Sailing Regatta – Two Ways

Old School

In early February, we made our way to Little Farmer’s Cay for the popular 5F (Farmer’s First Friday in February Festival).  The festival organizers put together a lot of activities for the kids – scavenger hunt, 3-legged race, hermit crab races – and there were plenty of little people to compete and engage in the fun.  The big draw of the festival, though, was the Class B sloop regatta.  For two days, the sleepy runway was buzzing with small planes delivering crew and spectators to the regatta site while live bands provided entertainment between races.  These beautiful traditional Bahamian sloops are handmade by local boatwrights and look like giant birds swooping low across the water.  Conditions were very windy and gusty.  In fact, the races were postponed for a day to give the weather time to settle down.  Nonetheless, there were some capsizes and at least one collision as the teams tried to negotiate the big winds.  The George Town boat, the favorite, won 2 of the 3 races, and was the champion for the second year in a row. 

Note the boards for hiking out (photo credit Bernie)

Hiking out (photo credit Bernie)

Ocean Cabin was the hub for activities - loved the "hours"

Fresh conch salad to order

New School

This past week marked our second year participating in the George Town Cruiser’s Regatta.  We entered our boat in the big boat races and had two fabulous days of sailing with friends.  The wind over the course of the week was either non-existent or windy.  Fortunately, both race days had plenty of wind.  The Around-the-Harbor race got a little crazy with some of the mono-hulls carrying too much sail for the conditions, and many of the boats experiencing equipment failures.  Dream Catcher blew a jib sheet block as we tacked to the windward finish line, and I watched nervously as the coach top flexed under our jury-rigged “quick fix.”  We were near the end of the race so we didn’t stress the boat for too long, and a more permanent fix was in place by the time we were settling back into our anchorage. 

Bernie - Chief Tactician

Wendy the Winch Wench

Two days later, the Around-Stocking-Island race was also very windy and we exited the north entrance into confused seas.  Our first thought was that the conditions were just about perfect for catching a Mahi!  Up came the frozen Ballyhoo and the fishing rod and out went the line for trolling.  Unfortunately, our speed was probably too fast and our time outside the harbor too short to realistically catch anything.  Nonetheless, it made us feel good to think the race was serving double duty. 

Patrick and Tim, our Montreal crew

Pendragon, tearing up the course

Multihull fleet

The big boat racing was just a small part of the week long regatta, though, and not even the featured event!  Activities ranged from the skilled (e.g., sailing dinghy racing, pétanque, beach volleyball) to the ridiculous (e.g., blind row racing, downwind dinghy racing, model boat racing).  The emphasis was most definitely on fun as evidenced by the fact that all members of the winning team for the coconut challenge (don’t ask) received bottles of rum while only the winning skipper of the big boat race received a bottle of rum (can you say "mutiny"?)! 

 

Every day is kids' day! (Ally, Jeanette, and Lily)

There was a dedicated kids day, too, with face-painting, wacky relays, egg toss, and tug of war events.  For the cruiser kids, though, every day is a fun day as they swim from boat to boat, go on beach hikes, play on water trampolines, have doll parties, movie nights, etc. 

Jeanette and Ally go exotic

Bella Ella - Nyad princess

Jack Sparrow pays a visit to kids' day

Ken and Bernie sport their pirate looks

Coleen and Jeanette

Tug of war - boys

Tug of war - girls (So many kids here!)

With the end of “the season” coming up fast and boats now standing by for weather windows to move south, there is a sense of urgency as we try to squeeze every last drop out of the fun we’ve all had together.   Our time here is now measured in weeks and after one more jaunt to The Raggeds, we’ll be looking to begin making our way slowly north.  In the meantime, though, we have not yet tired of the sparkling water, the spectacular sunsets, and the dazzling night sky. 

"Double" sunset

Double rainbow