It’s Sunday morning and we are in Georgetown, Great Exuma. Yesterday we headed the 1.5+ miles across the harbor and made our way around town. It was plenty windy and bumpy with that long fetch so we were happy that we had invested in a dink with a high bow. Without a high bow we would have gotten soaked. When you are cruising the dink is like the family car and we have a good one.
As promised in my last post, we attended the talent show associated with the Cruiser’s Regatta held in Regatta Square, a sort of town green where the Bahamas Sloop Regatta is headquartered every April. That event is one of the biggest in the Bahamas and draws sloops from all over the Bahamas for several days of racing. Sloop racing in the Bahamas is revered on the level that baseball is in the U.S. and everybody shows up for the party.
Anyway, the cruiser’s regatta is held here each year in late February and they tie in with a number of Exuma Bahamas community events. One of the more collaborative efforts was held yesterday, a talent show.
There were loads of acts and the entire event began shortly after noon and continued until well after dark. Brenda and I enjoyed watching a good portion of it and it was a lot of fun. As mature cruisers we had to head back while it was still light. Besides, if we had stayed to the end we would have run the risk of missing our bedtime of “cruiser’s midnight”. For the landlubbers among you, that’s 9pm.
The show as great fun and I’d say that about half of the acts were by local Bahamian groups including a particularly cute one that included some local scout groups. The group was quite “age diverse” and very cute. I don’t who was cuter, the little ones or the very enthusiastic adult leaders. It was a fun show. 
There were also a number of dance numbers by local girls. Very entertaining. 
One of our good friends, the always shy and retiring, Cathy (the second from the right) from Five and Dime was part of a very funny spoof song about couples anchoring foibles. Brenda and I can tell you from our own experience, there’s no shortage of material in “couples anchoring”, perhaps among the best spectator sports afloat. They were even in matching costumes. You know about retired “A types” with time on their hands, right? They have plenty of time and energy to come up with the tune and words and between them they have plenty of “experience” to draw on. 
There were also a number of numbers that drew on popular songs including this dance number, set to the words of These Boots Were Made for Walking. I guess anyone remembering this number is dating themselves and there were plenty in audience singing along. I guess the lead singer planned ahead as there aren’t many places locally to buy thigh high boots. 
Yes, very well organized and as provocative as a group of women of a “certain age” could make it. Love the high kicking and “sea boots”. 
The audience was very enthusiastic and appreciative. And what a crowd it was, all settled in for the duration with their lawn chairs. 
And, all those lawn chairs mean a lot of dinks. It was tough to find a parking spot. 
Today the wind has picked up a bit more out of the east to about 20kts so getting across the harbor to town would make for a very wet ride so we’ll stay on board or perhaps go for a walk on Stocking Island later today. Tonight we are having our friends Phillip and Joanne along with their very cute tiny dog Cricket aboard for dinner. That will be fun.
Oh yeah, there will be a Caribbean sailing session on the beach nearby where some cruisers who have spent time in the islands will be talking about their experiences. Brenda and I plan on being there next season so that should be very interesting.
For now, we are thinking hard about Cuba and any last minute details. We may need to get a few last minute vaccines on Monday for Hep A and Cholera. Oops, missed that.
Over organized or not, it’s fun to be here and it’s clear that there is a lot of talent in the cruising community and they have plenty of time to show it off.
I guess that’s about it for now.