Great Exuma is the largest of the 360 Cays that make up the Exuma district. The capital and largest city in the district, George Town, has been our goal. George Town is truly in the tropics as the Tropic of Cancer runs through here. The Tropic of Cancer is the northern most point where the sun will appear directly over head. This event only happens once a year in June during the summer solstice.
For us the major draw to the George Town area is to visit some friends and buy vegetables. The dinghy dock is a busy place for boaters to park while in town and fill up water jugs at the hose. As the day wears on, the dinghy raft is several boats deep on either side.
The Exuma Market is stocked regularly by shipments that arrive on the mail boat. We were very excited to find such a wonderful selection of produce and cheeses as well as any other grocery item we might need. As usual, you have to be very careful to check the prices. Some items are reasonable and others are off the chart expensive. Ken showed Eric a can of nuts for $24. We still have a few jumbo sized containers from Costco stashed away. I did buy the $30 Jumbo bag of mozzarella because it would provide several pizza dinners.
Three days a week a pick up truck stops by the fuel station across the street and as many boaters that will fit in the back pile in for a lift to Prime Island Meats and Deli. This link to their facebook page has some great pictures of the pickup truck and inside of the deli. After shopping here I had a grocery shopping sense of satisfaction I haven’t had in months. While Eric and Roy waited for me to return, they ran sheets and towels through the washing machines at the laundromat. We still use our drier lines on Makai to finish the job.
Eric was so impressed with the solar panels that he took a picture. Normally we 25 amps coming in and 12 used by our refrigeration and electronics while the rest charges the batteries. On a windy night the wind generator does a good job keeping up with our night time usage, but if there’s no wind, then the panels are hard at work all day. This all works pretty well, but if all conditions were perfect we should get 75 amps. The conditions that reduce the panel’s performance are things like clouds, the fact that our panels are horizontal and don’t aim toward the sun, shadows from the boom, radar and wind generator. All in all, it works great. If we have a bad solar and wind day, we can always run the generator and make water which will charge up the batteries in a jiffy.
One morning Eric got up to use the bathroom and started grumbling while flushing. Blah, blah, blah, the toilet is clogged, blah, blah, blah, how much toilet paper did those kids stuff in the toilet, blah, blah. Meanwhile I’m shivering in my boots because I was the last one to use the toilet in the middle of the night. He’s in there pumping with visions of tearing apart the plumbing and spending the rest of the day digging out wads of toilet paper or some other obstruction mixed with sewage. Then all of a sudden the toilet water turns purple. Yikes, I just dyed the girls’ hair, I wonder how the dye got in the toilet. Now, I’m really scared. Then Eric finds that it pumps fine if he’s not trying to pump water into the bowl, so a quick check of the salt water intake is in order.
You wouldn’t believe what he found, a little baby octopus crawled into the sea water intake hole and settled in for a nap, when the toilet sucked him into the strainer and squeezed the ink and his life out of him. Poor guy, but at least the rest of us are off the hook for today’s toilet disaster. So, now if there is a mysterious problem that could result in much time and money to fix, we first say it could be an octopus before jumping to the worst case scenario.
For C-Spirit George Town is the goal because Sirene, the catamaran Jamey built in more than 10 years ago in Massachusetts. Jamey and Nancy then trailered it to Florida and sailed through the Bahamas. I heard stories about sailing right up to the beach and pitching a tent on the trampoline at night. Now those are some tough sailors. Anyway they eventually sold Sirene and the new owner did the same and eventually sold it here in George Town. Jamey anchored near by the new owner and they family had a great sail up and down the channel.
Roy saw them out there and jumped on the Hobie. He had a great sail across the half mile channel, then another half mile south toward town, and then back. That was a great distance and independent sail for my almost 13 year old boy Roy.
Wikipedia says George Town has 1000 residents and I bet during the winter another 1000 boaters. Some boaters just set their autopilot for George Town and spend the winter here snorkeling on the outer reefs, enjoying the beaches, taking advantage of easy provisions, free water fills, and other necessary services to make their lives comfortable. The airport has regular flights from Nassau as well as the U.S. and Canada, for guests to visit. One Canadian friend said it sure beats shoveling snow. The boaters are very organized here as well. We used channel 68 for hailing and alternate channels for chit chatting, channel 72 at 8am is the morning net where new boaters are welcomed and old friends say goodbye as they leave, swap and trades are offered, the weather is reported, taxi shares to the airport are organized, lost and found items are identified, and reminders for the day’s events are announced. We arrived at the tail end of the Cruiser’s Regatta which attracts more then the normal number of boaters.
