As we mentioned in in earlier blog, Staniel Cay is a good place to be for the holidays. The Yacht Club is the center of the town's activities and goes out of it's way to celebrate the holidays and make the visitors feel welcome. They had a kids' Christmas party, the Commodore's ball, a Pirate party, Pig Roast, News Year's Eve dinner and midnight fireworks. In addition to these activities they sponsor two regattas. One is a Cruisers race and the other is the Class A Sloop Challenge. The Sloop Challenge consists of match racing between two local boats, the Tida Wave and the Lady Muriel. For this race, the boats are skippered by a local captain and crew along with visiting cruisers.
The night prior to the race, the locals sponsor a party for anyone in the area. They supply the drinks and put on a traditional Bahamian meal of hogfish, grilled chicken, conch soup, conch salad, mac and cheese, and lobster salad. This was an event we could not pass up. The meal was fantastic and the Bahamian beer and rum punch flowed freely. The warmth of the locals was incredible. At one point, one of the organizers got up and thanked everyone for coming and proclaimed that, "at Staniel Cay, you come as a visitor and leave as a friend."
The next day, the race got under way about two hours late. Whether that was because of the rum punch or just a matter of "Island Time," we never heard. But when it did get going, the racing was fierce. Lady Muriel won the first race, Tida Wave came on strong at the end to take the second, then Lady Muriel came back in the third to claim bragging rights for another year.
Dan spent the last two days spear fishing with Ian from Stormy Nights. Ian has been cruising the Bahamas for many years and is a spear fishing maniac. They have been doing pretty well and we had fresh lobster tails for New Year's Eve dinner.
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Location:Staniel Cay, Exuma
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