First!

After a one day postponement for the Burton Russell Trophy Race, Sunrise ended up not only being first around the windward mark, but also came in first place after the handicaps were tallied.

This was a point to point race around Sandy and Garden Cays near Man-O-War. Since it was run a day late, two of the usual crew were unable to race. Milton, the boat's owner, had a previous planned engagement and Ron was preparing to depart on his boat for a Gulf Stream crossing back to the States. That left Dave as skipper and Richard Woods, who he races Sunfish with and will be Sunfish Fleet Co-Captain with next season. Richard has tons of sailboat race experience, was in the Olympics, and builds catamarans. The two guys worked perfectly together and with light winds, there was no problem with not having extra crewmembers on board.

One more cruising boat race to go this season and then Boat of the Year will be announced. At this point it looks like Sunrise will come in 2nd overall, but you never know, perhaps they will be first.

The great photos are once again from Will Heyer. The awards photo was taken by Cindy Merrill.

Deluge

Yesterday, Abaco received more rain in a few hours than it has all winter long. The water was badly needed for the cisterns, trees, and plants. We had expected rain, but not these torrential downpours. Our 7,000 gallon cistern, that collects rainwater from our apartment roof, overflowed. There are two huge auxiliary tanks that each hold 44,000 gallons of rainwater that comes from the workshop roof. It feeds with a valve into the central cistern when needed, but both tanks have been dry (when this happens and our cistern gets down to under half, the watermaker is started). After yesterday morning's deluge, one of the tanks was full and flowing out the vent, so they diverted the water to the second tank! Marina managers Linda and Craig's house collected 12,000 gallons of water. With this much rain comes flooded boats though. Dandy almost sank and required our electric pump. Jim R's skiff almost turned turtle at the dock and Dave arrived just in time to pump that out. Our skiff's bilge pump worked fantastic and kept up with the water (one day a couple of years ago I went out and had to bucket bail it with water up to my knees). Boaters in the harbor are thrilled because their boats are rinsed and many collect the rainwater too. However, they have to bail out their dinghies with gallon jugs. One of the ladies said she took 107 bailing buckets of water out of her dinghy. Except for that though, there are a lot of happy (& clean 😉) people around today!

Day 2

Day 2 of the Homer Lowe Regatta had a little more wind than Day 1, but that's not saying much. I still got to kayak, but this time opted to go out to the race course. Dave did not have a good day on Day 1 and came in last during a couple of the races. That's not like him at all. When he was headed out the door he said he couldn't wait until the regatta was over yesterday, but I told him,"Wrong attitude. You need to say today I am going to make up for yesterday." That's exactly what he did. In the first race, he was second until the wind died and another racer found the breeze before he did, so he came in third. That's him in 2nd at the moment,

The course was challenging too, because the kids in Optis and 420 one design boats were racing at the same time as the Sunfish. The photo below shows how Dave had to work around the mark at the same time as the two other classes.

In the second race he came in second, beating several of the really good sailors. I guess that makes HIM one of the really good sailors too!

When the awards were given out, Dave ended up in 5th place overall and he was really happy about that. Some days you're in the groove and others you aren't, so it worked out well.

Long Distance Award

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Homer Lowe Regatta for Sunfish, Optis, and 420 one design boats. Last year, Dave and I stood by as a safety boat in Walkabout during the 2 day event that brings in sailors from other islands including Nassau and Freeport. This year, Dave decided to race Sunfish.

We knew the wind would be light, but it was non-existent in the morning. While Dave was out floating around on the course, I decided to take my kayak out for a cruise. I headed to the north end of Elbow Cay to see if I could get close to the race course, but they were a little offshore in the Sea of Abaco, in order to try and get some breeze. When I got to the end of the island, I had to make the decision as to whether to go out to the course or continue north. Gee, that first little rock island off Johnny's Cay didn't look that far away, so off I paddled. What a strange little rock formation when everything else is so flat...and is that an Oyster Catcher on the end?

Yes, and that was a bit odd because we always see them in pairs. You can see the lazy ocean swell breaking on the reef, it was so calm.

There was a southbound freighter, not too far out. I hope the sailboat skipper was looking behind him.

 

Hmmmm, now the main island of Johnny's Cays looked really close, so how could I resist not making it there, just to say I did it.

 Almost there...

I made it and proud of it. 

I walked around and not much has been done to the rehab since we were here last April. The gazebo is gorgeous though. That's where I would like to married (41 years later 😉).

Meanwhile, it looked like the races finally started.

I didn't realize it until I headed back that the wind had picked up just a little, and right from the direction I was headed. No wonder the races started. Hope Town is about 3 miles away...

