Gearing up for George Town Cruisers Regatta

Everyone is gearing up for regatta and we’ve been busy as usual.  The wind continues to be challenging and we’ve had a couple of days hiding out in the hurricane hole.  

Last weekend we continued to track the typhoon “Winston” that was barreling through Fiji where our friends Al & Jill have left their boat Dragonfly.  Rec’d an email from them this week that the boat survived the blow, thank goodness.

Went to an "ARG  (Alcohol Research Group) Meeting on the Beach one evening and a group of us wore our Exuma T-shirts that were designed by our good friends Bruce and Joyce.  We all raised a glass in Bruce's memory.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day with 2 other couples on our boat and on the 16th we celebrated my “big 70th” BD. Joe opened a couple of cans and made me a nice dinner.

This week there were two dinghies that flipped in the harbour due to high winds and seas.  Everyone was ok but it’s a bit challenging getting around.

On Monday the cruisers got together for a Craft and Bake Sale with all proceeds going to the George Town Red Cross.  I baked Farm Cookies for the bake sale and won a painting at the raffle.  We raised over $1,100.00 and everyone got their fill of cookies, cakes and homemade bread.

Joe goes to softball practice twice a week and admits that he isn’t getting a whole lot better but he is having fun.  Every afternoon he’s on the volleyball court playing and doing clinics to get players ready for the big tournament.  With all of this beach volleyball our boat is starting to look like a sand pit so I spend a lot of time sweeping up after him. 

I’m alternating between yoga and water aerobics most mornings and going to Bible Study on Tuesdays.

We did go to the Chat N Chill dance one night and Joe actually danced with me.  

Did I mention we've had a lot of wind?

Registration for regatta events is Fri. and Sat. is the variety show.  Joe will be doing the tug of war and I’m doing a skit with 6 other girls.  We’re dancing and singing to “These Boots were made for Walking”-we’re wearing rubber sea boots and have added some pretty funny moves so should be a good time.  Will post some pics.

Sun. night is the big softball game with the cruisers vs. the Bahamians and it’s always a hoot.

Next week Joe will be crewing for the big boat races, we’re helping with the coconut challenge and of course, there’s the big volleyball tournament at the end of the week.

Two days after regatta ends, Jeanne and Marcia arrive and we’ll be heading north through the Exumas to Nassau.  They fly out of Nassau on the 16th and after that we’ll be on our way back to Florida.  

Contract on DejaVu

We have accepted a deposit and have a contract to sell DejaVu.  The buyer is a friend of a fellow cruiser and he came to see the boat when he was here in George Town.  The next day he brought his wife and 8 month old baby girl to the boat.
They fell in love with it and left a cash deposit with their friend who delivered it to us yesterday.
Benny and his family live in Palm Harbour Florida so the boat will go full circle and be back where it came from in the Tarpon Springs area.
We will finish our cruising season here in George Town and head up the Exuma chain with Joe's sister, Jeanne and her friend, Marcia on March 9th.  They will fly out of Nassau on March 16th and we'll sail back to Florida.
Of course, this is a very emotional time for us but we know in our hearts that it is the right decision and now we're looking forward to new adventures.

Now on to what we're doing here.
The weather this season has been very unusual as it has been everywhere.  Lots of cold fronts coming down here from Florida with winds blowing hard out of the West and NW.  This just means that we move the boat from one side of the harbour to the other every 10 days.  Luckily for us DejaVu only draws 3 feet so we can tuck into an anchorage that has protection from the wind.
We still get lots of sunshine and the temperatures are still much better than up north.

Everyone is gearing up for the cruiser's regatta that starts on Feb. 26th.  Joe is busy getting teams set up for regulation volleyball and he's going to softball practice twice a week.  I'm still doing my water aerobics, bible study and selling T-shirts.

Lots of get togethers with our fellow cruisers and we try not to talk too much about this being our final season with them.

As our friend, John, says "It's all good".

Lots of fun in George Town

Sorry we haven’t updated our Blog in some time but have been very busy with inquiries about the boat.  It seems to have taken all of our time and energy just to answer emails.  We finally set up a blog site to answer questions and post pics and have also decided that we didn’t want to show the boat until we get back to Florida the beginning of April.

catdejavu43.blogspot.com

We’re still managing to have lots of fun here in George Town and Joe is going full speed ahead with his volleyball and has also decided to play baseball on the cruisers team which plays against the Bahamian team.  Yesterday he went to baseball practice in the a.m., went to play two’s volleyball after that and then played 4’s volleyball in the afternoon.  You can imagine what he did in the evening.

On Sat. we went to the Stakeout and Raffle picnic at St. Theresa’s Church.  Helen sold 4 books of tickets and the cruisers really came out to support the fund raiser for a youth centre building.  

 Church Picnic

Women's Bible Study

Church Picnic

 Flip Flop Beach

Joe & Joe having a serious talk

Helen going to Bible Study on a windy day

After the church picnic we gathered on flip flop beach for a cruiser get-together.

Yesterday while Joe was gone for his “sports day” Helen went to water aerobics, came back to the boat to change, went to Women’s Bible Study and then a Ladies Luncheon at St. Francis Resort.

Joe has agreed to be the chairman for the 4’s regulation volleyball so he’s busy getting that organized.  He will also race his Laser sailboat in the small boat races.  We’ve decided not to sail DejaVu in the big boat races this year-can’t take a chance that we’ll break something just when we’re ready to sell it.

Tomorrow is laundry day so we’ll pick up Brian and Yvonne and go to the Exuma Yacht Club to get fuel, get a ride to the laundromat, get propane and then back to the boat in time for Joe to play volleyball.

Yes, it’s a good life and we’re really going to miss it but who knows maybe we’ll be back someday in a different boat.

Hope everyone is well and that your winter hasn’t been too cold, snowy or rainy.  Pls. keep in touch we love to get news from home.