... For a break from the "same old, same old" in George Town... but first...

The month and a half between coming back from the Festival at Little Farmers Cay and going to Long Island was spent in George Town waiting on the arrival of my warrantee replacement dinghy from West Marine.  (You can read about my woes dealing with DHL and the dinghy on the Dinghy page.)  While stuck in George Town (Not such a bad thing!), I made the best of my time and had a lot of fun.  Between my usual activities of diving, spear fishing and trolling for Mahi and Tuna.  Plus the local George Town activities of "Rake N' Scrape" at Eddie's Edgewater, Friday and Saturday music at the Peace and Plenty resort, Sunday pig roasts at Chat & Chills, the A.R.G. (Alcohol Research Group) meetings on Tuesday evenings and all of the private parties and goings on, there's more than enough to do so that one doesn't even think of getting bored.   Below is a quick recap of the high points.

 The same day that I posted the Farmers Cay page on 2/11/07, I went to an engagement party on a raft of boats near "Long Beach."   When I got there Scott, the Facility Manager of the U.S. Army base here in the Exumas, told me that not minutes earlier a cruiser fell out of his dinghy and had been seriously injured when the dinghy ran him over. This happened because, like so many of the cruisers down here, he wasn't attached to his emergency kill switch which would have shut down the engine when he fell.  Fortunately for him, the Blackhawk had just taken off from the Army base and had not yet left the area.  Scott had heard this event taking place from the conversations on the VHF radio, got the appropriate clearances from those in the U.S. that make the big decisions, and had the Blackhawk land and take the injured cruiser to the hospital in Nassau.  The  chopper crew had to stabilize the cruiser because he had lost a lot of blood from the massive injuries sustained in the leg and groin region by the slashing of the outboards propeller.  There was some concern that he might not survive the trip to Nassau.  Fortunately, an hour later word got back that he was in stable condition and in surgery.  Hopefully, this will be a wakeup call for those cruisers that don't wear their kill switch lanyards while running their dinghies.  I ALWAYS wear mine because I like riding in a standing up position.  I haven't fallen out yet, but it's always a possibility.  That's why they call them "accidents."

Let's see now... We had a beach party at the "Flip Flop" shop on "Nude Beach."  Clothing required of course.  There was ample food and beverages, good camaraderie and a nice bonfire on the beach.  The Flip Flop shop is a small "Tiki" hut built by the cruisers each year on the beach to provide shade for the beach goers during the day and a fun party spot at night.

The Annual Cruising Regatta was held during this month and a half period also.  The Cruising Regatta, which is akin to the climax week at the end of summer camp (from what I remember from when I was 10 -11 years old), had numerous activities that I was able to avoid.  The first thing that I avoided was the opening ceremonies of the regatta with it's "dress up your pet" pet parade.  I went to the A.R.R.G. (Anti Regatta Research Group) party and birthday bash for Ed up at the St. Frances Resort instead.  Later in the week, I was not able to get out of partying on "Borrowed Horse," the committee boat for the regatta's sailboat races, because I love spending time with my friends Dan and Ann who own the boat.  Besides the usual food and drink, I brought over an Afroman CD that Dan played as background music.  Too funny.  People would be talking and swaying to the music then all of the sudden, someone would catch a lyric, stop and quickly looked around to see if anyone else had heard the same lyric that caught their attention.  Seeing no one else respond, they would slowly go back swaying to the music... till the next time.  The race started early and, because the winds were light, took most of the day to complete hurting some of us that were trying to keep hydrated on Kalik.  Contrary to stories that were going around that night, none of the race committee was involved in mooning the racers.  After all, neither Dan nor I are part of the committee.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism had their 3rd Annual Bahamas Music Festival here in George Town during this time.  This was a 3 night event at Regatta Park.  The first night of the festival was comprised of Gospel Music.  I was fortunate enough to meet 4 nuns from the Minnesota area that came down on a pilgrimage to attend the Festival.  (I was sworn to secrecy as far as their names, the name of the convent in which they are cloistered, as well as some of the things that I witnessed them participating in.  Sorry Joe, I'll have to tell you this stuff via the phone... way too interesting!).  I put together several sections of video from the festival which you can view on this page. Unfortunately, I always left early on in the evening before the big names got on stage so most of my images are of the amateurs.

Finally, I was able to get away from George Town for a few days in Long Island.  The weather wasn't great for the 3 days that I was there but, oh well, gotta make the best of it...  It was a quick and relatively comfortable trip to Salt Pond, Long Island on Friday afternoon.  I hooked up with my old friends Mike and Dawn, on the Island Packet "Anahata," who are the resident cruisers at Salt Pond.  They had a mooring that they weren't using at the time so they let me tie up to it.  A little later, they came by and picked me up (I still didn't have a usable dinghy... thank you DHelL!) to head in to the Thompson Bay Inn for Happy Hour.  Triphena, the proprietor and chef, was busy making her famous Happy Hour conch fritters but took out time to welcome us and hug her "boyfriend" Mike.  After Happy Hour, we went over to Alton's house, Mike and Dawn's friend, to get a bite of wedding (???) cake.  We then talked Alton and Levi Fox into joining us at "Rake and Scrape," where the dance music sounds like a Cajun/Bahamian mix, held down at the Atlantic Hideaway in Deadmans' Cay.  On the way there we stopped at the Midway Bar for barracuda chips and another round of beverages.  Then on to the Atlantic Hideaway where we spent the evening being entertained by the music of the "Originals" and eating very good chicken souse with Johnny cake.  All in all, a very fun first day in Long Island!

Saturday was spent reading and doing some touring of the island in Mike and Dawn's car.  That evening the cruisers who were anchored in Salt Pond got together on the beach for food and beverages.  I went over to my friends', Tom and Amy, boat for dinner.  Dinner on "Dream Catcher" is always fun because Tom and Amy's kids are Ferrets... 2 of them.  They're very cute, well behaved and just plain fun to be around.  We had soft steak tacos with seasoned and grilled potato slices and Kalik. 

The next morning, I headed back towards George Town in order to get back before the weather deteriorated.  On the way I stopped and dove a few of the isolated heads, in the middle of the sand banks, that I had found on my trip over on Friday.  These heads were chock FULL of lobster and Nassau Grouper.  Unfortunately, they were all little babies.  I finally found the nursery and breeding grounds for the wonderful fresh seafood that we're so fortunate to be able to partake of down here.  Disappointing from a fishing standpoint but very neat to see all the same.  Back in George Town I finally got word that my new dinghy had arrived... YEEHA!  Hey, it ONLY took DHL 40 days and 40 nights to deliver it air freight.  A total of about 875 miles... so yeah, it DID kinda feel like a religious experience to finally get it!

Next update date will be posted on 4/7/07