The George Town Boogie

The trip to George Town was a brisk downwind sail in 20-knot winds on another beautiful blue-sky day. George Town is located on Great Exuma Island and the anchorage is about two miles across Elizabeth Harbor along the shores of Stocking Island. George Town is the equivalent of Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands, or maybe Block Island in Rhode Island. It's the place everyone wants to be and be seen. As we sailed into the broad Elizabeth Harbor we could see literally hundreds of sailboats anchored, mostly along Stocking Island. Some cruisers make a beeline for George Town in early November and don't leave until late April or May. You can tell them by the forest of marine growth on their hulls. As many as 400 boats can be anchored here during peak season.

 It's a huge harbor, but everyone wants to be anchored in one of three places: The Monument, Chat & Chill, or Sand Dollar Beach. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Since we were only going to be here about a week we decided to shoe-horn ourselves in just off the Chat & Chill Restaurant, the most popular anchorage. You get to know your neighbor boats well since they are right next to you.

The dingy beach in front of Chat N' Chill.

The infamous Chat N' Chill on Stocking Island near George Town.

The second night we needed to get hooked up to Internet which meant taking your dingy into the St. Francis Yacht Club bar where they sell chits for 75 minutes of Internet. It was packed when I got there because they have a live band on Wednesdays. I jumped in the dingy and got Meryl, but by the time we got back it was standing room only. We managed to appropriate two chairs and set them up right in front of the band. How do I describe the band? Well, first their name was "Too Drunk to Fish." Second they were made up entirely of older guys off cruising boats. Third, they were incredibly good. They did a lot of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jimmy Buffet, some vintage Ian and Sylvia (which I love), and some good Oldies rock songs. The place was rocking (albeit with people mostly in their mid 60s --- this caveat is to allay the comment I know my daughter is going to make). We had a great time, met some interesting people, and had the usual fun time steering our dingy trying to pick our boat out of the hundreds anchored in the dark.

The other institution at George Town is the morning radio net at 8:15 am on VHF channel 72. It is a hoot. Every boat has its VHF radio tuned in and the harbor kind of reverberates with feedback noise. The Net starts with a call for any emergency traffic (there never is any), then announcements by local business ("Good morning cruisers, this is Chat & Chill and we're having our pig roast this Sunday . . ."), followed by local announcements ("Yoga on Chat & Chill beach at 9," "Volleyball at 2," etc.) and then the For Sale section, ending with Recent Arrivals and Departures. Herman on White Wings runs the net and does a masterful job of orchestrating the bedlam.

We took advantage of the net to sell our two folding cruising bikes (they took up space and we weren't using them). We got two full price offers within about 20 minutes. Also sold our chart sets for the East Coast of the US. Selling something usually involves about an hour long meet and greet with the buyer and seller listening to each other's cruising stories.

VHF channel 68 is used as the local calling channel. "Hey, anyone want to make a run to the propane plant to fill your tanks?" There is a very strong sense of community among the cruisers (remember there's no US Coast Guard, TowBoat US, etc. out here, just other cruisers to help). It's typical to hear a call like "Hey, anyone have any expertise with a Ray Marine autopilot, mine's not working right?" or "Does anyone have any Racor fuel filters for sale?" We heard one guy asking if there were any nurses out there since he had to have a shot. Within 10 seconds he got two responses. I could write a lengthy post on this subject; it's the single reason most of us enjoy cruising so much. You just don't develop this sense of community or deep friendships back in the real world. There's so much on the line out here that you really depend on your fellow cruisers, and they are always there for you.

Informal seminar by "Tassie Dave" on how to sail the Thorny Path to the Leeward Islands.

On that subject, when cruisers are getting ready for a significant passage (such as crossing the Gulf Stream for the first time), they put a call out to other cruisers who have experience on that route. In our case, there were a large number of boats in George Town heading further south to the Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico and beyond. I contacted a guy someone recommended who had what I thought was a British accent. "So Dave, are you a Brit?" "No mate." "Ah, then you must be a Kiwi." "Sorry mate, you'll never get it." "Well, the only thing left is an Aussie, right?" "No mate, I'm from Tasmania."

So Tassie Dave, as he's known, became our leader for the "Heading South Seminar" at Chat & Chill Beach. About 30 boats attended and Tassie Dave gave a great presentation of the all the options and peculiarities of winding your way south from George Town to Puerto Rico. This is called "the Thorny Path" by local cruisers since the path south is dead into the prevailing (and strong) easterly trade winds. To avoid bashing yourself to death you need to wait for the right winds, play the lee of islands, sail at night, etc. For two hours Dave gave us the options and recommendations, all dependent on the winds at the given moment.

We met a number of cruisers at the meeting, including a wonderful young couple with two kids on an Antares 44i catamaran called Field Trip with whom we may buddy boat. (More on them in a later post.) I also noticed two young girls sitting across from us and assumed they were someone's daughters (I can sense another comment coming from my daughter). Later in the day a guy came over to the boat to look at some charts I had for sale. The two young girls had given him a ride over in their dingy (they were from separate boats and had just met).

Two incredible Kiwis:  Harriet and Millie Stell.

Turns out the girls' story was much more interesting than I had ever imagined. The two, Harriet and Millie Stell, were 17- and 18-year-old sisters from New Zealand (why is it always a Kiwi when something exciting is happening?) They had bought a Kelly Peterson 44 sailboat (called Southern Blue) in Annapolis and were sailing it around the world, or at least back to New Zealand. Mind you, both were about 5 ft. 2 in. tall and so full of self- confidence (but in the quiet Kiwi way) that it was amazing. "So, you blew out your mainsail on the way down?" "No problems, we'll just sail her under genoa." "And I heard the propeller shaft came lose out in the ocean." "Oh yeah, Millie had to jump in the water to hold it while I used a mini torch to get it back in position."

They apparently had been sailing with their parents since they were young babies and probably have more sailing experience than most 60-year-olds. Talked with them for about two hours and was just blown away by their "can do" and "no problems, mate" attitude about everything. Any angst-ridden teenager would be blessed to spend some time talking to these two incredible girls. Turns out they have a hookah diving rig on board and earn money cleaning boats' bottoms when in port. They lined up three jobs in the short time we were in George Town. Fair seas and following winds girls, hope to see you down island.

We spent a lot of time after the meeting reading Bruce Van Sandt's The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South, considered the bible of heading south along The Thorny Path. We've tentatively planned on sailing south east from George Town to Calabash Bay on Long Island, then over to Rum Cay, an overnight passage from there to Mayaguana (we're really getting out in the boon docks now), another overnight run down to West Caicos, and then on to either Luperon or Ocean World on the east coast of the Dominican Republic. This is a very arduous trip at best, and downright dangerous in the wrong conditions so hopefully we can buddy boat with Field Trip on the way down to keep each other company.

One of the cruiser's dilemmas is "which way to go?"