The Rigors of Regatta- It’s Like Work!

Regatta theme is "Cruisers Gone Wild!"

Registration for the many two weeks of events.

We won !

Monday of Regatta started with yoga on the beach, then helped with selling regatta wares while registration and sign-ups for the various activities took place.  Al was in charge of signing up for the few activities we were participating in, along with our other team mates for an activity or two. They also had drawings every so often and we won a one night stay at a marina in Fort Pierce, FL!

Helen steering the big catamaran.

                                                
After lunch we went on the catamaran Dejavu to the end
 of Elizabeth Harbor to Fowl Cay to snorkel.  There was quite a lot of vegetation on the coral beds such as fans and such, as well a nice variety of fish.  Unfortunately, I had not received my new underwater camera yet so did not get any pictures.  I would have loved to gotten the schools of Sergeant Majors we swam through.  

And the band played on!

Tuesday morning Al had conch horn practice for the opening night show which was in the evening.  The theme this year is “Cruisers Gone Wild.”  There were various short skits, a fiddler, singers, and guitarists.  And then there was the conch horn band and conch blowing contest.  Al would have won if it weren’t for some twenty-something guy who blew it for 40.6 seconds to Al’s 33 seconds.  Oh well, we can hope there aren’t any young guys next time.  Met up with many friends on the beach who came back for regatta and danced the night away.  It was a great opening night.

One day I tried “water walk” in the afternoon.  What that is, is walking in about 1 ½ ft. of water off the beach for a long way.  It is a great work out for the legs.  Unfortunately, too many other activities have come up and I haven’t had a chance to do it again.

Enjoying the Poker Run at Palm Bay

After yoga in the morning, we participated with about 45 other dinghies in the Poker Run.  That consisted of going to five different spots in the harbor, all restaurants/bars to pick a card from the deck before enjoying a drink or appetizer for a nominal fee or free at each place.  Then you rendezvous on volleyball beach to hand in your cards and the winners are the 3 best poker hands.  We had one pair, so no win for us.  Someone had a flush which was top prize.  It was fun meeting fellow cruisers at each spot and chatting awhile.  But it was a fairly windy day, so my back suffered a little from crossing the harbor twice in the bumpy waves.  Ibuprofen was taken that night!

We decided to take a break from regatta and rent a car with Prue and Bert on Exuberant to explore Great and Little Exuma.  We headed north to show them what is up there even though we had been there before, because they had not.   

This is the bed in the old man's cave.

  We showed them  the statue of Pompey,  the jail and cave that we had seen a few weeks before on our bus tour.  We did see three tombs from the 1800’s near Moss Town called the Hermitage which had not been on the tour.

Hermitage tombs.

                                                





 Then we headed south of George Town where we had never been before. 

The well-known Santana's Beach Grill

 We went down to Williams Town to have lunch at Santana’s, a great Bahamian style beach bar with excellent food.  The rave reviews on the internet were right on. 

Enjoying a drink and lunch at Santana

's

Mom at Mom's Bakery

 Next door was Mom’s Bakery.  She is famous on the island for her baked goods for years.  We actually met Mom and had to buy some goodies from her. 

Afterwards we went to the very end of the island that just ends in a tiny dock area.  

The Salt Marker

On the way north we stopped at the Salt Marker which was to guide the ships into the area so that salt from the salt ponds could be loaded and taken to Europe when a war was on and they could not get salt over there due to an embargo.  Unfortunately, once the war was over, basically so was the use of the salt ponds in the Bahamas.  On one side of the road were the salt ponds which had a brownish red color and foam from them blew across the road looking like snow.  On the other side of the road were the beautiful views of the sound.  

There were a few cotton plants nearby.

We saw the ruins of a plantation which had grown cotton and a huge tomb that looked like a big bed which could have been the one that theWilder's book Wind from the Carolinas was based on.  It is a great book to understand the Bahamian history and people and I recommend it. 

Strange tomb! What better final resting place than a bed!

Then a little further north we went to the beautiful Tropic of Cancer beach where the Tropic of Cancer passes through and where we heard that parts of the Johnny Depp movie Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. 

We headed back to George Town and completed the day buying some groceries and hauling some water to Blue Heaven.  Then at night we had the great experience of seeing the space station go right over the George Town area and harbor around 7PM at night.  It was amazing how fast it went and was quite a site to see!

The team for Coconut Challenge

Friday was the big day for our favorite regatta activity, the Coconut Challenge.  Al was on a team of four.  Tom from Suncat, and Steve and Maryann from Living Well made up the team. 

 The first part of the challenge is the committee dumps 1000 coconuts into a cove called the Fruit Bowl.  The contestants are in a dinghy with no propulsion except flippers and they must gather as many coconuts as they can.  It is over when all the coconuts have been collected.  Our guys did not do too badly with 69 coconuts but the largest amount collected by a team was 129! 

