Bahama Mama

Last Wednesday the 13th my Mom flew down to visit us and spend a week on the boat.  Lesser travelers would not have fared as well but my mom is a trooper and lasted the whole week on the rocking, leaky Bright Eyes.

The first day we put her legs to work and walked the mile to the grocery store giving her a view of uptown Nassau and all our favorite spots.

Thursday we walked downtown and showed her all the cruise ship shops.  On the way we stopped and finally saw the Queens Stair Case.  It used to be a defensive fort and was hand built a long time ago.  We didn't make my mom climb it but we did and got pics from the top.

Most of our nights were spent playing board games with a cooler of beer.  We just found out that the Green Parrot sells a huge bag of ice for $3, gold!

 We played Monopoly, Backgammon, Thraxx, Parcheesy, Rummy, Gin Rummy, Rummicube, Sequence, and Dominoes.  We've seen Dominoes played by the locals at almost every island we visited. It must be the official national game.  So we finally got a set and learned how to play.

Nomy and Nala were glad to have a new friend.

Christine showed off her prowess in the kitchen and made many of our favorite dishes.

The Green Parrot was happy my mom was visiting because we actually spent a lot of money there ordering full meals.  We were glad to order the savory meals we had been skipping over the last month like the Works Burger and Blooming Onion.

My mom got to experience a cruisers sun-downer which is everyone's favorite.  The sunset is always amazing.

Friday we dinghied over to Atlantis in search of a beach.  We found a public one just outside the hotel.  It was swarmed with locals trying to sell you things but we still had a good time. After the 4th vendor tried to rent us an umbrella we finally agreed for $10.  The water felt great as it is our "shower".  We like the empty islands better though when we have the whole beach to ourselves.

Saturday we went back to Atlantis for some more fun.  We took mom to the aquarium now that we know you can just walk in for free sometimes. We saw the huge manta rays and sharks again.

Atlantis also has a free movie theater so we went and saw Rango.  At night we went to a comedy club.  The comics spent most of the time making fun of the audience and the headliner Mutsy was really funny.  We got off pretty easy with just a Marylanders have crabs joke.  

Sunday we relaxed around the boat and let mom have a small rest from her vacation.   Then we made a short walk to the straw markets again and had a final dinner at the Green Parrot.  We all sat around on the internet till the Parrot closed to show mom how we usually chill.

And more family game night! 

Monday, moms last day, we went to Atlantis in hopes to hang out at there beach.  We walked to their beach on Saturday so we thought we could spend the day there but they had staff guarding the beach this time so we got denied.  So instead we went to the Casino and hit the penny slots.  

Our goal was to get free drinks while making $15 last but we only got one round of drinks and then the waitress was nowhere to be found.  But it was our lucky day as we turned $15 into $55 in about 2 hours!  Most of it was my mom who turned her $5 into $45 at one point, that's one lucky mama.

On the way back to the boat across the harbor we got caught in a squall.  We have been watching Tropical Storm Brett hover above the Bahamas so we must we getting pieces of it as it was squally all week.

My mom finally got caught up in one of our mishaps and we arrived to the main ship soaking wet as lightening lit up the sky.

On Tuesday morning my mom caught a cab back to the airport.  She had a great time seeing us and experiencing the boat but we are sure she is glad to be back in the comforts of a real home.  

We are right behind her though as we plan to leave here asap.  There are a few storms brewing around the Caribbean and one potential hurricane that just left Africa.  So we are saying goodbye to Nassau and all of the Bahamas and will be taking off tomorrow, Thursday the 21st of July.

We will be sailing to Ft Lauderdale, without an engine, over the next two days, maybe straight through.  When we get close to Florida we will call Tow Boat to bring us into the harbor and put us in a slip.

Wish us luck for our final adventure!

Our End Destination: George Town

We arrived in George Town a week before the Bahamas Family Island Regatta which gave us time to get used to the busy city.

George Town is the destination of a lot of seasonal cruisers.  They all know each other and come back year after year.  The local dinghy dock is basically a parking lot.

We also met up with a lot of cruisers we have met along our journey.  Joseph and Ruth and their dog Kiwi were familiar faces.  We first met Joseph when we ran aground together outside of Fernandina Beach, FL.  We then saw him again in Miami, Nassau, and Staniel Cay.  Kiwi and Nala finally got to meet as well.

We finally met up with another blogger Matt and Kristie aboard Kaleo, http://www.svkaleo.com/

We got to see our cruising expert friends George and Janice aboard Calamus.  And we saw Celtic Rover who we got snowed in with back in North Carolina!  It was a fun reunion to enjoy the wonderful town with fellow cruisers.  We also made some new friends Art and Brenda aboard Zippidy Doo Daa, and Shawn aboard Manna.  Shawn hailed looking for guitar strings which I had extra of and he gave me an electric tuner in exchange!

We have a reasonably priced grocery store here.  New shops and restaurants to hang out at and we do plenty of relaxing.  We have been reading almost full time.  Christine must have passed the 100 book mark since we left and I just finished the whole bible. Sadly Christine's Nook broke so she has to have a cheapo version sent here. Cheapo version because import duty is 40%.

We love finding small empty beaches to call our own.

George Town island cat

We learned a new form of music, Rake n Scrape!  It involves using a broom with a string attached as the bass and a saw to make the scraping noise.  They get down!

The regatta was a big festival and everyone was partying!

We got to try essential island dishes like Sheep Tongue Souse (soup)

But the most important part of the regatta was the races!  They have three classes, C (17ft), B (21ft), and A (28ft).  The A class boats win a big prize and are eternalized among the greats.  This is the 58th annual regatta. Some boats have won multiply years and are fan favorites.

We walked down to the docks and met with a C class skipper.  Mr Moxey here just built this boat (Revelation 3:19) and was racing it for the first time.  We cheered for him out there but he came in last :(

We could see the races from our boat and at some points the boats would sail through our anchorage, right by our boat!  During the course the boats have to tack upwind, then sail fast across the wind, and lastly sail down wind.  They do three laps.  Some of the races were boring because one boat took a quick lead and held it, while other races were really exciting with boats passing each other, colliding, and even some fighting photo finishes at the end.

Although we could see the races from our boat we liked to watch them from the local "wall" which was where all the locals watched and it got real wild with shouting and cheering.  There were 13 races including a kids race.

My favorite and a local favorite was Red Stripe.  They won the first race and third in the second race.  The third race tonight will decide the over all winner. GO Red Stripe!

Update: Tida Wave won the 2nd and 3rd races and took the overall crown for a record 15 times over 58 years.  That is one fast boat!

Heres Red Stripe, maybe next year.

Today is the last day of the regatta and we are gonna watch some local competitions including onion peeling, conch cracking and greasy pole climbing!

The finale was a high school marching band and then the Police Force marching band.  They were both very good and entertaining