Anguilla: Meads Bay Boat Races
When it comes to Anguilla’s Summer Festival, Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week. August Monday invariable ends up being a pretty big day, and Scilly Cay Sunday is always a fabulous but equally full throttle day. Thursday, on the other hand, is Goldilocks in-between perfection.
Meads Bay is home to Thursday’s boat race making Frangipani the perfect point on the beach for watching the boats sail by. Further east down the beach, a beach party of mid-sized proportions lets loose with Caribbean tunes and local BBQ to draw in the crowds for the afternoon. Our first couple of years coming down for Carnival together we made our way down to the party zone for people watching with a side of rum punch. For the last couple of years, we’ve made Frangipani our more official home base for the entire day, with a band playing throughout the afternoon and a pool party which carries on through the later parts of the evening.
We cheered on the Frangipani-sponsored boat, De Tree, which hails from Blowing Point Village in Anguilla. Our landscape architect at the resort captains De Tree, and Thursday is one of the greatest days for watching them in action. Nearly everyone at the resort has a boat that they support and the races bring out a friendly competitive spirit for all involved. Our friends and family rocked ‘De Tree’ shirts to show support throughout the week’s festivities.
The Mussington Brothers, who played for our group last year, reprised their act this year with an excited audience from about 6PM onward. And no party is complete without a conga line.
A conga line with overhead pours of sparkling rosé is just a bonus.
My memories of last year’s August Thursday seemed to be pretty spot on. This year was as magical as the last, with a lively day and a gorgeous sunset that bled into night. Regardless of how many beautiful sunsets you’ve seen, they still manage to make you pause and drink in the moment. Thursday was a pretty sweet moment.
Sadly, I have no videos of the music this year to share (my camera was acting up). You can hear the Mussington Brothers in action in my post from August Thursday last year, with a video highlighting a brief minute of their performance.
Were you in Anguilla for Carnival? What were your highlights from the week?
