2018 National Family Island Regatta

The National Family Island Regatta was once again a fantastic time.  Over the years we have watched many races.  From local sailing clubs to Volvo & Velux Round the World/Ocean Races.  All of these folks spend thousands & thousands of dollars to be sure that they have the very finest & newest in equipment & apparel.  Not so with the Bahamian sloops.  The boats and the sails must be made in the Bahamas, the boat must be Bahamian owned (majority) and only in the last few years have newer fabrics been allowed for sails.  All boats are traditionally rigged, and best of all.....

THESE GUYS CAN SAIL!

Those who know us realize that we spend a great deal of time on Long Island in the southern Bahamas and this year the winner of the Prime Ministers Cup along with being the overall Class A champions was Long Islands own RUNNING TIDE!

These boats are brought over on the mail boats from all over the Bahamas, and watching the unloading is always an experience.

 

 

 

There are Class A, B, C, D & E boats with Class A being the largest with mainly younger folk on the D & E classes.  Teach them the love of sailing while they are young!

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

Dream Girl was a crowd favorite as it had a mostly female crew, 1 man!

The Regatta is a multi-day event with Cup races on Wednesday & points races on Thursday, Friday & Saturday.  Let the races begin!

Class C - second appearance in the NFIR is Xena - a Long Island boat who did very well overall.

The race begins with both the anchor and the sails down.  Lots are drawn during the Captains Meeting to determine places on the starting line and your first tack must be to port unless you draw the number one place.

Susan Chase, another Long Island boat also did very well!  We actually met Susan a few years back.  What a lady!

 

 

 

I realize that I could go on & on about what a great time this was, but the photos show it best!

We were also lucky to be able to go t=with our friends Mike & Dawn on their boat to see the Class A races!

 

 

 

During the first day of racing for the various Cup Races there was an odd experience at the finish of the Class A race.  Ruff Justice (Long Island) had a large lead over Running Tide (Long Island) and it appeared that Ruff Justice was going to win.  Well, look what happened!

 

 

 

As a side thought, we also had a wonderful dolphin experience!

 

As a parting thought!...... Teach your children to love sailing and they will never have money for drugs!

 

On the way back to the US and wanted to post this while we still had internet.  Bye for now.

 



April 2018

Early April brought us into Kidd Cove in George Town.  This is very convenient for filling the jerry cans with water, grocery shopping and such.  After filling up with water & groceries we decided to head to the Ragged (Jumentos)  Islands.  Early on the morning of the 11th we were underway to Water Cay.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect winds so off we went.  Cell coverage is very good in the Bahamas and we have better internet here than with Verizon in the US.  The phone rang while we were underway and it was charging in the galley.  I walked over to answer it and my feet got wet!  Not a good thing to have water inside the boat..... It turned out to be fresh water (good news) but as there is no place to get water down Ragged Island way, and since we were not really sure what was causing the tank to leak, prudence (our crew & constant companion) dictated that we turn around & fix the problem before any more adventures.

It was a quick fix as it turned out.  The silicon seal on top of the access port of the tank and failed.  We were heeled quite nicely so the water was flowing out of it.  Fixed and refilled we needed to decide what to do.  There was yet another front coming that was forecast to be nasty so we moved across the harbor to just off Chat N Chill on Stocking Island.  The front turned out to be an non-issue, but we made a trip to Lumina Point for lunch one day & were glad we did!

They are new, only a year or two old, they're eco-friendly, lots of solar & wind power and the food was fantastic & prices reasonable.  The bar was some sort of concrete with bands of conch shell inlaid.

 

 

 

 

 

Their own garden, conch stand, water sports and beautiful villas!

They were completely booked so we were not able to tour a villa but we met some folks staying there and they were very pleased.  LuminaPoint.com!

Of course we made the obligatory trip to Chat-N-Chill where we met a really nice family on Stray Cat.

 
 
 

 

The Bahamian Police boat came by and at first we thought Stray Cat was being boarded....It seems they took the wife & kids for a ride in their go fast boat!  The kids had a blast!

 

 

 

By this time we were getting bored the George Town and decided to head back to Long Island as the winds were not good for sailing to Cat and the Raggeds were too far to go and be back for Family Island Regatta.  We pulled anchor early and were surprised to see a mail boat coming up behind us.  Remember, everything is shipped in & around the Bahamas so this is a common site.

 

It turned out to be a glorious sail where we were holding 7+knots.  Those who know us know that we are the slow boat so that was fast for us.

We had a wonderful time on Long Island including a girls day with the Mermaid Mix!  We want to get back to GT before the Family Island Regatta starts so we can find an anchor spot back in Kidd Cove.  We like being a short dink ride from the start and the festivities on shore are always fun.  The 21st finds us back underway and maybe we can catch some Barry (barracuda) for our new friend Gregory back in George Town. He said he would take all we can catch & will barter veggies for them! 

The next posting will be the Family Island Regatta.

Later