Staniel Cay to George Town, Great Exuma

After staying in the Staniel Cay area for more than a month now, we decided it was time to move on farther south. Of course, that meant we needed to wait for a calm weather window because to get to George Town we must travel part of the way on the "Sound" side of the chain of islands, rather than "Banks" side. The sound side is always rougher as it is deeper water with little protection.

So Monday was the day to leave. We said good bye to Carleigh, Cat's Paw, Oconee, and Alexia, and headed through the Conch Cut to the sound and headed south. It was a perfect day for the passage.

 

Passing through Conch Cut

We pulled in to Kidd Cove off of George Town by 4:30 in the afternoon. We have now met back up with My Sharona, Independence, Mattina, and Sea Fox X, among others.

 

The George Town Welcome Sign by the Exuma Market dinghy dock

We spend Tuesday loading up on groceries at the nice Exuma Market store (great store that caters to cruisers), and settling in to the rhythm of the island. I still have a cold I caught in the states, so have not been up to much activity.

Tuesday, we also delivered the last of the boxes of school supplies we brought from the Seven Seas Assoc. Bahamas Project. I group of strong students came and picked up the boxes from us.

 

Students carrying all our boxes

We were thrilled to see one of the boats that I had painted the name on - Lady Sonia - last year that are raced by the Bahamians in island regattas. I was happy to see that the lettering survived, however, the boat needs some work. It had obviously been hit a few times and will need to be hauled, repaired, and re-painted, which will take place early April. We will be back to work on it then.

 

Thursday, Bob took our laundry in to the laundromat and we met Dee and Ed of Sea Fox X for lunch at Peace and Plenty Hotel and Restaurant. Fish and chips, where the fish is grouper makes a great meal.

We will move on Friday to an area known as Red Shanks for better protection from the strong winds coming our way over the weekend, then move back to George Town early next week.

 

Our last sunset in Staniel - till our trip back north anyway.

Trip Home and Aerial Views of islands near Staniel Cay

Well, sorry I haven't posted for a little while. This last week, I went to Northern VA for a routine doctor's appt. I managed to arrived on Monday after a storm and leave on Thursday, the day before the blizzard hit. What luck!

There was some snow on Tuesday night and I woke up to this beautiful scene in my daughter's back yard. It was a real fairy land.

 

My daughter's back year - and this was before the blizzard this weekend!

I flew out of Staniel Cay on Flamingo Airlines on a small two engine plane that held about 10 passengers. I was able to get some nice photos from the plane of Staniel and some neighboring islands on my flight to Nassau before we were engulfed in clouds. After leaving Staniel, we flew farther south to Black Point Settlement on Great Iguana Cay, and on to Little Farmers Cay, before turning and heading north to Nassau. I then flew on US Airways to National Airport direct.

 

 

This is a view of South Staniel

 

This an interesting house, actually a castle, on Great Iguana Cay near Blackpoint Settlement. I had no idea this was there as we do not cruise around that side of the island.

 

View of Little Farmer's Cay - this is a cut to the sound side of the island and a cut we often take going to George Town

 

Area known as White Point on Great Iguana Cay often used as anchorage by some of the boaters. Notice the lighter water color in the Bahama Bank side of the island in the foreground and the darker water color in the deeper water of the Sound in the background.

 

Shroud Cay - this island is north of Staniel and you can find a blog post of when we stopped at this island on our way south. It is part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park

 

This is Norman's Cay, often described as "fish hook" shaped. There is also a blog post or two of this island.

 

Photo of Nassau Harbor with cruise ship. Behind the cruise ship you may be able to make out Atlantis.

I was able to see 5 of our 13 grandchildren and two of our children on the trip home - which certainly made the trip worthwhile. I certainly do miss them all.

We plan to watch the Super Bowl tonight with our new friends Butch and Sarah who have a house on Staniel Cay, and then head out tomorrow for George Town. Since I am a Hoosier by birth, I guess I will have to root for the Colts. Looking forward to moving on. We will no doubt stop at Staniel Cay again on our way back north. It has been nice having pretty good Internet connections in the Staniel/Sampson Cay area as there is a WiFi signal on the BATELCO Tower in Staniel Cay, although it costs $10 a day!

Next post from George Town, Exuma!

Staniel Cay by Golf Cart!

On Sunday, we joined up with William and Frances of Alexia and their guests from Great Britain, Jill and Bill, along with Shirley and Mac of Cat's Paw. Alexia rented two golf carts for us to tour Staniel Cay by golf cart. Staniel is a pretty good size island - with many homes, an air strip, and lots of hills, so seeing it by golf cart is the best way.

One of our first stops was at the now defunct Club Thunderball Bar as it has great views.

 

Why pay for a nice sign when you can just recycle a vehicle door!

 

Frances and William (driving) with Bill and Jill riding

 

View of Thurnderball Island (with famous Thunderball Grotto of 007 fame) and mooring field viewed from the now defunct (:-( )Club Thunderball (One of the best views from the island)

 

View of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club from Club Thunderball

 

Frances, Jill, Bill and William at Club Thunderball

 

Mac, Shirley, Penny and Bob at Club Thunderball

Our next stop was at Pirate Beach that had some caves used by pirates overlooking the beach. I'm sure there is a notorious history here.

 

Pirate Beach with entrance to the Sound side of the island

 

Sign for Pirate Beach Caves

 

Pirate Cave - pretty small caves

 

View from the hiking trail of the sound side of the island

 

View looking back over the island from the hiking trail of a salt pond and Club Thunderball bar and restaurant

 

Beach on sound side of the island

 

We found Lady Muriel (one of the bahamian sailing sloops used in the regattas) laying in a shallow interior anchorage

For lunch, we found Ho Tai Beach that we had been to once before with our friends Scott and Kathy when they visited two years ago. It is pretty much the same. It is used for get-togethers of the locals.

 

Ho Tai Beach

 

Another view of Ho Tai Beach

If you are ever confused as which was is "this way" or "that way," this sign can help you.

 

This Way - That Way sign

 

Construction of a new beach-side bar

We were invited to Alexia on the last night of Jill and Bill's vacation to try some of William's single and blended malts.

 

William extolling the virtues of the Scotch

 

William, Clay and Rita-Kay of Carleigh, and Bill in Alexia

Instead of the usual sunset photo to end the blog post, here is one of a visiting seagull.