Catch Up

Ok quick recap of the weekend.

Friday: Getting seriously bored. Did a water change, fed the fish 4 times, sat in my cabin. Did finally get my frozen food (which by the time I got it was semi-frozen). Played "Buzz" on PS3 with the guys - it's a quiz show game, pretty fun. Took the tender to shore to have some beers with Dan, Jamie, Sandy, Miro, Bryan and Dave. Didn't know it but Jamie has a penchant for drinking fruity girl drinks so suddenly we were drinking shots of tequila sunrises, then some other unknown greenish, then later blue-ish concoctions. Made it to a bar with a live, 3-piece jazz band but only caught about 2.5 songs before they packed up and went home. Went back to the bar where we started, were served more shots (which I gladly spat out into my beer bottle). At 1 am when the tender came back to pick us up Jamie was nowhere to be found, Sandy was passed out on the table, and Bryan was singing some Scottish jog or something. Luckily, the water was quite calm or else I think we could have lost some guys overboard. On land, when you get in the cab to go home after a night of drinking it is wise to put your seatbelt on. When your taxi is a boat, they bring you life jackets. I thought it was quite funny to see Sandy - this big Scottish guy passed out in the bow of this little boat with a tiny little orange life jacket on.

Saturday: Recovery day. Fed the fish. Took a nap. Decided to try to begin writing my memoirs, got as far as the intro and gave up. Wandered outside to find John zipping around on the Jet Ski. I decided I'd give it a go even though I don't think I've ever actually ridden a stand-up ski. They are extremely hard to keep upright, especially on choppy ocean water so I spent most of the time flying off them swimming back to it. I finally got to the point where I could keep it up when traveling in a straight line but turning was another story. Needless to say, I still have saltwater draining from my sinuses. Went up to the gym for a 35 minute bout on the treadmill. After dinner a bunch of us headed to the mess to watch "Surrogates" with Bruce Willis (don't bother, it was pretty terrible). Passed out.

Sunday: Got up, fed the fish, ate breakfast, took the 10 am tender to shore with Matt (brand new officer on board), John and Miro. Matt got this grand scheme in his head to walk up to Eze Village. Eze Village was built in the mid 1500's on the crown of this mountain, 2,000 feet above the ocean. We started at the ocean. We climbed 2,000 feet straight up. Most of it was steps then it turned into a steep, dirt and rock path. It was HARD. My knees are not going to work tomorrow. We did get some amazing views as we climbed. We actually went PAST the road to Eze, climbed all the way to the peak of the mountain and the across and down to Eze. Our ultimate goal was to have beer and pizza in the village and neither of those things have ever tasted to good! We walked through the village a bit, it was cool. Tiny little, narrow streets at all these crazy angles, buildings built right into the mountain, bougainvillea growing everywhere. There are also alot of cacti here - I didn't realize it grew so well here. There is a fancy hotel there as well called Chateau de la Chevre d'Oro (House of the Golden Goat) There will be pics on Facebook soon, I'm having issues uploading pics right now. Anyway, the trip down wasn't as hard (obviously) but I think it took a harder toll on my joints than the climb up. We then walked back to Beaulieu, stopped for some ice cream, I picked up some more peaches at the market and Miro bought us all cans of Heineken. When we got back to Odyssey we all thought a dip in the ocean was in order. Then John, in his infinite wisdom suggests swimming around the boat. Really?! We just hiked up 2,000 feet, then back down, were walking for 5 hours and now you want to swim around the boat?! We did it. I almost drowned.

Dinner was well deserved tonight and now I am going to pass out.

Living it up!

So we are now at anchor off of Antibes. Earlier I was over on Odyssey to feed the fish and do a few things with the tank. They have filled the pool on Odyssey and opened it up for anyone to use. Uhhh, yes please. So after doing my work I went back up to the deserted pool deck, lay down next to the pool and read in the hot afternoon sunshine of the South of France. Pretty amazing. I like to stand at the rail and pretend I'm somebody important/rich when the other boats cruise by.

We have tenders that make runs between the boats and shore. Had I not stayed out last night, I would probably head into town to wander around. Problem is, the next tender leaves the boat at 9 and the next pick up time from shore is midnight. Pretty sure I'll just fall asleep on the dock before 12 - hell, I'll probably be asleep in my cabin before 9. I'm hoping to head to shore tomorrow and hit up the beach. As I recall there is a pretty good beach here in Antibes. The beach off of Nice actually consists of very large (golf ball sized), smooth rocks so it's not that great.