Bellatrix

13 May 2016

Daytona, FL, USA

We are in the ICW heading north, we will be in St. Augustine this afternoon. Mary and Scott are visiting Wendy and Bob Shortes, we hope to visit with them.

We really enjoyed the Georgetown Family Regatta. Robin got to crew on a C class boat for all 4 races. She was on “Dream Girl” a boat owned by David Rolle of Nassau. David likes to have a mostly female crew, Robin had a blast. Some of the guys we met on the fishing boat in the Ragged Islands were there and raced A, B, and C class boats. Brothers Cameron and Amil Knowles of Mangrove Bush, Long Island were a partying crew and very competitive. Cameron’s boat “Whitty K” won the C class division. Long Island builds the winningest boats. These boats, sometimes called “smack boats” are beautiful, really exciting to sail and watch. They have shallow drafts, huge sails, and use “prys” or hiking boards to control heel. There is much shouting, jockeying for position, and sometimes a Chinese fire drill. It is nothing like the sailboat racing in the US.

Regatta also is a carnival with LOUD music, food, rum, and heated discussions about the racing that goes on until 4 or 5 AM every night. There are speeches by government officials, even more so as this is an election year and award ceremonies, high school marching bands, and the Royal Bahamian Police Marching Band and a Junkanoo.

We left Georgetown after Regatta and sailed north up the Exumas to Highborne Cay to make a crossing to Nassau. While anchored in Allen’s Cay we met another fishing boat who sold us a huge Grouper and gave us some fresh conch. We had a pretty good blow that night with gusts to 50 mph, our anchor held but we had a sleepless night.

We normally do not spend much time in Nassau but really enjoy a Greek Restaurant there. The Athena Cafe is above a jewelry store with outdoor tables on a balcony looking over a busy commercial street. The food is excellent, the view of the tourists entertaining and the proprietors friendly. We got to see Anna Marie, the daughter of the owner, her brother George, and our favorite Eddie Murphy lookalike waiter Keith. Anna Marie was gracious as always and mentioned she vacationed on Long Island, she was a childhood friend on Cameron of Mangrove Bush.

While in Nassau we went to the Nassau Junkanoo Carnival, WOW! The parade was hours long, bright costumes, dancing, rum, beer, food, and LOUD music. David Rolle, the captain of “Dream Girl” was there, imagine catching up with him in the thousands of people there. Robin and he shared tales of racing and he introduced us to his friends.

We left Nassau the next morning and sailed 30 hours to Lake Worth, FL. I have mentioned before how beautiful it is sailing at night with more stars than you can believe, phosphorescent sea life flowing in the boat wake. It is a little daunting knowing you are all alone in very deep water at night but also very peaceful, an opportunity to reflect on the past two years and this wonderful experience.

We arrived in Lake Worth late in the afternoon, we caught a Barracuda and a Mahi on the way and had very fresh Mahi dinner. The next day we checked into Customs and Immigration, got new cell phone service, and started up the ICW.

After stopping in St. Augustine for a couple of days we will continue as far north as possible. Robin will have to rent a car and drive to Baltimore and leave me single handing the boat. She needs to be in Baltimore on May 26th for a pre employment physical and starts work the 6th of June. I will try to get home around the second week of June.

Sorry the photos are not in the correct order, Blogger seems to put them when it wants.