Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in the Allard’s wake! Stay tuned for more letters in the weeks ahead.

Letter # 3

Our next stop on this year’s Bahamas cruise was George Town, on Great Exuma Island in the most southerly part of the Exumas.
George Town is a milestone destination for many cruisers. In the winter and early spring up to 500 boats spend several months in the huge harbor. There is decent provisioning (places to buy food and boat parts), good anchorages, and shoreside facilities better than anywhere else in this remote area.

The Bahamas are a series of 750 islands and cays, spread out in an archipelago 590 miles long and 185 miles wide. For centuries the Bahamians depended solely upon wooden sailing boats for travel between islands, and for earning a living through activities such as fishing, sponge harvesting, and trade.

George Town is the site of the annual Family Islands Regatta, the Bahamian world-series of sailboat racing. In the 1950’s a group of people recognized that the “age of working sail” was drawing to an end, and they looked for a way to preserve the boat building and sailing skills of the Bahamian people. Their plans resulted in the first Family Islands Regatta, first run in 1954. Steven Pavlidis in The Exuma Guide describes the guidelines:

“The rules that govern Bahamian sloop racing are quite clear: competing boats must be designed, built, owned and skippered by Bahamians. The overall length (LOA) may not be more than 28’3”, the sails must be of canvas, the hull must be of wood, and the single wooden mast may not bend. The rules do not permit vertical transoms, bowsprits, spreaders, winches, or any sort of wind or speed instruments including tell-tales.”

If you are a sailor, you will appreciate that these rules are quite strict, and eliminate many features found on modern sailing vessels.

“The sloops race three times around a triangular course…As the boats take the wind and heel they must shift their ballast….Each boat has prys, wooden planks which extend about 4’ or so on the windward side of the boat. The crew then climbs out onto the prys to balance the boat…..” It does happen that sometimes a crew member falls off the pry, and “any boat that does not stop for a MOB (man over board) is disqualified.” (Pavlides)

The last time we were in George Town for the Regatta was in 2011, and we had enjoyed it so much we wanted to see it again this year.

This is the boat we always root for: Tida Wave, which hails from Staniel Cay. (Boats come from all over the Bahamas to participate.)

The first thing to notice is the size of the “sail plan”. The sails are huge compared to the size of the boat. That feature makes the boats sail really fast, but it also makes them difficult to control. More on that later.

The original captain of Tida Wave was Rolly Gray, a legend of sailing in the Bahamas. He won (at least according to most people on Staniel Cay) all of his races. He died in 2007, and is buried on Staniel Cay.

Rolly Gray is so revered in the Bahamas they named one of their largest Royal Bahamas Defense Force cruisers after him. One of the most famous Bahamian pieces of music is “Sailor Man Song” by Basil Smith, which is about Rolly Gray.

A close up of Tida Wave under sail, with the ballast (men) out on the pry bars to help keep the boat level. If the boat tacks (turns into the wind to sail in a different direction), the men scamper down the pry boards into the boat, drag the boards to the other side, and climb out on them….all in a matter of ten seconds or so!

The concentration of the crew is intense.

Yes, there are collisions, and here – a near collision.

Three in a row, on the same point of sail.

Some of the crew on Tida Wave give course directions to the helmsman.

Sometimes the boats encounter significant wind gusts. In this dramatic moment the crew of Tida Wave struggles to move as much of their weight to the end the pry boards as possible, to keep the boat from tipping over on her side. Simultaneously one of the crew at the stern lets out the main sail to help keep the boat from foundering. The sail is out so far that it is dragging in the water.

Later in the day the rains arrived, but the race continued. This is a view from our boat, of ghost ships sailing in the rainstorm.

Unfortunately, Tida Wave did not take first place this year, but a boat from our next stop south, Long Island, did.

Not all of the fun is out in the harbour. The event triggers shoreside parties, food, and yes, some drinking. Kalik (rhymes with “click”) is the national beer.

Food stalls offer the best of traditional Bahamian cooking: cracked conch (conch which has been pounded and tenderized with a mallet and then deep fried); conch salad, macaroni and cheese, and peas and rice. With music loud enough to lift you off the ground.

There’s an old nautical saying: “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” This was a night sky, but….

When doing this type of cruising, hundreds of miles from the U.S. coast, it’s “all about the weather.” We are at the mercy of what mother nature throws at us, and sometimes it is not pretty. We have been watching a bad weather system which is approaching the Bahamas, with winds forecast for 30+ knots. That series of fronts is north of us, so we and our friends on Latitude have decided to run south four hours to Long Island, where there is a good anchorage at Thompson’s Bay, protected from the NE winds, and a small marina nearby if necessary. That choice is not without risk, since we may wind up being pinned down there for a while.

More to follow in the next Letter.

Warm regards,
Greg and Barbara

Copyright, Greg Allard

Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in the Allard’s wake! Stay tuned for more letters in the weeks ahead.

Letter # 2
Hello Everyone,
After we departed Nassau, we worked our way south, down through the Exumas – a string of cays which is one of the most beautiful areas of the Bahamas.

