February 24 - March 2, 2013

Another week spent here enjoying George Town and vicinity.  Monday is the start of the 33rd Annual George Town Cruising Regatta - the theme of which is "Cruisers Gone Wild".  This is an 11 day long Regatta - but with a whole lot more going on than just sailboat races.  It starts off Monday with a Dinghy Boat Parade - got a few pics of that.  Tuesday is the Pet Parade, and an Opening Night Show and Dance.  We are still all sick, so kind of laying low - didn't participate in either the dinghy or pet parade.  Did go to opening night though - that was a lot of fun!  It featured a "No-Talent Show", with cruisers performing in various ways - singing, music, skits, one group of men did a "Synchronized Swimming" show which was absolutely hilarious to watch.

Wednesday came along, and we did participate in the dinghy poker run.  The 3 of us and Amy, who we met here recently, got together for this one.  Picked up our instructions at 1 p.m., left the beach via dinghy at 1:30, and proceeded to visit the 5 bars scattered about the harbor to pick up our cards.  You get 1 playing card at each place, eventually making up your 5 card poker hand.  Had to report back to Volley Ball Beach with our hand no later than 4:30.  Made it in, but only had a pair of Jacks.  Were beaten out by 3 Kings, 3 Tens, and Two Pair.  Oh well - it was fun anyway!  And the water was a bit bumpy today, making the ride VERY wet!!!

Other events during the Regatta include a Bocce Tournament, a Beach Golf Tournament, a Volleyball Tournament, Softball, Scavenger Hunt, and the Coconut Challenge (hysterical - we only saw the first part of that one, which was dinghies, motors removed, powered only by people using flippers, had to navigate around a little cove and pick up all the coconuts floating about.

A couple of the boat crews played really dirty - flinging buckets of water at other crews.  Tons of Fun!!!).  There are also two boat races, one is the "Around Stocking Island Race" for the big boats, and the Small Boat Races, which will include Sailing Dinghies, Rowing Dinghies, and other assorted small boats.

We've purchased some more internet access time, but it's not super reliable, so I'll do my best with getting my updates posted.  Also sorry to report that my head cold has traveled south a bit - thankfully I've got antibiotics aboard.  This is the first respiratory infection I've had in a lot of years!  Yuck!

During the week, we motored the big boat back over to the Yacht Club to take on some water, and do a little provisioning.  We had heard that the local hair salon place sells seafood too - stopped in there and bought a few lobster tails.  Came back over to Stocking Island/Volley Ball Beach, where we now have a mooring ball because another weather front is due to blow by.  We'll wait that out - it's supposed to peak over the weekend - and plan to take off from here probably on Monday.

On Friday, we had a visitor in the harbor - a dolphin came in, and proceeded to circle the boat moored next to us for an hour and a half.  He then came over to us for a short while, then moved on to the boat on the other side of us.  Just hanging out!

Late Friday afternoon, a raft up was organized.  If you don't know what that is, it is a big boaters party - a bunch of boats get together and tie up together, and there's all kinds of food and drinks that get passed around.  Normally, you are on regular boats, and folks cross over from one boat to the next to go visiting.  I said "normally", but this was definitely not a "normal" raft up.  This was a dinghy raft up.  I've never been to one like this before!  Very funny - from afar, it looked like a big blob just floating out in the middle of the harbor.  Close up, you found 43 dinghies all tied together.

There wasn't any boat visiting going on (the boats are too small to try that, safely anyway!), but there was all kinds of food being passed around.  And we really got lucky - a little dinghy tied up behind us with a huge vat of Rum Punches on board!  In the middle of the party, they actually got everyone to quiet down enough where we could all enjoy a few jokes.  People just popped up in the dinghies here and there and yelled out a joke - even managed to keep them relatively clean!  And yes, of course Matt got one in too!  As I said - never attended one like this before, but what a blast!!!!!  And another good way to meet & greet - we all stood up and introduced ourselves, telling our boat names and home ports.