The Migration
08 April 2014
Lisa
The festivities began on April 1st. What festivities you ask? The gathering of Manta catamarans in the northern Bahamas. 120 sailing manta cats were built. Over the last 15 years there have been several gatherings planned by the company that built the boats. Clark Haley had the idea to plan another, since the last was in 2008. He and his wife, Michelle, put together a 5 days of fun and frivolity as a way to get manta owners together for friendship and information. They did a brilliant job.
The first night was a cocktail party. We were given t shirts, giant squirt guns, Off Botanical bug spray and a reusable bag. And instructions for the upcoming 5 days. Pat Reishman,the an who had much to do with the design of the boats came and held a rigging seminar and question and answer time for everyone. I have learned over the last year and a half that manta owners really like to talk about all things manta. All enjoyed this part of the program. At two that afternoon, we all boarded two power cats for the trip to Nippers for swimming, snorkeling and lunch. BTW, twelve mantas in all were part of the group, one being a manta power cat. The boats had between two to six crew so the total crowd for the week was about 25 to 30. Nippers as always was fun and we returned to marsh harbor around 7 pm.
After a 9 am skippers meeting on Thursday, the race to hope town commenced at 11. Now and Zen kind of left the rest of us behind, but there was a bit of excitement between Kharma and True Colors. We came in third. That evening we all had a pot luck dinner at the hope town marina. I cannot begin to tell you how delicious everything was. Sailors can cook, for sure
Friday morning there was another skippers' meeting tha preceded the race to Little Harbor. Again Now and Zen zipped out in first, but True Colors was able to hold off Kharma to take second. There were other boats involved in these two races, but they just didn't ever get in the hunt. We joined up for dinner at the very famous Pete's Pub where the food and drinks are always spot on.
The highlight of the week, for me, was the blind dinghy race. The helmsman is blindfolded and the bowman has to direct him where to go, in this race it was to 6 different cats that held numbers in a Baggie. You had to find 3 of you predetermined numbers and get back to the beach in order to finish. We did pretty well communicating,but not so great at picking the boats with our numbers. It was really fun and because a team could get extra points for style, there were some great costumes. There were clowns in full get up and a lovely young thing, male, in bikini top and dreads. We were very lame as we have nothing that can be considered Costumey on the boat. I wore Lily's life jacket and mart just brought himself.
That evening we had a pig roast at Pete's and the awarding of prizes. We were lucky enough to come in third overall and were presented with a bronze manta ray which had been cast here at the foundry. He is perched on a piece of driftwood and I love it! I will add a picture after the memory card finds its way back into the camera. I am hoping to get more pictures from others and will add them too.
Sunday morning was quite sad, as 6 mantas left to start their treks north. The rest of us went dinghy exploring and snorkels a blue hole. I think four of us will be moving south together once the weather, which is keeping us here, improves. I hope so anyway. We have met some great people and want to hang out a little longer. This morning, Jennifer and Royce, on Circa Trova, gave the other three women a bread, yogurt and granola making lesson. Can't wait to get started on bread making!
Okay...this is really long. Had a lot to tell you about. I'll be back as we get moving.
Later...