It is the start of the Abaco Regatta.  The official kickoff party is the Stranded Naked Cheeseburger in Paradise party on Fiddle Cay.  During the rest of the year, this very small Cay is deserted.  But on July 3, people come from all over to enjoy free cheeseburgers and hot dogs, free fries, free margaritas and free rum drinks.  As much as you can stand!  Jimmy Buffet music blares from the speakers.  Our kids sailed the small sailboat in the harbor.  It was great fun!  Bobb Henderson is the host.  He has been throwing this party for several years for no particular reason except that he is a big Jimmy Buffet fan.  Kathy and Fred from Makai were there as were Steve and Anne with their daughter Dana on Fine Line, Clint and Diane and their boys Noah and Cody on Sanddollar.  I had organized a cocktail hour on the beach at Coco Bay the night before, and Karon and Alan got to meet everyone we had been talking about.

The party lasted from 11:00 until about 7:00.  We had some rain at the beginning, but by the afternoon, the clouds lifted and the weather was beautiful, if not hot.  By the end they ran out of mixers for the tequila and rum and started giving bottles of alcohol away!!  Fred went up to get a drink and instead came back with 2 bottles of rum.  Later as I was walking back to the dinghy I found a full bottle of rum near our boat.  Apparently Fred had put one in his pocket and lost it.   Kathy gave the kids, Karon and I a ride back to our boat in her dinghy.  That night back on Alegria, MOST of us enjoyed the spaghetti supper I made.

We decided to dinghy over and check out how the set up was going for the stranded naked party the next day.  The kids did a little snorkeling.  The water near the beach is very shallow, about a foot deep.  As we were walking, Karon spotted something in the water she thought was a rope.  When she looked closer she saw the spots on it and realized it was some kind of eel or snake.  We were able to get pretty close to it and I took some pictures.  Soon it disappeared in a hole in the sand.  The sand here had a lot of these holes so I am sure there were many more where this one came from.  It had the body of a snake but the head of an eel.  I am not sure what it was.

Hooray!  Our good friends Karon and Alan and their two boys Alec and Collin are here for a 10 day vacation!! We are very excited!  We have been friends for about 13 years and our kids have grown up together.  They have been a very integral part of our trip.   Alan helped Dan on the delivery, when they brought Alegria from Tortola  BVI to Charleston SC.  Then when it started to get cold in January, he helped Dan move the boat down to Palm Coast Florida.  Wesold our house in the middle of December 2006 but we weren’t ready to leave our jobs until the end of January 2007.  They stepped up and graciously offered to let us live with them.  (They really should have thought that through!)  So, Dan, Tristan, Tessa and Rasta (our Jack Russell) moved in with their 2 boys and their dog.  Now when I say moved into their house, a more accurate picture would be to say we occupied.  We took over their garage, their living room, their bedrooms.  Any empty space we could find became ours.  They were extremely nice about it, especially since at that time we did not have a clear departure date.  Incredibly it worked and we had the best time.  They were so accommodating that Dan seemed to forget what an inconvenience we were.

“You know,” he said to me one day.  (I think it was day 20 of the occupation).  “I think this has worked out really well.  I don’t think our being at Karon and Alan’s has caused any problems .”

“Really?”  I was amazed.  “Did you forget that they can’t use their garage because we have all our stuff in it?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Did you forget that we have taken over their kid’s bedrooms and their kids are now sleeping on the floor?”

“Yes, but…”

“Did you forget our dog bit Karon?  Twice?”

“There was that,” he agreed.

“Tristan clogged the toilet?  A vase was broke.  We possibly introduced a rodent to their garage?”

“Well…”

“What part of all that suggests no problems to you?

“Well,” he says quietly.  “I still think it’s going well.”

And so it was and did and we will be forever grateful to them.