|
|
So, pun intended, some days you just cant handle
it. The top shot shows two handles, the left one is the handle for lifting
the bow of the dinghy where we usually attach the painter and second
is the pull handle for the Honda generator which pulled off, making it
impossible to start. In a recent squall, the handle on the bow
pulled completely off the dinghy, you can see where it was.
On Tuesday, Lynn said the words I hate to hear, "George, you need
to look at this." The handle for starting the generator was laying on
the deck. This is not a good thing.
The repair, while still ongoing, is complex and time consuming.
George can be seen deep in the bowels of the generator trying to get
to the starter/recoil mechanism. |
|
|
Just when we are in the midst of misadventure, like
the generator wrestling match above, we are reminded how lucky we are.
Our neighbors, John & Marge, sent us pictures of our house in the
North Carolina snow this week. It was 68 degrees here this morning
and too cool to sit outside with our coffee. Gee, maybe by comparison
it was pretty warm. |
|
|
While we had the car for all the running around we had
to do, we took a lunch break at Big D's Conch Shack. Lynn is seen as
we arrive under the sign.
Big D himself is the conch man seen cleaning conch and those are
his hand dicing the fresh conch to make a delicious conch salad.
Sitting on the deck eating lunch we have beautiful beach views
complete with coconut palms.
George has a contented look on his face as he poses in the arbor on
our way out. Fresh conch and a couple of beers have that effect.. |
|
|
Our Valentines Day dinner was lobster, snow peas,
Lori's ginger carrots, and champagne. We do eat well on this boat.
Lynn makes fresh bread with a sourdough starter we got from
Grateful Attitudes. She has modified the recipe a bit and wanted a
picture to put in her recipe file. Looks good, eh? Believe me, it is. |
|
|
With over 200 boats in the harbor, they need a place
to tie up when they go to town. There is a dinghy dock supplied by
Exuma Markets. The cruisers have erected a Welcome to the Exumas sign.
George can be seen walking up the dinghy dock toward shore.
Exuma Markets also has a Wi-Fi signal available so here we see the
George Town equivalent of an internet cafe, a picnic table and a
couple of umbrellas. |
|
|
The caution sign says it all. These wild and crazy
senior citizens are kicking up their heels. The fleet even has a
resident disc jockey, Rockin Ron aboard Sea Dancer. We made our
Gulf Stream crossing in company with them this year.
It's hard to tell from a still photo but some of these folks are
boogying down!
Ron's wife Cool Karen is the co-host of the open air disco. Cool
shades, eh?
This was the delayed Valentine dance which was moved to accommodate
severe weather last weekend. |
|
|
For two seasons boats that anchored in the "Red
Shanks" area near Crab Cay could not take the short route into George
Town because of bridge construction for the Crab Cay development. It
is finally done and it is actually very attractive. After his
exercise Toby carries his toy to assist in the bridge recon mission.
The sign gives the restrictions, but the nice thing is that there is
plenty of room for a reasonably sized center cockpit fishing boat. |
|
|
The tide was right for a meeting of the Red Shanks
Yacht and Tennis Club on the club beach. The anchorage didn't have a
lot of boats so turn out was fairly light. The fun was still great. |
|
|
Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning,
sailor take warning. This is morning at Red Shanks and there was a serious frontal
system moving in. |
|
|
Our haul our was well timed with the weather. After a
little initial confusion, the yard crew did a good job of squeezing us
into the lift. We were on the hard early and George completed the work on the bottom before the weather system moved in. Monday
night was windy and wet but the glue was curing away.
On Tuesday the weather was blustery in the morning but cleared by
noon and was great by our 3:00 pm launch time.
