Georgetown

3-25-2013

All four boats got up early this morning. We listened to Chris Parker’s weather forecast to make sure it was a good day to go outside. We all raised our anchors about 7 am and left Black Point Settlement for Georgetown. The wind had picked up last night and the anchorage was bumpy so we were ready to leave.

FFF went out first and gave us a good report. The current and the wind were both going out so that made Dothan Cut easy for us to leave from. If the wind and current had been going in different directions, the cut could have been rough. They told us the ocean was calm so 180 went next. We were close behind them and then Rocking B was last.

"White Horses" rock formation.

Rocking B. It was the last boat to leave anchorage and first to get to Georgetown.

180

The water was calm and there was enough wind for the sailboats to sail and not use their motors. 180 was very excited. Charlie said that sailors didn’t get many days this good. Calm water and good winds. We thought it was a good day for traveling too.

A rock tower along the coastline

Shay put out a fishing line and caught 2 barracudas. They are mean looking with all those teeth.

Mean looking barracuda.

Catching a dolphin

That will be so good tonight for dinner.

We heard the rod and Shay said he knew we’d get a fish soon. He had seen them playing in the water in front of the boat. When he reeled it in, it was a 32” dolphin or mahi-mahi. We were very excited; they are very good eating fish. He cleaned the fish and we made plans for a group fish meal tomorrow night. Everyone was excited. Rocking B and FFF both had lines in the water. David said he kept catching seaweed and he could fix seaweed salad. Rocking B did catch a small fish but they released it. Margaret said it had nervous eyes.

We got to Georgetown about 3:30. The anchorage is beautiful. Blue water, sandy beaches and palm trees. There is room for lots of boats here. Ken said there were more here a few weeks ago than there are now. Lucky us.

The colors are amazing.

Can you imagine living here?

Colorful place on the water

Monument anchorage

Here we are

This is Lake Victoria "downtown Georgetown"

Margaret had invited us for stir fry on their boat tonight. Shay took a dunk in the water to wash off all the scales from the fish he cleaned and then took a shower on the swim platform.

We had a great time on Rocking B. We had chicken stir fry, rice, and I took black eyed peas. It was great. We enjoyed spending time with them again.

We woke up at 6:15 to a storm. We had hard wind and rain. We had gusts to 26 kts of wind. We jumped up and closed the windows and then stood around watching the boats. At least one boat’s anchor did not hold.

We noticed someone on the front of FFF and realized Emma was washing the boat. After the rain let up a little, Shay went out and started washing ours. It looks a lot better now. No salt crystal on everything. Rocking B showed us around the harbor. We walked across the island to the ocean side. The water was a lot rougher today than yesterday. We were glad me were not out on the water today. Margaret and I went shelling. We found lots of tiny conch shells. We ate lunch at St. Frances’s Marina and bought internet tickets. Each ticket has 75 minutes of internet service.

Next we visited the different anchorages on our side of the harbor. They are all beautiful. Some are more secluded that others, just depends on what you want. Lots of noise and stuff going on or quiet beaches and nothing to do.

Beautiful water

Rocking B

The beach at Chat'n'Chill. We are anchored in front of it.

Beautiful sunset

Back to the boat to get ready for our fish dinner. We fixed grilled mahi, grilled smoked sausage, and baked beans. Margaret brought a big tossed salad, FFF brought potato salad, and 180 brought a pasta dish. Everything was great and we enjoyed the company.

Tomorrow we will go into town and see about getting a Betelco phone card. We went into Lake Victoria, which is the center of town. Most of the businesses are located around it. Margaret and Ken showed us the cruisers grocery store and I saw some high prices on some things and some not too high on others. You need to make sure you bring as much non perishable stuff with you because that stuff is high. The local store which has lower prices on most stuff was a little better. We stopped at “Top II Bottom” which has everything you could every want. We checked out the menus at several places and they’re not as high as I had been told.

This is the entrance to Lake Victoria. This was taken from the water dock.

