Jan and I are enjoying a relaxing time in beautiful weather here in our favorite home away from home, George Town, Exuma. We've been enjoying the company of Kathryn who has her 2nd home here, and David, both of whom have been great friends over the past three years we've been coming here. And it is fun to catch up with locals whom we've met during previous visits.
George Town seems to be a little more prosperous than the past year. A couple of new restaurants have opened and seem to be doing well. The Sandals resort up at Palm Bay (where we celebrated Andy and Jess' wedding 2 years ago) has been advertised extensively on TV and is turning into their 'premier' resort. There's more traffic, and more people in town. There are more Internet options. But it is still the laid back, very rustic, very Bahamian village we know. You don't come to town for that luxury resort experience, that's for sure. You would head up-island for that.
We have been working on Mystique, which fits that very apt saying that, "Cruising is fixing boats with expensive parts in exotic places." We've also been helping Kathryn and David with various projects like trying to get Kathryn's 50hp outboard running. So far, we've polished a lot of stainless steel (2x/year project), installed half of our new lifelines, installed all of the new LED light bulbs (so we can have more than one light on at a time in the cabin without draining the battery), patched some leaks in the dinghy (but not all of them), mounted 'my' new barometer and clock which I received for Christmas, got our Serius Radio up and working (great to have unlimited music and NPR!), changed the oil in the generator, and a myriad of small other projects.
We still have to apply Cetol varnish to exposed wood, change the engine oil and filter, remove and replace the glass lenses in 3 more leaking portholes, install a new macerator pump in the aft head, and pull more of the ceiling panels to tighten leaky deck fittings and prepare the panels for painting because they're peeling a bit.
This is not to make you think we spend our whole time aboard fixing stuff. We spent three nights ashore at Kathryn's when we first arrived with meals and fun. We've been back for more food and swimming a number of times. We've shared food/drinks with Rum Tot both on our boat and theirs. We've had David over for several meals aboard Mystique. We enjoyed a great cruiser's party ashore at a beach on Stocking Island, listening to an XM Radio broadcast of a Jimmy Buffet live concert with food to pass and grog (and some pretty good costumes). And last night after dinner we starting in on a TV DVD series on John Adams. And Jan's read 4 or 5 books.
On our way from Colorado we stopped to visit long-time friend and former fellow cruiser, Bob Bruce. We spent two nights at his place, collected lots of boat parts we had shipped to him, and celebrated my birthday eating seafood across from the Jupiter lighthouse.Next week the annual George Town Family Island Regatta kicks into full gear. This is a huge event with lots of Bahamian sailors from all the islands here vying for the national sailing championship. They must sail home-made wooden boats of traditional design. The boats have huge billowing cotton mainsails, use lead blocks in their hulls for ballast, and also balance the boats using 4 - 10 big guys crawling out on boards which slide from side to side with each upwind tack of the boat. We were here for regatta several years ago but missed it last year, so we're looking forward to this event very much.
After regatta, we'll sail up the Exuma chain to meet one or two boats which friends are sailing from Florida and the Abacos to George Town, and cruise back to GT with them.
More later!
Posts
