Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas

Hello Again… Greetings from Georgetown. Since our friend Jamie was leaving, we drove the boat across the harbor to the “Town Anchorage”.

We decided to take advantage of the great weather and took the a ride out to Hoopers Bay to see if we could find some turtles. Some of the tour boats take guests there to feed them. We were very lucky and arrived without anyone there but us.

I had my GoPro with me but of course when I went to shoot a photo, the camera wouldn’t turn on.. I have never trusted using my iPhone in the water before, but I had to get some photos. iPhone worked in the water and didn’t have any issues… gotta love technology .

We moved back across the harbor to the Sand Dollar Anchorage. As you can see, there are still plenty of boats even after the Cruising Regatta was over.

Whenever we move anchorages, as soon as we set anchor down and turn off engines, one or both of us swim out to check if the anchor is set correctly. Our anchor is large and we feel pretty safe, but in a big blow, we want to be sure we see that it is set properly.

Another chore that had been on our minds… We have been on the boat for over 2 months now, and it’s a good idea to inspect the hull for algae growth. Yikes! We found some. Luckily the previous owner had a couple of air tanks and a hookah with a long air tube so down I went with a scraper…

There are a few really nice snorkel spots right nearby, so we went out to visit a few of them. The water was a little cloudy – not as clear as usual, but still pretty.

We took a spin around the island and visited one of our favorite kiting spots. No wind today, but enjoyed it anyway.

After all these nice days, we checked the weather, and the big front that had been stalled in Florida is now on the way to us. We are still in the Sand Dollar anchorage, and the brunt of the storm was supposed to be NE wind around 30kts. It will be a bit bumpy but with the island protection we “should” be fine.

So… when the wind started to pick up, it was blowing from the dreaded West (town). That is normal during a front, but it is usually a quick direction change as the wind was supposed to clock to the NE. Well. It didn’t clock! It stayed right there for about 5 hours! I don’t have a lot of photos for you we were too busy watching out our windows for dragging boats going by. That lit up boat in the photo above did start dragging and at one point was very close to us. He finally started his engines and just drove around until the wind did clock around and then he re-set his anchor.

It blew all night and the next day. But with the right wind direction it was good protection in the anchorage. These 3 boats got pushed up on the sand in the shallow water. They all tried various ways to get free, but ended up waiting for high tide around 3pm.

The next day we were finally able to get off the boat, and took the dingy to shore to check out the conditions on the eastern side of the island.

Getting down to our last week on the island. We will leave for 6 weeks and return to take the boat back to Florida in June.

We were there for the 1st day of the Bahamian Music Festival, but we missed out on the music… Leaving tomorrow, but the food was yummy!

We are leaving the boat tied up safely in a protected area. Thanks to our friends Christine and John who will keep and eye on her until we get back.

Made it home! Good to be back to our beautiful Baja and the Sea of Cortez.. A little different water color, but equally beautiful.

But looking forward to returning to The Bahamas in May.

Thanks all for keeping up with us. I will resume the blog when we get back. Adios for now. Take care

If any of you are interested in learning about The Bahamas in the early days, I really recommend a novel called “Winds of The Carolinas”. If you can find it, I think you’d love the story.