And the race is on!

We've been enjoying all the races this week. There are four classes of boats - A (largest with 2 sails) to D class (sindle sail). Since I painted the names on the cruisers boat - "Two Friends" and two of Buzzie's boats- "Lady Sonia" and "Bul Reg" (Buzzie is a boat builder of these boats and also runs Porgy's Place on the beach) we've been rooting for these boats.

The weather was really calm the week before the races began, but the winds picked up to 25 knots for the entire week through the races and beyond.


Bob helping Pat and others Step the mast on "Two Friends."


Test run of "Two Friends"


This was our anchorage before the winds picked up to 25 knots for the rest of the week including the race.


Bob running the dinghy


There were a bunch of food fenders to feed the hungry crowds each day. This man is preparing conch. They put the vendors that had conch on the water side and they would tie 5 together, that way they would not wander off until they were needed.

The first race was the "Junior" race. Buzzy, his two oldest sons, and an American cruiser, Graham on Hot Latte-tudes, were the crew. The two adults were along only as coaches. The boat they raced was "Bul Reg" - it came in first!!


Start of the Junior race.

We watched some of the races from the third deck of one of the mail boats that were in. One of the A class boats had been out for a test run and was coming back in when I took this photo. It gives you a good view of the size of the A class boats and the larger crew that it takes to run it.


A Class boat


The boat was too far to toss a rope, so a man swam out with a rope to bring them in.


This was the first mark in the President's Cup Race of C Class boats.


Two Friends being towed in following the President's Cup race

Unfortunately, Two Friends broke on eof the prys that the crew sit on and dropped two people in the water and had to go back for them. Then, another boat T-boned them causing the damage below.


Photo of damage to Two Friends


The end of a pleasant day