Georgetown

We left Walderick Wells and had a great sail to Galliot Cut, where we anchored, along with Ann and Art from Discretion, to start the run to Georgetown, Great Exuma Island the next day.  With the weather report, we all agreed the next leg would also be a great sail, but oops...the wind was “on the nose”, instead, so we had to motor all day into the wind and seas, which made it pretty rocky.  Not dangerous, just not fun.  As we went into the harbor, which is huge and takes another hour to reach a good anchoring spot, we heard from Ann that their engine was not working, plus Art was very seasick.  After anchoring, we kept in touch but they were having trouble getting in the “cut”  between the reefs to the harbor while just under sail.  After tacking back and forth a few times didn’t work, Ray went out in our dinghy and lashed it to the side and powered them through the reef.  

Once they caught the wind again they were towing him!  Anyway, we were so glad to see them drop the anchor near us right before it turned dark.  They are real troopers and we spent some quality time with them all week.  Ray was the rescue guy , towing another dinghy one day, and another day helping someone whose dinghy had been “holed” by another dinghy’s prop while up on the beach. Boy, was that guy bummed.

Georgetown has the highest cruising visitor totals in the Bahamas - hundreds of boats leave their home ports in New England, Chesapeake Bay, etc., to anchor in the protected harbor every year, creating their own floating town.  They arrive in Nov. and leave in the Spring for the trip back to the US.  There are all kinds of activities - bridge, volleyball, crafts, regattas that benefit the islanders.  Most are retired folks , although there were some young people, some with children.  

They make delicious fresh conch salad here.  first we watch them dig it out of the shell, then they cut up the conch, add tomatoes, onions, peppers, then lime and orange juice to marinate.  But they serve it right away so a little weird to eat something that a few minutes ago was squirming.

We're anchored out there somewhere

We dinghied through here a lot from our anchorage to the main town.