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| Opening Night Regatta |
Its amazing how time flies. We have been languishing in George Town in the Exuma group of the Bahamas since the 24th of January. Lots has been happening with lead up to the Annual Regatta and then the Regatta which was a week of silliness and fun.
I won the design competition for next years Regatta T shirt so everyone will be wearing that for the 2016 Regatta here in George Town.
We played silly beach and dingy games during the regatta which were pretty hilarious. Blind Dingy rowing with me instructing David and he blindfolded was pretty funny!
I won the design competition for next years Regatta T shirt so everyone will be wearing that for the 2016 Regatta here in George Town.
We played silly beach and dingy games during the regatta which were pretty hilarious. Blind Dingy rowing with me instructing David and he blindfolded was pretty funny!
The weather hasn't always been fabulous but its getting better by the day now. There has been a lot of very cold weather on the big continent to the north west of Bahamas and so we can blame them for the sometimes inclement and windy weather we have experienced from time to time. Now into March and officially Spring is here so we expect it to be all up hill from here as the northern summer is just around the corner.
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| Down Wind Dingy Sailing event. |
We attempted to get back to the Florida coast to fly back to Australia for a couple of months but the weather windows were all too short to risk the Gulf Stream crossing and so we changed the flights last week to August.
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| Taipan in Regatta Colours |
Today we are anchored with two other boats we did the Indonesia Rally in 2006 with, Silver Fern NZ and Tactical Directions Aust. Amazing. So far away! Of course there will be plenty of catching up to do and notes to compare. Sea Rose another Kiwi boat we knew well in Thailand have just left the anchorage for points south and Cuba and we had a fabulous and long overdue catch up with them here. New boats are arriving and leaving all the time but very few are Australian.
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| Racing the Leopard. Geniet Lewe. |
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| Silver Fern |
The Bahamas is a playground for the Canadian and American yachts primarily. There is a scattering of other nationalities but the majority hale from Canada or USA.
At the peak of the Regatta there were over 370 boats here. Apparently in its heyday.... before the GFC there were upward of 500 yachts here. It is easy to understand why they come here. Its an easy trip. Most of the boats never have to go to sea all the way from Canada because they use the Intra-Coastal Waterway all the way down the East Coast and then make the short crossing of 60 NM to get them across the Gulf Stream to Bahamas from Florida. Once arrived, there is an infinite number of good anchorages and relatively warm weather compared to their homes north. One boater told us yesterday they had 12 feet of snow at home in New York State at the moment. So the Bahamas looks pretty good! Many leave their boats in Florida and return north to spend summer. Many others however do take their boats back every year.
More Bahamas Photos here.
More Bahamas Photos here.
