Sunday 18 March 2018

Winding down the season


February /March
The 5 F Festival [Farmer's First Friday in February Festival] was fun. We sat on the boat and watched the sloops race around us. There was a scary moment when a racing sloop caught the dinghy anchor of a  spectator and got pulled off the course. They lost places in the race and one sailor fell off the boat...they were only in 5 feet of water but he was lucky the boat didn't run over him!

Todd finally found a friend in Farmer's... there was a boat called Step-By-Step from Germany. It is owned by Anja and Andre Schulz, with their 12 yr-old-son, Robin. The boys played for hours on the beach and were inseparable for 3 days.

After the Festival weekend we headed down to George Town. We stopped at Musha Cay to see the underwater sculpture of the Piano and Mermaid. It was quite spectacular.  We, C-Soul, Step-by-Step, Beguiler  and a lot of other boats were hanging about there waiting for the wind to calm down. We ended up parked on the banks at Stocking Island for the night and the next day, we all headed down into George Town.
Once we were here, there was no hiding and it was two weeks of constant harassment and running to get everything done that was needed.  I ended up quitting because of a severe conflict with one of the chairman who did her best to undermine everything I tried to accomplish over the previous months, threatening me and swearing at me in public.  Didn't sign up for that!!
It's over tomorrow and although the weather has been not ideal, we've managed to get all the games completed with a great deal of fun.
Todd has done next to nothing for the last two weeks in terms of school but all these retired professionals keep saying, "don't worry about him -- he'll be fine." Except they don’t have to explain to his parents why he still can't do math!
For the first event, he was conscripted by to boaters to be their designated dinghy driver for the Poker Run and when they went to events where they would be drinking so they didn't have to worry about getting home! He had a blast...they had a faster dinghy. He has been helping set up the electric equipment for the events and worked on the "golf course" today. He played in the baseball game, the fun volleyball tournament and the bocce ball tournament. Tomorrow is beach golf and after his tee-time, he will help with the rest of the course.
Today is March 18. After the end of the regatta , we left for Long Island for the "Rum Run", organized by two former boaters. It was a great time...and a great relief from the rest of the stuff going on. We will stay here for a few days. Our friends here from Nova Scotia are heading home in 3 weeks. They organized this little party, but Al is leaving this morning to help take a 3-masted schooner up to the Abacos. Three of them will take 2 days to sail it up and then he will be back on Wednesday.
SO it's a very quiet, flat, peaceful Sunday morning and I'm sorry it took so long to get back to blogging.

 
Back in George Town

Making Conch horns

This ER doctor told us how to take car of ourselves on a boat -fascinating 3 hours

Dinner with friends at Chat nChill

Road trip down island so Todd could see salt ponds and Tropic of Cancer

Salt pond marker on Little Exuma

Music Festival in GT 

...where we SHOULD have had the Variety show

Tyrone's Sou'Side Bar in Salt Pond, Long Island

Pirate is friend Al and the wench is Susan his partner

Conch races!

15th century Spanish church

Hiking up to adderly plantation ruins at North end

Stella Maris cave where they hold dinners

Columbus monument at north end

View from Long Island looking north

Exploring caves

Final conch races at the Mutton Festival...on TV too!!

Final rocks at Cape Santa Maria

Sarah G. heading north

Nauticus at rest