We spent several hours in the Betelco, Bahamas Telephone Company getting our phone and internet service set up. The people did not know how to set up our phone for internet so we had to set up our IPad. We thought we might have problems so we had it with us. So, now we have a phone we can use to call home for about $0.89 cents a minute and internet service on the IPad. We gave the phone number to some family, but warned them that it would cost us $0.89 and them around $0.50 for each minute, so this is basically an emergency phone. We communicate but it won’t be cheap. I will try to send emails out so people will know what’s going on.

We ate a late lunch at the Exuma Yacht Club. Ken had seen some great looking burgers there so we checked them out. The burgers were $12.00 with fries and were big and good. I had been told a burger was $15.00 or more in the islands, but so far haven’t seen any that expensive. We can’t eat out for a while, we did yesterday and today. Rocking B is a bad influence on our budget.

We had an easy day today. We did go to the beach this afternoon. Ken took the “girls”; Emma, Charlie and Quinn were there too. The beach we went to is called “Chat and Chill”. There is a restaurant called that on the beach. A very rustic restaurant. We watched the volleyball games, watched kids playing in the surf and watched a guy on a motorized wakeboard. Yes it had a motor. Of course the guys had to check it out, talk to the owner, and look at the engine. It only costs $15,000.00. Not in our budget.

Guess what I did? You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you. Touched a stingray. Yes a live stingray. There are several that swim along the beach here waiting for food. There were several people in the water messing with it so I followed along. It feels squishy. When I told Lauren, she said I’d done it before in an aquarium. I remaindered her that was in tank. She said this was just a bigger tank.

I hope he has all his fingers when he finishes feeding the ray.

Rocking B is planning on leaving Saturday, so we are having a get-together on our boat tomorrow night. We will miss them.

Shay had gone visiting and I was on the boat by myself when I heard a guy on the VHF telling the harbor that a 6-8 foot shark had just gone past his boat. He said he was off “Chat and Chill” beach and so are we so of course I grabbed my camera and went outside. The guy on Flicker jumped in his dinghy and started looking for it. At the same time, I heard Emma calling to me; she was swimming to the beach. I couldn’t tell her about the shark because she had her head back in the water, swimming. Luckily, the guy in the dinghy stopped to tell her about the shark. Emma is not a shark person so she asked the guy if she could get a ride to the beach. She was in the dinghy in 2 seconds. 

Rocking K, 180, FFF and Chris came to our boat for a farewell party on 3-29-2013. We had a great time munching, talking, and spending time together. They are planning on leaving about 9 in the morning.

Bye friends, we will se you later.

Sails up? Check.

Sailing out of the anchorage. Now that's brave!

We went to Rocking B to telling them good-bye, again. Ken went over his route again with Shay and they agreed it looked good. Margaret told us if she sent a “Spot” and then sent another in about 30 minutes that was her code for “this is not what we expected it to be, I wish we were back at anchor!” We will miss them but we made plans to visit them in Baltimore during the summer and talked to them about coming to Morehead City and visit us. We might even to Cape Lookout for a few nights.                                                                                  

We got up and got ready for our trip. We took our poncho because we figured we’d get wet during the dinghy ride. We did get a little wet but not bad. We filled up the water jugs and walked around town. Everything is closed because it’s Easter. David and Emma went too.

We stopped at several places on the way to Exuma Point Restaurant. The first stop was at a graveyard at Hermitage. The Ferguson family from the Carolinas settled in the small settlement after the American War of Independence. There were three graves there. They were from the early 1800’s.

These are the people buried here.

We sampled “dilly fruit” or sapodilla. It tasted good and we picked up a few to bring back to the boat. It is described as “sweet and juicy” and the taste is similar to brown sugar so it is also called “Mr. Brown Sugar”. The seeds are toxic so we’d better not eat them.

The next stop was at Steventon Jail House, the first jail in the Bahamas. There was also a statue of Pomey, a slave that led a revolution. Even though it was a jail, the scenery was beautiful.

Pomey

Jail

We also went by an old packaging house. At one time there was a huge farm nearby that raised lots of vegetables for the Bahamas. The young people moved away and the older people were not able to continue farming, so the package house closed.

