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Published: February 17th 2008
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Cam & Nancy
At the Secret Beach Race to Long Island
After being anchored in Georgetown since mid-December, we decided to participate in the 1st annual George Town to Long Island Regatta that was sailed on Thursday February 7th. This was planned as a “fun race” from the cut at the south end of Elizabeth Harbor to the North tip of Long Island at Cape Santa Maria, a distance of about 30 miles in the open waters of Exuma sound. Depths here range from 500- 2000’ and the water is a deep, deep blue. The winds were a little above the predicted 15 knots from the southeast, which provided for a very tight close reach for the length of the course.
After crossing the starting line I engaged the auto pilot and put out the fishing lines. After all, this was supposed to be a fun race and catching a big fish is a lot of fun. We had a great sail averaging about 7.5 knots and crossed the line 4th out of the 25 boats entered (19 monohulls & 6 multihulls in separate classes). Our competition was a St Francis 42, a Manta 40, a Manta 42, a Lagoon 380, & a Gemini 34. There
Race Raft Up
Double-Wide is on the far end were a number of big monohulls including a Swan 44 and a Jeaneau 48. We corrected to 2nd in our class behind one of the Mantas. The other Manta was a boat called Pangaea which has a home port of Clear Lake Shores Texas and was sailed by Joyce & Gary.
We anchored in a lovely place called Thompson Bay in about 7 feet of water. There was a dinner for the 50 participants at Trifena’s Thompson Bay Inn. She prepared a huge buffet that evening with a menu including, cracked conch, lobster bites, grilled grouper, ribs, plantains, cole slaw, mac & cheese, peas & rice and chicken. The food was outstanding.
Trifena arranged a shelling trip for us the next morning to her “secret beach”. Her son Terrell shuttled us there in his Dodge pick-up truck, squeezing 15 people in at one time. The magnificent seascape was marred by the large amount of plastic that littered the beach. It was really sad to see. We did manage to find some pretty shells and some rare sea beans.
The next night we rafted four of the cats together including Double-Wide to share drinks & appetizers and give
out the awards for the race. The winning boats received a large bottle of Bahamian Rum.
We decided to stay for a few days and tour the island. We rented a 6 passenger mini-van and drove around with Bob & Vicki from “First Look” and Allen & Patricia from “Naut-Nauti”. Cameron somehow was elected to be the driver which was a challenge since he had not driven any car for 4 months and had never driven on the left side of the road “English style”. Bob requested that we visit a restaurant in Clarence Town on the south end of the Island which he said served the best Guava Duck in the Bahamas. So we set out towards the south to see the sights and find the “Guava Duck”. Our first stop was at a combination fabric shop, liquor store and bar. We needed provisions and our cooler was empty except for some ice. We soon saw a roadside establishment called “Max’s Conch Bar”. We stopped for some great Bahamian food and drink. Next we headed for the great Blue Hole at Turtle Bay. This is a deep salt water hole just inside of the inlet where the water drops
off from 2’ to 800’ into the world’s largest underwater cavern. It is filled with fish of all types. After several more stops to look at old churches, unique shops and a marina or two we decided to head for Clarence Town. There are two imposing churches on the edge of town that look over the harbor. They were built by father Jerome in the 1600’s. After stopping at a couple of places we finally located the restaurant we were looking for. However, one look at the menu showed us that their specialty was Guava Duff not Guava Duck, so much for the duck entree. It is a dessert, sort of like a bread pudding, with a very sweet Guava sauce on top. We enjoyed our dinner there and then drove 45 miles north to Thompson Bay to return to our boats.
The next morning we took the van and headed North to Cape Santa Maria to visit the site of Columbus’ landing in 1492. This was his 2nd or 3rd stop in the new world. We climbed to the top of the cliff to see his monument and to enjoy the view. On the way back down island we
made a stop at the Stella Maris resort & marina. This is a really nice upscale oceanfront resort that was built by a German couple in the 1960’s. It has its own airstrip and a marina on the bay side for guests that arrive by private yacht.
We finished off our island tour by stopping at a straw market operated out of a private home. It gave us a glimpse into how the people live on the island. Everyone seems to have cell phones & satellite TV even if they do not have much else.
The people of Long Island proved to be very friendly and go out of their way to help visitors. Several times while we were walking to the market people would stop and insist that we let them drive us to our destination in their cars, even if it was slightly out of their way.
We sailed back to George Town on the 15th of February so that we could see our friend there before moving the boat on to other islands.
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