George Town Bahamas - The Cruiser Mekka

We have been in George Town for a couple of weeks now. This is as far as we had planned on cruising this season, and we are not sorry we came here. George Town is a very easy place to hang out, the days just fly by, and you don't know where the time went. There is a great grocery store, liquor store, free water, gas and diesel, restaurants, a hardware store, a barber (more about THAT later) and an extensive cruisers network, here to make your every day life easy and enjoyable. No wonder many of the cruisers sail down here as quickly as possible, throw down the hook (anchor), and never move all winter until it's time to return back north. Some cruisers are very protective of "their spots", and don't even go for day sails or short trips, in fear of loosing "their spots". We heard this story (not sure if it is true), where a long time GT cruiser left his spot for a bit, and a little while later, another cruiser, unaware of the situation, dared to move into this very spot. Well, apparently some boats around that spot hailed this poor guy on the radio to inform him he could not anchor there, because this was "soandso's spot"!!! Hilarious!!!

Anyways, we don't mind giving up "our" spot, so we have gone out for day sails, to try our luck at fishing. GT is so big, you can always find another spot to anchor. And besides, we can always use the extra practise.

I promised you the story about the barber. Well, I needed a bit of a trim, so we went "to town" in search of a hair salon. First one we saw said barber and beauty salon. We go in to inquire, the hair salon lady was out but the barber was in. I agreed to let him cut my hair, big mistake. I walked out of there looking like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber, thank god for baseball caps! 

The big event down here is the George Town Cruisers Regatta, held at the end of Feb/early March. We won't be here to watch as we will be on our way back to Nassau to pick up my mom, who's going to join us for the rest of the trip. But it is fun listening in on the daily 8AM cruisers net, where they announce all the many things that go on here in the harbour: water aerobics, yoga, volleyball, conch horn making and blowing, baseball, lectures by a local on Bahamas history, AA, poker tournaments, trivia contests, Ukulele practice, Sunday morning beach church, bridge games, the list goes on ad on and then of course all things Regatta. So far we've only gone to listen to the lecture on the history of Bahamas, but I am sure if I stayed here long enough, I would get involved in some of the other activities. 

Another thing I really think is cool: everybody is always ready to give a helping hand (unless of course, you pissed them off by stealing "their" spot, LOL) - On the morning net, you can ask for help if you need something specific, and some other cruiser might have just the part or expertise on something that broke on your boat. Another One thing that happened recently still stands out in my mind (and it has a happy ending): during the net, this cruiser comes on, and you could hear the panic in her voice: our cat, we can't find her, we looked everywhere, we think she fell in to the water, please everyone who's anchored at Monument Beach, have a look out by your boats, if you can help us find her. I am telling you, before she was done talking on the radio, I could see at least 20 dinghies in the water, scouring the whole anchorage, looking for this cat. (we were anchored at Monument Beach) They did find her later, she was hidden somewhere on the boat, but this shows the support and help available, if anything goes wrong.

We did go a bit further than George Town, but that's for my next post...

George Town, Elizabeth Harbour, Monument Beach Anchorage. There are various places to anchor, the most popular one is called Chat N'Chill, then there is Sand Dollar, and Kidd's Cove named after Captain Kidd the Pirate, to name a few. When we first arrived, they counted around 198 cruising boats, but by now, there are over 300 boats. We are told, that back before the big financial crisis (2008) there were over 700 boats down here ...

Downtown George Town, famous dinghy dock. It is difficult to find a spot to tie up your dinghy, everybody is getting groceries or doing laundry or buying beer (very important).

The building you see there is THE grocery store most cruisers shop at. 

We spot the "Beauty Salon"! I only just saw the name of the store now ...

And here is the artist at work!!! I am still smiling at this point ...

To cheer me up, I do retail therapy! Proceeds from the sale of Cruising Regatta shirts, hats and bags, goes towards supporting the local youth sailing club and other Exuma Island Charities. I am keeping the hat on for a bit :)

It's not all fun and games, people! Sometimes, we do work, like here, at the local laundromat. This is the morning after the wind  blew pretty hard for a few days and nobody could go anywhere. First opportunity, and everybody is out and about. It took a couple of hours to get my 3 loads done, we all had to wait our turn. Very organized.

 The next few pictures are buildings around George Town, I like all the signs and colours ... 

Here we have the all important 700 wines & spirits...

 Another beauty salon, but too late for me, damage was done...

 Local hardware store, got everything under the sun...

 and of course, the PINK police headquarters 

The most famous dish in the Bahamas is of course Conch Salad, every town or even the smallest settlement will have a Conch Stand ...

 If you are tired of all the hubub in town, you take your dinghy, and within 5 minutes, you can get to deserted beaches like the ones below...

Warren made friends with a local youth, and the two of them have gone out fishing several times. This is the catch they brought back last time...

Warren and I fell in love with this boat. (It's a Vagabond 47)

So we went there to ask the owners about it and tell them how much we loved their boat, next thing we know, they invited us for a sundowner party the next day, and oh what fun we had ...

Cruisers Sundowner Party, we were about 12 people on board

After a busy day of exploring George Town, we BBQ some lobster and conch on the back of the boat while watching the sunset....

and end the day with a lovely dinner and a glass of wine!

See you all again next post!