We heard the story of the “Three Sisters Rocks”. According to the legend, three sisters fell in love with the same man, but didn’t know it was the same man. When he decided to leave the island, they all three swam out to his boat to leave with him and they all three drowned. That’s a sad story. I guess they should have had better communications skills with their boyfriend and each other.

Location of "Three Sisters Rock"

The next stop was in Rolle Town where the Rolles live. The actress Esther Rolle from the TV show “Good Times” has descendants here. The restaurant had a buffet ready for us. We had rice and beans, macaroni and cheese, a dish with plantain and cabbage and carrots, BBQ chicken and ribs, baked pork chops, fried fish, baked fish with the eyes, conch fritters, cole slaw and salad. None of us tried the baked fish; we decided we couldn’t eat something that was looking at us. The meat was good, but the veggies were the best. I especially liked the salad with pasta, peas, corn onion, lettuce, tomato and some kind of fruit. The plantain, cabbage and carrot dish was good too. We all ate way too much.

View from the restaurant

Next everyone except Shay walked to a cave where a hermit lived for years. Even though he had a great view, I don’t think I’d like to stay there. We went back to where Shay was lounging in the shade and relaxed for a while. Then Emma and I went back to the restaurant and played musical chairs. I won! Well, don’t get too excited, I only won a soft drink.

Looking into the cave

Another view of the cave

Emma and David's "cheeky" pose

Back to Georgetown and the dinghy dock. Then the fun really begins. Remember, we had brought our ponchos and we needed them this time. We were hit in the face by waves of salt water constantly. Shay tried slowing down to see if it was any better but it wasn’t. So he punched it and we took off. Now this didn’t stop the waves, but at least we were getting across. We were soaked by the time we got to our boat, even with our ponchos. So we got our stuff out of the dinghy and then changed clothes. We rinsed our clothes in fresh water and hung them out. Everything was wet—ponchos, clothes, undies, and shoes. We said at least it was warm water. But it was salty.

Its amazing on this side of the harbor, it’s windy and bouncy but there are lots of people on the beach. If you don’t have to go across the harbor its no problem. Some of the people at the beach are probably from the mainland, but they probably rode the boat taxi across the water. They may still get wet on the trip back. The wind is around 15kts.

Water taxi

FFF and sunset

FFF

The water is so blue that it reflects onto the clouds and they look blue. Can you see it?

We’ve had a lazy couple of days. We did go back to town today to try and get the sim card from our IPad. When we went to BaTelCo we got a Bahamas sim card, but didn’t get our original one back. No luck today but we will check back when the guy who helped us is in. We are having dinner on FFF tonight.

We had a feast. Grilled pork tenderloin, grilled smoked sausage, pasta salad, tossed salad, Emma’s homemade chutney, black eyed peas, and grilled zucchini. After we ate we sat around listening to stories of their adventures. We love to hear about their travels.

Rocking B is back in the states. They kept us informed by sending us “Spots” along their route. A “Spot” is a message sent by satellite to a select group of people. We are on their list and were their “float plan” people. That means if they didn’t let us know that they were safely back within a certain time, we were to notify the USCG. Thank goodness, we didn’t have to do that. Margaret said they are safe and sound and at a dock. She thinks they deserve it after their long on-stop trip. They will enjoy St. Augustine.

We have received emails from Sea Salt and saying they will start down here Saturday. Ted on Mekhaya said he is leaving the Jumentos and heading here in the next 2 weeks. Not sure if we will still be here then.

We have talked before about boat names and why anyone would name a boat some of the names we’ve seen. Some names you can’t even pronounce. Well, we have seen some very tropical names in the Bahamas. Pineapple, Tangelo, Papaya, Mango…they all sound so tasty. And then there’s Breaking Wind. Now, I guess for a sailboat that’s appropriate, since they go thru the wind when they sail. But there’s also another meaning for breaking wind and I’m not even going there.

Shay, Emma, and I went for an early morning beach walk and shell gathering. Of course I gathered more shells than they did. I can’t seem to pass by a pretty shell, or sometimes a not so pretty shell.

