It’s Saturday morning and we are now in Georgetown, Great Exuma. THE place that cruisers hang out in the Bahamas. And, there are a LOT of them, around 350 boats at last count. In fact, some have been here since November, to be sure that they get the best anchoring spot. Saved seat!!!
On Monday the BIG EVENT happens here, the Cruisers Regatta, when all those cruisers that have not moved for months head out to race against each other. “Quick, Alice, eat the heavy stuff, I’ll drink the rum, that’s heavy too. We want the boat to sail faster. ”
And, with so many boats crammed into one harbor, surprise, anchoring spots are coveted. And, those boats that are moving, if only for a day or racing, put down a temporary anchor to “hold their spot”. Go ahead, make their day. Take their spot at your mortal risk…
And, as you would imagine, with all these cruisers (AKA: retired A types) jammed into one place, for months at a time, things are pretty well organized. Ya think? Actually, “think Regatta”, now that’s ORGANIZED.
Each morning at 08:00 there is a “net” on the radio when everything, and I mean everything, is discussed. There are community announcements from local businesses as well as a rundown of who’s arrived and who’s leaving. And, if you have something you need, or want to unload, there’s an opportunity to do that too. There is so much to cover that it takes nearly 45 minutes to get through it all. As you can imagine, Brenda particularly “loves” the constant click of mikes, the hard (for us) to understand accents and folks that seem to be chewing on their mike so you CANT UNDERSTAND A SINGLE WORD THEY ARE SAYING. Let’s just say that “Static” isn’t her favorite. I guess I bring enough of that to her life. But I like to think that I do it with a smile. Yes, I am sticking with that.
With the biggest event of the year, “regatta”, beginning this weekend (it runs a whole week) there is a veritable frenzy of events leading up to the races . And, guess what, committees have been formed for just every aspect and whatever you could wish for, or not. And, there’s even a “talent show” today. That should make for a great post.
And, rain or shine, and it just about never rains here, you can participate in yoga on the beach, church on Sunday and there’s even water exercise, a sort of low impact for the “mature” among us, which would be just about EVERYBODY who’s here, present company included.
Anyway, it’s an interesting place, in “appropriate” doses. I expect that our “dose” this year will be about a week as we re-provision for our run to Cuba and wait for a good weather window to move south.
Yesterday we made the 60+ mile run here from Staniel Cay with a good wind. And, as usual, Pandora moved right along and we completed the trip at an average speed of nearly 7 knots with only a moderate wind, on a deep run. We only had the main up as it’s tough to run the jib on a deep reach and it just doesn’t fill well and tends to bang around a lot.
We were glad to get underway as the prior night had been really rolly in the anchorage. I made the mistake of anchoring to close to the cut leading to the ocean and waves coming in from the ocean wrapped around, causing a very uncomfortable rolling all night. We both slept in the main cabin as it was just too bumpy up forward. Oops. Bad anchoring spot. Brenda said, “it wasn’t my favorite”.
However, we had a great few days, prior to that, with the always wonderful sunsets. No green flash but beautiful. 
There isn’t much rain here in for much of the year so vegetation is sparse. And, the “soil”, well there isn’t any to speak of, is on a bed of porous limestone. Pretty rugged though and beautiful in the late afternoon light. 
This is our third visit to Georgetown and we are anchored near “monument beach”, opposite the town, about one mile away. This was the view from Pandora. It’s very pretty in the morning light. 
The first time we visited here, three years ago, Christopher, Rob and his now wife Kandice came to town for a week and we hiked up to the top of the hill for a “monument moment”. That was a wonderful time together. Not the “I wish I was jumping with them” part, the “having them here” part.
Well, if I don’t sign off and head for town I won’t see what the “in” cruising crowd does here for the winter and won’t have anything for another post. Yikes, that just wouldn’t do. Keeping busy is what us retired “A” types must do… Right?
Quick, quick, gotta go Brenda, we might miss something.