Saturday 21st January
On our way to Great Exuma, Georgetown as there was predicted strong windy weather coming from the West. There are not many places in the Exumas that can offer any good protection from Westerlies so, George Town it had to be.
To do this we had to go “outside” and into the Exuma Sound side of the island chain and into deeper water. Even we, with our shallow draft, can’t get through some of the shallow routes on the bank. We had heard so many people on the radio saying they were catching mahi mahi (fish), Don tried but to no avail (this time), hmm.
It seems like the weather is doing its best to shake us about, we had chosen Goat Cay North anchorage which protects from the South, West and partially the North winds which were heading our way. It was fine until the winds changed again in the night to the North East and we were almost thrown out of bed, its the first time I have had to hold on in bed!
Very busy here but its a huge anchorage, a good place to provision and in March its the Cruisers annual 37th regatta soon with everyone in good spirits looking forward to the activities. |
| This is the way into town |
Theres a great radio net here and a great community with all sorts going on. Folks meet up for sundowners on various beaches, music in some places, volleyball and even ukulele practice, of course I have been, its a great way to meet people.
One afternoon we took boxes of our sailing “leftovers” to a ‘treasures of the bilge’ sale and did pretty well, at least we emptied another big box.
Well the weather is yet another topic of conversation, its our choice to come so early to the Bahamas now, the weather pattern is typical for this time of the year so no worries. We just have to find the right place for protection, sometimes its not so good but hey, we are still here and loving this life, having said that I think my body clock has deserted me, mostly very early starts to the day and asleep by 8 or 9 at night (that’s cruisers midnight).
The next plan is to go south again and the places we want to go need pretty calm weather so we are velcroed here for now, not complaining its great and its about time we chilled out.
As I write this its February 10th.
Still waiting for the weather break, we need at least 8 - 10 days to go where we want to but in the meantime we are having fun.
We have made new friends here, I practice my ukulele, we all get together for music in the local places to eat and have a few drinks together. The beach on the oceanside is stunning, Don plans to go with Gerry and/or Scott now to try and catch some lobster or whatever they can find.
Just met up with Scott, Paula and Jack the dog who is the security guard. We first met them in Grenada over two years ago and have crossed paths a few times since then. We heard them on the radio this morning so I called them up, so they came to see us and Pearl.
Every few days we move Pearl to either one side of the islands or the other, all depends on mainly the winds, or our desire for internet and grocery shopping.
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| Tropic of Cancer Beach (aka Pelican Beach) its a mashing beach on the ocean side with lovely soft sand, you can see its pretty busy lol |
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| Nancys dog, she loves the beach |
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| Pretty sunset, one of the dozens taken here |
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| Jane and David on So Far So Good, we met the a few times since meeting in the ICW Doug and his wife in the dinghy |
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| St Francis, where I went for ukulele practice and met Garry and Ingrid |
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| We had some amazing sunsets and sunrises |
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| Sometimes it was so calm |
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| Little beach at St Francis, there is a restaurant, we ate there a few times |
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| Andrew and Don |
We met up again a few times with Andrew and Sara, the young honeymooners we met up in Deltaville. Their boat is now renamed “honeymooners”.
We all went for lunch then took them to the best beach on the ocean side, a lovely walk with stunning views.
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| We took Andrew and Sarah to Tropic of Cancer Beach (aka Pelican Beach) beach |
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| We had great fun with Andrew and Sarah |
While we were in Georgetown it was the cruisers regatta, the 37th year. Lovely atmosphere, and the weather was kind to them.
Music, games, tug of war, egg and spoon, beach golf, poker runs, food, drink, all kinds of yacht racing, sand castle competition, volleyball, costume party, and so much other stuff. It was manic at times, the dinghy dock was packed and climbing over dinghies was the only option, great fun.
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| Gary playing at the regatta |
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| Ladies tug of war |
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| The boys turn |
We had some excitement yesterday, and the day before, when a small sea plane landed pretty close by. It then motored between the anchored boats to park itself at the local beach bar. It looked pretty scary as he reversed itself onto the beach in between dinghies and people sunning themselves. When he departed it was the same deal, no warning on the VHF which was silly. He did a low fly by when he had taken off, isn’t it just typical that the camera battery runs out at the most inconvenient times. Usually, when people go to the local beach bars, they normally turn up on rubber dinghies wearing shorts and flip-flops so, it was a bit different to see people dropping in on a sea plane for a burger and a beer !
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Well this is one way to arrive
March - Well it went by, we are stuck, not able to go south snd these fronts coming through are not nice at all. Such a pity we never got to go to the Ragged Islands but why risk anything so we said goodby to our friends and without a doubt we will meet up again somewhere.
Time to leave!
Yes I know its been such a long time since the last blog, the internet has been somewhat " iffy "
So the next one is on its way soon with the trip back towards the US.
BFN
Glenys and Don on Pearl
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