The night I did that last post, Phill and I came back ashore to see what was going on with the regatta preparations. Boats, captains and crews were arriving from other islands on ferries and there was much activity building food concession stands, and the loud music made it all feel pretty festive.

We ran into Ben the Boston Mathematician and walked around a bit. We went to the ferry dock and there met Kevin, a captain of one the mailboats out of Nassau, and a competitor in the regatta on a boat he built himself a few years ago. We talked with him and his cousin Lloyd about boat building, the mailboats of The Bahamas, and the National Family Island Regatta. As we were leaving, we asked Kevin about the name of the boat he built: Revelation 3:19. He laughed and said it was our homework to look it up.

I’m not sure what we were expecting, but this wasn’t it:

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

The regatta started on Tuesday, but the main races didn’t begin until yesterday. We watched the first race from the boat. We had such good seats we had to move (anchored a little too close to the course), but we had a great view of the passing boats, even from the new spot.

After the second race we went to shore planning to get a few groceries, but instead we became a regatta ship to shore ferry for the racing crew. Can you give me a lift to Jungless? Would you mind dropping this sail off at Blue Shadow? Can I get a ride to Lady Eunice?. We ferried batteries, sails and people. Our dinghy is small, and it lets air out and water in, but there were six of us and a big sail piled in it for one of the trips. One guy asked us to keep a 40lb lead ingot on our boat for the night – his boat had too much balast for the next race (we just returned it to him this morning).

We didn’t mind the detour – it was fun to help out.

For the last race of the day, we got back in the dinghy so we could be at start line.

We took some video of the start and the race itself, but I don’t have time to upload it and show it to you, but here are a couple of pictures…

We’ve had a great time here in Georgetown, but it’s time to get moving again.

‘Til the next wifi…