Long Island, Bahamas

Mar 10, Sat. George Town To Long Island, Thompson Bay with Tempest and Sanderling - Beach Sundowners upon arrival.  We saw a Hinckley Bermuda 40, Aquarelle, on the way into the beach, but no one was aboard.  Next day we approached Aquarelle and as soon as Barb said we were from Jupiter’s Smile Bruce said, “You are Betsy’s brother and sister-in-law, Jay and Barb.”  Well that was a quick introduction!  Next day we took a hike to the east side of the island and walked the beach anticipating that the following day we would be boat bound due to high winds.  After the wind event (no problem), we moved the boat to Salt Pond near the Government Dock and Long Island Breeze, the local cruisers haven.

The supply boat at the Govt. Dock near the Long Island Breeze  Resort

A stormy day at Salt Pond anchorage

Liam and Annie arrived on Gone With The Wind and came over for sundowners.  Liam said that he wanted to have lunch at Chez Pierre’s some several miles to the north and we decided to do that the next day.

Jay, Annie, Liam and Barb at Chez Pierre's

Pasta with scallops - YUMMY!!!!!!

Pierre gave us a lift back to the main road to hitch back to Salt Pond with the first car.

Mar 17, Sat We attended a free diving seminar given by Brian from S/V Puff representing Vertical Blue, a free diving school located on Long Island.  Barb and I learned how to breathe and then hold our breaths better.  Traveling in the same direction is Nila Girl with a young couple aboard.  Ashley is a world class free diver and is headed for an international competition in Grand Cayman this Spring.  We first met her in George Town and again here in Long Island, where the deepest blue hole in the world is located.  She trained there for several days reaching a depth of 65 meters.  


Jay had organized cruisers who utilized a bus sent by the Department of Agriculture to pick up passengers and bring us to the Mutton Fest in Clarence Town several miles South of Salt Pond.  

We arrived at the festival grounds at about 2 PM, hungry and ready for mutton stew and all the fixin’s.  We strolled  the various booths displaying handicrafts, food stuffs and jewelry.  

Sea shell art

The sea shell artist


We attended a seminar on the dangers, capture and preparation of venemous lionfish for eating.  

Fileting a lionfish with Kevlar gloves

A woodcarver

Livestock

The farmer was very proud of these goats

High school competitive chefs

Barb with Bruce and Gail from Aquarelle at the Mutton Fest

Mr Knowles gets an award for a lifetime of farmin

We took a break and walked the beach at Clarence Town

The band strikes up a "rake and scrape" session

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Mr. Knowles dances with a cruiser.  He really enjoyed his day.

The conch cleaning contest

The grouper cleaning contest

Anita, the headliner begins her show

In the afternoon, while we were away at the Mutton Fest, the cruiser’s rally from George Town (in which Dan and Cathy on Sea Star were participating) arrived and anchored in Thompson Bay.  

Mar 18, Sun  We went to the rally lunch buffet at Trifina’s restaurant and reunited with George Town cruising friends.  

This is Trifina's place

Cruisers rally luncheon

On Monday evening we went to the rally awards and dance party at the Long Island Breeze Resort and we got to congratulate Dan and Cathy on their first in class award.  The next day, Jay went to the top of the mast on the catamaran, Miou to install a new radio antenna for Dave, a single hander.

Our George Town Regatta results

2 PM Friday, Mar 9

I mentioned that Barb and I sailed in the two "Big Boat" races in the regatta's catamaran class aboard Liam and Annie's 52 foot Australian Catamaran Gone With The Wind 

S/V Gone With The Wind, Sydney, Australia

along with fellow Australians Phil and Karol from Tahani Lee. 

Annie, Karol, Phil, Liam, Barb and Jay

The first race was the In-Harbor Race, a triangular course of about 8 miles that was sailed twice around.  Liam brilliantly positioned us to be first across the line at the start, but in the tacking duel to the first mark we were pinched out so that we had to make a tack to follow two other boats right at the mark, missing hitting Liam and Annie's friends, Bruce and Toni on Remi De, by a few feet.  We were passed by a few other boats on the downwind run,

Photo from Remi De, presently in first place, has Glory Days, Los Gatos, Gone With The Wind (us) and Windsong in pursuit. 

view from Gone With The Wind

but made up some distance on the third leg.  We made some good tactical decisions on the final circuit, rounded the last mark and crossed the finish line third.  We do not know the final results yet because a handicap is applied to the boats based on some mystical formulae that rates the relative speeds of the boats covering a nautical mile.  Liam thinks the first place finisher, Glory Days, has a rating of 75 while Gone With The Wind and Remi De both were rated at 60.  That means that Remi De certainly placed ahead of us because they crossed the finish line 2nd behind Glory Days, the clear winner.  The rating system would have us giving up 15 seconds to Glory Days in addition.  I think the ratings of the boats should have been reversed, but we wouldn't have caught Glory Days anyway.  It remains to be seen if
the fourth, fifth or sixth place boats have a favorable enough rating to place them ahead of us.  I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

In the Around Stocking Island Race, we started first again, but this race was timed for each boat individually, so if a boat started five minutes behind us they could finish four minutes behind us and beat our time.

No whisker poles allowed so the guy with the whiskers (Jay) stands in with Karol.  No spinnakers or screechers allowed either.

Jay and Barb adjusting the traveler holding off Deja Vu

It is not all work, running at up to 12 knots in Exuma Sound, Jay, Barb and Karol relax

We finished close behind Glory Days (again) but they started after us and have the favorable rating.  So they beat us.  Whether anyone else did or not remains to be seen.  I think we finished with at least a third, maybe second, so Liam and Annie should go home with a trophy, etc.  Our friends William and Trisha on Aventura, an Island Packet 440, raced in this second race as well and while they started ten minutes ahead of us and finished long after us, we think that they won their class.  Their rating was 139.

