It was overcast and ugly.We hung out on the boat for a while waiting for it to clear a bit but boats were arriving by the dozens. We gathered our stuff and the pups and took the dinghy to shore. The tide was low exposing a huge beach area. Hundreds of boats and people were already eating & and drinking. Somehow in this mob we found Tom 
& Laurel - they explained the lay of the land. Burgers, Hot Dogs and fries were being grilled...picnic benches scattered under the shade of the tall trees; They took
us to the most important spot – the adult drink bar with Tequila & Rum – all FREE. We let the dogs loose and they had a ball. This little girl loved Scupper & carried her all over. (check out Scupper's face) They made friends with everyone who, of course, could not the resist theirbegging tactics & gave them tid-bits of
whatever they were eating.
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| Wayne, Laurel, Winnie & Tom |
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True Parrothead July 4th - From this point on, I have no pictures to insert. During the beach party, the camera was placed inside the dinghy for safekeeping. Unfortunately, we didn’t know it was wet – the camera was trashed, in fact, I didn’t know if any of the pictures from the party would survive on the card until I got another camera and downloaded the pictures. From the U.S. Independence day to the Bahamas Independence Day on the 10th, there are sailboat races, which start at Green Turtle. Today is the first race, then a party; then a “lay day” when all the boats head for Man O' War Cay for the next race on the 6th, then a party; then a lay day and the boats head for Elbow Cay (Hope Town) for the next race on the 8th, then another party and another lay day and onward to Marsh Harbor for the final race and party on the 10th. Since I still didn’t know if I had to return to work on the 16th or the 23rd, we only stayed for the first race. We wanted to crew for Tom and Laurel, but decided not to chance it because of my darn back problem. We anchored off New Plymouth and watched with binoculars. Not quite the fun as being part of everything. We met everyone at the town dock for the party and free rum punches. I hopped a ride on a golf cart in search for the ‘world famous’ conch fritters and found them being cooked, fresh by the churchwomen. They where raising money to build a church. I couldn’t tell you how many I had but they only cost $5.00 and they were indeed, world famous! Tom and Laurel came in 2nd and received a beautiful plaque, engraved, with a little bronze green turtle on it. We said our goodbyes as we were starting our journey back to the states and they were heading south for the races and parities. We had a tough time deciding which way we wanted to go and finally opted to return the way we came and to spend some time on the inter-coastal north of Lauderdale. I had never cruised that area before.  P.S. Scupper went into ‘heat’ today – what woman must suffer! . |