With all the extra kids around, one of the moms, single handedly, put together Kid’s Day events. They started by breaking up into three teams to make sand castles.
Then there was an exciting best out of three tug of war. The north team won three times. After the first two wins, the biggest boys on the end were switched to the other team, but the north team won again.
After everyone rested their sore hands an obstacle course had the kids crawling under the bench, hopping on one foot around a tree, and racing back to the finish.
The last event was story telling and a scavenger hunt which ended with a buried treasure box full of candy back at camp.
Every time a kid participated in an event, they got their name in the raffle. Marie was excited to win a gift certificate for the Exuma Market and a few bags of chips and candy.
Finally, after all that hard work there was a hot dog roast. I could see how hanging around George Town with all of the fun activities could be addicting.
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Even though everyone was tired, we managed to come to Makai for desert. Today is my birthday, 49, I can’t believe it. Marie made me a card, Roy got me a Hawaiian sling so I can join him spear fishing, the C Spirits made a beautiful wallet, birthday cake, and a yummy bottle of rum liqueur.
The girls quickly became little social butterflies. They visited Jeanette on Dream Catcher who we first met in Connecticut before they left home for cruising. We met Whistling Cay who has been living our parallel life. Nathan and Wendy lived on their boat in Harbor Island, San Diego just a little after we did, then they sailed in Mexico the same time we did (even though we never met). After this they went back to Alaska where Nathan is a commercial fishermen and raised their family. Now they spend the winters here on a Leopard 45, which is laid out exactly like Makai with two feet cut off their sugar scoops in the back, with their three kids and yellow lab, Rocky. A few weeks back another boater came across us on the beach at Norman’s Cay and mistaken us for them.
Meeting boaters and listening to their stories is very interesting. Everything from their lifestyle back home to their boat and cruising experiences can provide unlimited entertainment. In the end children in 2014 settle back in the evening and play iGadgets.
Chat and Chill hosted a Friday Night Dance. The beach was lined with dozens of dinghys and the twinkling lights in the night is evidence of the many anchor lights along the open road stead. The evening started with several parodies written by cruisers. The lyrics were great fun announcing the craziness associated with cruising.
We participated in a fun run, if running can possibly be fun. The course had us run down a path through the jungle, over to the other side of the island, up a steep hill to the monument and then slide back down the other side completing the 1.2 mile run at the beach. From there we swam between two docks and sprinted back to the finish line.
The participants all lined up. I looked at the skinny path we were all going to trot along and realized accomplished runners like Jamey should be in front and chubby, 49 year old mothers like me supporting their girls’ interest in participating, should be in the back.
The horn blew and they were off.
Trudging up the hill to the monument and sliding down the other side was hot, but slowing down got my heat rate and breathing back to normal. Little Marie was out in front, dropping off her shoes and positioning the swim goggles.
Genny and I wore masks as we plunged into the water for a refreshing swim to the north dock.
Meanwhile Jamey crossed the finish line in first place.
The rest of us finished and made a sharp right turn back into the water to cool off.
That afternoon Eric went up the mast to take pictures of some fittings on the mast. He caught us resting up after our morning exercise.
This is a great picture of the top of Makai, there are so many details here like the laundry on the life line, surf boards stick out from under the solar panels, the spinnaker guy coiled up on the trampoline, our tired old stack pack on the main sail holding on for it’s last season before I make a new turquoise one, solar panels and the solar water heater Eric installed this fall. How about the missing Hobie Cat? Looking out over the upwind boats looking for Roy on the Hobie is like a Where’s Waldo picture. I see him in the middle.
Roy always has his eye open for critters. This Blue Crab seems to have very long arms and claws compared to the ones we found in Maryland.
The week was fun but we’re going to head north a bit to explore some areas we missed on our mad dash to George Town. It’s amazing how fast produce cravings will make us move. Plus we’re not ready to part with our buddy boat C-Spirit as they make their was back to Florida. Soon they will be on the fast track as a new adventure begins. Jamey has an airline ticket from Florida to Seattle where he’s going to teach for 10 weeks. Nancy and the girls have great adventures planned that include Florida, New Orleans, Denver, and Tunisia to visit Nancy’s friend. In preparation for the uninhabited Cays north of here, Nancy and I are stocking up on produce.
