Georgetown, Bahamas

Entering Conch Cay Cut, arriving Georgetown

We’ve heard about Georgetown for years – that there’s a huge community of cruisers who spend the winter months here year after year… And finally we’re getting to experience it!  The prime time for cruising here is December through March. There is a “cruiser net” on the radio every morning where they give general announcements, the weather, locals and cruisers announce events, things to trade/buy/need, ask for help, newcomers introduce themselves, others announce that they’re leaving. There are organized volley ball games, prayer groups, aerobics and yoga classes, bridge games, snorkeling expeditions…you name it.  There's a water taxi that will take you to shore. Many cruisers get very involved with the local schools, businesses and charities.  We had heard that as it became more and more of a destination spot that it was getting dirty and there was environmental damage in the harbor. It looks like the community has tried to address this with a pumpout boat and garbage service that comes through the harbor regularly. We haven’t been snorkeling yet, but the water is very clean and clear.

We arrived around 3:30pm after a calm and beautiful cruise down the coast.  Sean & Louise had warned us about all the boats that were anchored in the channel and that we’d need to weave our way through. We had an easier time of it as about half the boats there had used the weather window over the past couple days to head out. We arrived just at the end of the season it seems. There were about 180 boats in the harbor when arrived, half as many as when Sean & Louise arrived and that was half again less than had been here about 2 weeks before. That’s a lot of boats! (It will probably get even quieter here once spring break(s) are over. There are lots of kids/family visiting these couple of weeks from the sounds of it.)

We found Vector and there was plenty of space to anchor right next to her - actually, in between Vector and Tabula Rasa, Scott & Paula’s Nordy 55. We had met them back in Ft. Lauderdale last year and were hoping we’d meet up with them in the Bahamas, so that was very cool.  We settled in and dropped Petal. Then Sean came over for drinks and we got to catch up on the past week J  Sean had the lay of the land and knew where to go so the three of us headed over to the St. Francis Hotel for dinner.

View from St. Francis

 Post water aerobics class at Volleyball beach

When we got in and settled I called Paula on the radio and she told me about a water aerobics class that is held every morning at Volley Ball Beach. It sounded like fun so Thursday morning she came by on her kayak and I got in mine and we went over to the beach. There were about 20 women there and we had a great time!  I plan on going as often as I can if we aren’t off doing other things. I even bought a noodle so I can really get into it next time.  In the afternoon we went into town with Sean and checked out the grocery store, the dive shop and the misc. store “Top to Bottom” which sells everything from pool noodles to boat line, shackles and back packs.  We scheduled a dive for Friday and headed home.  That evening we invited Sean, Paula & Scott over for drinks. We had a really nice evening sitting in the cockpit enjoying the perfect weather. Then we headed over to the Piece & Plenty Hotel with Sean for dinner and a “Rake and Scrape” (Bahamian dance party). We didn’t actually dance, I think we were all a bit tired and we had an early morning to go diving the next day, but we enjoyed the ambience.

This is where we beach the kayaks to go to the Chill & Chat restaurant or water aerobics class

 Signposts to the world

Friday morning we got up early and all headed over to the dive shop.  We went out for a 2 tank boat dive with Dive Exuma right off the east side of Stocking Island. There were only 9 divers aboard so the boat wasn’t crowded.  We dived a shallow reef first and then did a wreck dive on a 60 ft sunken tug. The dives were nice but a bit short. The downside of organized dives is that they always bring you up too soon but at 70 feet we could have stayed for a bit longer than 30 minutes!

The first dive I had an “interaction” with a fish. Given how afraid I am of sharks, it’s ironic that I had a close encounter with a remora. Remora’s are also called sharksuckers. They're harmless fish that stick themselves onto larger creatures (often sharks, rays, turtles) and get a free ride.  When we jumped in, the captain noted that there was a large remora (about 2.5 feet long) swimming around us. Martin and I were the last to go down because I was messing around with my weights (my new 5 mil wetsuit is very buoyant). As we descended, it was swimming around us. Then it decided it really liked me, swimming around my head and looking me in the eye. I thought he’d left when suddenly it clocked me on the top the head!  At first I thought it was trying to stick to me, but then I found this video which looks like a longer version of my experience and I think maybe it was trying to eat my hair. Well, after head butting me, it left! Freaky looking fish.