One of the yard workers used his break time to fish with cast net
for bait. The bait fish were small and his net had a comparatively
large weave so most of the fish got through the net. |
|
|
We moved back to our mooring at Stocking Island Hole
#2 Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday morning crossed the harbor
for volunteer duty selling T shirts. |
|
|
Yuck! George silently expresses his enjoyment of
rebuilding the pump on the head. |
|
|
Reading our web you might think that we are
preoccupied with weather. Well, if you want to be comfortable on a
boat, especially if off shore, you get that way. We often mention
Chris Parker, referring to him as a weather guru. Usually he attends
at least part of the George Town Cruising Regatta and gives a seminar
on weather and or off shore communications.
These photos are of Chris doing his presentation and it is obvious
from the crowd size that we are not alone in our preoccupation. |
|
|
The official start of Regatta activities is opening
night and that begins with a pet parade. Due to Toby's bad habit of
wanting to fight any male dog we normally don't let him
participate. This year we made some special arrangements to keep him
segregated and to go last. The theme was Under the Sea, Las Vegas
Style. Since he is always in his "tux" he just wore bow tide of
aquatic colors. Most of the other dogs had elaborate costumes except
for one poor schnauzer who was died blue. Toby should feel lucky we
didn't subject him to that sort of indignity. The middle photo is
courtesy of Seas The Day who took many more good pictures of
the pet parade than we did. See their blog at
http://seasthedaynow.com/Seas_The_Day/S_V_Seas_the_Day.html
The lower image, courtesy of Aires Two is a composit Photo Shop
project showing all the dogs and the chicken puppet that were in the
parade. This is a really nice job of editing. |
|
|
Regatta has shows both on opening and closing. The
opening night is called the "No Talent Show" but aside from the gag
acts there are some that are extremely entertaining, It draws a large
crowd under the casuarina trees. One group did a great song about
regatta done to the tune of Drunken Sailor.
The closing act was a lip sync and dance to Abba songs. |
|
|
A lot of very lucky kids are here each year. sometimes
you don't realize they're around until you look up in the trees. They
are invariably smart, well behaved, and mature beyond their years,
while still being very much kids. They also put on a skit in the
opening night show that is always one of the best. |
|
|
Lynn and I signed up for Bocce Ball. I was eliminated
in the first round, and despite Lynn's beautiful form, she lasted only
one round longer. Her team, at least, lost to the team that were the
eventual champions. |
|
|
During Regatta, lots of boats are decked out with
flags. While we have a full set of signaling flags, we only put up a
few. The top flag in the photo is the Bahamian courtesy flag which
indicates we have cleared in and are in the country legally. Below
that from top to bottom are our Fairfield Harbour Yacht Club nurgee,
the Seven Seas Cruising Association burgee, the North Carolina state
flag, and the New Bern flag.
Of course, flying off our stern is Old Glory indicating our country
of registry. |
|
|
We had a "date night" at the
Peace and Plenty where we
enjoyed their Bahamian barbecue Friday night. A friend snapped this
shot for us. |
|
|
The St. Francis Resort hosts many Regatta activities.
These two young ladies are the pleasant wait staff. Our Trivial
Pursuit team, Doug and Pat from Beltane and us. |
|
|
Beach golf is a blast and we really have fun. You play
the 9 holes with only one club. I used a 9 and Lynn a 7 iron. You can
tee up every shot and the "hole" is often a bucket, a box, a life
ring, or even just a large circle in the sand. Lynn had a
frustrating round but won the "Perseverance Award." It was worth a
bottle of rum and a Regatta burgee. |
|
|
We wish one of our artistic friends had been visiting
with us so we could participate in the sand sculpture contest. This
was the 30th Regatta and the theme was Under the Sea Las
Vegas Style so the sculptures followed those ideas.
The teams had only about an hour to produce their sculptures. |
|
|
A new event this year was conceived by some of the
young people among the cruising families. A home made boat race. There
were some very innovative designs and there were awards for
appearance, beam reach race, and down wind race. They used water
bottles, foam, wood, plastic, CDs and all sorts of things found on
boats to build them. The young man who used all natural materials to
produce his Kon Tiki style raft won the appearance award. |
|
|
We rented a car on March 17 (George's
birthday) and toured the southern end of the island. We had previously
done the north end another year. One of the first things we wanted
to see was "Dean's Blue Hole" where the international free diving
championships are held. It is reputed to be the deepest blue hole in
the world but we don't know what authority claims that. I tried
piecing together three photos into a panorama. Not perfect but fun.