Big Majors to Emerald Bay Marina

We leave Warderick Wells and work our way down the Exuma chain of islands. Next stop is Staniel Cay, we need to do some laundry and buy a couple of groceries. Staniel Cay is an actual little town, has a marina with a resort, three grocery stores and an airport. I am looking forward to this visit, talking to people, even having a drink at the bar at the marina. Don't get me wrong, I love being on the boat, but Warderick Wells was very quiet, and we were "boat" bound for quite some time. We decide to anchor off Big Major Cay, across the bay from Staniel Cay. Big Majors is somewhat of a famous place, on account of the pigs. But before we visit the pigs, we head into "town". Like I said, we had laundry to do, and we needed to get rid of the garbage. In the Bahamas, when you ask for directions, take the info with a grain of salt. Usually we hear something like: "just up and over the hill", or even better, there are actual sign post showing you the way. Well, we had both of these helps, we saw a sign: garbage disposal, and also a guy told us just up and over the hill. We started walking, but pretty soon it became clear, that we were going to walk around with these two bags of garbage for a while. The signs just stopped after the second one, and once we were up on the hill, well, it was anybodies guess as to where to go from there. But in the end, we found it, we walked for about 3/4 of an hour for sure. Back on the boat I checked the map, we walked darn near across the whole island! 

But we were lucky on the grocery department: All of these small Bahamian out island settlements get supplies once a week, when the "mail boat" from Nassau comes into town. That's the day you want to go shopping, as there will be fresh produce available, but if you get there a day or two later, you just might be out of luck. But that day, the mail boat just had come in!!!! I was able to buy oranges, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, red pepper and a cabbage. BTW - cabbage is a great vegetable to have on a boat, it last a long time and makes many servings of cole slaw :)

Next day we decided to go check out Thunderball Grotto, it's in the bay right outside Staniel Cay. It is very famous, several movies were made there. Thunderball, Never Say Never, (both James Bond), Splash with Tom Hanks, and Into the Blue with Jessica Alba. Check it out on Google. Anyways, to see it you have to go into the water, namely, you have to snorkel into the Grotto. It's important to time your visit just right, you need to go at low tide and slack tide, so that the opening into the Grotto is visible and that there is no or very little current. I was really scared, there are so many sharks in the Bahamas, I am not kidding. But I overcame my fear, and off we went. It was totally worth it, quite an experience. 

Next we moved on to feed the pigs on Big Majors. It's this beach, and there are a bunch of pigs, and they swim out into the water towards your dinghy when they see you coming, as they know they will get fed. Every day there are tour operators coming in, and the pigs are getting fat and fatter. 

We really enjoyed Staniel Cay. We also stopped at Blackpoint Settlement and a few other very remote and quiet spots along the way. Big Farmers Cay was one of those beautiful places, the pictures will show that. We just anchor off these places, take our dinghy to shore, and start exploring. We talk to the locals, walk on deserted beaches, find hidden caves, meet up with other cruisers, have happy hour. We get up early and go to bed early. We listen to the weather forecast every morning, and then make our plans. Of course there is also always boat maintenance and cleaning to be done as well, but no real schedule. The only schedule is dictated by the weather. And yes, unfortunately, another storm is forecast. This time, they call for 35 knots sustained, with gust between 50-60 knots. We shudder at the thought of 50-60 knots, so the thinking, planning, and decision making begins again. Where to go? The strongest wind are forecast from the west, the NNW. Most safe anchorages in the Exumas protect from the east. Thankfully, another cruiser gave us a tip: go to Emerald Bay Marina, they have cheap dockage, and you will be safe there. So we make our move: off to Emerald Bay Marina. It's on the way to where we are headed anyways, Georgtown beeing our furthest destination for this years cruising. We loved Emerlad Bay! We paid $1.00 per foot, there was free wifi, free laundry, free happy hour reception on Mondays (rum punch and apps), and it was right next door to the Sandals Resort. We were able to walk over there and spent the day on their beach. 

The storm came and went, and we were happy to be safe inside and away from the worst. We spent 4 days there, and then we made our way down to Georgtown. More about that in my next post, hope you enjoyed and come back!

Staniel Cay Yacht Club and dinghy landing. Our dinghy was way up on the sand, as we had arrived early to get our "chores" done, and now the tide was going out and we were sitting high and dry, so to speak. Good thing there are always good and friendly people around to help...

The entrance to Thunderball Grotto....the dark spot in the middle of the picture. 

I took this picture with a GoPro camera. This is going into the cave, with the sun shining through, and you can see the other entrance at the back of the grotto. 

This is inside the Grotto, with moss hanging down, and you can just see the back entrance a bit. We did not go through that one, I was fresh out of courage.

On to Big Majors Cay, the feeding of the pigs.... 

This piggy went to market, this piggy came on board! (with his front feet anyways!)

And one more picture. I told you this is a "major" tourist attraction. Besides, I was just happy to be alive, after Thunderball Grotto. I felt invincible, pigs are not sharks after all.

After a busy day, we enjoy another beautiful sunset! (and a little sundowner of course!)

Blackpoint Settlement....

Judging by the sign, this is a happening place. Not so. Most of the places are closed down...

This is the harbour at Farmers Cay. Very, very sleepy place, but beautiful.

This is also at Farmers Cay. There is this guy making fresh Conch Salad, and we ordered some. By fresh, I mean fresh. He had to go into the bay and dive for our conch, to make the salad. You cannot be in a rush around here, this is Bahamas at it's best.

This is right inside the harbour at Farmers Cay. While you wait for your conch salad, you can watch the turtles and rays. It's a win win....

We treat ourselves to a dinner at a restaurant. This is still at Farmer's Cay, two minutes by dinghy from where we are anchored. It is THE most beautiful place, our cruiser friends and us we were the only guest that night. The cook was at church, so it took a bit until our dinners arrived. Everything is freshly prepared. We had some rum punch to kill the time....

At Emerald Bay Marina, the beach at the Sandals resort. This is the day before the storm. Doesn't look like a storm is coming, but there was. Hardly any people on the beach...

Safe and sound at Emerald Bay Marina. The day of the storm, dark sky, and hardly any wind. It's like the saying: the calm before the storm. It is true...

See you next time!