A birthday and the kiddos do some boat chores

BeBe celebrated her 8th birthday aboard S/V BeBe in Australia. She is beginning to think this should be a tradition. She celebrated her 6th birthday with us in Bonaire. Don't know when she will have the opportunity to celebrate another birthday aboard with us because we won't be in easily accessible areas for a few years during the month of August. Plus I don't think her parents are going to want to fly halfway around the world with her new brother once he gets mobile. I cooked her favorite dinner of fettuccine alfredo topped with shrimp and baked a 3-tier cake with fudge frosting. Since she was born in Houston and it wasn't August 12 in Houston until the next day, I also baked her a cherry pie to have a second day celebration for her actual birth date back home. She kind of liked having her birthday spread over 2 days even though she only received presents on the first day.

One day we decided to sail to Fitzroy Island. The winds were predicted to be only 10 knots. Well, they weren't. By the time we got out of the channel and turned southeast towards Fitzroy the wind were 20 to 25 knots nearly on our nose and the wind-waves were choppy. Aaron immediately began to feel seasick. Since the winds were so strong we figured the anchorage at Fitzroy would not be comfortable, so we turned around and headed back to the marina in Cairns. We made Aaron drive the boat to help combat the seasickness. He never fed the fish but probably would have felt better if he had. Once back in our slip he felt fine. He also decided that he was not going back out sailing again. We have tried to convince him that just because someone gets seasick once does not mean that person will get seasick every time, but he is not buying it. Even after the winds calmed down several days later and we would have had to motor in flat calm seas, Aaron refused to budge. No more sailing for him.

Once back in the slip we turned the kids loose with brushes and water hose to clean the salt off the boat. Zachary was a trooper and used the wash-broom like a pro. But Elisabeth told us that "I don't scrub." She decided that her only job would be to spray the water hose over the deck after Zachary had scrubbed everything. We tried to reason with her that everyone has to scrub sometimes to get things clean. But she was adamant that "I am going to be a vet and vets don't scrub boats." Well, how can we argue with logic like that?

Later I gave the kids a job of removing the strings and snapping green beans for dinner. BeBe again tried to tell me that "Vets don't do green beans" but I wasn't buying into that theory. I explained to her that everyone on our boat who eats must participate in preparation of the food or cleaning up the galley and it was her choice whether to snap beans or to wash dishes. Funny how that immediately changed her mind and that snapping beans now sounded like a much preferable chore. But, being the good kid that he is, Zachary joined in and helped her make short work of this little chore.

We all made a morning outing to the large local weekend produce market. This market is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings and is not a far walk. We stocked up on lots of veggies and fruit since Aaron eats enough fruit for 5 normal people. Zachary is really good about trying new foods. We saw a spiked Amazon custard apple at the produce market and decided to try one. Bill and I had tried this fruit in French Polynesia and did not think much of it. But since it was a weird-looking thing we decided to let our guests try it. Everyone took a bite but the only person who actually liked it was Zachary. The inside looks so much like snot with seeds in it that it is hard to get past the appearance to enjoy the taste. I guess an 8-year-old boy thinks eating a fruit that looks like snot is fun. The 8-year-old girl refused to eat that nasty looking thing.

We have done lots of touristy things since Aaron, Lynn, BeBe and Damien arrived and photos are on several cameras. Eventually I hope to get the photos sorted out and will upload more.