We stopped for lunch at Rowdy Boys in Clarence Town. It is new
since we were there a few years ago. We posed for pictures on the deck
after dining.
We wanted to stop at the Goat Pond Bar but it was closed :-)
According to the signs, the sell Sands and Strong Back Stout, both
brewed in the Bahamas.
The mail boat was in Clarence Town and Lynn's photo does a good job
of capturing this weekly event. Nearly everything on the island comes
in by mail boat.
We drove all the way to the south end where the road ends at a
beach. We met a Canadian couple there who were also out exploring and
they took our picture.
The were also three Bahamian ladies there who consented to having
the photo taken.
The rent car had a KEEP LEFT sign on the windshield to remind us
Yanks not to drive on the wrong side. It was humorous when we were on
a dirt track to Little Harbor because there was no left side of the
road, just two ruts.
Toby, of course, went with us and was most patient except when we
stopped at beaches. He assumes the goal of any beach stop is to run
and swim. |
|
|
Lynn took this shot during a great
sailing day between Long Island and Cat Island, It shows the leach of
our main sail and some burgees. |
|
|
We had dinner at the elegant Blue Bird Cafe in
New Bite, Long Island. Lynn does her Vanna White impression showing
off the sign.
The photo of Sunspot Baby was taken from the Blue Bird shortly
after sunset. |
|
|
The entry to Hawks Nest Marina is a creek that opens
right into the open sea and the drop off is right there. Rocks on one
side, reef on the other leaves no tolerance for being off the line.
An osprey has a nest near the fuel dock. I wonder if that is why they
named it Hawks Nest. If so, they should know the osprey is technically
an eagle.
One reason we like Hawksnest is the availability of Wi-Fi but this
year it was reduced. First it went down in the marina and we had to
bike up to the resort to use it. Lynn is unsure of herself on the bike
so George carries both computers.
Then, it went down at the resort and we had no Skype so we ended up
using the pay phone for some important phone calls. We see Lynn at the
phone booth near the marina talking to her Mom.
A local Baptist minister augments his income and church collections by
selling fresh produce from his truck in the evenings. He comes by the
marina a couple of times per week and we always buy some. It is always
good and of course we pay a little extra for the collection plate. |
|
|
George is usually at the helm but Lynn frequently
spells him and he takes a break. Toby usually takes the opportunity to
get some attention from the "Big Dog." On this day we were motoring
along the drop offs and depth contours trying to maximize the chances
of catching fish. Still no luck. When we got to Little San Salvador,
the Holland America cruise ship Noordam was there with hoards of
people on the beach so we had to anchor away from all the activity.
Once they left we moved to a more protected spot.
|
|
|
Rock Sound is a large and apparently open body of
water but it has many hidden sand bars and reefs to snag the unwary
boater. This obelisk is one of the very few visible references above
the water to guide the unfamiliar. |
|
|
The village of Rock Sound is varied. There are a lot
of lovely sites and an amazing number of seemingly abandoned buildings
and houses. We wondered if maybe some of it was due to hurricanes but
we did not ask locals. We were concerned that it would seem critical.
Throughout the Bahamas, one sees more churches than bars. This lovely
church was on the waterfront near our anchorage.
The pink house with all the bougainvilleas caught Lynn's eye.
We have said many times, the nicest thing about the Bahamas is the
people. The nice ladies, waiting on a ride, let us take their picture. |
|
|
We left Rock Sound before sunrise and so were in open
water when it did come up. Shafts of light through the clouds were
dramatic but hard to catch with the camera. |
