Georgetown Redux

4/9-4/12/16    Sand Dollar Beach

Hi,

With almost no wind, the harbor was flat enough Saturday morning for us to dinghy over to Georgetown.  After stopping at the ATM for cash (the bank across from the store dispenses either US or Bahamian) we checked  Exuma Market to pickup a few provisions, but the produce shelves were almost bare, and would remain so until sometime Monday when the supply ship arrived.   It's interesting that Exuma Market charges 5% to use a credit card, but Hillside on Long Island didn't.  I guess, along with slightly higher prices, the fee helps cover the cost of the free RO water on the dinghy dock, something we don't take advantage of since we don't do the 'jug thing' of transporting water back to the boat to fill our tanks.  The line at the water spigot was long - Leonard filled our solar shower and a couple of 2 liter bottles while I ran over to Shop Rite to see what they had in stock.  While they didn't have quarts of yogurt, they did have a large supply of romaine, so we'd have fresh lettuce for salads.  Many of the locals use Shop Rite where the prices are a bit less.

With a new supply of traded books from the library, tomatoes from the farm stand and fish from the beauty salon (her husband must fish), we headed back to Antares.  It was an amazingly dry ride for Georgetown, about 20  minutes in calm conditions.  Unfortunately the forecast for Monday, N to NE winds 15-20 with gusts, anything but calm, so I'd either skip the meat market or we'd need to move the boat. 

New Moon over Georgetown

Mid afternoon, we went ashore for a walk.  Once again, Sand Dollar Beach, especially close to the cut, was littered with sand dollars.  I wonder if the stage of the moon affects their behavior, as sometimes we don't see any.  Thanks to the new moon (spring tide), the water was extra low, and it looked like we could have waded across the channel to the sand bank off Elizabeth Island if we'd have been willing to go chest high.  A small power boat was anchored off the opposite sand bank, and we watched as their dog, a water spaniel paddled to a sand bank to get out of the water - he obviously wasn't enjoying the excursion as much as his people who were looking at something in the water.

A few of the many live sand dollars along the beach

Mocking bird

We hosted the Reuters for a movie night, complete with pop corn and a Sam Elliot spaghetti western   We'll do Mexican dominoes next - hopefully I can improve my last place standing!

Whisper, leaving the anchorage for a sail Sunday
 (black rectangle off the stern is a solar panel)

Sunday was a quiet (other than the wind), stay aboard day, spent reading and relaxing.  The excitement for the day was the front hatch cover blowing off in a gust.  Fortunately Leonard managed to grab it when it snagged on life line stantion just before it blew overboard.  While we have a sewing machine, we don't have any Sunbrella fabric to make a replacement, and hatch covers help keep the cabin cooler.

Monday, with the wind still gusting out of the NE into the 20's, we skipped going into town to catch a ride to the meat market.  The Kidd Cove anchorage would have been lumpy and the dinghy ride, even for a short distance, would have been salty.  I have enough meat in the freezer to last until we get to Rock Harbor in Eleuthera next week. 

Beach side marker for the Flip Flop trail

We made arrangements to meet the Reuters on the beach for a long beach walk to get some exercise in the afternoon.  We had the beach to ourselves and hiked N to  the last beach, scrambling over the rocky sections since the tide was up.  The waves were rolling in - not a good day to be heading E!  We took the  Flop Flop trail  over to the harbor side of the island to climb up to the Monument via a different trail before heading back to the dinghies.  Quite a few boats were anchored in the lee at Hamburger and Monument Beaches - I'd guess there are 150-200 boats in the harbor, compared to 25 at Thompson's Bay.  Even that number is way down from the 400 or more that spend much of the winter here.  We watched as a supply boat skirted the boats anchored at the edge of the channel - it looked a bit tight from our perspective, since the water is shoal just off the channel.

Boats anchored off Monument Beach

The supply ship following the channel behind the anchored boats

Nearby boats in the setting sun

Tuesday morning we moved Antares over to Georgetown to top off the fuel and water tanks.  We had a bit of a wait while a new, longer hose was put on the diesel pump.  Apparently the hose was too short to reach across some of the big catamarans or mega yachts to fill fuel tanks on either side (not a problem for us).  The dock guy thought it would take about half an hour since the gas company was doing the work, so we anchored and went ashore to pick up a few more provisions while we waited.  Shortly after we finished lunch, Leonard saw one of the boats that had been on the dock leave, so up came the anchor and we moved to the fuel dock.  We took on 8.1 gallons of fuel - the gauge had been close to full, but it's nice to have a few hours extra motoring time.  Although the bow water tank was full, it's always good to have all the water tanks full since we don't have a water maker, and there aren't a lot of marinas along the way for us to take on either fuel or water.  We moved back to Sand Dollar Beach for the night, and  chance for one last walk before we head out in the morning.

Our ever fluid plan is to wait in Georgetown until the current N wind subsides and the seas calm a bit before we start the trek back up the Exuma chain Wednesday.  The 2 weather models, US and European, don't agree (again) as to wind direction or speed as a series of complex systems move off the US coast during the week.  We'll do the obvious - look outside to see which way and how strong the wind is blowing, get updated weather information and leave when the conditions are favorable.

Lynnea