Well a lot of things have been happening during this period, which was marked by a great deal of activity around the 29th annual Georgetown Cruisers Regatta. This is about 10 days of activities ranging from Trivial Pursuit tournaments, volley ball, dances, texas holdem tournaments and boat races. Then there are the nearly nightly happy hours on 
the beach, all of which make for a busy schedule. It is a lot like summer camp for adults. Needless to say we are having a ball and are extremely busy. All this activity and the expensiveness/scarcity of internet service has seriously diminished our ability to update the blog. I am writing this not knowing when it will be posted, but here goes. While we were here Roberta A from our friend from Takoma Park came to Georgetown to visit us on the boat. She got to experience our world for the last several months. The first night there we had her participating in an Ultimate Trivial Pursuit game, the next a potluck dinner on another boat, and the next an around 
the island sailboat race in Abraxas. Kept her spinning. The around the island race is the highlight of the Georgetown Cruisers Regatta and was attempted by over forty boats divided into three monohull and one multihull class. In addition to the racing there also were side competitions which included best baking during the race, best photographs in three categories taken during the race and the biggest fish caught during the race. We had a great time, the weather was perfect with just the right amount of wind and we flew around the island resulting in getting third place in our class. In fact we beat some boats on uncorrected time that supposedly had to give us time as a handicap ( called PHRF ratings). On top of this, our sea cook (carol M with the help of Admiral Terri) took first place in the baking contest with her crème Brule cream puffs all baked at a 15-20 degree heel and the cook strapped in. As if this was not enough, our photographer took first place in the action photo category (
photo attached). A hat trick. We were pleased.
The next day we rented a car to tour the Great Exuma Island. First we went south to cross the tropic of cancer to have a great lunch at a small roadside restaurant called Santanas. We found out that they film some of the Pirates of the Caribbean here and Johnny Dep was a frequent customer. We then went north visiting the five star resort called four seasons. Here we had the privilege of buying $14 drinks. Two other highlights were a visit to a wonderful community at the northern end of the island with very friendly residents and a stop at Mr. Williams farm. Farm does not do justice to this endeavor. Mr. Williams is truly a remarkable person to scratch out of this land the bounty that he does 
growing bananas, papayas, tomatoes, cabbage, and a host of other vegetables. The man could grow plants on a paved parking lot he’s that good. We bought a bunch of vegetables and fruit (a whole stem of bananas) for a mere $30. We finally sent Roberta back to the states a little tanned and a lot tired.
The next day Neal participated in a volley ball tournament and managed NOT to throw out his back or blow out his knees.
The last two events of Regatta week were the softball game against the Bahamians and then the Closing Talent show. The softball game was a riot because the Bahamians were a bunch of young Turks while the cruisers were a mixture of old men some of who could play ball, women some old some young some who could play and 
some…….. It was a good natured fun time played for fun rather than cut throat.
The talent show was entertaining with a mixture of acts by cruisers and some of the local Bahamian talent (some pictures attached)
Wednesday 18 March
Left Georgetown today starting the long trip back north. We are re-tracking part of our path down here, working our way back up the Exuma Islands chain then splitting off to the east to head for Eleuthera. Tonight we are back at Lee Stocking island after a great sail out of Georgetown. The swells were in the 3-4 foot range with a 10-20 Knt breeze just aft of the beam. The sun was shining and the fish poles rigged, but sadly no fish tonight.
Thursday 19 March
Next stop, back to Staniel Cay to dive into the Thunderball grotto. The grotto was the location for the underwater cave scenes in the 007 film starring Sean Connery. The grotto is lit through a hole in the ceiling and is quite spectacular though smaller than it looked in the movie. The fish were beautiful and quite tame eating right out of your hands. Even Terri got into the water. You can only get into the grotto at low tide because the entrances are under the water the rest of the time.
Friday 20 March-Sunday-22 March
Hanging around Staniel Cay enjoying the company of fellow cruisers. Bob A of Time enough II, Dietrich of Calliope and I went reef diving on a couple of coral reefs. The small fish swimming in and around the coral heads are simply too beautiful to describe. Their colors are bold and bright, you have to wonder how they manage to avoid the predatory fish. The coral is also quite lovely differing in coloring, shapes and size. The fact that the water is so clears is what makes the diving so special here. You can float around in 20 feet of water and see clearly to the bottom.
Monday 23 March
On the rising tide we head out for Sampson Cay, which is only about 8 miles from Staniel. It is a wild ride. First we had to run against the incoming tide current, which is several places was running 2-3 knts in out face
The harbor where we are anchored at Sampson is very protected from the ne winds so we are very comfortable here. The marina, which is to expensive for us pensioners, is filled with mega yachts, all power. It must cost a fortune to run these babies. Who says there is a recession. We dinghy into the bar for happy hour 
and have some great rum punches. Rum is cheap down here and the juice that they add is expensive so the punch is heavy on the rum and light on the juice.
Tuesday 24 March
A lay day in Sampson Cay to wait out some weather that is threatening, squalls with high winds. Later in the week around Thursday the wind and seas are suppose to calm down turning from the NE to the east south east, which will give us a better angle on the wind for the trip to Eleutrera. Tomorrow we will likely move north a couple of cays to shorten the distance to travel.
Wednesday 25 March- Saturday 28 March
Sampson Cay to Hawksbill Cay, we are heading home via the Northern Exumas heading for the Abacos. We had a great down wind sail in 20 knts with 25 kt gusts. We were hitting 9 knots surfing down the waves. I am finally getting use to the sailing characteristics of the Tartan 37 and all I can say is WOW does she handle sweet. The autopilot could not handle the following seas so I had to steer all the way but without any strain.
Our next jump took us from Hawksbill to Ship Channel Cay again with the brisk winds off the stern quarter. Another day like yesterday, a great sail. We hid behind Ship Channel Cay from the strong south east wind for the night then proceeded from Ship Channel Cay to Spanish Wells. This was our longest jump so far running off the wind some 40 miles but like the two days before the wind was off our stern quarter. We even caught a fish, a bar jack, but unfortunatly it was not good eating so we threw it back. I forgot to mention that coming into 
Ship Channel Cay we did two jibes which ripped out the screws for the traveler blocks. JB weld to the rescue and the traveler was back in action. There are three things that are indispensable on a boat: 1. duct tape 2. WD40 and, last but not least, 3. JB Weld. If you can’t fix it with one of these then it can’t be fixed, no way, no how.
All in all we have had some great sailing since entering the Bahamas to make up for the tedious motoring we had to do while coming down the ICW.
