George Town Regatta race week

Well here it is May 3rd and we survived the George Town Family Island Regatta. Its a week long event that consist of racing, food, music, and drinking. I think some of the people put more energy into the music and drinking part of it than the racing. Boats come from all of the Bahamas and are designed in the style of the old Bahamian skiffs. Here are the skiffs coming into the harbor on the ferry. Photo compliments of Irina on Auriga

The boats line up and set anchor waiting on the race to begin and when the gun is fired they must pull anchor and sail away. On some of the boats they allow the cruisers to become part of the crew depending on how much ballast they need due to the wind.

Here is Tida Wave that won overall in the A class with one of our cruiser friends on board

Here is the sailing skiff Anna Nicole from Freeport. She most of the time came in last but the crew had fun.

Almost a tangle of boats
On the days we watched there wasn't so much wind and still there were about 11 people on board.

In town the folks built what are called shacks all along the water front the week before. I think if you had enough liquor in your home you could bring it out and call it a bar. The typical Bahamian food of peas and rice, mac and cheese, jerk pork and chicken were easily had and were all very good
Conch fritters and Kalik beer, yum
We did go and walk the shacks sampling the fare and while out walking a friend of ours spotted two celebrities. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell were walking down the street checking things out for themselves. Dirk told me to get a pic of him as he walked by Goldie but instead I walked up and asked her if she would mind having a pic taken with him. Thanks Goldie. Dirk with Goldie Hawn. My hubby looks like a happy camper

On the 29th Dirks mom was due to fly in from Germany and arrive at 8:30 that night. We had the taxi pick us up at the market and traveled the 15 or 20 minutes out to airport just for them to tell us the flight from Miami had been cancelled due to weather. Apparently there were several bad storms along the east coast there and no planes were flying in or out. After a 60.00 taxi ride we headed back to the boat to try and get in touch with the airlines to find out when his mom would be arriving the next day, where she was and where she would be staying. We missed a call from his mom saying all the hotels were booked so her and many others were left to sleep on benches and floors till the next day. After a 24 hour flight from Germany I'm sure the last thing she was excited about was sleeping on a bench. Perhaps I would leave it up to Dirk alone to pick his mom up the next morning as we knew she wasn't a happy camper. The next morning she phoned to let us know her flight and she seemed to be in better spirits so we again got the 60.00 round trip to the airport and picked up a tired but grateful to be here mom. Mom in pink waving and happy to be here.
We took her downtown to watch a race and feed her then it was off to the boat to get her settled in.

Thanks goes out to Big Toot for the use of their big dinghy so we could get mom back without getting too wet. As usual she came bearing gifts and goodies of all the wonderful sweets Dirk and I both love.

Ummmmm........She even brought her grand kitty some treats. We spent the evening catching up and letting her take her first dip in the water and planted a nice drink in her hands.Soon after she was ready for bed and fell into bed at 8pm. After getting a good nights sleep we spent the next day catching up and took her on a hike up to the monument for a glimpse of the view and then over to the beach side for a nice long walk.

Tybee Time on the left with our friends on The Abby sailing out of the harbour and our friends boat Big Toot the trawler.

We ended up at the Sand Bar which is a little shack on the beach that serves some very good Bahama Mama drinks.I noticed while Alvin was filling the glasses with the liquor, Dirk stepped between his mom and the bar as he didn't want her to see just how much was going in. Boy, I am here to say the man does not skimp on his drink and after only one we were all put into a smiling mood. We then headed over to St. Frances resort where we usually play poker several times a week and ordered up some lunch along with a nice rum and pineapple drink. Like we needed it, but hey, Anke's on holiday. After lunch we headed to Volley Ball Beach and sat around talking while Dirk played a little volley ball. Boy, you can really tell that cruising season is just about over. Where once there were 9 players on each team there were only 4 or 5. So many folks have gone and so we think it is time for us also. On Monday the 2nd we decided it was time to head north so we pulled the anchor and headed to Emerald Bay Marina where we had stopped on the way down. We have stories to tell but alas that story will have to wait until the next blog.