Boats are coming and leaving so we have different boats to look at each day.

Well. It’s April 4, 2013 and it’s my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! When I got up this morning, I had s surprise on the back deck. There were balloons and a gift from FFF. I got a card and a magnetic frame to put on the microwave. So sweet of them. Thanks so much.

We went to the beach around two and I had another surprise from FFF. Emma had Jell-O, dilly fruit and Cheezits. I know I’m special when they break out the Cheezits. We had a lovely snack under the trees at Chat n Chill.

I also had birthday wishes by email and on Facebook. Thank everyone for thinking of me, especially since I am so far away from most of you.

We are not planning anything special, just a quiet day hanging around the boat. We are having blackened grilled shrimp and loaded smashed potatoes for dinner tonight. Sounds good. It was soooo good…and we had warm triple chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Beautiful moonrise

We keep talking to FFF and looking at the weather. We are not sure how long we will stay here. Sea Salt is not going to get here for probably 2 more weeks. We don’t plan on being here that long. Maybe we can meet them somewhere as we head back up the islands, mon.

We had FFF over for breakfast this morning. We had Black Point Settlement raisin bread toasted with butter and a fruit salad. The salad had bananas, apples, coconut, almonds, dried cranberry, mandarin oranges and mayo. Now I knew David had a problem with a banana sandwich with mayo so I kept out some oranges just in case. I told both of them if they didn’t like the salad they would not hurt my feelings. David gave it a try and said “no”.  So he had toast and mandarin oranges. We had a great time visiting with them.

This is what all the supplies for the island come in on.

Lots of boats have moved to the other side of the harbor since the wind is picking up and coming from that direction. Our weather guru, David, tells us it won’t be as bad as expected, so we’re staying here. 

A lot of boats have move to the other side of the harbor.

The sky doesn't look bad now.

We’ve heard more from Sea Salt and the weather doesn’t look good for them for at least a week. We are probably going to tab along with FFF and head back up north when the weather is good. So that means listening to Chris Parker on the SSB at 6:30 and looking at the weather on the computer. Thank goodness we have all weather information that we have. It would be scary leaving and not knowing what the weather was doing.

So… we battened down the hatches and got everything ready for a storm. Thank goodness, it wasn’t bad for us. We had some wind during the night and we turned around but not bad. Shay woke up about 5 am and stayed up until about 8 am, just keeping an eye on things.

 

Its 10:30 now and its raining. Well, the boat will get a bath. Looks like it might be a dreary day. But at least I still have the pretty white beach to look at.

 

Boy was I wrong. It’s a fantastic day! The water is absolutely calm. We could see the bottom the entire ride to Lake Victoria. It was a great ride. If it could only be this calm all the time, but remember if the water is calm then there is not much wind, so it can be hot. But today is perfect, according to Emma on FFF. As a matter of fact, she said it was absolutely perfect!

Last minute bottom cleaning. It didn't look as bad as we thought it would.

We’re having a get-to-gather on our boat this afternoon. Us, FFF and 180. The wives are on 180 and we want to meet the women that go with the men. Charlie said he wanted the girls to see our boat, but after they saw it they might not want to come back the 180. Shay and David did a 180 rescue yesterday. They were having problems with the engine shutting off. So the guys went over and diagnosed at bad oil filter. Even though it was purchased in Marathon and just put on. So, 180 thinks Escape and FFF guys are great!

 

We had a great time tonight. We all got together and had drinks and snackies. The women from 180 are very nice and we hope to see them again. 

Oh, Elvis is not dead. He is alive and well in Georgetown. He has lost weight, gotten a tan, and is driving a water taxis taking tourist from the mainland to the islands.

We are thinking about leaving for Black Point tomorrow. FFF will wait for a better sailing day. So, if it’s not a good day for them, it will probably be a good day for us.

Last sunrise at Georgetown 2013.

I know there are a lot of pictures in this post, but they don't capture the colors and the beauty of the islands. I wish you all could be here to see it in person.