Last night we had a party at a place we just call "The Mexican". It has another name but we can never remember what it is. They serve, yeah that's right, mexican food. The real reason we go there is for the Mucho Grande - a one litre margarita served in a giant glass. However, since our group was about 20 people, they brought us a Mucho MUCHO Grande - margarita in a massive punch bowl. We served everyone at our table (and several others at neighbouring tables) but still hadn't made a dent in it. A few glasses of that and everyone was up dancing to the mariachi singer. He seemed a little surprised.
After that (it was still disgustingly early) we headed to Lime 'n Coconut. This is the closest I've ever come to Jimmy Buffet's Florida. We had some of their fantastic sangria and then I started the long walk home. Cabs are basically non-existent here - Pete claims that the Greeks who settled this community didn't want the Athens cab mafia here and banned them forever. I'm not sure if that's true but whatever it is, there aren't any around. I stuck to Alt 19 because it's fairly well lit and busy but still, some creepy guy on a bicycle followed me. I stopped at Walgreens and wandered around for a bit hoping it was just a coincidence that we were going the same way but a few minutes after I left, a glance over my shoulder showed he was still there, hunched over the handlebars, paddling himself along with his feet. At least now I had a water bottle in a bag - a makeshift blackjack. He rode ahead of me and I could see him stopped by some bushes on an unlit stretch of the sidewalk. When I crossed the road, he road back a ways and then started to come up behind me. I crossed again and then again as he followed. By then I was at the service centre and the hospital which are both really busy. The next time I looked he was peddling up a sidestreet.
Even with the long walk, I was still home before midnight. I fell asleep and didn't even wake up when the bathroom window smashed while Peter was trying to close it at 4:00am. It had gotten really windy in the night. I also slept through some paddler knocking at the door around 6:30am. We were paddling at 8:00am so I'm glad I was oblivious to everything. As I mentioned, it had gotten really windy in the night. Our plan for the morning paddle was approximately 20kms to Howard Park an off-shore beach. Conditions were the WORST. Brutal wind and the
tide was against us but the group was determined to go. We put together crews for an OC-6, 4, 2 and OC-1. Jess paddled one of the Hukis but turned back when we got to the Gulf. I'll write more about the trip tomorrow. I just want to say that if you're ever staying in community where there are commercial fishermen and you're thinking of going out on the water, you should take note when they stay tied up to the dock...