February festivities

First, to answer comments.

 What are you saying, Brenda?  Do you think I need religion?  Didn't you know I'm  an agnostic?

I didn't see Mom selling bread from her car but Sue thought she saw her bread for sale in Exuma Market.  The computer/grocery store is still there, as is the hot dog stand.  We ate at the little bar-b-que place by the little park.  And yes, we hiked to the monument and to the ocean side beach (as well as to NAPA and the lumber yard).

Now, for new business.  The festival was a little smaller than we thought it would be but then the population is less than 75.  When we were here two weeks ago, there 3 boats anchored on the outside.  This weekend there are more than 25 where we are, another 20 or so further north, and another 25 or more boats anchored or moored on the inside of the cay.  One of the speakers said that this was the largest number of boats that have been here in 10 years.  The school we visited two weeks ago was selling craft items they had made. There were a couple of ladies selling baskets and a lady selling guava duff (sort of like rhubarb shortcake).  A couple of men were selling conch salad, which we haven't yet mustered the courage to try.  It starts with live, raw conch, diced with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and lemon juice...  Well, I guess they're not still live after they're diced - but they had been 10 minutes before...

One of the highlights of the festival is Bahamian C-Class racing.  These are island built boats that look to be about 20 feet long.  The booms look to be about 30 feet long.  They have a crew of four or five; most of the crew ride out on two planks, which stick out from either side of the hull.  The crew move in or out on the planks as needed to keep the boat upright against the force of the huge sail.  The boats start the race anchored on the starting line and finish the race sailing through all the cruising and spectator boats anchored by shore.  Just a tad different than we're used to.

The other interesting thing at the festival was the Exuma Youth Band.   This band had 30 to 40 members.  They all arrived this morning from George Town on two police boats - and not particularly big boats at that.  They played in town first and then later at the airport, which is about half a mile from town.  To get to the airport and then later back to town, 12 to 15 students jumped in the back of a pick up truck.  I couldn't help but think of you, Rick P2.  They were surprisingly good for a small, young, group, with questionable instruments - one of the Sousaphone bells looked like it fell off the truck.  The band did some interesting marching formations and played a couple of songs the crowd really liked - "Louie-Louie" and "Satisfaction" to name a couple.

Sue and I were also interviewed by the local TV station.  I know it was the "Local Station" because that's what the microphone said.  And I clearly saw the microphone because the attractive, young reporter was holding it right in front of her bikini top.