What to do in Georgetown

What is there to do in Georgetown, Great Exuma, Bahamas while waiting for your honey? Well, not much.

Most of the local cruisers while away the afternoon on Volley Ball Beach. They play pick up games of volley ball, play bridge, mind the kids swinging endlessly in tire swings, drink beer, and watch CNN at the Chat N' Chill bar. I quickly got tired of that esp. since Kalik beer is $4. and tastes awful. The yacht club set heads for the St. Francis hotel restaurant for club sandwiches for lunch and Trivial Pursuit at 5:30 pm. Some yachts spend endless hours chit chatting on the VHF. It's disgraceful.

Trips across the road stead to Georgetown are just for chores--gas, diesel, hardware, groceries, laundry, e-mail etc. There is no meaningful nightlife or fancy restaurants except the Four Seasons 16 miles north.

The beaches are wonderful. There is a narrow beach on the western side of Stocking Island, the protected side. That is where the dogs are walked, where newcomers jog, and where the evening get-togethers are held. There are very shallow parts where kids can play in waist deep water and adults can bathe. On the eastern or ocean side there is a long magnificent beach with steep sandy coves and rocky outcroppings. There are sandy cliffs that provide vistas. Last week there was a hugh swell from some storm far away in the Atlantic. Watching the waves roll in and break was mesmerizing. A hike of about one mile south through the jungle brings you to a blow hole that jets the breaking wave hundreds of feet into the air.

At low tide several small reefs are easily accessible by dingy. I found a small "pot hole" of near perfect coral teaming with fish all in 6 feet of crystal clear water. I have not been back since the swell has temporarily stirred up the water so much it has been opaque for a week.

There is fishing, but this is best done at the cuts. The nearest one is 3 miles away. I am going to save up for that one. Jan and I will have to take an extra gas can and a picnic lunch.

Swimming is not recommended what with 300+ boats NOT using the holding tanks. You can watch the wildlife. I see about one turtle per day. A juvenile dolphin spent all of one afternoon swimming about the boat listening to Classic Vinyl on the Sirius radio. There are very few birds here and not too many fish.

I finished every chore I could think of by the end of the first week. Without a convenient ship chandlers there is not much to do except routine maintenance.

I did go to beach church twice. Today was sunrise Easter service on the beach which was inspirational. Everyone is very friendly, but this is a couples driven society. There are a number of bachelors because so many of the women (and a few men) return to civilization. But we keep to ourselves in the manner of old timers everywhere.

I have learned that I never want to single hand sail. In fact, I now wonder why anybody does it at all! There are very few singlehanders in Georgetown. Or more likely they move on.

I am looking forward to Jan's return to the White Pepper on April 1, 2008. One fun thing that we will stay for is the Out Island Regatta (or Family Regatta as it is known locally). This is one of the biggest events in all of the Bahamas and should be very exciting. It will be at the end of April.

Back in Georgetown

I arrived back in Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas late Thursday night with friends John Files and Mindy. The White Pepper was in excellent shape. Many friends had kept an eye on her throughout the month. Esp. thanks to John on Hanco. We had drinks with John late Thursday and are again grateful for his hospitality. On board as well was the redoubtable Chris Parker. Chris is a young man who build a formidable reputation as a weather forecaster and actually supports himself selling weather forecasts over the internet and on single side band radio. The forecasts are quite accurate.

Friday was cold and blustery--remarkable even by the harsh standards of this winter. We spent the day provisioning. Today is nicer but windy. We will leave the dock to anchor across the harbor in the lee of Stocking Island. There does not appear to be any relief from the wind until next Wed. Then I might try for Long Island.

Jan could not accompany me. The nurse at Dr. Swann's office was very emphatic about the need to rest, recover, and avoid any accidents. With luck and Dr. Swann's blessing she will rejoin me in early April.

Driving in from the airport I was struck with an intense bittersweet feeling. On one hand I was missing Jan terribly. However, I was glad to be back. I was struck at how much I felt at home--more so than even Corpus Christi. That could not be possible since I have only lived here 3 days. It must be that s/v White Pepper is my home address now.

Georgetown Speak

Many essays have been written about VHF communications--most of them are boring and redundant. I will discuss only the patois that is common in Georgetown, Bahamas.

In Georgetown channel 14 is reserved for the taxis. Channel 16 does have some emergency function. The harbor control stands by on 16, but God knows why. Businesses uses channel 16, and actually it is useful to know that Mom's Bakery truck will be under the tree from 1 till 5.

Because there are so many cruisers in Georgetown during the season, channel 68 has become the hailing channel. Channel 68 is also the home of the famous Georgetown net that binds this community together. It meets reliably at 8:30 am and triggers a whole morning of interaction.

Many French-Canadians cruise in the Bahamas. My observation is that they talk a lot. They seem to speak so as to enjoy the visceral pleasure of speaking French, especially the vowels. However, in the urgency to clear off of 68, one often hears the pidgin "six-neuf" instead of the correctly pronounced French phrase for 69--"Seise-nuef." (Note: French 6 is spelled six but not pronounced the same way.)

