Newsletter March/April 2005

"What month is this? or The Party's on"

In the last newsletter I told you the zany crew of Pipe Dream had fixed the transmission and was on the way to Georgetown. It just so happened, there was a cruisers’ rally taking place in conjunction with the arrival of Pipe Dream. What a coincidence! We were just in time for another party. This was the 25th anniversary of the Georgetown Cruisers’ Regatta with about 350 boats attending. The event lasted for eleven days and a good time was had by all. There were dances on the beach, pet parades, mask contests, beach volleyball, baseball games, kayak races, sailboat races, rowing races, seminars, etc.,etc.
The crew of Pipe Dream competed in the team kayak race and took third place. To explain the third place, I must say that we were out-powered by youth! There were twelve double kayaks in the race and ten of those were manned by teams of teenagers. The Pipe Dream rowing team (Ferdy and Jutta), powered by Caribbean Rum, led the pack through two of the four gates but was finally over taken by youth at the finish line. If there had been an over fifty category, like in many of the other events, we would have taken first place hands down. We also crewed in the around the bay race and the around the island open ocean race on the sailboat “The Millennium Falcon.” We took third place in both events. Not bad for a couple of old wine and cheese sailors! Of course, there was a celebration party after each race.
Everything on Pipe Dream is in good working condition. We have made a new bimini, dodger, and cockpit cushions, and all the woodwork shines with a brand new coat of varnish. All the hard work in the shipyard in Florida has paid off. There have been NO MORE breakdowns. I would knock on wood but every time I do I discover another piece of teak trim that needs re-varnishing. I better knock on fiberglass!
Jutta’s brother Claus, and his wife and daughter flew into Georgetown during Spring Break from a cold and snow covered Germany. After the end of the rally, we sailed out of Georgetown to visit some of the out-lying cays and do some fishing. Claus managed to reel in a three foot Wahoo and we shared a terrific fish dinner with our friends on the sailboat “Varuna.”. After all the cold weather in Germany, our visitors really enjoyed the sunshine and 80 degree temperature. As you can probably guess most of their time was spent trying to get a tan so they wouldn’t go back home “shark belly white.”
The Strecker family left on a Friday which left one day to clean the boat before our friends Bob and Tish Saemisch arrived on Sunday. It was also time to reprovision the boat. Not an easy task considering the exorbitant prices and meager pickings at Exuma Market. The Saemisch’s were not as lucky with the weather as Jutta’s family. Of the ten days Bob and Tish were aboard Pipe Dream, the wind blew twenty knots day and night for the first seven days. Mother Nature also threw in a few rain squalls so it wasn’t any picnic. They hardly had a chance to get a little tan on their cadaver white skin. It didn’t matter to grouchy Bob because he spent most of the time working on his computer. Next year we will let him spend his vacation at the office and Jutta and I will play with Tish
We made the best of a bad situation and stayed in Elizabeth Harbor, Georgetown. We hiked the islands, walked the deserted beaches, and, not to be out of character, we did spend time at the beach bar, “The Chat and Chill”. The wind finally quit honking and a week after their arrival, Pipe Dream sailed out of Georgetown and headed north with the motor purring because the wind was right on the nose!
The Saemisch’s left out of Staniel Cay on the 13th of April bound for Florida and Arizona. Jutta and I have two weeks alone before my son and daughter arrive in Nassau for a week. We had intended to sail to Nassau via Eleuthera but as usual, we are hiding out from yet another cold front blowing down from the North. So far, our cruise to the Bahamas has not been the most enjoyable. It seems we hide from cold fronts coming across the United States every week. January and February were the worst months. We were told when April rolls around the weather will be perfect. Guess what sports fans, April isn’t much better. After my kids fly back to the States in May, we will turn Pipe Dream north, spend a week or so in the Abacos (Northern Bahamas), then head up the eastern seaboard to see what the United States has to offer.
Keep those e-mails coming and I will be more diligent about my monthly newsletters. Jutta and I hope to see all of you somewhere in our travels through paradise. Keep those dollars coming for the “Help Ferdy Fund”. All of you who could retire, but are still working, keep this in mind: Once retired, if you run out of money you can always go back and make more, if you run out of time…..????
From the Decks of Pipe Dream,

Ferdy and Jutta