It was a spectacular start to the 2012 35^th Annual Pirates Week Landing and Float Parade with a skydive. And that wasn’t all. A lady hovered over the water in Hog Sty Bay by the aid of downward pressure hoses attached to her body. She hovered high and low, even disappearing beneath the water before re-surfacing.

There were plenty of explosions and the blowing up of the ship that looked as if it had been wrecked on the island to announce the pirates arrival.

The first wave, that looked like the Seattle Seafair Pirates, arrived and were quickly captured by the wimpy governor and his redcoats before the main contingent arrived from the Jolly Roger.

The float parade was excellent and one of the best I have seen.

DOUBLE CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO ENLARGE

The whole event was watched by thousands of spectators and it amazes me that we have to have debates on the television and radio on whether Pirates Week should continue. Of course it must and the families with their children dressed as pirates that were flocking all over Harbour Drive are a testimony to its continual popularity.

If less people are coming it’s not the festival’s fault. It’s the extremely poor publicity and the reluctance of some of the persons in tourism who do not see the potential through their blinkered eyes.

Superb effort and kudos to all the persons who worked so hard putting it all together.

And did anyone recognise the lady standing up and waving to the crowds in the back of the truck pulling the Guv Boat?

THE WINNERS OF THIS YEARS STEELPAN COMPETITION SPONSORED BY CUC WERE:

Senior division

1st Place                Panoramers

2nd Place               Pandemix

Juniors

1st Place                Cayman Prep

2nd Place                Grace Academy

3rd Place                St Ignatious

Primary

1st Place                Cayman Prep

2nd Place               Prospect Primary

And on Sunday came the “Children’s  Fun Fair Day – What a day”

From Pirates Week Office

The Children’s fun fair Day sponsored by Progressive Distributors, Cayman 27, Dart and hosted by Camana Bay was a huge success, beautiful weather, lots to do, food prepared and served by Rotary Club and Sno cones served by the Leos.

Every child on arrival registered for the chance to win one of five bicycles given away courtesy of CIBC First Caribbean Bank and Kirk Home Centre.  They also received a goody bag, Cayman Taffy, and sun screen.

Pirates Week 2012 – Presenting Sponsor SaxonMG who were in attendance also run the registration desk and also handed out extra goodies to the children.

There was everything, two bouncy castles, painting, crayoning, chalk art, dunking for apples, two face painting stations, one in the SaxonMG tent and the other by Artistic Tattoo Parlour.  Mr. Wilderness a magician from California entertained the children and taught them some magic tricks.  Ramon & Eileen from Texas were the travelling minstrals, walking round getting the children to join in and sing along, Seattle Seafair Pirates, performed and also run a treasure hunt.   The local pirates Las Tortugas and Blackbeard & Dee Gee there to help out and of course there were lot of photo ops.

Poetry competition – Winners were announced and awards given out

Children’s Art Work – these were announced earlier and were on display, the awards and prizes were given out all winners.

The real fun for a lot of the children were the competitions and the draw for the bicycles.

First competition was The Beautiful Baby.

Judges for all events were

Paulette Connolly Bailey, 1^st Mate to Blackbeard Dee Gee Griffiths,  Eileen Wagner – Texas Wench, Miss Teen and Miss Cayman.  Katie O’Neill was MC and Clive Rosteing was in charge of the sound system

Beautiful Baby   There  were 11 entries to this competition and each child received a plaque and a soft toy together with a gift voucher from Progessive.  Can parents please contact me to collect gift vouchers Pat at 949-5078

1^st Place                                  Madison Lyn              Age 2

2^nd Place                                 Blaze Brackett            7 months

3^rd Place                                 Amy Zeledon              2  months

Costume competition – sponsored by Home Gas.     Each child received a plaque and the lucky 1^st place winner and runner up received a cash prize.

There were a total of 38 children entered this competitions and the winners in the different categories were:

Girls 6 and Under

1^st Place                      Kaydence Whitney

2^nd Place                     Karla Whitney

3^rd Place                     Olly Thorpe

Boys 6 and Under

1^st Place                      Jonathon Ramirez

2^nd Place                     Alec Lopez

3^rd Place                     Sean-Lucas Martinez

Girls 7 – 12

1^st Place                      Allaya Ebanks

2^nd Place                     Thirisha Ramaswamt

3^rd Place                     Alisha Kee

Boys 7 – 12

1^st Place                      Vijai Ramaswamy

2^nd Place                     Ethan Cronier

3^rd Place                     Louis Day

Then came the draw for the bicycles amidst much excitement and screaming ably assisted by Miss Teen and Miss Cayman, the bicycles were won by:

Dylan Munoz

Kamahl Mannings

Vincenzio Bush

Cayden Coles

Brianna Wright

Pirates Week would like to thank all their sponsors and volunteers without whom the festival would just not be possible.   Thank You.