Chapter 8 Oborea Sails On April to July 1992 We finally got away from George Town on the 2nd May after the unique experience of the Family Islands Regatta. This is a Bahamian event pitting local boats from all the islands against one another for cash prizes. As this was quincentennial year the normal three days of racing was expanded to five. A week before the event plywood shacks that would become snack bars and rum shops began to go up all along the road to the Government Dock and Mail Boats from the other islands started to arrive bringing in the competing boats and hundreds of Bahamian visitors—it was the local equivalent of the Grey Cup! The racing boats themselves are divided by size into five classes and there are strict rules to keep them Bahamian in character: wooden construction (including the spars), canvas sails, no spreaders and so on. One happy result of this is that old boats remain competitive. In the largest or 'A' class, although the newest boat, the two year old Rupert's Legend won three of the five races, the oldest, the Lady Muriel almost thirty years old won one. A typical `A' class boat is 29 feet long and carries over 900 sq ft of sail on a 50 foot mast and a 30 ft boom. On windy days they may carry a crew of eighteen, most of whom ride out on hiking boards or “prys” to help out the ballast keel. The races are from a standing start with the boats anchored and the sails down. (something interesting to try at a club race?) and there is lots of cheering from the partisan crowd on shore and quite a bit of money changes hands over the results. I had the privelege of crewing one race on the smallest class of boat with the oldest skipper, 82 year old Reggie Rolle. His boat, the Marianne is the only boat to have competed in every George Town regatta since the first in 1954, and is the only working fishing boat (complete with fish well) as opposed to those built specially for racing and we came an honorable last (but still won a prize as the only fishing smack), A unique experience. From George Town we had a slow ride back up the Exuma Cays as a tropical wave brought cloud and rain but not much wind. along the way we caught fish and conch. We arrived back in Abaco on the fourteenth and found it even more crowded than in the winter. All the snowbirds from Canada and the northern states were heading home, but there was a new influx of yachts from Florida, people fleeing the heat and humidity of the mainland and spending their summer here. We had intended to stay only a day or so in the Abacos, but as mail we were expecting had not yet arrived we took a side trip up to Allens- Pensacola Cay in company with another yacht. We found it totally different from the winter months with constant 'northers' and cool cloudy weather. Now everything was much greener, there were flowers everywhere and the water was beautifully warm. In the past I have usually advised first-time sailors heading to the Bahamas to go to the Abacos first with their more protected waters and many snug little harbours to keep one out of trouble, and then, after one has learned to read the water head on to the more exposed and isolated Exumas, the cruisers paradise. But I am going to change that advice. These last few years the winter weather in the Abacos has just been too unpredictable and unpleasant. Head south for the warm waters of the Exumas, and then on your way home catch the Abacos when when spring has made them lovely. Returning to Marsh Harbour and Little Harbour we had a surprise, the offer of a job from mid July until the end of the season when school opens in September (After that the islands really are dead until the snowbirds start to arrive in December). It would have to be handled with some circumspection as we cannot legally work in the Bahamas and we would also have to change our plans a bit; we would make a fast trip back to the States to re-provision and then return to Little Harbour. After September we would go back to the States for a lengthier stay and do all the modifications and improvements to Oborea that we had planned for the summer. We left Little Harbour and sailed south and west around the southern tip of Abaco to the Berry Islands where we stopped overnight. Here we found a new marina project under construction on the formerly uninhabited Alder Cay. Next day winds were light and we motored most of the way round the south end of the Berrys and near the Northwest Channel Beacon we anchored to wait for wind for the sixty mile crossing of the Great Bahama Bank. We found we had anchored in a conch bed, all we could eat in eighteen feet of water! A breeze sprang up after dark and we had a pleasant overnight crossing of the bank except for one incident. Well before sunrise when the first faint signs of light appeared in the East I was asleep and Iris was on watch and had the s__t scared out of her when a powerful speedboat with no lights or markings and four men aboard appeared out of the night and circled Oborea before slowing down right off our quarter. Iris called me up and as they came alongside (with four 250hp outboards!) we could just make out a very small sign on their windshield “U.S.CUSTOMS''. Three of the men boarded us, one from U.S.Customs, one from U.S.Coastguard and one from the Bahamas Defence Force. They were polite, but took down all details of our papers and did a cursory search of Oborea before speeding away into the night. The wind gave out ten miles short of Cat Cay and we had to motor. We spent a day at Cat waiting to see if the wind would return, but it didn't so we motored the forty five miles across to Miami. Spent a couple of weeks anchored near friends in Miami in great heat and almost constant rain. Took lots of advantage of their air conditioning and, when the rain let up, of their swimming pool. With Oborea again loaded down on her marks we motored up to Ft Lauderdale and spent a couple of days with André and Karen who are settled in a waterside apartment until winter. With them we drove out to a big discount art supply store to load up on paints and brushes, canvas and paper as both Iris and I are to be shown at a new gallery in the Bahamas. Left the US of A on the 30th of June and were chased across the Gulf Stream by a thunderstorm that never caught up with us, arriving off West End well before daylight so that we had to anchor off until we could see our way in. From West End we island hopped the 135 miles back to Little Harbour, and have settled in here for a couple of months in paradise. We'll let you know when we are on the move again.

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