Mark took the dingy to shore and went for another morning
jog . The flower de jour was this little
lavender beauty…
Meanwhile back on the boat Kathy had had enough of the
mosquitoes and went to our mishmash stash of lotions, sprays, and sunscreen and
grabbed for the mosquito spray and then proceeded to liberally coat herself...
Once she got a whiff of the stuff from inside the hazy fog she had cocooned herself in she quickly realized she had not grabbed the bug repellent but rather bug spray. You know the kind, the one that has the warning on the back of the can about avoiding contact with SKIN...
After Mark got back from his jog we all decided to go in to
shore and check out the resort area. It's so hot and humid and we're constantly in the water that the boys all forget to wear shoes and shirts. Here Keith and Mark absentmindedly jumped in the dingy to head to shore with nothing but their swim shorts on. The nicer businesses require shoes and shirts so here they're attempting to share a pair of scrounged up flip flops and a towel to see if they can pass inspection:
The
boys found a sailing school that also rented small Hobie Cats.
and of course the boys couldn’t resist taking one for a
sail.
They tacked, they jived, and then when that got boring they
decided to start aiming for buoys to see how many they could try and hit. We they hit just about every buoy out there they turned to a little
game of “scare the sailing school kids” by aiming for them and seeing how close
they could get before causing alarm. In
the process, I have an eye witness report that they may have had a close call
with a moored sailboat out in the bay.
The accidental run-in was narrowly escaped due to a quick couple of feet lurching
towards the unintended target to act as a makeshift fender. The boat they nearly rammed ended up unscathed however
the “eyewitness” sore
toes and feet were not so lucky. But it's cheaper to fix a foot.
All in all no serious damage was done out sailing, unless
you call the reckless stewardship of a young boy. Let's just say Connor is not learning the most mature of lessons under the stewardship of these two misfit fathers.
Meanwhile Kathy and Chloe did what they do best…shopping. Under Kathy's tutelage she bought two new swimsuits and searched the entire island for nail polish.
...that left me in the nice shady bar (pun intended) blogging…
Afterwards we all met up to buy ice and head back to the
boat.
Connor, who
does not like provisioning or waiting around in the hot sun for those who do, lectured the shoppers among our crew on getting in,
buying the ice, and coming strait out. He gave them a stern warning: No looking around for more things to buy!
So while he waited
for them to pay for the ice, he maximized the enjoyment from his wait time by
waiting for the girls in the ice freezer.
As you can tell, we have all become rather fond of these frozen cubes. Here Keith shows how happy he is to see the ice box,
albeit in a most awkward way.
Back at the boat, with our bottled water and sodas nicely
chilling in a swirl of nice ice bath, it was time to find a little entertainment
with which to while away the rest of the lazy afternoon.
We shall call the episode that follows…
“Stupid is Contagious”
It started with Mark thinking it would be a good
idea to use the spare halyard line from the mast as a swing. Keith concurred but decided it would be best
if Mark gave it a try first. This was one of Keith's better ideas.
First they tried wenching Mark up…
From the photo you can tell that idea got mighty
uncomfortable pretty fast. That was when they decided it would make a great swing to launch
themselves off the side of the boat.
After trying it a couple of times sometimes successfully,
sometimes not, the boys decided to lure Connor into giving it a try. I think by now he was starting to catch on to the fact that these two male parental figures were not always terribly safety conscious--do I need to mention the foot fender incident? So naturally he was a little hesitant to try it at first, at least not until they worked all the kinks worked out (smart boy).
So Keith gave it a try…
Then I decided it looked like fun and I gave it a whirl. Which was probably when Connor decided it was father tested and mother approved--so he figured he'd
better do it if he mother did. (not always a good call there either.)
After his first jump he turned into a swing junkie. And we couldn’t get him off it.
Chloe decided to give it a try but wasn’t fearless enough to
follow the number one rule to a good hearty (and safe) swing off the deck which is: Let Go!
So as she hurled off the side off the boat, she looked down
and may have decided she was up a bit too high to heed the sacred rule of the
swing. From the side we could see her
vacillate on her commitment to follow the golden rule. We all yell
out “Let go! Let go! Let go!” but her little hands could not muster the
courage to loosen the panicked grip she had on the line and so she returned to the boat at full
swing and smashed into the starboard side with a thud. Man down. but not hurt too badly.
Surprisingly this scene did not deter our neighbors on a mooring just one ball over from our boat and they decided
to give their own version of a mast swing a try. Apparently they were undeterred by our eleven
year-old crew member whacking the side of our boat. They rigged up a line and got into the swing
of things.
Between our two boats we looked like a Cirque du Soleil gone
wrong. Only a few children forgot to let
go at the peak of their swing and ended up hitting the side of the boat--and happily those kids were mostly from the other boat, much to our
amusement.
Yes indeed, it seems stupidity is contagious.
Once Chloe recovered from her little hit and run she gave
one of the kayaks a try and loved it.
Though at the end of the day she reported that her favorite part of the
day was her attempt to swing off the boat—apparently that little situation won't be scaring her for life...another episode involving a therapist avoided.
Near the end of the day it was my turn in the galley and I
was looking forward to using my avocadoes, tortilla chips, and flour tortillas
and made fajitas and rice and a big ol’ salad.
Kathy threw a carrot cake in the oven and we were set!
We ended the day with the four adults playing cards while
Connor and Chloe played a game of hide and seek in the shadows cast by the moon
on the deck. Who knew you could do
that? I didn’t realize the boat had
enough cracks and crevices to hide a small kid from their sibling, but apparently it has because they played
hide-n-seek for a good 45 minutes. Followed
by a hearty round of nighttime “I spy”—which I’ll never understand how that
works in the dark.
An end to a lovely day.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment