We made it to cruisers' paradise...George Town, Exuma

On Friday we finally tore ourselves away from lovely Sampson Cay Marina after nine days packed with three cold fronts and their accompanying ‘pre-frontal troughs’, ‘re-enforcing fronts’, and 30 knot winds with accompanying heavy seas. (Our ‘weather-speak’ is developing with each new front!) As usual, it was a busy day on the water as boats nosed tentatively out of their ‘sheltered’ anchorages and mooring areas, and the lucky marina dwellers cast off their lines.
We headed south for about 18 miles, along with Sue and Bruce on Andiamo, towards ‘Little Farmer’s Cay’. This would be our jumping-off point for our final southward leg to George Town. ‘Little Farmer’s’ is only ¾ mile long and has a population of 55 people who are mostly related! We decided to take a mooring ball for just one night as the weather was supposed to settle down to allow for a smooth passage down the east side of the Exuma chain in Exuma Sound – the exposed Atlantic side. This was ‘subject to change’ as 25 knot north-westerlies built up overnight and forced us to put off our Atlantic leg until Monday.
We had reserved our mooring ball on the south-east side of the island with Terry Bain and his wife, Ernestine, of ‘Ocean Cabins’ – a restaurant, bar, book-swap and internet station at Little Harbour. Once ‘checked in’, we pre-ordered our Friday night lobster dinner for 6 p.m., and had a very entertaining evening with Sue and Bruce, and other boaters, crowned by Terry and Ernestine singing the lovely ‘Little Farmer’s Cay’ anthem!
On Saturday our ‘buddy boat’, Knot-A-Gain’, which had been weather-marooned in Warderick Wells for 11 days, arrived on the mooring ball next to us, and we explored the island and visited the other meeting area – the ‘Yacht Club’, run by Roosevelt Nixon (real name!). We also bought a delicious take-out dinner from “Brenda’s’ on the beach at Little Harbour and had a lovely ‘dinner party’ on Marianne & Paul’s boat.
We had planned to move south on Sunday through the ‘Little Farmer’s Cut’ into the Atlantic. The winds were still blowing about 20 –25 knots, but the real problem was the huge swell which we could see crashing against the rocks either side of the ‘cut’, and the towering ‘white horses’ further out. ‘Andiamo’ decided to make a break for it, but ended up going out one cut and in the next (Galliot Cut) as the huge seas would have made a really uncomfortable 7 hour ride to George Town!
At last, on Monday, the time was right for our last leg south - to ‘cruisers’ heaven’, George Town. We set off at 7:30 a.m. to get the slack tide at the ‘cut’ as the seas were still fairly high, and arrived at our anchorage spot under the Monument just off ‘Hamburger Beach, George Town at 3 p.m. This anchorage is one of the few marked as ‘good holding’ for anchors, and it has proved to be fine so far even though the winds have been blowing from the south east at a pretty consistent 20 plus knots since our arrival. We had expected to see a wall of boats with little space left for our anchor, but even though there must be about 300 boats here, there’s still plenty of space off the three main beaches – ‘Hamburger Beach’ (Monument), ‘Volleyball Beach’ (Graviata Bay), and ‘Sand Dollar Beach’.
As it’s regatta week there are a lot of activities going on – all of which are ‘advertised’ by volunteer cruisers on the 8 .a.m. morning ‘net’ (broadcast on VHF Channel 72). The net also gives a very good weather forecast which we have found to be more accurate than Chris Parker’s 6:30 a.m. morning forecasts on the single sideband radio (SSB). The ‘net’ is a wonderful way to find assistance or information as all cruisers are eager to share their expertise, equipment, and knowledge. Some of these cruising boats have been coming here for twenty or more years and really know the ropes! As usual there are a great many Canadian boats – two from Toronto right in front of us!

On Tuesday we dinghied in to George Town – about a mile across the bay on the shores of Victoria Harbour. You enter the town under a narrow, low bridge and are immediately faced with a long dock filled with dinghies. There are quite a few rules of etiquette which are daily drummed into the cruising community – the most important being to leave a long line tied to your dinghy so that it can be pushed out of the way to allow other dinghies to move up to the dock! We stocked up on groceries from ‘Exuma Markets’, an excellent store beside the dinghy dock, bought fresh coconut bread (delicious) from ‘Mom’s Bakery’ van, and found an internet café where we almost froze to death in the air-conditioning! We also filled up our water containers with ‘free’ water (it can cost 50 cents a gallon at some places) and got rid of our garbage. These are all activities which we don’t really have to think about back home, but if you want to eat, shower, or keep the boat smelling fresh in the islands they are top of the list when looking for a place to drop anchor!
Yesterday we spent the day at Volleyball Beach watching the volleyball finals and drinking a few beers from ‘Chat ‘n Chill’ Beach Bar. We also had a delicious lunch at ‘St. Francis Resort’, just two minutes away by dinghy. It was very rough on the water yesterday, and we decided not to risk getting soaked taking the dinghy ride into town. Today we’ll do it, as I need to get a haircut. We also need gasoline for the dinghy and to find a good internet signal so that I can post this blog and some photos. Tonight there is a party on Hamburger Beach – right beside us, and tomorrow there will be the closing party for the regatta on the beach at ‘Chat ‘n Chill’. A small (we hope) cold front is coming in on Saturday, but after that we may have a few settled days. We may move back north with Marianne & Paul from ‘Knot-A- Gain’ on Monday. As usual, all our plans are subject to change…and weather!