Long Island back to George Town

After a couple of weeks in Long Island, it was time to move north to George Town. I had planned to paint the names on three of the Bahamian sloops owned and raced by Buzzie Rolle. He is one of the few master boat builders of Bahamian sloops that are raced at islands all around the islands. The Family Island Regatta in George Town is April 20-24. We attended this for the first time last year and found it to be a boatload of fun, thus a “not to miss” this year in our travels.

 

This is a decorative canoe in front of the Long Island Breeze where boaters leave items with their boat names on them.

 

Here is the sign I made and left for the "Pretty Penny"

 

Our last sunset in Long Island for the year

There was a great day to cross to George Town on Friday, so we loaded the dinghy onto the boat and pulled up anchor. Two other boats, Cat’s Paw and Son of a Sailor, crossed with us. As it turned out, several of our boating friends that were north of George Town, decided to travel south to attend the regatta also. Those boats included Pirate, Oconee, and Carleigh.

 

Son of a Sailor crossing with us (Dennis is at the helm)

 

Cat's Paw underway


We chose a protected anchorage called Red Shanks that is a short dinghy ride in mostly protected waters into George Town as we had heard winds were coming. After we settled in to our calm anchorage, we cleaned up and headed in to George Town to meet up with all our friends at the Peace and Plenty Restaurant and Poolside Bar for Happy Hour and a barbecue by the pool. It was so great to catch up with Oconee and Carleigh that had stayed north for the last couple of months while we were farther south.

 

Our reunion and get-together at the Peace and Plenty Restaurant

 

Sunset over Victoria Lake and the dinghy dock in George Town from the bridge over the entrance to the lake

Carleigh decided to move into Red Shanks with us for three days and we enjoyed their company, as well as the Mike and Jan on Cat Lady, (a couple that hail from the Northern Neck of Virginia near us back home). Rita-Kay and I spent a couple of afternoons lying on our floats tied to the boat while watching out for porpoises, nurse sharks, and rays.

We finally ventured out to Kidd Cove where we were closer to George Town and did laundry, got my haircut, and did some grocery shopping. We actually moved a day too soon and found that this anchorage was still rolling quite a bit.
We also met up with Kevin and Elise on Fur Elise, a couple that we had met in Elizabeth City and had dinner with in Beaufort, NC on our trip south on the ICW. They had not crossed over till January and then had also spent time in the northern Bahamas islands before moving south.

 

Rita-Kay and I floating behind the boat enjoying the afternoon

Bob went to check on the status of Buzzie’s boats on Thursday and found that he had found a Bahamian to do the painting. He was afraid that we would not be able to make it in due to the high winds to do the painting. I took the news with mixed emotions as I enjoyed doing the painting last year, but my back has been bothering me and it would have been a strain to do the work.

 

Carleigh preparing to leave Red Shanks anchorage (notice how calm it was there, even with winds of 20 knots

We moved on Friday into Kidd Cove and went in to George Town to do laundry, buy groceries, have lunch at Peace and Plenty with Clay and Rita-Kay, and for me to get a haircut. Things are really starting to jump in town in preparation for the regatta. Some of the racing boats have started to arrive from other islands, the food shacks are starting to go up, and women are getting hair extensions at the beauty shop and getting their nails done for the big party next Saturday night.

 

"Sweet Island Gal" that has arrived from Long Island for the regatta along with two other boats from Andros

 

Thunderbird was from Andros -both of these boats had very colorful paint jobs