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July 13, 2009 (M0nday)

July 11, 2009 (Saturday)

     The Regatta race was from Hopetown to Marsh Harbor.  The day was nice and sunny with winds 8-12 knots.  Mike Messinger dropped off our dinghy at the tow line and swam back to the boat.  We had a good start on the race and using our staysail had a good first leg, we even poassed some boats.  We had a good sail along the whole course and crossed the finish line before boats that were usually in front of us, but unfortunately due to the handicapping changes, we did not win a prize when our time was corrected.  We still felt good about our sail.  Buena Vida crossed the starting line with it's beautiful blue spinnaker with the white palmetto on it flying.  I think they had their spinnaker up the whole race.  It was a beautiful site.  They were also disappointed to only win a third place today.   It still was a lot of fun and very exciting for us. After the race we took a slip at the Conch Inn Marina and turned on the AC and refrigerator. We ended the night at The Jib Room with a nice steak dinner.  

July 12, 2009 (Sunday)

     Everyone on our boat slept in.  After a leisurely brunch, we went over to Mermaid Reef to snorkel for a while.  We stopped at the Jib Room Bar for a frozen drink to cool us off.  After cleaning up we had a lovely dinner at The Angler Restaurant at the Boat House Marina.  

July 13, 2009 (Monday)

     Our guests packed up, did a bit of shopping and left for the airport.  We took the boat over to have the holding tank pumped out.  We were charged $1.00 per gallon!  The guy has a monopoly here as there is no other provider and most boaters just dump overboard. However Hopetown asks that we use holding tanks though they also have no pumpout service.   I did laundry and some grocery shopping.  We pulled dinghy engine back on  the big boat and deflated the dinghy, bagging it and leaving it on the deck.  Charlie filled our water tanks and plotted our course.  We are preparing to take off tomorrow morning about mid-tide for home. We plan to head for St. Augustine which should take us about 48-50 hours.  We plan to rest a day and then head northward to Brunswick, Beaufort and Charleston.