The awards celebration is tonight and we will find out then how we did.  Tomorrow morning, the winds will be such that we will leave our present position and probably head Eastsoutheast towards Long Island for a change of pace and a change in scenery, if the seas are not too big.  It has been blowing 25-30 knots with higher gusts (gale force) for three days.  Today the winds are down substantially so the seas may be down enough to head in the desired direction by tomorrow.

11:25 PM Friday -  Wind speed 11 - 13 knots out of 125 degrees

Just as we hoped for, Gone With The Wind garnered a third place in both races

Annie picks up third prizes for the In Harbor Race

Barb and Annie run off with third prizes for the Around Stocking Island Race

and in the Around Stocking Island race, both Gone With The Wind and Glory Days finished ahead of Windsong, but Windsong won first place with a favored rating and a better elapsed time.  Gone With The Wind won an award for the best start, just 6 seconds after the gun.  Barb was keeping the time and doing the countdown.

Annie and Karol pick up the Best Start Prize

It was a good showing for Gone With The Wind.  

The crew and its booty

Aventura took 2nd in her class even though they crossed the finish line before all the other boats in the class.  Regatta is finished and we still hope to depart George Town tomorrow, but there is some doubt due to winds.  The wind speed is a little high for the seas to lay down by tomorrow and the wind direction presently is from the direction we wish to travel.  Not promising, but stand by.

George Town Regatta

In the George Town, Bahamas harbor (Elizabeth Harbor) there are several places to anchor, all with good holding in sand in no more than 20 feet of water.  George Town is on Great Exuma Island, to the West.  To the East is Stocking Island and we are nestled very close to it, at the Volleyball Beach anchorage barely out of the channel that goes about a quarter mile East to the St. Francis Resort.  The resort is the location for the Internet signal, such as it is ($2 for 75 minutes).  Users must go to the resort and pay in person to receive a ticket with an assigned username and password, so that is an annoyance, but at least service is available usually.  Immediately to the North is Honeymoon Beach, Monument Beach and Hamburger Beach, each with their anchorages.  To the South is Sand Dollar Beach and its anchorage.  Near Great Exuma Island, to the West, Kidd's Cove and its anchorage provides easy access to George Town.  The harbor is about one mile wide so winds from the East or West only have a short fetch.  There is good protection from the North and excellent protection from the Northeast.  When winds go South the protection is not so good, but usually the South winds are very short lived.  We have had strong winds, over 20 knots, mostly 25 - 30 knots, gusting to 36.2 knots (gale force = 34 knots) from the East northeast, East and East southeast since Sunday night.  With winds from the East at 30, even the short quarter mile fetch produces waves that rock us, but after several days, we are used to it.  We ran one propane tank dry (we have another tank) on Tuesday, the windiest day so far.  We try to refill tanks as quickly as possible and Wednesday was the weekly propane delivery, so timing-wise, that was excellent; weather-wise, not so much.  We prepared for a rough dinghy trip across the harbor wearing bathing suits and plastic bags, high fashion cruiser style.  We went cautiously through three foot waves arrived and obtained our propane, got some gasoline for the dinghy, got some groceries, disposed of trash and found the aluminum recycling dumpster.  The ride back was more difficult as the wind blew spray into our faces.  A freshwater shower upon our return sorted us out again.  Tonight, we have the crew and guests from  Aventura and Sea Star aboard for dinner.  They each have an Island Packet 440 and we think it will be fun for them to meet each other.

We had no intention to be in George Town for Regatta, but the timing was such that being with and meeting our friends put us all here then and we got caught up in the activities.  We had been traveling with Gone With The Wind since we were in Northern Eleuthera and we enjoy these Aussie's company very much, mates.  Barb convinced Liam to enter their boat in the races and that we would crew.  No worries thah! (translate as "there".) Phil and Karol, fellow Australians and Atlantic crossing buddies of Liam and Annie, on Tahani Lee  joined us all on the 52' catamaran on both race days.  We had agreed to meet Sea Star here to visit and get information about their travels to Jamaica and South to Panama, because that is our plan as well.  They had had guests aboard and toured the Northern Exuma chain while we headed South.  By the time we got to George Town they were held up by weather.  A few days later, they were heading to George Town when a vessel nearby lost its transmission and Sea Star towed them into the nearest cut.  This diversion (an action required on the seas when vessels are in distress.  Incidentally, Sea Star was on the scene when we all made the sea rescue of Kersti off the coast of Cartagena.) cost them their arrival in George Town, but they got to discover the safety of the Pipe Creek area during the passage of the cold front over course of the following few days.  They arrived last Sunday and anchored next to us.  We were pleased to see Aventura again as we knew they were in the Bahamas, but did not know where.  They were receiving our position reports so they knew our location. They arrived Thursday, just as we passed by on Gone With The Wind during the In Harbor Race.  The next day they moved to take a mooring just in front of us.  Monday, during the 30+ knot winds, their guest arrived by water taxi.  We think that the arrival of guests and the severe weather is coincidental, but....

The results of the races in which Gone With The Wind was entered will not be announced until Friday night so while we did well, we don't know how well, yet.  Aventura entered the Around the Stocking Island Race last Saturday with us (different division) and they intend to depart on Friday to sail with their guest so, if they leave, they won't be here to see if they are awarded a trophy or not.