Boat races

Hi kids!

Old Angel Jen and I are in Georgetown on Big Exuma Island. This week
they had the Family Island Regatta. It is one BIG deal, believe you me!

The Bahamians make these boats from wood by hand. There are three
classes, A,B, and C for long (25'-29'), medium (22'-25') and short
(19'-22'). They rig them with these HUGE sails in a cat boat rig (one
sail, one mast way forward). Since they have way too little ballast to
hold themselves up under these giant sails, the crew has boards they
stick out over the side and then climb out on to serve as movable
ballast. When the boat changes direction, the crew clambers in off the
boards, shoves the board out off the other side and climbs out over
there, usually with a lot of hollering and shouting.

The boats are light, the sails are huge and they really fly along.
There were over sixty boats competing from thirteen different islands
in races from Tuesday until Saturday.

On shore there was the Bahamian equivalent of a big county fair going
on. A big county fair where every booth sells the demon alcohol. True,
they usually sold conch, jerk chicken (whatever that is), ribs or
something but massive quantities of C2H5OH everyplace.

They had many racks of big outdoor speakers set up and fueled them
with some of the worst quality amplifiers imaginable and blasted
reggae rap you could here for miles. Each of these racks was within
fifty yards of another so you got to hear several at once.

Now I have been known to go clubbing myself, but this was too much. I
was so glad to find a quiet spot at the end of the road to watch the
races.

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