Easter was Festival del Mar time in Island Harbour, their one big event of the year, and we were there!!! There was loads of fun, food and meeting old and new friends. We watched the traditional sailing boat races, saw the contestants of the fishing competition come back, and enjoyed a lot of life music! The beach was all built up with little stalls and there was fish and lobster on offer in large quantities, any style you could imagine! I tried the lionfish- first time ever for me- and I have to say it was really tasty! We should export it to the UK and use it for Fish’n’Chips, giving the good old cod and haddock a break!!!

On Sunday I had some conch soup, which was absolutely amazing and in the evening Sarah and I shared a lobster- it was huge- expertly prepared by the Jackmaster, self proclaimed “King of the Sea”. Very, very nice indeed, fresh from the BBQ.

I enjoyed watching the kids model boat races: They built the boats themselves, in the same fashion as traditional racing boats are built, then the boats are taken out to Scilly Cay (and island situated in the harbour), they fix the sails, and off those little boats race towards the shore, powered by wind and steered by the set sails! Really great! Then we watched the kids dancing competition- the girls dance like the adults- the beach volleyball tournament, the swimming competition (it was a relay and I did not know in advance, otherwise I would have tried to find a partner. I would have had a really good chance as well, judging from the teams that started-only 5- and that the first 4 got money prizes, medals and cups).

The cups were just ridiculous… every competition had huge prizes, cups and medals, the girls dancing competition had a prize money of a few hundred US Dollars, for the 6 year old!!!

We also watched some traditional Calypso music and in the evening went to see a great concert with an amazing international female reggae singer! Finally we got home- tired and happy- at 3 am!

What a fantastic weekend!