George Town Cruisers Regatta Activities

The George Town Cruiser's Regatta has been happening this past week. We have attended the Softball game - Cruiser's against a local Bahamian Team. I think it was more theatrics, than actually play. Unfortunately, the cruisers lost by 2 points.

 

Cruiser's Team - pre-game

There were two racing regattas. Both are planned so that the boats are spaced far enough apart so that there is little chance of being rammed by another boat, and additional awards made for "largest fish caught" and "best baked goods made during the race."

The first race was held just in the Elizabeth Harbor. We watched that race sitting on the top of our boat. The second race was an "around Stocking Island" race. We walked over to the beach on the Atlantic side of Stocking Island to watch the boats go by. Unfortunately, I did not bring the camera with the telephoto lens so I could get a good photo of Sea Fox (this is a boat out of Virginia and should not be confused with our friends on Sea Fox X from Canada). Sea Fox lost a mast about half way through the race. Luckily, no one was injured on the boat. Serenity dropped out of the race and stayed with Sea Fox to make sure they made it back in ok. Luckily, they have an engine that got them back to shore safely, and will also get them back to Florida where they can get the boat repaired.

 

Several boats rounding the north end of Stocking Island (this has to be one of the most beautiful large beaches in the Exumas)

 

Several boats in the around the island race

 

I tried to enlarge and sharpen this so you can make out the broken mast, but it didn't work. If you double click you should be able to enlarge it and see the boat with broken mast.

 

Boats approaching the finish line of the around island race

We also played in the Texas Hold'em Tournament. I was hoping that my luck would hold out (had been having great cards the previous two times I played), but alas, it was not to be the case. We had about 90 people playing and were packed into the St. Francis Resport's dining room. St. Francis hosts the twice a week Texas Hold'em games as well as provide prizes for the Tournament. (They also host the Trivial Pursuit games as well.)

We have been anchored the last two weeks in Kidd Cove off of George Town and making the cross to St. Francis on Stocking Island has provided us some wet rides back in the dark. We have been here awaiting a new Exhaust Elbow for the Starboard engine and it arrived yesterday. The Captain has been down in the engine room working on the swap out. He also managed to catch a cold (as have several of our cruising friends), so I'm sure he isn't enjoying doing this work. I appreciate my hard-working Captain.

 

One of the mailboats in George Town government dock

 

Grand Master - this long-serving mail boat ran aground at the entrance to Elizabeth Harbor. It was rescued by a salvage boat named "Amazing Grace" from near Staniel Cay. Pumps and gasoline had to be helicoptered out to the ship until the salvage boat arrived. It is now in dry dock having some major repairs done in Freeport, Bahamas.

 

Peace and Plenty - great place for lunch or dinner, or just a Kalik Beer overlooking the harbor.

 

Sunset over the town of George town

Now that both engines are operational, we can continue with our cruising plans. Looks like our next leg will include the Jumentos and Acklands. We will be cruising with several other boats as we will be cruising where there are few settlements and no services available. That includes the Internet, so it may be a week or two between posts this time.