Georgetown Week 5

Our FINAL week in Georgetown (Yes! we FNALLY got out!!) began with a sumptuous breakfast at Peace and Plenty Resort followed by a day long weather seminar featuring our weather guru Chris Parker (flown in from Florida), with over 200 cruisers in attendance. If there’s one thing we all have in common with each other here in the cruising community aside from an adventurous spirit, it’s a fascination with weather systems--especially when our very survival depends on it. You’d be amazed to learn what there is to know about weather. I left the hordes lining up for hamburgers and yet even more “weather talk” to meet with my friend Nancy from “I needawind2” for lunch in a civilized locale. We sat out on the deck of a lovely restaurant overlooking the water and enjoyed salad, coffee and girl talk before returning for the afternoon weather session.

After having endured so much seminar “excitement” the day before, we spent most of Sunday in brainless activity--finishing up our novels and vegging out aboard the boat. At 3:00 however, we dinghied over to St. Francis Resort where a big screen TV was televising the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. There was a small contingent of Canadians there rooting for our team interspersed amongst all the Yanks and we were ecstatic to say the least when the final overtime goal resulted in another gold for Canada. Then it was a celebratory dinner of Jerk Chicken followed by the weekly round of Trivial Pursuit. Over 100 cruisers competed in Sunday’s game and we were surprised to find our team--appropriately called “Linda and the Bearded Boys” (because the 3 men on our team all sport beards)--tied for 3rd place!! Bottles of wine were up for grab for the winners but after 4 tie-breaking questions, we finished 4th. No worries. It was a fun day!

Monday was the first official day of the Georgetown Cruising Regatta with a pet parade, variety show and 70’s dance. It was fun, fun, fun, all day long. But that evening yet another cold front moved in and it was impossible to get off the boat for the next 3 days without getting completely soaked by the strong waves. At this point we decided to move the boat to a more sheltered location, across the harbour to Crab Cay where we could more easily visit with friends. That evening we were invited over to meet our new neighbours (Makana, Persephone, and Dancing Dolphins) aboard Cookie Monster. There was lots to eat and drink and we had a great time. We are all getting desperate to “move on” and FINALLY, on Friday March 5th, were able to do just that! Cookie Monster was first out of the anchorage joining Tortuga and Suncat enroute for Long Island. Then Makana and finally, at mid-tide, the water was deep enough for us to leave along with Persephone. Waves were 5’ in the sound but behind us and the wind, at 20k was also at our backs so we had a quick run south to Long Island. We saw 14 other boats following us and so we had lots of company along the way.

We are now anchored at Thompsons Bay, Long Island with 30 other cruisers--ready to start the next leg of our 2010 Bahamian adventure.