George Town and the Cruiser's Regatta

I have to apologize this year for the lack of postings. We have really had difficulty. First both computers died and we had a new one shipped over to us, then Internet services formally available to us in convenient locations, no longer exists. We have an air card (the Bahamas just got them last year), but they are only 3 G and are so overloaded that even reading email is exasperating. Prior to this year, we had seen improvements to Internet every year. Next year the out islands are to all get a 4 G system and we hope that greatly improves accessibility to the Internet.

We've been enjoying George Town and the Cruiser's Regatta. This year we participated in the Texas Hold'em Tournament and I displayed my jewelry at the Arts and Crafts Show. Although we do not race in the regatta since we are not a sailboat, we did enjoy watching the boats in the "in-harbor" race. We didn't go over to the beach side of Stocking Island to watch the around Stocking Island race, but did listen to the coverage on the VHF radio. Our friends on Glory Days, Fran and Laurie from Canada (a beautiful sailing cat he built himself) won for the catamaran class. Friends Len and Isabel on Nocturne won for the monohull class.

Each year this is a pet parade and Jim and Janie decided to take Max in the show and I took Polly, all batteries fully charged up. They do a great act where they dance together. Max does not know that Polly is fake. Well, apparently, interference from the microphone interfered with the electronics of Polly's controller, so there I stood with a stupid parrot doing nothing on stage! Polly did get a participant ribbon as did all the pets.

We had a really long and rough period of high winds (to 40 knots) for some of the regatta. We ended up moving to a very protected anchorage with 6 other boats, including Carleigh to ride it out. We could easily get off the boat and get together with the other boaters in the anchorage, going in for groceries, however, was a very proposition.

It turned out that all the women in the anchorage made jewelry of some type. Most of them liked to work with natural elements like shells and beads. One afternoon we had a jewelry-making session on our boat and all went away with some new idea to use. We also had a happy hour on our boat one evening. I think that is about the most people we have had on the boat at any one time. It was a great time with Cookie Monster, Riff Raff, Carina, Kahana, Tortuga, and Carleigh.

Jim and Janie on Pirate took us along with Rita-Kay and Clay on Carleigh and Francie and Bob on Barefootin' over to a newly re-opened restaurant and bar that is part of Exuma Docking (now Exuma Yacht Club) in their large dinghy across Elizabeth Harbor.

 

Rita-Kay and Clay enjoying our ride across the harbor.

 

All of us enjoying our night out "bar hopping" in George Town.

 

Janie dancing with the local disc jockey.

One day Janie on Pirate, Francie on Barefootin', Betsy on Smiles, and I went shelling on the outside of Stocking Island. This area is good for small lovely shells perfect for making jewelry or decorating items.

 

Francie shelling.

Every year we bring boxes of excess school books provided by schools in the Vero Beach area that are boxed up by the Seven Seas Cruising Association, Bahamas Project. This year all our boxes were for George Town schools, so we had them all on the boat a little longer this year. We had 20 boxes to deliver this year.

 

Me waiting with the books for the school children to come to the docks and retrieve the boxes of books.

One night the cruisers had a happy hour and campfire with music on the beach provided by musical cruisers. It was a great time and we really enjoyed the wonderful music.

 

All the musicians

 

Janie and Jim from Pirate and Bob on the beach enjoying the musical evening.