Wow, what a great time! We left Salt Pond on Long Island on 4/15/2015 and had a wonderful sail over. We went to anchor near the Queen’s Dock and had a great evening with Bobby & Francie, Scott & Donna (Saltine) and another couple???? The next morning we motored over to Kidd Cove off of the settlement of George Town. Don’t get me wrong, George Town is bigger than s settlement but not as large as Nassau or Marsh Harbour. One of the nice things about George Town as I have mentioned before is the fact that Exuma Market provides free water to the cruisers. We had provisioned in Salt Pond as we like that store but were in need to a fill up in the water tanks, but what we really came for was the Regatta!!
On 4/18 was the “grudge match” between two Exuma favorites Tida Wave and Lady Muriel. What a race! Since it had no Regatta standing the crews asked for (and got) folks from the cruising fleet (people like us) to act as crew. Look closely at some of the photos and you will see what looks like (and are) 2 boards on the boats. These boards, called the “pry” actually will slide from port to starboard (left/right)depending on what tack the boat is on. People slide to the end of these boards to act as ballast (weight). You need to be agile to accomplish this! There are rules that you must come back with the same crew you left with and there are points against you for losing someone overboard…Here is a good shot of a pry:
They races always start at anchor with the sails furled so at the start they both must be raised, first photo. The next three show folks out on the pry. Tida Wave won.
The next couple of days saw the arrival of the racing boats. As the name implies, this is a national event and the boats come from the various islands & cays that make up the Bahamas. While the local boats will be sailed to George Town the majority of the boats come by boat. The mailboats will carry many vessels and a crane to load & unload them as well as step some of the masts. What do you think John, Bill & Jimmy? Some way to haul boats huh?
We found out that the ship below carried twenty-five boats plus the car. How’s that for a days work! Look at al those masts and many others needed them stepped.
While I took many photos of the boats being brought in & unloaded I think you get the idea! I mentioned that most of the islands are represented here they are each very proud of their home cays. Each has a banner, flag or something of that nature to show their pride, sort of like our state flags in the US.
Not all islands are here but you get the idea. We went for a dinghy ride late in the day while the boats were preparing for races the next day. The paint jobs on these boats is amazing. There are some very talented folks at work here.
Running Tide (class A) and Beerly Legal (class C) are Long Island boats and since we spend so much time there and have met the owners they of course were our favorites. The lime green boat hailed us over in the dink and Rob helped them rig the boom. Great fun!
The next post will be racing pictures. Don’t want to try to post this with too many photos.
