Birthday in Paradise

Birthday celebration on Pipe Muh Bligh

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a wonderful day.  We started the morning off with a trip into town with Steve and Rene and Stacy (s/v Pipe muh Bligh).  Stacy and Rene made it to George Town yesterday and Rene's birthday was on the 10th so we had a little celebrating to do.  After the trip to town I went to we spent part of the afternoon on Pipe muh Bligh (we: Me, Troy, Rene, Stacy, Steve, Shane and Michael).  Steve made a rum cake for Rene and I and Stacy made us some guacamole and, of course we decided that we needed to have a little taste of Zaya to celebrate the occasion.  Yummy, yummy afternoon snacks!  I got some really great and thoughtful gifts and a great card from my cruising friends on Morning Glory, Kaleo and Sea Yawl Later.  I was thinking that the day couldn't get much better, and then........

The late afternoon was spent at the Regatta Awards Ceremony.  We were anxious to hear the results of the races and other events.  Sea Yawl Later won first place and Guiding Light was second in the "In the Harbour Race" and Sea Yawl Later was second and Guiding Light was third in the "Around the Island Race".  We raced with Shane on Guiding Light in the "Around the Island Race" so we were excited about our third place.  That was also the race with the photography, fishing and cooking contests.  We didn't place in the photography event (still keeping the N.N.G.P. credentials), but we won the fishing event, in fact we were the only boat to catch a fish!  We caught a really beautiful mahi-mahi.  The most exciting event for me was winning the "baking under way" event.  I was told that every one of the judges voted my dessert 1st place!  What a great way to cap the birthday celebrations.

We ended the evening with a round of celebratory drinks on Guiding Light with Shane, Michael, Steve, Rene and Stacy.  What a wonderful birthday in paradise!

I have had many requests for my cheesecake recipe.  It has now won two different cooking contests. It's called Sopapilla Cheesecake, but we took the liberty of renaming it for the last event.  This years George Town Cruising Regatta theme as Gold, so we decided on Golden Creme Brulee Cheesecake. It is really very simple to make:

3 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 (8 ounce) cans of crescent rolls

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup sliced almonds

*Preheat oven to 350 deg.

*Beat cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups sugar and the vanilla extract until smooth

*Unroll crescent dough and press 1 can into the bottom of a 9 X 13 inch baking dish

*Spread cream cheese mixture over crescent rolls

*Cover with remaining can of crescent rolls

*Drizzle melted butter over the top

*Stir 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl

*Sprinkle over cheesecake and top with almonds

*Bake in preheated oven until crescent dough had puffed and turned golden brown, about 45 minutes

*Cool completely in the pan before cutting

George Town, Bahamas

We've been anchored in George Town for almost two weeks now and I can't believe that I haven't updated the blog in all this time.  My first and foremost excuse - lack of internet access.  It's not as easy as I thought it would be to surf the WWW.  Second excuse - we are just having too much fun to worry about it.  Every day seems to bring a new adventure.  We are here during the 31st Annual George Town Cruisers Regatta.  There are activities every day, lots of activities.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.


Our hand from the Dinghy Poker Run 


We entered our dinghy in the dinghy parade and poker run.  We participated in the Coconut Roundup with our friends Ted and Millie from s/v Morning Glory.  Our team name was Glory Story.  We have hiked and swam and attended info sessions and yoga sessions and beach church.  We see loggerhead turtles swimming around our boat every day.  We see dolphins and lots of really big star fish.We've spent lots of time with our cruising friends and we wake up each morning and pinch ourselves to make sure this is for real. 

Yesterday we sailed in a race around Stocking Island.  We were on our friend Shane's Lagoon 41 Catamaran (s/v Guiding Light).  Part of the race includes a contest for the best dish baked underway (I made my famous award winning Sopapilla Cheesecake), the best photograph taken while underway (I broke out my camera and will try to improve on my N.N.G.P. status - Non National Geographic Photographer) and a contest for the longest fish caught while underway.  All while trying to win the race, of course.  We won't get results until tomorrow night at the awards ceremony, so wish us luck.  Word has it that we were the only boat to catch a fish, so it sounds like we will win that one at least!  It was a rush to reel in a mahi mahi.  I sure do look forward to catching more just like that one. 



The winning fish!



We are planning to stay here for another week and then move on.  We have loved the Exumas so much and the water is finally getting warm enough to enjoy.  I am looking forward to doing more spear fishing and fishing in the next few weeks. 

Click on the links to see photos:

Blackpoint, Exumas

Little Farmers Cay, Exumas

George Town, Exumas

Don't forget that you can leave comments on the blog posts, the photo albums, or even on each individual photo.  I love getting comments - as long as they are nice ;)