One of our favorite places in the Exumas is Highbourne Cay. (The Bahamians pronounce “cay” to rhyme with “key.”) Highbourne is a private island with a small, well run marina, beautiful beaches and a single restaurant.

The week before we arrived there, an Austrian had rented the entire island and marina for his 60th birthday party – for 150 people. Everything (literally) had to be brought to the island on a big workboat: food, generators, extra water, portable lavatories, and dozens of workers. While we were there, the workboat was re-loaded with all of the items (including two huge containers) which were being returned to Nassau.

We watched the boat as it left the marina. It is a tricky exit, since the current runs sideways to the channel, and there are sandbars and coral reefs everywhere. Well, the captain ran the boat aground. In this photo you can see that he has powered-up his engines in an attempt to break free. All he did was to dig a deeper channel behind him, while shoving the boat harder aground. Fortunately the tide was rising, so after about three hours the boat floated off, and was finally able to get underway.

As we do our cruising, we do make mistakes on occasion; it was refreshing to see that a professional captain can also make them.

There is a fish-cleaning station at Highbourne, on the end of the jetty. After the fish are cleaned, the carcasses are thrown into the water, attracting many sharks. These are nurse sharks, and many people say they are totally harmless – in fact we have seen people swimming with them. However, when the fish carcasses were thrown to these “tame” sharks, a wild frenzy ensued as the sharks tore into the fish remains. Tame? Swim with them?

Seagulls too must eat. These two were waiting for the sharks to be done so they could get to the scraps.

It is a tradition on some of the cays that cruising boats leave a board with their boat name and date of visit. Here is “Meander’s board, showing that we have been there a number of times; our companion boat on this trip, “Latitude”, also put up a name board last year, as did our friends on “Soul Asset” in 2014 who used a coconut!

On a dinghy exploration we traveled to the eponymously named “Two Trees” cay, a great diving spot. The French sailboat to the left was working her way through the shallow water looking for a good place to anchor.

After we secure the bigger boats, either by anchor on in a marina, exploring by dingy is one of our favorite activities. This photo, of our friend Jim Pope (from the vessel “Latitude”) is off a small cay called “Tea Table” which is good for beach combing.

Barbara and our friend Ellen Pope return to the dinghy with their finds including some beautiful shells and a fan coral.
You are only allowed to take coral which has washed up on shore; taking live coral from a reef is
prohibited as it will destroy a reef.

The fantail of a beautiful old wooden boat, “Freedom”, built in 1926. She hails from Newport, RI.

Over Yonder Cay, owned by an interesting entrepreneur, Mr. Ed Bosarge. The island has four villas, and is 96% powered by solar and wind. You can rent the island for $44,000 a day. Mr. Bosarge has a fascinating background and it is worth reading about his career. Here’s a link to one of his bio sheets from a conference he attended.
http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com/speakers/ed-bosarge-phd/

While anchored in “Big Majors Spot” at Staniel Cay, we saw this ominous looking boat. While it looked like a military craft, it is actually an 84’ Italian-built Arcadia yacht.

We’ve always said that we would never own a boat that wasn’t beautiful to look at. I guess we’ll never buy one of these.

A night time view from the top deck of “Meander”, looking down on our dingy. Our underwater lights were on, and the water is so clear that it makes the dinghy look as if it is suspended in air. The water in this picture was about 12’ deep.

Some of you will remember “Shark”, the dockmaster on Cave Cay.

People ask us why we cruise to the Bahamas. Yes, the waters are some of the most beautiful on earth, but the real reason is to meet the people, the friendliest and warmest folks anywhere.

Shark led us on a tour of one of the many caves on the cay.

In one of the caves, we came upon this huge hermit crab, the biggest we had ever seen. Its shell was the size of a softball.

Our next stop was Little Farmers Cay. Many of you remember our friend Ali, who used to run a small liquor store and bar on the island. Three or four years ago he suffered a massive stroke, and when we saw him two years ago he was not doing well. At that time we wondered if we would ever see him again.

When we returned to Little Farmers this year, we were excited to find Ali, and see that he had improved tremendously. He even drew us an accurate map, from memory, showing a good snorkeling site.

Ali is on the left, and his wife Brenda is on my other side. Brenda was the key person who helped in Ali’s recovery.

This is J.R., a woodcarver on Little Farmers. He often works in wild tamarind wood, as he is doing here. In this photo he is finishing a beautiful dolphin (mahi-mahi) carving, which our friends purchased.

Also on Little Farmers, we saw that a yellow building had been erected next to the government dock. We went inside, and found that it was a new bar, with a restaurant to come.

The woman owner who served us is on the left, Katie, and the man on the right is Barry, who built the new structure. We then learned that they were engaged. I asked to take their picture, and Barry just couldn’t look at the camera; he was mesmerized by Katie. After about six photos I finally got him to look at the camera, but this photo is much better when you understand the background.

A woman giving a young girl a swim.

We had lunch at Ocean Cabin, hosted by old friends Ernestine and Terry Bain. Ernestine is an excellent cook, and Terry – one of the most well-spoken, thoughtful thinkers in the Bahamas.

Ernestine Bain

Our companion boat “Latitude” at anchor.

Warmest regards to you all.

Greg and Barbara

Copyright, Greg Allard