More Fun at the George Town Cruising Regatta

Some of the amusing events of the George Town Cruising Regatta took place over the last couple days. The small boat races was on Friday, March 3, the Coconut Challenge was held on Saturday morning, and the model boat racing and Bahamian vs Boatmen softball game were the entertainment today.

The small boat races take place in the channel to the holes just north of Chat 'n' Chill beach. I am a volunteer for these races. For men, women and children there are kayak and paddleboard races first. Peter competed in the kayak race, coming in fourth place. He would have won or placed had he been in a faster craft than our plastic orange two-person kayak. The winners had better racing kayaks. 

Peter in third place coming around the third mark

Peter about to be passed very close to the finish

After those races, three boats competed in the sailing dinghy race. A husband and wife were in two different boats. Everyone was cheering for the wife, who held the lead until her rudder got stuck in the sand on the approach to the finish line. Her husband and friend edged ahead, but, unfortunately for them, they did not have the crowd support and were pushed off the beach, giving her the well-deserved win.

Spectators cheering for the participants in the small sail boat race

Women rule!

Next was the inflatable dinghy sailing race, in which the participants had to use their own engineered and created means of sail propulsion. The winners had used metal tubes and a square sheet of cloth for their rigging and sail. Cleverly, they thought to stand up and hold the whole thing aloft as high as they could to catch the wind, which was very light since the races were in the lee of Stocking Island. 

A single modified square rig

The other three competitors

The winning strategy

The final and funniest event was the blind dinghy race, in which the man, blindfolded, was in the center with the oars and the wife/partner was in front or behind him shouting out directions to and from the mark. There were a couple dozen boats, and the start was chaos as they all ran into each other. It was hilarious to see the boats veer off in various directions as instructions were misunderstood. Free marital counseling was available after the event.

The start

Navigators behind and in front of their oarsmen

Mayhem at the mark

The winners

The small boat races drew a large crowd of well-entertained spectators. Awards were announced for first, second and third place in each category. One of my tasks was to had out the bottles of wine for second place and the bottles of rum for first. Third place received a can of beer. 

After the excitement, Peter and I chatted and chilled at the picnic tables. After watching two young French Canadian girls walk the tight rope, Peter had to try it. It is not as easy as some of the kids who hang out in Elizabeth Harbour make it look. 

Peter on the tight rope

Peter on a swing

At 4:00, we went to town to attend the party hosted by the Exuma branch of the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism at the Peace and Plenty in George Town. Everyone was expecting rum punch, some small snacks and music, but the local office of tourism amazed the more than 200 cruisers who attended with great entertainment, raffle prizes, a fashion show, a Bahamian band, and a performance by about a dozen men in costume who represented a local junkanoo group that consists of a couple hundred people in addition to a full buffet meal of delicious local food, including traditional desserts and punches.

Bahamian band

Fashion show

Costume detail of junkanoo player

Junkanoo shoe

Junkanoo band

Junkanoo costumes

Junkanoo is an island tradition. Groups and communities meet throughout the year to practice their performances and make their costumes. The festival originated a few centuries ago, when enslaved people on plantations in the Bahamas celebrated days off work granted to them by their owners, on Boxing Day and New Year's Day, with African-influenced dance, music and costumres.After emancipation the tradition continued and junkanoo evolved from simple, local celebrations to formal, organized parades with elaborate costumes, themed music which is very rhythmic and orchestrated but sounds at times disphonic, and much sought-after official prizes in various categories.

Peter had stopped at the Top to Bottom shop to look for oar lock pins for our dinghy and had thoughtfully asked if they knew where Diet Coke could be purchased on the island. (Beth Ann and I had already tried the grocery, three liquor stores and the gas station.) He was directed to the 242 Prime Spirits store. After the party, he went to the gas station to fill a can with gas for the dinghy and I stopped in the Exuma Market  for mushrooms (no luck) and then walked past the Island Boy Cafe to 242 and purchased a case of 24 cans.

