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| I guess Fine Lion is a "Pot O' Gold" |
Pirate Party, New
Year’s Eve, and Getting’ Out
There are
a lot of events that go on at the end of the year at Staniel Cay. December 29, The Pirate Party. December
31, the C-Class Regatta. December 31, New Year’s Eve Party, January 1, Cruisers’
Regatta. Everyone can participate in all the events.
The Pirate Party was a hoot.
A lot of cool costumes again this year. Steve won $50 for the best dressed male Pirate (go figure).
He will be featured on the poster/post card next year to promote the 2010 Pirate Party with a tall
blond (the female pirate winner). Karen (Draggin Lady) and I were on the poster for this year.
It was a lot fun this again year.
On December
31, Steve was in the C-class Regatta. The boats used in this Regatta are Bahamian racing sloops.
These boats are made here on the islands out of wood. No engines, one sail and a number of boards
(pries) to slide out on each side of the boat to keep it from tipping over. People have to slide out on
the boards to balance the boat. Only one woman went in the drink. If a boat has a crew
member that falls over they have to drop their sail and some how pick up the crew member before continuing the race.
Steve was on the boat Slaughter. His boat came in fourth. Oh, I should mention
there were only four boats in the race…bummer. Slaughter showed up to the race almost two hours
late, I am not sure they were quite prepared for the race. The sail they were using was not quite as big
as the other boats. Oh well, Steve had fun. Everyone who wants to be on a C-Class boat
signs up and they draw names for who will be on what boat. There were four boats, three races and three
cruisers per C-Class boat. Smashy won the overall race. Anyone on the winning boat got
a very nice jacket. The TV crew from Nassau even interviewed them.
The day before the C-Class race, the captains
of the boats do a dinner for everyone. It was free. We had Conch salad, (which I helped
the ladies cut the conch) conch fritters, steamed fish with veggies in foil done on the grill. It was great.
We had cocktails with friends on New Year’s Eve.
It was mellow and very nice.
Jan 1, 2010 The Cruiser’s
Regatta took place. Lady Muriel, a Bahamian boat won the race. Once they passed the
finish line they started doing circles around the other boats (all cruisers) in the race. The Cruiser’s
also put on a meal for every one after the race.
Captain’s
Note:
Lady Muriel did circles around a Little Harbor 70!
For those of you “dirt dwellers” that is a very big boat…and fast. The Bahamian
A Class sloop is around 35 ft. The Bahamians sure know how to sail them! They
did it just to heckle the Little Harbor…it was way cool.
Lately,
the weather has not been great so we have not done any more snorkeling or really much of anything except hanging out on the
boat. A front seems to hit us in the Bahamas about every three days. Whatever
hits Florida hits us down here three days later. Strange weather every where this year it seems.
Kathy
on Sapphire has taught me how to weave baskets out of palm fronds. I really like it. I
am not all that great, but it is entertaining.
We have changed our plans about the Jumentos. We had planned
to be there by now but the weather has not cooperated.
Jan. 7, we left Black Point, went to Farmer’s
to visit Jim on Solitaire as his wife Nancy is back in the US. We visited for a few hours and
went on to Galliot Cut. It was a great place to anchor. Nice
beach and calm water. It was actually difficult to sleep, we were so used to sleeping in very rolley weather.
Up
bright and early on Friday (Jan 8) for a long day to Thompson Bay on Long Island. It took us close to 12
hours to get to Thompson Bay. On the trip we caught two Mahi-Mahi before 10 a.m. and
Mike and Kathy on Sapphire caught a Tuna (my favorite). Sapphire ended up with a Tuna and a Mai-Mai and
Fine Lion ended up with three Mahi-Mahi. I am certain I lost the trophy Tuna. I made
the rookie mistake of tightening down the drag too fast. The engine was running and Steve was down below.
I was hollering that I had a fish on, I slowly tightened the drag and reeled it in a bit. Next,
I hollered again, no Steve…. Tightened the drag again (slowly, I thought not realizing how tight
it was) and SNAP. The line broke and that Tuna had my favorite lure. Finally…Steve
got on deck and I was yelling at the Tuna that was gynormous and jumping out of the water (a number of times) trying to get
rid of the lure. What a bummer! I am sure there was no way I could have brought
that fish in, Steve could have but it would have taken a while. I have decided I am not touching the pole
when a fish is on. Fortunately, Sapphire gave us some tuna. Yeah!
Captain’s note:
That
fish Kim lost was a huge Tuna. When I came up on deck, it was leaping totally out of the water…so
I could see how big it was. There are big fish in the ocean kids…some of them you may not want on
your boat. I’m not so sure that we would have wanted that guy on the boat with us. He
was a monster! It did take her favorite lure…I’ll need to get another red and black mid sized
smoker. After cleaning the Mahi, we had the equivalent of 18 dinner sized portions.
We plan to stay in Long Island until Wednesday Jan 13th.
If the weather is good we will go to the Jumentos for a few weeks. They are uninhabited and only
about 70 miles off the NE tip of Cuba. We’ll be “off the grid” down there…no internet
so you will have to wait a while for the next update. We’ll be busy getting lobster, conch, snapper,
and grouper!
Captain’s Note:
For those of you that are interested, our current position in Thompson Bay is Lat N23 21.494 LonW075
08.350
The “top” of the Jumentos is: Lat N22
55.0 Lat W076 00.0
Until next time…..
Kim and Steve
PS: While we were at Staniel
Cay over The Pirate Party and New Years, we saw a big Mega Yacht at the dock with Luke Wilson aboard (he's an actor and now
doing the AT&T commercials). He was actually nice and not "snobby".
