The Coral Bay Yacht Club presents the 16th "Almost" Annual Flotilla to benefit the local Guy Benjamin Elementary School. It is FUN! In the morning, sailboats taking school children and party-goers parade the sound before mooring at the beach for an afternoon of food and the best music ever (I'm biased) by INNER VISIONS. Seeing these sailboats gliding across the bay in an almost choreographed display is like watching moving art. The scene is topped off by the pride of the fleet, the 110 foot, 100 ton pirate ship Silver Cloud - blowing the conch and firing her cannon.
Built at the turn of the century in Canada, Silver Cloud was originally a pilot boat, a working boat meant to transfer captains to shore during storms. During WW1 and II she was pulled into service as a fire boat. But soon after, she fell into disrepair, and in the 1950’s she actually sank to the bottom of the sea, I don't know where. In the 1960’s a Christian missionary raised her up, restored her, and put her into service running eyeglasses and supplies for ministries between Canada and Haiti. The ship eventually wound up in the Bahamas, where she got involved with some unsavory characters. The Coast Guard ended up towing her to Florida after she was abandoned once again, after a failed marijuana smuggling adventure. Silver Cloud was run ashore after Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, and stayed ashore for the better part of a year, caged on the rocks. The whole community pitched in with elbow grease and money, jacked the ship off the rocks and soon the Silver Cloud was back in the harbor. The Silver Cloud only comes out for funerals (ash scattering services) , weddings and special occasions such as this.
Friend Su arranged to borrow Friend Steve's kayak and go to the party, but first we spent a half hour or so snorkeling in the bay in front of his house. The water was a little cold but there was a lot to see - parrot fish, wrasses, damsels, tetras - some swaying, undulating sponges, fans and bright fire coral. It's very quiet underwater, except for a "tinkling" like glass crystal wind chimes. I wonder if other people hear this too?
The water was so clear you could see the bottom. Gliding along was mesmerizing, I'm addicted.
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| Friend Steve |
Have you ever seen water this color?
The beach party has an admission price of $20 a person going to help the elementary school. There were two food stations - one was West Indian and the other was American. Which one would YOU take? Of course... the West Indian! They had 4 kinds of chicken; curried, BBQ, fried and jerk. They had curry slaw, pea beans and rice, ribs, Johnny cakes... can you say "YUM"?
The American food was grilled burgers and hot dogs with bag of chips and iceberg lettuce. Come on, people, this is a no brainer! There were drinks, beer, rum, other mixed drinks and water. Inner Visions didn't disappoint. as always they were rugged, tight and motivating. But no one danced! What was the problem? No one even bounced, everyone sat around or went to the beach. They were pretty much ignored, which I didn't get.
These inseparable girls were so sweet! Really intent on their food and each other.
After a couple hours we headed back to Friend Steve's. Su asked me to take her picture in the kayak, so I did. It would have been better if she'd been out in the water paddling or something, but I just do what I'm told.
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| I'm in Front This Time |
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| The View From Friend Steve's House |
It couldn't have been a better day - no drama, no tipping, no sunburn, nothing stung or sliced us up, lots of laughs, a couple Corona's and some good food. Maybe next year we'll have our own Flotilla.
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| End of a Perfect Island Day |
The rain from the last couple days held off, but by evening the air was a damp 70 degrees and a light drizzle moved through. A tiny sliver of moon was gobbled up as the sun set.
George has started watching "Storage Wars". I don't think I can take it.
Don't forget to click on the lower right corner "square" to see the Flotilla movie full-screen.
http://youtu.be/oUrWH-MPtts
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