and Livestock, Onega KS.  I realize I am stretching this posting with the prop to tie it back into sailing for technical blog purposes.  But the truth is, there wasn't any sailing for us this weekend.  We spent the weekend in Wheaton KS at our good friend Kevin's wedding.  *Apparently it was on his bucket list to get married once before he turns 50 next year as this was Keebon's first wedding.  HA!  And we had an absolute hoot of time.  It was just a good old small town America wedding extravaganza weekend with all the normal trimmings;  beer drinking, riding around the 3 block town in golf carts/gators/4 wheelers,  riding the John Deer B tractor down the street, beer pong, fireworks in the middle of the street, petting of various farm animals (barn cats, horses, town dogs, 10 alpacas on the edge of town), shooting of various guns and a homemade cannon, decorating the community center/quonset hut, the wedding, reception, dance, beer drinking, after party, etc....Cap10 Tom reconnected fellow K-Stater Jay Rezac, who lived across the hall in Haymaker Dorm 25 yrs ago.  Jay and Stacy invited us to stop by their farm on the way home Sunday.  It was a good chance for city boy Tom to see a real working farm.  It's obvious they run a very successful operation.  Quite impressive.  Thanks to Jay and Stacy for showing us around.  Thanks to the town of Wheaton for a grand time.  Most of all thanks to Kevin and Lisa - Congrats and Best Wishes!