Independence leaving the harbor.
The boats for the regatta come from many of the islands in the Bahamas. Some are towed to George Town, and the rest come by mail boat, the local supply ship for the islands. This photo is of one of the boats being unloaded from a mail boat.
Boat being unloaded.
A class from the local school came to watch one of the races in the grandstand.
We watched most of the regatta either from our dinghy by one of the marks in the race, from the grandstands in George Town, or from the top of our boat. Our friend Buzzy Rolle who is Captain of "Bul Reg," a C Class boat, and "Lady Sonia," a B Class boat, had his boats in the water and ready to go.
There are three races for each class. Bul Reg (this is Buzzy's father's name) won the first and third race in the C Class, but had a collision in the second race which cost him some points and he came in eighth overall. Here is Bul Reg at the start of the first race.
Bul Reg and other boats lining up for the start of the Class C race the first day.
Bul Reg after rounding the mark.
A smiling Buzzy after taking first place in the first C Class race
This is a new boat this year from Long Island called "It in't right" that came in 2nd overall. Another Long Island boat called "Beerly Legal" came in first overall for Class C boats.
This is a good photo showing the use of "prys" that the racers sit on to help balance the oversize sail.
Lady Sonia moving into position for the start of a B Class race. Lady Sonia came in 4th for the B Class
Staniel Cay had two Class A boats in the race this year. They are "Tida Wave" and "Lady Muriel." Both were anchored near us. The class A boats have about 14 people on board. This boat is 28 feet in length with a huge main sail.
This is Tida Wave heading over for the start of a Class A race.
Unfortunately, the two boats from Staniel Cay tangled with a third boat at one of the marks. It cost them some points in that race. We were in our dinghy with a front row seat for that tangle. Despite the tangle, Tida Wave came in 2nd overall in the Class A races.
A three boat tangle.
We met Rita-Kay and Clay for lunch at the Peace and Plenty Resort to watch one of the races in Elizabeth Harbor. It was a lovely day to do that.
Race as seen from Peace and Plenty
Rita-Kay and Clay at lunch at the Peace and Plenty
The race draws people from all over, including many larger mega-yachts that come from Nassau and Florida. Here is a sampling of some of the mega-yachts.
A rather sinister-looking silver-grey painted boat.
"Slumber Venture" is a slightly smaller version of "Hayfu" that we had seen and been given a tour of in George Town earlier in the season. These are large catamarans.
This is a Bahamian-owned mega-yacht owned by an owner of "Kalik" brand Bahamian Beer.
This photo is of Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island across Elizabeth Harbor from George Town. The bar is the famous "Chat n' Chill."
Alas, the Family Island Regatta is the “turn around” point for many of the cruisers traveling the Bahamas in the winter. This year we went farther south to Long Island and to some of the islands in the Jumentos (the Jumentos were new stops for us this year).
We had expected to travel back north with some of our friends and realized that we had to say goodbye to all at once in order to return back to the states quickly due to severe back pain I was experiencing. So we said our sad goodbyes for the year to all our friends in George Town – Carleigh, Cat’s Paw, Pirate, Oconee, Son of a Sailor, Side-by-Side, Liberty, Fur Elise, Cat Lady, Tonga Time, Different Drummer, and so many, many others. It is so hard to say goodbye at the end of the season and we did it a month earlier than we had planned. It was Sunday, the day after the end of the Family Island Regatta, and luckily a pretty nice day to cruise.
We cruised through Elizabeth Harbor to the North end, then followed along Great Exuma Island on the Bahama Sound side of the island until we got to Cave Cay Cut around noon and transferred through to the shallower Banks side of the Exuma chain of islands.
Our normal cruising speed is 7 knots, but the Captain sped up to 9 knots to get as far north as possible our first day. What would normally take us 5 days (at least) to cruise, the Captain was hoping to make in 3 to 4 days. Our goal the first night was to make Shroud, or Norman Cays, anchor just off the Northwest Channel the second night, and weather permitting, make it to West Palm Beach on Tuesday. So instead of taking time to say our goodbyes to each of the islands as we normally do, we instead ripped by them without stopping.
Crossing from Shroud Cay over to Nassau, we encountered a storm with 45 knot winds and driving rain. I was flat on my back in the Stateroom, while Bob had to stand at the controls for 4 hours. It was I think the roughest passing we have made. I know Bob would not have taken the chance if I had not been in such bad shape by that time that he needed to move us north as quickly as possible. When we arrived in Nassau, he pre-set the lines and hung them over the rails so the dock hands could just reach for them as he would be on top the boat and was unable to do any line-handling. We ended up in the ER in Nassau that night and the next night trying to get me stable enough to move and to wait for a good weather window to make the crossing over to the states.
View of the approaching storm from the pilot house
We made it safely back to the states and left the boat in Palm Coast, then rented a car and drove home in one day.
Sorry this was the only photo I took of one of the many beautiful homes along the ICW in Florida.
Bob hopes to go back to Florida and bring the boat the rest of the way back home in June.
I am happy to report that my back continues to improve, although slowly, each day. We are both looking forward to making this trip again next year and continuing to branch out to islands we have not yet visited in the Bahamas, re-uniting with old friends, and making new ones. Have a great summer y'all!
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