West End’s Junior Regatta

Saturday April 11, 2015

Looks like we’re stuck in the Bahamas one more day than anticipated because we can’t get the welded part back until this afternoon.  Oh darn, whatever will we do with our time here in paradise?

Ha, like that would ever be an issue here.  But even if we somehow couldn’t fill our day with lounging by the pool or snorkeling & paddle boarding at the beach or even lazily swinging in the hammocks strung between palm trees, there happened to be a local event going on this afternoon. A few local organizations were hosting a regatta for the regional children.  After having been to the Family Regatta in George Town Exumas last year, we knew we needed to go.

Getting into the resort’s office early in the day, we took out 4 bikes and set them aside for the ride into town later that afternoon. Our morning of course was spent basking in the glow of our beautiful surroundings and sipping coffee while munching on a blend of potatoes cooked to perfection in a cast iron skillet (after French Toast yesterday…yum!). Have I mentioned we’ve been very well fed on this job?  I really need to take some of these recipes back with me.  And clean off the two years of rust from my own cast iron skillet.

When it was time for the regatta to begin and we had built our appetites back up, the four of us cycled up the same road we had taken in to town yesterday only this time instead of two sets of tandem bikes we were each striding our own up the road.  Pulling up to the blocked off section of road we all wove through the barriers and parked our bikes behind a set of bleachers, parched and ready for a cool Bahamian beer. First there was the matter of food though and we stepped up to the folding tables that were just being set up for the day to see what was on the menu.

Between different options of BBQ; chicken; and fish, I had been looking at the barracuda with some interest until Matt shook his head no, it may not be safe for me to eat. Humph. Even though the BBQ and chicken were looking like delicious alternatives there was no way I could get myself all the way to the Bahamas and not enjoy one fish meal so I opted for the fried snapper that came with rice and coleslaw.  Bob and Joni had the same idea as me and as our meals were being prepared, Bob scuttled off to the liquor store up the street to grab us a few cold Kalik’s to enjoy with our meals.

The food was so good, and the friendly women working the stand even gave us each two fish because ‘dey’re a liddle on da small side’.  I’m sorry St. Martin, I know you’re supposed to be the ‘Friendly Island’ but the Bahamas should really swipe that title from you.

Just as the four of us were scooping the last bites of food into our mouths and draining the final drops of our beer, we realized that the regatta was already in motion.  There had been no horns or warnings and apparently we’d missed the first two legs thinking that all the kids were only out practicing.  Guess this is a little different than both adult regattas and the Wednesday night races I used to participate in.  Once we knew to pay attention to the action though we caught the last few minutes of the races before they finished.  Enjoying one more beer, we were all becoming tuckered out from the heat pretty quickly and made the decision to head back to the marina for more pool lounging before returning again in a few hours to see the high school marching band.

As we got ourselves back to the regatta in the late afternoon we could already hear the music from the band starting up.  Originally worried that we had missed the whole thing, it turned out they were just warming up and we were still in time for the show.  In fact, we still had a good 30 minutes to spare.

Grabbing an ice cold Coke and putting a few orders in for conch fritters, we took our spots on the bench and watched the children play in the water until the band actually began it’s march.  This was a little shorter than the police marching band we were treated to in George Town but it was still fun to watch the kids parade down the asphalt with their instruments.

There were still two more races for the evening which we enjoyed with more fritters, but by the time it came around to wait for the awards ceremony we agreed that we’d all had a pretty long day and would rather enjoy a nice leftover dinner at the boat instead of frequenting the food stands here again and waiting for the ear deafening music to begin thumping out of the speakers.  Tomorrow is going to be another long day after all.

Time for us to head back to the US, our vacation job is coming to an end and we still have those two boats back in Indiantown needing our attention.  Well, it’s been great while it lasted Bahamas, I hope we’re back in this exact spot around the new year on the new boat, celebrating with friends.