Look at the style for collecting!

69 coconuts collected!

The next event was where the team stands behind a line and tossed all at the same time, two coconuts over the volleyball net into a target area to earn various points.  Our guys and gal, whom we named “Three Roosters and a Chick”, did quite well. 

Look at the great form on the Coconut Toss

The results of the toss.

Then the last event was two people with helmets on their heads, who were Al and Tom, and a garbage bag between them stood at one end.  

Maryann was a great tosser!

 The other two on the team at the other end had a supply of coconuts. Steve handed the coconuts to Maryann who stood backwards and tossed them to Al and Tom to catch in the bag for a time of 30 seconds.  Maryann who was a physical education teacher was phenomenal, aiming almost right for the bag!  They got 16 coconuts in.

                                  

How did they do overall?  They were tied for first place, so had to do a target throw again and ended up in second place. 

Proud Al

 We were very pleased and so were all the winners!  The guys just had to pose with their flags!

!st, 2nd & 3rd place Coconut
Challenge Winners

So you can see, it is hard work having all this fun at regatta!  More to come later…..

Do we have fun or what?

Daily Happenings in George Town

Treasure Trail

Since coming back to George Town we have fallen into the “George Town” way of life.  What does that mean?  Well, we do the regular chores of grocery shopping, laundry and fueling up and filling up on water regularly usually before lunch.  Other mornings are spent doing yoga, walks on the various paths on Stocking Island, and walks on the beach. 

Interesting seed pod.

One such path called Treasure Trail led to such natural treasures of a seed pod I had never seen before,

Some kind of sandpipers

 little sandpipers (the exact king, I'm not sure) scurrying along the beach

Crashing waves on the sound side.

and the beautiful waves flowing in with such contrast of colors. 

What a rainbow!

 Another natural treasure was when we were treated to a beautiful rainbow after a light sprinkle with the sun out.

Curls

No curls!

 Another morning we got rid of Al’s curls when I gave him a ½” buzz cut. 

  Some mornings are spent on maintenance such as cleaning the floats in the holding tank.  (I am glad Al did that while I was at yoga!

Enjoying guitarist and fiddler on Volleyball beach.

Afternoons are often spent on Volleyball Beach although neither Al nor I do volleyball.  We enjoy the entertainment if people are jamming on the beach with their instruments and singing.  I enjoying making baskets or teaching a new cruiser how to get started making a basket.  Then there is always someone with whom you can find to just talk. 

Sunset from Hamburger Beach

They think big for their beacxh fires!

Late afternoons we often get together on our or another boat for happy hour, sometime playing games, other times just for great conversation and sharing information.  Twice a week there is a gathering at Big D’s on Hamburger beach for a jam session and bonfire.  This past week we were treated to another pretty sunset while there and you can see how they set up for the bonfire.  

Jewelery made from hamburger and heart bean.

Evenings are spent mostly reading for Al and rug hooking or doing jewelery for me.  Here is a necklace and bracelet made from a heart bean and hamburger beans found on the beaches.  They are pods that come in from Africa and other countries that end up on the beaches.  I found most of these down in the Ragged Islands.

Selling regatta items in George Town

Al and I volunteered to work the tee-shirt booth in town one morning for the sale of regatta tee-shirts and other regatta items.  It was right after several days of strong winds when many people could not get over to town.  That resulted in having the best day of sales they had this year with over $800 worth sold in 2 hours.  Regatta starts soon and so we will be even busier with activities to participate or just watch and be entertained.

So Much to Do, So Little Time!

We finally had to take a day and do some chores.  As Al spent the morning hauling water to fill the water tanks, I went grocery shopping and to the new meat market that is about 4-5 miles out of town.  They come in a pick-up truck and take you out and when everyone is done, they take you back.  The meats and fresh salads are wonderful.  It is not a typical Bahamian store which might be because the couple had lived in the USA.  She actually was from Carlisle, not too far from our Lancaster home.  He is Bahamian.  They have doubled their ordering in the month it has been open, so we hope it works for them when the cruisers are not so plentiful.  But it is a terrific addition to Georgetown. Look up Prime Island Meats & Deli when in town.

Al also got propane and I went to get internet at Eddie’s Edgewaters to have faster internet to do the last blog.  We moved the boat back across the harbor to Monument Beach. 

 Big D's

Late afternoon we went into Big D’s for a jam session and bonfire.   

Blair playing the bag pipes.

Irene on the left strumming.

Our friend, Blair, on Strathspey played the guitar and bagpipes.  He was a big hit.  When he played, a spectator got up and did a Scottish dance which was great!  We also had another talented friend, Irene, on Escapaid who strummed along with the rest of the musicians. 