The diving was pretty. There was nice coral on the shallow reef and a decent number of fish. There were several large snapper and one as-yet-unidentified very large silver fish inside the tug. There was a big barracuda hanging out by the tug as well but he was curious and followed us up as we ascended. My, but they have big teeth! One of our fellow divers saw a lionfish at the first reef and we saw one at the wreck. We’ve been asking around and it seems that cruisers have done a pretty good job of fishing them off the shallow reefs.  It’s illegal to hunt them when you’re scuba-ing so we’re going to have to learn to free dive for them. We have our Hawaiian sling spears aboard and a fishing license so we’re hoping we’ll be able to help pick a few off while we’re here and have some tasty lion fish dinners.

On the way back to Blossom we saw Sea Turtle in the harbor and passed by in the dinghy to welcome them to town.  We also ran into our friends Nigel and his wife and son at the dive shop. It’s a very small cruising world and the Nordhavn crowd gets around J

We're starting to settle in here and really enjoy ourselves, there's so much to do and we've barely begun. We've spent a lot of time on Stocking Island (the long island east of Georgetown). We're anchored on the shore of Stocking Island so the businesses/beaches there are very close by. It's about a 3/4 mile dinghy ride across the bay to Georgetown proper.

Saturday morning Martin joined me at water aerobics. It was a smaller crowd but just as fun and Martin had fun hanging out with the ladies!

 Martin getting ready to head home after water aerobics

In the afternoon, Martin set up our snuba system and spent about an hour cleaning below the waterline on Blossom.  That evening Sean came over for drinks and we tried to go out but found that even on a Saturday night, the restaurants close at 6/7 o’clock. So we came back and had a lovely barbeque on Blossom.

Sunday morning Martin spent another 1.5 hours under the boat and I sprayed 303 protectorant on all things plastic including the kayaks, hatches and the epirb. The sun is brutal here and I’m hoping the 303 will provide a bit of protection. Then we picked up Sean and went over to the Chill & Chat for a pig roast. Lunch was tasty and we enjoyed sitting under the trees watching the kids and adults play and enjoy the beach.

People hanging out at the Chill & Chat pig roast

We’re finally getting out in the kayaks and into the water, we’re both a bit sunburned, we have bathing suits and wet suits hanging out to dry in the cockpit, are tracking sand into the boat, and we’re very happy J

Over the next several days we hope to get out snorkeling and free diving, take out the SUPs, do some hiking on Stocking Island (when the winds pick up and it'll be a bit cooler), explore the harbor by dinghy and explore Great Exuma Island a bit more as well!

Boat Business:

Flybridge radio. The radio stopped working when we left North Palm Beach. Suddenly, it came back on. We think there’s a leak somewhere in the flybridge helm and that water got in when the guys were cleaning the boat (we removed the cover for the cleaning). In theory it’s all water tight but we think water got in there and now it’s dried out.

Pilot House Radio. We turned it off the first night here because there’s so much radio traffic and in the morning it wouldn’t turn back on. Martin messed around with it and found that there’s a short between the back of the radio and the plug where the command mic plugs in on the flybridge. Water under the helm up there would explain both. Now the radio works unless the command mic is plugged in but it should easy enough for him to find the short and fix it.

Power management. We’ve turned off our direct tv satellite and turned on our second, 100A charger adding almost 50% more to our charging rate. (Thank you Sean! We’d been told not to do it because it could confuse the charger but Sean said we could and yes, it’s working just fine!)  We’re down to needing about 4-5 hours of generator time a day. It’s almost not enough time to cook, do laundry and make water ;)