Hanging out in George Town, Exuma

Billy Ruff'n returned from Long Island to George Town, Exuma in order to meet up on January 22nd with a group of Salty Dawgs that we've come to know over the past few years. We met up at the Moriah Harbor Cay National Park shelter off Sand Dollar beach with the crews from Snow Cat, Gemeux, Change Up and End of the Road. It's been great getting to know these folks and having get-togethers here and there to share stories of our adventures.

The next few days were about as calm as we have ever seen it in George Town. We cleaned the boat, re-provisioned, did laundry and other housekeeping rituals and then moved the boat to Guana Key (at the southern end of Elizabeth Harbor) to make water and check out some snorkeling venues. The coral was decent with lots of fan, brain and black specimens but only a few schools of small blue & yellow fish and the occasional big one. Unfortunately, I don't have underwater pics but some nice ones of the serene waters at sunrise & sunset.

On Jan. 27th, Andrew and I celebrated 32 years of marriage by enjoying a special dinner at The Beacon at Kahari Resort on Stocking Island. We don't go out much for dinner so the night-time dinghy ride into the lagoon for goat cheese & beet salad, Langousta in curry pepper sauce and fried cheesecake were an enjoyable adventure. 

The next day, after picking up fresh fish in town from the hairdresser, who's husband is a fisherman, Andrew had to perform an underwater rescue of our snubber hook. He had it connected to a spring loaded J-hook that sprung which required free diving 20 feet to retrieve it. That was his exercise for the day!

The following afternoon, we were hanging out on the boat when a dinghy came charging up to our stern. We were commenting about how close they were and that they were going to hit us, when they called out our names. It was Heike & Jurgen (and their daughter) from s/v Valentin, that we met in Spanish Wells a month ago. We jumped in the dinghy to have drinks with them at Chat 'n Chill beach and pick up dinner to go. That's how our social life often works here in G-Town.

The next few days we were mostly hunkered down on the boat for a blow that lasted a couple days, venturing out at least once to see if we could find a place to watch the NFL playoffs. We decided to check out a new joint for us, the Rusty Anchor on February Point...beautiful view, decent food, no TV.

There are a record 290+ boats in the anchorages of Stocking Island these days, and more dinghies than I've ever seen at the town dock! The boat community chats every morning on the net on channel 72 and throughout the day on 68, announcing all kinds of gatherings & events. One day at dusk, a boat who had been watching the movie, Don't Look Up (about a meteor hitting the earth) proclaimed that a meteor was passing overhead! Turns out it was not a meteor about to hit the earth, but a Space X rocket launch from Cape Canaveral... a pretty cool sight!!

A few days later we were hunkered down again in steady winds at 30 knots, gusts to 40! Out of shear boredom, we made a tool to clean the back of the oven and I discovered Wordle. When it gets too rough to run our own errands, we'll try to use 'the harbor conceirge', a fellow name Jamal, who will pick up or drop off trash, ice, fuel, etc., except on busy days when we need him most, he can be hard to get, so we made a wet run across the harbor in the blow for ice.

On Feb. 4, a good friend from home, Jeff W. (on s/v Agility) and his fiance, Krista, arrived in the harbor, providing us with new friends to play with. Their first night, we had a great meal of sushi & duck wings at Exuma Yacht Club and an adventurous dinghy ride back trying to find our boats in the dark. The next day, I rowed my SUP and Krista rowed their kyack into Chat 'n Chill for some volleyball, drinks and conch salad.

It seems like we spend our days playing while waiting around for a weather window to sail somewhere and just when one opens up, some new friends arrive. I am definitely not complaining...George Town is a fun & beautiful place to hang out and we will continue to do so until the next weather window (or playmate) arrives!!