 As they say, a good time was had by all!

Arleen speaks at "Art on the Beach" about rug hooking.

The next day I did a presentation about rug hooking on the beach to a small group of women.  It was during the “Art on the Beach” time.  After the presentation, men and women came to see my rugs and ask questions. 

Display of rugs and tools needed for rug hooking.

Afterwards, Sandy, from Anania gave me a badly needed trim.  We just sat on the beach and let the wind take the hair away. 

Then since it was Valentines Day, Al, Jim, Irene and I decided to take the dinghy over to Palm Court which is a resort on the other side of the harbor.  It was a nice place but still had the typical Bahamian food.  Take a look at Al’s burger!  I don’t know how he got his mouth around it.  It wasn’t all meat because there were jalapeños stuffed inside.  

Al ready to enjoy his jalapeno burger!

 Later that evening we went to Chat n’ Chill for a great Valentine’s Day Dance and danced the night away.  Oh what fun, with all those great oldies and line dances.

We came back to Kidd Cove with the boat so that we could do laundry and spend the

night since we had a historical tour of the northern part of the island the next day.  Since

we were here after lunch I convinced Al to let me go and shop the stores since I had not

had any time since we came to do so.  I found myself some wonderful belated Valentine

presents.  Thank you Al, you know just what to get me!  (Sorry about the spacing, could not seem to correct it.)

Air conditioned!  Not the usual school bus.

On Saturday we went on a bus tour to Rolleville
which is north of George Town.  Unfortunately it was the  locals 

Sandals Resort from afar.

first time doing this tour and they have much to learn.  Like for instance, we don’t just want things pointed out to us, but a little history about it and some facts and figures. They showed us the all inclusive Sandals resort from afar because no one can get in unless you had reservations.  Other than knowing it is the largest employer on the island they did not have any other information.

Pompey

Pompey ruins

We stopped at a statue of Pompey who was a slave who led a rebellion to do away with slavery in the eighteen hundreds.  He was found in Nassau and brought back to the jail which is part of the Pompey Ruins.  They actually used this building up to the 1960’s.

Exuma Point Beach Bar and Grille

Excellent lunch at Exuma Point Bar and Grille

Irene and Jim show the rest of us how it is done!

What was lacking in the tour was made up for in the meal served at Exuma Point at Rolleville  The meal was the best we have eaten in the Bahamas.  It had a lot of the typical foods but also some fresh vegetables and delicious red snapper fish.  
There was an excellent musician and singer who played for us as Jim and Irene danced to a few songs and they also had some drawings for door prizes as well. 

Al heading into the cave.

They had a tour to a cave down the beach from the restaurant by the landowner's son.  It was a cave right off the beach where an eccentric white man lived for 5 years.  He was found walking around George Town naked and so the authorities said he had to leave the area.  He somehow found the cave and asked the owner of the land if he could live there to which he agreed.  He built a wooden bed and covered one of the overhead holes in the cave with plexi glass to keep out rain and other debris.  He ate only the vegetables he grew on the land on top of the cave and honey.  

A photo of the landowner and the eccentric "Cave Man"

 Supposedly he had cases of honey stored further back in the cave. As I said, he was eccentric!   He left there in 2005 and returned to his wife in the states and died shortly afterwards.  He actually was a very wealthy man who just wanted to buck the establishment and live the way he wanted to live.  Quite a story!

George Clooney on our bus tour!

On the way back I asked if I could take a picture of someone on our tour.   Take a look ladies.  George Clooney?  Quite a look a like, but not the real George.  He said he has been asked to be a double for him though, does that count?

 It almost looks like he is smiling!

When we got back to the boat the dolphins were visiting the area again.  I have to show the one picture I got.  I never had gotten one with an eye in it and he looks like he is smiling!
We moved across the harbor to ride out the front that moved through that night and was expected to blow for the next few days.  We survived the 30 knot winds just fine, but one boat’s dinghy with a 15 horsepower engine came untied and has not been found.  That is like losing your car!  People have been out searching but with no luck.  Phone calls have been made to different businesses to make people aware of the situation. 


It was blowing 17-20 knots on Sunday so we only went to the beach off of our boat.  We hiked some trails and were surprised to find one we had never done before called Intrepid.  It certainly was a steep one and close to the edge of cliffs.  I guess that is why it is called what it is.   We spent the rest of the day on the boat due to the high winds. (Since my pocket “point and shoot” camera died, I find my larger camera too big to take on these trails, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures from the hike.)   One thing Al did was to remove our Bahamian flag that was a bit tattered from the wind to say the least!  That was only up since we arrived in the Bahamas December 12^th.

PS If you go to YouTube, and put in George Town Cruisers Conch Oom Pah Band, you might see someone you know.

Where did our Bahamian flag go?