02/09/09 - The 5F Festival and a slight Change in Plans...

Overview - We went to Little Farmers Cay last week in order to attend the 5F Festival and reunion.  That's the First Friday in February at Farmers Cay Festival.  The Festival centers around a Bahamian Class C racing regatta but also includes Bahamians from the surrounding islands that come to race and set up stands serving local foods ranging from Conch Salad and Scorched Conch to the local version of Pea Soup and stewed mutton.  The winds were good for racing at about 20kts but the temperatures were some of the coldest we've seen down here in years.  Even the Canadian cruisers were often times bundled up in jackets and such. 

One of the nice things about the Farmers Cay anchorage is the availability of free wifi  from the Farmers Cay Yacht Club.  The up/down side of that is that you can communicate with the rest of the world via Skype and email and get filled in with all of the happenings back home.  I have learned over the years that this isn't necessarily a good thing, but alas...

Enjoy!

Click on pictures to enlarge! 

The view of the inside anchorage in front of Farmers Cay Yacht Club.  Well protected but with a surge.

The race boat were anchored around us and here are preparing to go out to the race course.

This is the end of the first race with the boats coming in to the finish line on a beam reach

Nice shot of Barbarian....

Again...

Again...

The trophies for the event were staged in front of the bar for viewing.

The view from the street looking the other way towards Ali's Bar  and Terry's restaurant at the top of the hill.

We enjoyed Brenda's stewed mutton, potato bread and...

The mailboat, the "Captain C" came into Farmers Cay just after sunrise and unloaded people and Class -C boats for the festival.

With the winds out of the East, the racing was held in the relative calms of the western shore, right next to the airport. Watch out for the planes landing!

With the high winds the boats only put out a small amount of sail to move the boats from the anchorage to the race course.

Saturday's race, I got into the dinghy to get some better close ups of the boats.  It was too cold for Deb so I splashed around freezing, taking these next few shots.

And another....

Again...

Mid day temps weren't unbearable..

After the race everyone went downtown to enjoy Conch salad being made here or food at one of the stands or restaurants.

Even the children were having fun dancing to the Bahamian beat coming from Ali's Bar.

.

...her cheesecake-like Guava Duff!  Yum!

Enjoy!

Use your browsers back button or click below to go back to the Logs Page

The mast is in place.

The western anchorage off the end of the runway has plenty of water for the deeper draft vessels and no surge in Easterly winds. 

The day had both overcast skies and brilliant blue skies changing every hour or so...

Hey, I know that this isn't a great picture but I suffered to get it so I'm posting it.  Don't look at it if you're unimpressed!

Boats heading for the finish line.  The competition was fierce!

Again...

The food and beer stands cranked up feeding all of the hungry festival goer's and race participants.

Looking across the street from Brenda's Take Out and Ali's Bar.

Brenda was cooking conch fritters as fast as she could and there was still a line in front of her door.  They were voted "best in the Bahamas."