1 Last year, the Saturday morning catamaran trip was canceled due to bad weather. This year, it was beautiful skies and flat seas.
2 First stop was the Stingray City Sandbar, which is easy to spot because of the cluster of other boats pulled up and anchored
3 Down the ladder and standing in chest-high water
4 It takes only moments for the stingrays to start circling the human arrivals. Over the years, they have become habituated to know that motors and human activity equals food.
5 The rule is to shuffle your feet across the sand in order to avoid accidently stepping on or startling the stingrays
6 Just when you're looking to one side, another stingray brushes by on the other
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9 Neil Patel and Aseem Chawla, two dentists that we befriended, thoroughly enjoying themselves
10 The crew from Red Sail Sports shows Ilona Thompson how to cradle the stingray without lifting its gills out of the water- which would be a not-so-very-good thing
11 Ilona, a food writer covering the cookout, pets the stingray
12 Ilona Thompson and Aseem Chawla, a dentist from Las Vegas, enjoy the group hug
13 Aseem Chawla and Neil Patel... and a stingray friend
14 Aseem and Neil
15 After the Stingray City Sandbar, it is only another 20 minute ride to Rum Point for the Beach Bash
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17 Feet from the water line, each chef has their own booth setup. This is a much more intimate event than the Friday Barefoot Barbecue, with approx. 300 attendees.
18 One of the Rum Point bars
19 Charles Joly, the amazing James-Beard award winning mixologist. His "Tegroni", a tequila take on negronis, were mighty mighty fine! Just replace the gin with tequila and add a spritz of grapefruit soda. Turns a winter warmer into a light summer breeze!
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