What a beautiful sight

During the small boat races, I had recruited a young couple, Clint and Christy from S/V Zoe, to participate with us in the coconut challenge on Sunday morning. The race involves teams of four people in inflatable dinghies with engines and oars removed. Our entry into the race gave Peter a good excuse to pull out and repair the small Tohatsu 3.5 horsepower, 2-stroke engine (which has been an on-going project with intermittant success since we purchased Mantra five years ago) since it would be easier to remove at the beach than the much larger and heavier Yamaha. He worked on the engine before and after dinner and tested it successfully. 

The next morning, we met Clint and Christy on the beach at the Fruitbowl behind Chat 'n' Chill, prepared our dinghy, and figured out our strategy. About three dozen dinghies were participating in the two-part event. The first challenge was to launch the dinghies from the starting line on the beach and paddle around, using snorkeling or dive fins for propulsion, to collect as many of the hundreds of floating coconuts that had been dumped in the bay as we could. It was great fun and hard work. We got a slow start pushing off from the beach because we got too deep before I, being shorter than everyone else, could jump in and we had to back up so that I could board. Christy and I were in the bow paddling with the smaller fins and collecting the booty while Clint and Peter used the heavier, bigger fins astern of us. We were a well-coordinated team and managed to collect 110 coconuts and ward off an attempted theft of our coconuts by a marauding dinghy. 

Team Mantra: Christy, Sherri, Peter and Clint

After all the coconuts were counted and piled on the beach, the second challenge took place at one of the sand volleyball courts, where the members of the teams each had two coconuts to toss over the net, trying to land in the dart-board shaped target circles outlined with white rope on the other side. We only scored 16 points there. Fourth place was not announced, but we are pretty sure we took that position.

We spent the rest of Saturday on Mantra. After lunch and a nap, I spent most of the afternoon and evening posting on this blog while Peter got involved with the electrical system and tracing the ends of cables and wires from the electrical panel at the nav station. 

Behind the electrical panel

Today, we did some work on the boat before going ashore to see the model boat races. Kids from various boats had invented and created a great variety of craft, including monohulls, catamarans and trimarans. There was judging in various categories, including most ecological design before the races began. Despite light wind, most of the boats sailed from start to finish without issues, although some veered off course and got stuck on rocks. The kids as well as the adults had lots of fun at this event.

Girls with their boats on shore for the judging

Kids being amazingly patient as the judges decide

Boy with his square rigged craft

Monohulls at the start

The leading boats

The winning catamaran

Trimaran races

The speedy first place trimaran using materials found on the beach

When we returned to Mantra, we chose to pull up anchor and head into Exuma Sound and deep water to empty our holding tank. One of the valves in the toilet has ceased to seal properly, so, after flushing, sea water comes into the bowl until it is at the level of the water outside the boat. We wanted to flush out the pipes before Peter pulls out the spare and installs it. At the big boat races near the beginning of the regatta, the commentator mentioned several "sponsors" of the race, including Jabsco toilets, whose motto is, "If you don't like our products, we don't give a crap." 

We returned around 3:30, later than expected, and the softball game between the boaters and the Bahamians had already started. We arrived at the top of the fifth ending. The cruisers had not yet scored. As the game progressed, the Bahamians displayed their batting proficiency and the cruisers did their best to field the balls and get them out at the bases. We finally scored in the seventh or eighth inning, but by the time the game ended, the final score was 17-3. It should be mentioned that there was probably about a 40 year difference in the average age of the players for the individual teams. Ian was the announcer, the umpire and the between inning entertainment, providing a light-hearted touch to the event.

It's a hit for the cruisers

The Bahamians make a hit

Ian, beer in hand, leading the crowd in the wave

Ian in the seventh inning stretch

Ian the umpire behind the catcher

Ian surprising us with excellent playing on a plastic trumpet

The Bahamians were selling food and drinks, and Peter feasted on a fat hamburger with all the toppings while I enjoyed the Bahamian staple for Sunday meals and special occasions, macaroni and cheese, which is always creamy with a crisp crust and just a touch of spiciness. 

The sun is setting and issuing out from boats all around is the prolonged, low sound of conch horns being blown. Tomorrow, at the regatta closing ceremonies, there will be a conch horn blowing contest to see who can sustain the note the longest.