Sunday, February 14, 2010

Black Point Settlement to Georgetown

Ship’s Log – January 29, Black Point Settlement – Georgetown, February 14, 2010















Great Guana Island was a different shape from the other islands – long and thin - and locating good snorkeling was a bit more challenging, but we set out on our mission and even though it was a long dingy ride down the west side of the island we did find some nice snorkeling. Being a larger island there was little current which was a nice change. Black Point was a larger community (a couple of hundred?) so there were two restaurants! We caught the happy hour at one and the barbeque dinner at the other – though the wait for dinner was in Bahamian time – about an hour and a half to feed all 20 of us who had gone to the barbeque.
Alas we bid adieu to our traveling companions of the past month, Ultra and Seas the Day, as we had a weather window and needed to move south. The first day we took the “inside” route – the route on the Banks side of the islands and went as far as we could with depth and tide allowing. Found a nice anchorage for the night all by ourselves. The next morning we hit the tide just right to go out the cut into Exumas Sound and rode the rest of the way to Georgetown in the deep water of the Sound in very nice seas. One of the sayings that we picked up along the way was that “everything on the boat is broken; you just don’t know it yet.” One of those items showed itself. The Autopilot quit about two hours outside of Georgetown. It’s been a long stretch of things all working so something was bound to happen. Could have been worse!
We pulled into the Elizabeth Harbor area of Georgetown on January 31 and were a bit overwhelmed so we picked the first available spot to drop a hook and just chilled. It turned out to be quite a good spot close to Stocking Island and some lovely beaches. Monday the 1st Mark went to work on the autopilot and then we took the dingy to town. It is a long ride across the harbor to Georgetown and if there is any chop it becomes a very wet ride too. We did that ride a few times over the next week checking out the town. To get into town you pass under a SMALL bridge (one boat wide) and come into a pond that has a dock. The dock is attached to the Exumas Market which is the best grocery store we have seen since FL. They also provide free water (via a hose) on the dock which is about the best advertising they could buy. The water is all R/O (reverse osmosis from seawater) but that means it is clean. We located the internet store in a small - VERY small building – and later found out you can get free Wifi at the Exumas Markets……..occasionally. You have a better chance of only slightly more consistent connection at the pay place up the street. The town is very unsophisticated but everyone is friendly.

Further work on the autopilot was not fruitful so for the time being it has been abandoned. Friday the 5th we moved to a cove (Kidd cove) right by town so that we could sit out a “blow” coming and also pick up our very first guests. Tom and Suzi Parks came down from Boston to escape the cold and got here for the first “storm” with rain that we have had since Bimini. Sunday we moved back to Monument Beach at Stocking Is. And as it was too windy to play in the water we went to shore and hiked up to the monument and around the island. It is a gorgeous island and amazingly, unlike the others there is no trash. I suspect the cruisers know a good thing and take care to keep it clean, but it may be the way of the currents and where the trash boats dump at sea, too. Monday we made an attempt to find some snorkeling but it does not seem to be very good down here. It was nice to be in the water though. On our return trip from the snorkel attempt I heard a funny sound and Mark discovered a leak in the coolant system. Back to Monument Beach and he and Tom got that repaired. Tom did get some more swimming in after working up a good sweat on repair jobs. Another move back over to Kidd Cove again in preparation for yet another blow in two days. Since we were there we rented car to explore the island. There is not much to see. The existence here is sparse. You can’t farm anything – the ground is limestone rock. The main industry is tourism and that is mostly cruisers. We saw only one functioning resort (a Sandals and it was lovely) but all the others were defunct. We did find a nice spot for lunch and a liquor store that actually was stocked with wine that did not break the bank. Now we can have wine with our dinners again!

As the 2nd storm was approaching we heard our old friends on Ultra and Seas the Day on the radio. They were approaching Georgetown and standing by outside to let the bad weather pass before entering the harbor. After the weather passed through we decided to join them over at Sand Dollar Beach, an area just south on Monument Beach that we had not yet explored. It was fun catching up. On Thursday the 11th they decided to move to a more secure anchorage because of yet another front coming through but we decided to stick it out there at Sand Dollar. In the meantime we went ashore there and did some exploring. The east side beach was gorgeous. We have also just been chilling out with tropical beverages, reading books, cooking and dancing in the aisles, small as they are.
Friday we 12th with the seas and wind starting to build we made another trek ashore and played in the surf and sand on the east side to the island then went over to “Chat and Chill”, the nerve center of the activities on Stocking Island, to check it out. With the “storm” coming things were quite on the island, but we imbibed in some local beverage and then had a very wet ride back to the boat. We made a delicious dinner and the boys finally beat us in cribbage (only because they pegged out first- we have left them in the dust for the previous games) and we hunkered in for the pending “storm”. It was a long night and we probably did get 40 knots of wind with some rain but all in all it wasn’t as bad as predicted. I did sleep in the pilot house – less noise and Mark toughed it out below with the bow slamming down on every wave. The guests did pretty well, tucked into the salon cabin. Saturday morning we moved the boat over to the “Chat and Chill/ Volleyball Beach” area thinking that we could pick up where we left off, but the Norther’ was still being blustery, cloudy and quite cool. After some exploring ashore we repaired to the boat with another island beverage and our books to relax out the remaining evening of our guests stay. We’ve had a great week and they have been amazingly accommodating for less than perfect conditions. We moved back to Kidd Cove on Sunday morning to be able to get them ashore and not so wet and they will carry letters – unpublished as yet blog copies - this to our few friends who don’t have email. For us, we’ll repair to Monument Beach, continue on some repairs, get reorganized and start the trek slowly north. The next guest, my sister Kathryn, arrives in about 8 days and we plan to meet her in the mid area of the island chain and continue exploring the area around Staniel, Compass and Cambridge Cays – and maybe a few others.
Happy Valentine’s Day!