The Browns' Mantra: Gorgeous Days, Balmy Evenings, Activities on the Beach and Work on the Boat

Yesterday (Thursday, March 9), I spent the morning working with the 4th grader in the family I have been helping to assess their children's progress, ending up with another game of Boggle. Sammy wanted to keep playing, but the other kids were anxious to get to the Chat 'n' Chill for lunch, so I promised I would be on the beach later.

There was a call out on the net yesterday morning for pinochle players. We contacted Pat on S/V Squall and agreed to meet him at 2:00 for a three-handed game or two. Two o'clock every afternoon is when people get together for music, various table top games such as chess and dominoes, and activities such as volleyball and corn hole toss. We went to the beach after lunch. Sammy stopped by our table, reading to play Boggle, but I told her she would have to wait for us to finish our card game. By the time we did, she, as well as the other four members of the family, were involved in a fun volleyball game, so we returned to Mantra.

Jam session on the beach

Sherri, Peter and Pat playing pinochle

We spent the rest of the day on the boat, with Peter doing various jobs such as installing a carbon monoxide detector while I was a lazy bum, spending most of my time reading (although I did study Spanish for a while). We stopped to watch the colorful sunset and then had dinner and played backgammon.

Just another beautiful sunset

This morning, as usual, we were up around 7 a.m. I made fried eggs and toast and then we listened to the 8:00 net. I decided to join yoga on the beach at 9, and Peter dinghied me in. The hour long class was excellent, and I found I was more flexible, having not done yoga for a month, than I thought I would be, although not nearly as limber as many others.

I spent the morning drying the carpet in the foreward cabin with an iron and old towels, did a load of laundry and made a big pot of black bean vegetable soup. We invited Ethan and his friend Annie on S/V Kumbaya over for lunch, but only he arrived; she had a migrane. He was delighted to see all the details of our 56-foot Sundeer. It is a nicely designed boat and we like her features a lot, but it still surprises me when other boats passing on the open water or anchored nearby radio us to ask what kind of boat she is and say how much they admire her.

After lunch, I spent over an hour swimming around the hull and cleaning it with nubby gloves, scrubbing away krill and algae and other sea creatures. It is rather exhausting work, and I am not comfortable swimming all the way under the hull (What if I get trapped and can't get to the surface?), but it is much cleaner than when I started. After a warm shower at the stern, I got dressed and spent some time just reading a book behind the wheel.

After Peter had his afternoon cup of tea, having finished some electrical work, we dinghied to Sand Dollar Beach (stopping briefly at S/V Effervescence to return a gasket given to us that is unfortunaely the wrong size) and Moriah Harbour Cay National Park, which extends from the southern end of Stocking Island to the shores to the west of Great Exuma south of George Town and Little Exuma and out into Exuma Sound. It encompasses 22,833 acres, mostly water, and includes, pristine beaches, sand dunes, blue holes, coral reefs, mangrove creeks, coppice forests and seagrass meadows. As we walked along the fine sand beach bordered by the coppice forest, I delighted in noticing the details of various plants, including bay cedar (Suriana maritima), silver palm (Coccothrinax argentata) and casuarina (Casuarina equisetifolia). We admired a stunning sunset from the beach and then returned to Mantra and settled in for the night.