New Years Eve day, Staniel Cay hosts a Bahamian-built boat regatta. These are some of the same boats that sailed last year in the Family Island Regatta we attended last April in George Town. This race was just for Class C boats and the boats were Slaughter, that came from the nearby settlement of Black Point, and three from Staniel Cay, Termite, Bye Gully, and Smashy. Smashy was the winner of the regatta.
Start of the race - Slaughter missed the start.
Slaughter setting their anchor. Each race starts with sails down and anchor set.
In this race, cruisers and visitors to the island are permitted to sign up as support crew on the boats. Five, total people are allowed, Two Bahamians and 3 cruisers. Since Bob and I have next to zero experience sailing, we did not sign up, but many of our friends did. There are three races and the scores are then averaged to obtain the winning list.
Mac off Cat's Paw and Gigi off Oconee out watching Gigi's husband Vic in the race.
For the first race (due to start at 10 and true to the "Bahamian Clock" started at almost noon), we went out to watch the race "close-up" in our dinghy and take photos. The start of the first race, at best, was absolute chaos. No one appeared to be "on the line." nor seemed ready when the gun went off. Later race starts seemed much more organized.
Our friend Wayne, on My Sharona is waving in this photo. He was on the winning boat - Smashy.
One rule of the race is that you have to end the race with the same group of boaters you started the race with. I heard that this rule was added because race boat Captains used to throw unnecessary crew off the boat near the end of the race to improve their chances of winning! In the first race, David, a cruiser on Antiginny fell off the boat. The support came to his rescue and I watched a Bahamian pull him up into the boat by one arm. First, I couldn't imagine the strength of pulling wet dead weight like that into a boat, but also that he didn't pull David's arm out of the socket! The boat then delivered David to the racing boat.
The spot in the water behind Slaughter is David!
Good photo to show how they balance the weight of the boat against the sail using prys that people slide out on. No wonder they fall off!
After the first race, we went back to the boat for lunch and because we were anchored just off the race course, we watched the other two races from the top deck of our boat.
Two boats rounding a mark taken from the top deck of the boat with telephoto lens
The four boats in the last leg of the third race
Rita-Kay on Carleigh next to us watching the race
Later in the evening, we had a New Year's Eve roast turkey and pulled pork dinner buffet at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club with Rita-Kay and Clay on Carleigh, William and Frances on Alexia, and Eric on Compass Rose (currently sailing alone while his wife is back in the states with an ailing fater.) We all decided that we had partied enough and were still feeling the after-effects of the Pirate Party two nights earlier, so we all went back to our boats at 9:30.
Bob and I watched the party on Times Square on one of the channels we still get (Fox News Channel). At midnight, Staniel Cay had a terrific fireworks display, on the beach right near our boat. Matter-of-fact, we had just about the best spot to watch them from. We then toasted with Champagne and went to bed about 1. The noise from the music at the Yacht Club continued until after 3 PM. I know that because it kept me awake.
Frances of Alexia, Rita-Kay off Carleigh, and me
A camera crew were at the party to interview people attending the Staniel Cay New Years Eve Party from Nassau. The show the interviews will be aired on is called "Native Show."
William and Frances on Alexia being interviewed
Rita-Kay on Carleigh being interviewed
Because we are expected another one of those pesky "fronts" with high winds coming through, Bob had us up at 6 AM to move the boat to Compass Cay Marina. Sampson Cay, a closer marina where we would be protected, was completely full. We had never been to Compass Cay, so we were looking forward to visiting the island.
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