Who knows, maybe next time I will make it the distance to Sandy Cay or Garden Cay or even Man-O-War!

NOT! 😉

Naming Game

Dave and I seem to come up with the best names for boats, homes, and now...a deck! We were invited to a 'deck warming' party at friends Marcia & Barry's house. This long awaited deck is huge and gorgeous, including a utility shed and wet bar. Marcia was shocked when EVERYBODY that she invited showed up with delicious appetizers and desserts in hand. That's a lot of food since there were about 60 of us. The builder was also there and he was such a nice, personable, and talented guy. He even signed the deck, making it officially complete. I hope he received tons of business inquiries from others at the party.

As we arrived, there was a jar where we wrote down and submitted our deck name suggestions. We then voted on the possibilities and it was hilarious (how about poop deck? 😉). It all came down to two...After Deck or Aft Deck, since they are also sailors, or the crowd's favorite and my idea...Dexter (Deck-ster)! Funny how it had popped into my head and I was sure it would be an outcast, but majority rules, so Dexter it is.

The ceremony wouldn't have been complete without a christening, and the champagne certainly was flowing, along with a rum punch that Dave said was really potent.

This was definitely the best party of the season here in Hope Town.

No Man's Land

When the west wind blows, it is so much fun to go exploring on the east shore of Great Abaco, where hardly anyone goes. We ended up just south of Snake Creek, in a protected cove, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.

We launched the kayaks and paddled in the shallow backwaters to the old remains of the generator barge that was used many moons ago for the lumber industry at Wilson City. This area is only accessible at high tide, even by kayak.

There isn't much left to it anymore, having gone through many hurricanes.

One of the generators has fallen over, but the other one is still standing in the background.

When we first started coming to the Bahamas, the abandoned building was intact, but everything was really rusting. Dave and our friend Rick, even went inside of it. We certainly wouldn't attempt that now.

On the way back to Walkabout, we took the outside route in the Sea of Abaco to find a bit more protection from the wind that was now northwest.

We continued north and found a few really nice beaches, with the water pretty deep to shore.

We saw a lot of different things washed up on shore, but this was the funniest:

The beach looked so inviting that we decided to move our whole entourage there and anchored in some gorgeous sand.

After lunch the 'kid in us' took over and we couldn't resist jumping in the water and swimming. This is the first I have been in since November, so I was a bit skeptical. 

The temp was about 76 degrees, chilly at first, but really nice once we got used to it. I jumped from the back of the boat.

Then Dave did it from the boat's hardtop!

Some huge eagle rays kept going by the boat too.

Dave went snorkeling and found a sand dollar, which we haven't seen for awhile.

This was our best adventure this season, and I sure hope we get to do it again soon, especially with not a soul in sight. It was all there just for us!

Dinghy Cruise-In

Today was the day we finally got to sail down to the Abaco Inn in White Sound for the annual Abaco Dinghy Cruise-In. Six boats went down including a very enthusiastic and devoted 16 year old sailor. When we first started out, the wind was lighter than predicted, and we wondered if we had made the right decision to go. Dave kept looking back towards the harbor, where we had luckily received a tow out through the narrow channel...

Then the breeze filled in a little, sometimes more than others, and sometimes there was no wind at all. All you can do is laugh about it, and get the paddles ready. We did have a chase boat following the group, in case we got into a jam.

Everyone caught up to us and we made it to the restaurant for lunch.

The Abaco Inn is on a little spit of land between the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic Ocean. The Sea of Abaco side has a perfect little beach to land and anchor the dinghies. The ocean side is known for its waves and surfing. We had our Commodore's Dinner here just a few nights ago.

As we sat down to order our meal, we were told that coincidentally, the sister of Winer Malone, who made all our dinghies (now deceased), was having lunch there too and saw us all sail in! What an honor for us to be there. Afterwards, we took off out the channel and what a fantastic sight.

We all stayed pretty close on the trip back to Hope Town and the wind was fluky, but at least there was more of it...plus more clouds for shade. Ahhhhh!

That is 16 year old Luca sailing his great Aunt Mary's dinghy Peace 'N' Rice. He is an avid sailor and racer in his home town in Minnesota. He said that he even has experience working on wooden boats.

We needed a little push from the chase boat getting through the choke point of the channel into the harbor (an inflatable so it wouldn't mark up the boats), especially with all the boat traffic today. With the beautiful calm weather, everyone was out on the water. It was definitely a monumental day sailing in Dandy!

(Thank you Jacqueline for the pictures taken from the beach.)