George Town

Monday April 28, 2014
23 31.174 N
75 45.777 W

George Town can be “Georgetown” or “George Town”. It is close to the southern tip of the Exumas. It has a European history since the 16^th Century with a lot of pirates involved. It will be the most southern point of our trip and is 1,150 miles from Charleston. The Tropic of Cancer bisects the harbor. It is a bit of a cruiser mecca. And it has a wifi service $35 for a week!

This morning we were underway at about 7:30 AM. I wanted to catch the tide “slack” going back out thru the entrance as otherwise there would be a lot of current. We were outside by 8:00 AM and once we got out of the tidal race the ocean settled down to a comfortable ride. We had about 40 miles to go and it was then just a matter of time. The auto pilot did all the work, I finished a book. Hot dog for lunch J

Made the waypoint for the entrance to “Elizabeth Harbour” at about 1:30 PM and were settled on a mooring ball by about 2:30 PM. We are on the east side of the harbor, “downtown” is about a mile away. Took a spell then went exploring in the dink. There is another DeFever in the anchorage so we said hello and ended up on board chatting till about 7 PM. They left next day.

Tuesday April 29, 2014

Quiet day, took it easy, met the neighbors. Took the dink to the St Francis hotel for dinner. The food was decent and the location on a veranda overlooking the bay at sunset was fantastic. Best meal in the Bahamas to date.

Wednesday April 30, 2014

Track meet at the local school

Gives an insight into the local health issue

Dinghy entrance

Took the dink into town to look around and do some shopping. The dinghy dock is in a "lake" and access to the lake is under a very narrow bridge. The town was a bit nicer than Marsh Harbour. The grocery store had everything we needed. We bought a new coffee machine at the hardware store AND found a coffee shop and enjoyed our first latee (I added the extra "e" in lieu of the missing acute accent) for many moons. We ran into the friends (from Farmers Cay) in the grocery store. Shortly after we departed they bumped into Goldie Horn and Kurt Russell in the store! I am not into movie people, but that would have been fun. On the way back we got very wet.































Thursday May 1, 2014

Today we rented a car. We were picked up in front of the grocery store at 9 AM and taken to the office to sign up. The island is only about 80 miles long and the "Queens Highway" does not make it all the way to both ends. We started off going North. The highlights were the airport, the Sandles resort and a marina. The island is covered with fairly dense scrub. There is no real sign of agriculture. We saw a few goats.

At the end of the road we turned around and "went the other way" back thru George Town and the island looked about the same. We stopped for lunch at a "highly recommended" cafe but just had a beer. We stopped at another of the "top 10" beaches and it was nice and we had a paddle.

My lasting impression - the number of partly completed construction projects.

On the way back across the bay in the dink we stopped at a friends boat and enjoyed some cocktails. Deidre was feeling a bit poorly so we went back to St Francis hotel for dinner on the veranda. It is a European hotel chain, the other guests all seemed European.

View at one end of the Queens Highway

Front lawn ornament, Bahamas

Nice beach

"Road" the the "top 10" beach

At "Top 10" lunch place

So many abandoned projects

Friday May 2, 2014

Had been planning to head out today. But the weather reports were all too confusing. We had input from several web sources and some local, but it all seemed contradictory. I had a bit of "work" to do so we decided to stay and spend the afternoon on the beach. The weather turned out to be benign so feel that we have "wasted" a day. But not really.

"Our Beach"

At "our beach"

Bringing home the bacon