The Pika Festival is held on the tiny Pacific island of Tinian located in the Northern Mariana Islands. I had 'jumped into deep end' and bought a sailboat shortly after moving to the Mariana Islands, even though I had no idea how to sail. Luckily there was an active sailing club who helped out immensely and Commodore Dave sailed my boat down to Tinian, along with 8 others, to attend the festival. We had another couple boats sail down at the same time, all for a good weekend of fun at the festival. Most people camped out on the beach for free, although I opted to stay on the boat. We were able to put one of the kayaks below deck for the sail down to Tinian but there was a lot people using this so I opted to swim back and forth from the boat to make things easier.
Pika is a hot pepper, so this festival revolves around celebrating these peppers which seem to grow everywhere on the island. There is plenty of food (spicy and non), shows, dancing, hot pepper eating contests, etc. There was lots of bbqs, friends and good times...
The sail up was great as the wind picked up and I got to see how Dave would sail the Zen in these conditions. He has a racing background so every sail was adjusted for maximum speed to get us back to Saipan. After this I felt much more comfortable on my boat and would take it out into the protected harbor often, eventually making my own passage to the beautiful island of Tinian.
Pika is a hot pepper, so this festival revolves around celebrating these peppers which seem to grow everywhere on the island. There is plenty of food (spicy and non), shows, dancing, hot pepper eating contests, etc. There was lots of bbqs, friends and good times...
The sail up was great as the wind picked up and I got to see how Dave would sail the Zen in these conditions. He has a racing background so every sail was adjusted for maximum speed to get us back to Saipan. After this I felt much more comfortable on my boat and would take it out into the protected harbor often, eventually making my own passage to the beautiful island of Tinian.
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