WORLD'S LARGEST ADULT WINTER CAMP!

After the somewhat truncated 5F Festival and washed out Superbowl we were ready to get the heck out of Farmer’s Cay but as happens all the time around here, the weather had other ideas and we wound up staying a couple extra days to allow the Exuma Sound seas to calm down as we headed south. Before I go any further, the wifi location I'm at has a pretty restricted amount of bandwidth I'm allowed to use which means I probably won't be able to post any photos this blog. Sorry, there are some good ones ready for me to upload! I'll try to catch up next time.

            We’d not been in a marina since leaving Nassau well over a month before so the Captain’s of both Magic and our buddy boat Veritas decided we were ready to treat the Admiral’s a bit and head to probably the nicest marina in the Exumas, Emerald Bay, 10 miles north of Georgetown. This marina, part of a huge Sandal’s resort is absolutely beautiful with huge floating docks, free wifi, free laundry (a really big deal since we’d been paying close to $30+ ever time we washed our clothes!), nice showers and a comfortable lounge with cable TV. They even have a “no frills” slip rate of just $1.00/ft for boats that don’t need electricity. Since we make our own power via solar panels, a buck a foot was just too hard to pass up! Diane and I spent 3 days here enjoying all the amenities they offered. Unfortunately, like much of the Bahamas, even this marina has fallen on some hard times and their only restaurant had closed and the ones at the Sandals resort were prohibitively expensive. We mitigated that by renting a car for a day and driving into Georgetown to shop and eat a couple meals where someone else did the dishes!

            At the end of our 3-day marina “vacation” Diane and I bid a temporary farewell to Veritas and made the short run to Georgetown and Stocking Island. Jennings and Patty were enjoying their stay so much they decided to remain until another wind event passed. 

            It is extremely hard for me to accurately describe the cruisers “Mecca” of GTown, oft called “The World’s Largest Adult Winter Camp.” Located at the very southern end of the Exuma chain, GTown is the largest town not just on the island of Great Exuma but the entire chain. It is also the turnaround point of a lot of cruisers’ southbound journey and many yachts come here in the fall and literally stay put until late spring. It's almost as if the earth was flat and the end is just south of here! GTown has any number of wonderful anchorages, each with a different flavor and protection from the various "wind events" which come through occasionally. While some boats anchor right near the town itself, most (like us) wind up just to the east along the shores of Stocking Island about a mile east where there is protection from the usual easterly trade winds. During the occasional frontal passage and winds shift more to the west, there is a mass exodus to the other side of the harbor as boats snuggle up to the shore close to GTown for wind/wave protection. Once the wind shifts again from the eastern quadrant, they all shuffle back toward Stocking Island. As I type this, almost 300 boats are anchored in the area and a small, temporary town has sprung up complete with an unofficial Mayor and a group of cruisers who act as a sort of Town Council. Every morning at 0800 the “mayor” (who I haven’t met but really does a lot of work on the cruiser’s behalf) conducts a radio “net” dispensing information on weather, local business specials, cruiser activities, etc. There are more activities here than in a retirement village; volleyball, softball, yoga, cards, basket weaving (see!), and my personal favorite, conch horn blowing…just to name a few! There are even a couple beach front restaurants on Stocking Island which serve pretty good food at surprisingly (for the Bahamas) inexpensive prices. In a couple weeks, the number of boats here will almost double for the annual Georgetown Cruisers Regatta. There are boats that come here year after year, just for this event, which is as organized as Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade…but a whole lot more fun! As for us (and I include Veritas here), the organization is already a bit much and I just don’t see us hanging around for the regatta. Still, there is something to do every day and most evenings there is either a cruiser’s pot-luck or some special dinner ashore complete with what I’ve decided is the national dish of the Bahamas…mac-n-cheese. They eat it by the pound here! That, and packaged “Honey Buns” seem to be the most popular food most places we’ve visited. Just about every tiny store around that sells any grocery items have boxes of Honey Buns...amazing the Bahamian people aren't normally fat!

            I’ll try to post a lot more about Georgetown and our numerous adventures here later, but I finally have found a wifi hotspot and want to post what I have. We plan to leave here in a couple days and begin a tentative run back north (guess I'm one of those "flat earth" people!). Our working plan is to revisit some of our favorite Exuma islands and then head to Eleuthera Island. 

            Till next time…we’re still searching for the elusive wifi network and having fun!