Some stations seem to hog the airwaves. One duet between Winds of Peace and Semper Vivands was particularly egregious. Finally I followed a conversation to channel 17 just to see what all of the hot air was about. Quickly I realized that these were two pre-teen girlfriends talking. Also their parents were always checking up on them. Here were two young ladies in the tropics robbed of everything meaningful--friends and a cell phone--just trying to get by.

One particular chatterbox annoyed us all the way down the Exuma chain. I will not name names here. However, in Georgetown this individual quickly volunteered to help us in our distress. With his gossipy nature within 15 minutes he found a fellow cruiser who would watch the White Pepper at the slip while we were in Texas. I could not have done the same within 2 days. Henceforth, Jan and I will never degrinate VHF abusers.

Woman seem to be in charge of the communications in Georgetown. They dominate the airwaves in that harbor. Their mute husbands are relegated to the engine room. Women seem to be in charge of the weather which also comes over the airwaves. I quickly learned to follow particular femine voices up and down the channels whenever the weather was at issue.

Because so many stations are talking, finding an open line is often a problem. A typical conversation might start like this, "Yacht A, Yacht B." Then "Yacht A, this is Yacht B. Go to channel 69. If 69 is busy, skip channel 70 because that channel is reserved for DSC communications, and go to 71, 72, etc. until we find an open channel to talk." Of course, no one says all this. What is said is, "69 and up." Because of the channel 70 issue a more common hail is, "67 and down." Even this phase gets abbreviated. At this point I must confess I find something mildly erotic about hearing a husky woman's voice call out to her friend to go "down and down."

A Successful Laminectomy

After several consultations Jan and I settled on Dr. Karl Swann, neurosurgeon, of San Antonio, Texas. All consultants recommended surgery. I felt just slightly more comfortable with Dr. Swann's narrative. I am sure that surgery would have been successful in Corpus Christi, but we were very pleased with the process at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. We arrived (late, caught in traffic) Monday 2-11-08. The surgery took only 21 minutes. Dr. Swann removed a huge (3 cm) disk fragment from Jan's lower spinal canal. I am sure that the surgery will be a great success. Recovery, however, has been slow.

Current plans are for her to recover here in Corpus Christi for 6 to 8 weeks. I will return to the White Pepper in 2 to 3 weeks after the post operative visit. Jan will rejoin me in Georgetown sometime in April, hopefully before the Out Island Regatta. Dr. Swann assures us that she can continue on the voyage. I hope so.

Last Post?

With great regret this may be the last post on this blog--at least for quite a while.

Jan has reinjured her back. The pain is unbearable at times. Also she can not reliably assist with the boat handling. In Georgetown I made a trip into town to the local clinic. There Dr. Malchi gave her some steroids which helped. The pain pills alone were not working.

There is no other choice except to return to Corpus Christi for medical or surgical help. We leave Georgetown on Tuesday, 1-29-08. The White Pepper is tied up at Exuma Docking Service in tenueous circumstances, but again these are hard choices.

Thanks all of you for following the site. With God's help Jan and I will be able to return to the Bahamas soon.

Summit Day--Georgetown, Bahamas

Jan 24th, 2008 dawned calm and beautiful--just like most other days in the Bahamas, but on this day White Pepper was preparing to travel to Georgetown which was the culmination of 6 months and untolled money and effort. We had made an easy 18 n. mi. motor from Farmer's Cay to Lee Stocking Island on the 23rd. The Garmin 545 chart plotter failed just off the cut. Fortunately, I had programmed the Garmin 48 as back up and it brought us into the anchorage as the sun was setting.

The 24th stayed calm with a light southerly flow ahead of another norther. We arrived at Conch Cut at 2 pm-slack water. Using the Maptech way points we negotiated the dog legged entrance into the area called Elizabeth Harbor without a hitch. The harbor is more of a roadstead. There is Stocking Island and Elizabeth Island running 5 n.mi from the NW to the SE. Two n. mi. to the west is Great Exuma Island. Georgetown is on the SW coast of Great Exuma Island about 5 n.mi from Conch Cut.Finally we were at the anchorage. There were at least 150 yachts anchored all along the lee of Stocking Island. (note confusion with Lee Stocking Island 21 n. miles to the north).There was plenty of room. We were able to find a comfortable spot off Rocky Point and had the anchor down at 3:30 pm. Strangely we both felt very tired. It was more of an emotional tiredness than physical. We decided not to wrestle with the dingy, but rather take a nap, wake up for sundowners, have a light dinner, and go to bed early. It's been a long trip.

Little Farmer's Cay

Tuesday 1-22-08 White Pepper lifted anchor at 10:30 am for Little Farmer's Cay. Jan was quite interested as she had been here 20 years before with Harvey Branscome on his Bristol 40 Josephine. She had met and befriended the owner of the Ocean Cabin's Restaurant, Mr. Terry Bains. He remembered her immediately and gave us a warm welcome as did his delightful 10 year old daughter Khadijah. We had grouper at the restaurant. Bob Madry's picture is on the wall.

We were actually able to sail today. We had a delightful close reach of 17 n. mi. with reefed genoa. We anchored in only 6 feet of water behind the airstrip. That is some skinny water.

Weather is everything in the Bahamas. There should be a very calm period late Wed. and all of Thursday before the next front on Fri. am. We will use that window to make the jump to Georgetown by way of the Exuma Sound.