Eight Nights at George Town

We arrived in George Town on March 28 and left after eight nights, on April 5. G Town is the capital of the Exumas. For the first half of our stay we anchored in Elizabeth Harbor, on its side further from town, where we were sheltered by Stocking Island from the strong easterlies, off what is known as Sand Dollar Beach. We saw, upon arrival in strong winds, that almost everyone else was anchored on that side, about a mile from town, and we followed the wisdom of the crowd. Elizabeth Harbor could have been called Stocking Island Sound, just as Long Island Sound is the body that separates Long Island from the mainland. Stocking Island is about five miles long and lies parallel to the coast of mainland Great Exuma, making Elizabeth harbor about five miles by one mile. But there are many large impassable shoals in it and it never gets more than twenty feet deep. But there is lots of room for big scope on one’s anchor and lots of room between boats. View from Stocking Island with anchorage in foreground and G Town behind.

Downtown is a group of businesses that line both sides of a street about half a mile long including two banks, Immigration, two food markets, several souvenir shops a government center including the Post Office, a small Yacht Club, Customs, two small hotels, three places that sell electronics stuff or services, a Bahamas Telephone Co. (Batelco) office which was closed for renovations, a laundry/laundromat, several bars and snack bars, a gas station, two places that sell boating supplies, etc. Some are in modern two story buildings while others are in well, shacks. The road is one way through town and crosses a stone bridge over the inlet to Lake Victoria, which is about .1 by .2 miles and which has the dinghy dock that provides access to town from the water. View from the bridge of Lake Victoria including dinghy dock and sign on path from dock to town:

On the outside of the bridge is Kidd’s Cove,

a small cove near which we anchored for the second half of our stay, after we got our lap top charger cord, when we had more “town” things to do, i.e., the internet, laundry, ice, groceries, jerry cans of diesel, propane, souvenirs, etc.

  Our first stop ashore was at the bank to get ATM dollars, and then spending some of them to wire money from that bank to the bank of the vendor in Nassau of the lap top charger cord, which would not accept Amex or any other credit card; welcome back to the mid 20^th century! 
Then to Customs and, at the other end of town, Immigration. I had been worried about being asked questions about where we had stopped during the six days and 250 miles between Provo and G Town.  But the earnest and polite young man behind the counter was only interested in my filling out his three forms (two more forms at Immigration) fully and accurately, in triplicate or duplicate, inserting the carbon papers correctly between the forms, and, oh yes, collecting the $300 fee, and filling out his three other forms that were given to us as receipts. The good news is that we do not need to check out from the Bahamas, but instead, can conveniently mail the permit back to Nassau from Florida.

There are a lot of boats in G Town, as many as 450, we were told, though less when we were there, past the peak in their season. Many come from the US and Canada and go no further, spending months here in the harbor, away from the cold north. We missed the event of the season, the National Family Island Regatta, in which the Bahamians race their traditional wooden sloops in the harbor and many parties are held. Here is the viewing bleachers and committee stand.

They have a daily morning weather report and net on the VHF radio. When arrivals were solicited by the controller, we announced ourselves and I asked if anyone had a chart book for the Exumas and offered to trade for charts of points further south.  I had used a series of sketch chartlets in our cruising guide to familiarize myself with the route into the southern end of the harbor through the shoals and then used the chart plotter to get us through, but a real chart is best. Boomerang, a 34’ Hunter with Mitch and Jessica from Vermont answered, and we switched to another channel, set up a meeting and spent several pleasurable and productive hours on their boat that afternoon while repairs to their dinghy were drying. We parted with their Exumas (central Bahamas) chart book and $100 and they kept our three chart books for the Dominican Republic to the Spanish Virgins, to the Windward Islands and to the Leeward Islands (Anguila to Grenada). They also told Lene about iNavX which provides charts of the whole US east coast on the iPad and uses its GPS feature and a navigation program to permit navigation and a cool anchor alarm that can ring in your bed, where you will hear it,  rather than out in the cockpit. A good backup which Ilene bought and Jessica trained me how to use.

Highlights of our stay:

A Cruiser Appreciation Tea at the Palm Bay resort about two miles away, that we visited by dink, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism. The Tea was announced on the Net. They provided a “Rake and Scrape” band to entertain with standard calypso music. Rake and scrape apparently means that in addition to a guitar and several hand beaten drums there is a player who scrapes a screw driver blade along the teeth of a hand held rip saw.

They also presented a fashion show.

And many delicious native foods and a chance to meet other cruisers.  And the price was right too: Free!

Another day, a “Bonfire on Sand Dollar Beach” was announced on the morning Net. Several calls got us the particular spot on the beach, the time, and what foods/drinks to bring. It was very close to where we were anchored. About 30 folks showed up. We brought manchego y  membrillo, but not having manchego cheese on which to base the guava paste, we used what the store labeled as provolone, as a substitute hard-salty cheese. But it was not a successful dish, though the pieces were all eaten, because the alleged provolone had the flavor and consistency of muenster. And, despite bug spray, the sand flies were vicious and we retreated from the beach after about 40 minutes. The morning after the fire:

  

We visited the heart of the cruiser community at volley ball beach, about a mile away on Stocking island. We did not partake of the roast pig at the Chat and Chill,

the landmark eatery on that beach, largely because we forgot to bring money.

Lene met folks who operate a luncheonette and motel in the touristy lake section of Michigan in the summer. I got into a volley ball game.

We walked across Stocking Island to see the other side – it is high and narrow. And we saw the lovely eroded rocks of this place, the type of rocks that the Japanese love to install in their contemplative gardens.

On the mainland, we had two great lunches at Peace and Plenty, a nice restaurant in a hotel and got some souvenirs.

I almost led a Passover Seder for a black congregation. While dropping off our propane canister to be refilled, Naamen Forbes, the enterprising and polite propreiter of that and other businesses informed me that a rabbi had arranged with his minister to lead a model Passover Seder for his black congregation, but had fallen ill. I volunteered to do it and for a few hours was thinking how I would do this. Their religion forbids alcohol. No problem; “the fruit of the vine” which we bless includes unfermented grape juice. I have no matzoh, kosher for Passover or otherwise. No problem; we can use those small round Carr’s crackers as a symbolic representation of a matzoh. I also have no Hagaddah, the book with the service written in it aboard. No problem, after more than sixty of these seders, I know it well enough to give them the important elements without the book. But I’m a layman, not a Rabbi. No problem, this particular ceremony is normally performed at home without clergy.  I was all wrapped up in planning this until I checked back a couple of hours later. Naamen’s minister concluded that having called the program off, it was too difficult to get it back on the tracks that night, which was our last in G Town.

We fixed a few things for the boat. The flag halyard for flying the Bahamian courtesy flag came off, permitting Lene to haul me up to the lower spreader to reinsert its line in its block there. I replaced both screens in the port café door, that the cats had clawed through, but this was disappointing because they have clawed through one of the new ones already. A tear in the sheet we use as a slipcover on the starboard settee was repaired with adhesive thin sail tape on the back side, reinforced with stitching. Not much work done; I'm getting lazy. We planned routes and distances for about a half a dozen cool spots up the Exuma chain, which will be the subject of the next posting.

Here is a Still Life with Fruit and Cat, with lighting that came out in the Dutch Masters style, I rather think:

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