Georgetown, take 2

Photo from Sand Dollar beach, Blossom is a spec in the middle

We arrived back in Georgetown on Saturday, early afternoon and it was gorgeous. We went to the market to pick up some fresh produce, returned to the boat and enjoyed another fabulous meal of fresh Mahi.

Around 2:30am I was woken up with a start. I’m an anemometer of sorts, as soon as the wind tops 17 knots I wake up. By 3:30 it was gusting into the mid-20s. The wind was forecast to continue this way for at least 36 hours. We spent the morning doing chores and then headed to Chat N Chill for a Sunday pig roast. There were lots of folks there, mostly people who were water taxi’d over from Great Exuma. There were a few cruisers mixed in, but most people were vacationers. The pig roast was excellent and Jim, Martin and I played a round of molkky. Martin won again but I’m getting better every time… 

There’s a place on the beach that serves conch salad and he puts the entrails in a bucket. You’re free to take them and feed the sting rays who are very used to being fed. I had a good time feeding them, some were huge!

Jim at Chat N Chill

Sting ray looking for hand outs

Monday morning was spent doing chores again. In the afternoon Jim and I went for a walk on the beach in search of sea glass and found nothing! But it was a nice walk. The seas are kicked up a bit right now with the winds.

East side

It was too windy to sit outside in the cockpit so I made a crockpot Thai pork dish dinner. Then we tendered into town to go to the Rake n Scrape at Eddie's. A rake n scrape is a Bahamian music party, frequently with someone playing a saw.  

Huge land crab, he was ready to take us on! 

Dancing at the rake n scrape

Tuesday morning was again spent doing chores. There’s always something to do on a boat and if all systems are working well, then it needs to be cleaned! We went to town and had lunch at Peace N Plenty. We stopped by the grocery store to stock up on fresh food but the boat hadn’t come in. It must be so frustrating to live here. There were almost no veggies, just a wall of bare shelves. Hopefully there will be some produce up north.

View from Peace N Plenty – note the sea gulls drinking out of the pool!

We spent that evening aboard Silver Spray with Nigel & Hilary and had a fabulous time. It was a late night and the morning came early for us (not-so-early-birds) as we were up and on our way by 7:30.

Blossom in the sunset

Waving goodbye to Nigel & Hilary

We had been going back and forth, trying to make a call on whether to leave Wednesday or stay until Friday. The weather has been most uncooperative with windy days punctuated by extremely windy days. Since Thursday was supposed to be a blowy mess we ended up picking Wednesday, knowing that it would be a bit rolly and that we’d want to get in as soon as possible (winds rising in the evening).  Had it been just me and Martin, we would have waited until Friday or Saturday but we had Jim with us so we decided to go for it.  In preparation, I did a thorough “battening of the hatches”, tying up the deck chairs, removing things from countertops, and installing the curtain rods in the refrigerator, etc. (I haven’t been this thorough the last few passages – didn’t feel it necessary). It’s a good thing as we had 4-6 feet waves which were a bit more than predicted. Thankfully they were on the beam and our stabilizers took care of most of the movement. Every once and a while, however, we’d dive down and you could hear things banging around in cupboards.

We had first thought to go to Black Point but serendipitously, we received an email from our friends aboard Shear Madness that they, and a few other Nordhavns, were hanging out at Big Majors, an anchorage just an hour or so north of Black Point (where the swimming pigs live).  We arrived late afternoon just as the winds were really picking up.  We stayed aboard that evening but made plans to hang out with Bradley & Kathy the next day.

Sea sick update. This trip I tried bonine, the night before and again in the morning. I crashed by 8:30am and got up at 4pm and was “out of it” until I crashed again at 9pm. I’m thinking that the drugs may not be a good option for me on passages less than 24 hours, especially in light of a newly published study claiming that some of these drugs may contribute to dementia. (It's a small study and doesn't claim a causal relationship, but still, it's a sobering reminder that these are drugs that may have side-effects we aren't aware of.)  For short trips, the sickness will stop when the trip is over while the meds take me out for a good 24 hours. So next passage I’ll wear the bracelet only and see what happens.

We have about 2 weeks left before our guests come. We’re trying to see new places and do new things so we’re thinking of getting into Cambridge Cay from the east side and taking a mooring ball if possible. We’ll also see how close up we can crawl into Warderick Wells. There’s talk of trying to get into Compass Cay. And after the Exumas, we’re thinking of heading north, round the tip of Eleuthera/Spanish Wells and get to Harbour Island. This will require calling a pilot to lead us through “the devil’s backbone”. Martin is very Not thrilled to be doing this but now is the time (with Jim). Steve & Angela do in on Stellina and they draw 7’6” so it’s definitely possible!!

As I’m posting this blog entry we’re sitting in Big Majors, the sun is shining and the wind is Howling. If one can trust the forecast, we’re due a break in the wind starting tomorrow.  I hope that’s true!

Boat Business:

• Basement. We have a very large area underneath the front guest room that we call “the basement". This is a machinery and storage area with a built in work cabinet. And it’s been a train wreck since we commissioned. Martin and Jim spent two mornings sorting through the room and it looks amazing now!
• 9k gen. Jim showed Martin how to open the heat exchanger to remove any bits of impeller that may have gotten in there. They did find 2 very small bits.
• 9k gen. We tried to run the 9k overnight to charge batteries and it dropped the wavenet. That’s a first, so Martin & Jim will try to trouble shoot over the next few days.
• Clean. I gave the interior of Blossom a good scouring over the past few days, she needed a deep clean very badly.
• Polishing. Jim can’t stand to sit still and we’ve benefited greatly! Blossom’s stainless is sparkling.