Goodbye George Town

Interesting boat at anchor in George Town Harbor

We had a week of high winds following the race, so we were unable to leave George Town until Saturday, May 2nd. We spent time with friends, adding water to the tanks, provisioning, doing laundry, posting to the blog and answering email.

We were anchored most of the time across from George Town and the harbor was too rough to cross in the dinghy, so we stayed most of the time on the side of the harbor by Stocking Island. We spent one day walking across the narrow island and walking the beach on the Atlantic side and seeing the strong waves and do some shelling.

It is hard to leave George Town. Most of the boaters get as far as George Town, spend several months there and then head back. Some left as we arrived after the Cruisers Regatta and the Music Festival and do not stay for the Family Island Regatta. So the number of boats usually here had already decreased when we arrived.

During the winter, there is a real community of cruisers that are here- several hundred boats fill the harbor. There are regular games of volleyball, Texas hold em games, Mexican Train Dominoes, Trivial Pursuit games, campfires and pot luck dinners on the beach, plus rake and scrape bands (Bahamian style music) at local bars. We enjoy spending our time out exploring all the islands, so keep our time in George Town to a minimum.

The last might, we had a little get together on Stocking Island. Cruisers from Cat’s Paw, Aly Cat, Searcher, Ibis, and Diva were there with us on the beach. We had spent a lot of time with most of these folks and it was time to say goodbye to all but Diva, who would be heading back our direction. Cat’s Paw was heading to Cat Island, then on to Eleuthra, Aly Cat, was going to get some work done of their refrigerator at the Stella Maris Marina, then would go on to meet Cat’s Paw in Eleuthra. Searcher was going to wait for the winds to die down even more before heading north. I don’t remember where Ibis was headed. Carleigh did not attend as they had already stowed their dinghy on top their boat, but we expect to see them as we go north toward Nassau. They are to meet a friend in Nassau, so we will leave them there (if we go through Nassau) as we continue north.


Flexible Debby off Diva cleaning her plate before heading back to the boat

I prepared for a rough cruise on Saturday, but it didn’t turn out bad at all. We left at 7 in the morning, ahead of many of the boats, and cruised up the Atlantic side of Exuma until we got to Rudder Cut and crossed over to the Bahama Bank side of the islands, which are even calmer. We anchored for the night by a private, but just about abandoned island called Rudder Cut Cay. There are some homesites at each of the beaches where trees have been cleared and Palm Trees planted, but few homes have been built that we could find. We spent a nice afternoon on one of the beaches. We noticed a ray swimming around the boat and waited for it to swim away before I got in and cleaned the growth on the back of the boat and then rested on my float tied to the boat. It was a peaceful afternoon, with the exception of a number of sea planes and helicopters that passed overhead.

The weather window now looks like we will leave the Bahamas and cross back to to Florida by Friday this week. I doubt if I will have Internet until I hit the states again. We will then cruise back up the ICW heading for home in the Chesapeake. See you all stateside!


Last sunset in George Town