George Town is essentially a six-mile long harbour situated between islands along a northwest to southeast axis. There are anchorages on both sides of the channel, and boats will sometimes move from one side to the other to seek protection as cold fronts pass through.
We anchored off of Monument Beach, also known as Hamburger Beach, where Dora has been cooking hamburgers for thirty years. She has a picture on the wall of Johnny Depp when he was there filming Pirates of the Caribbean.
No, that’s not Johnny, it’s Kenny and his pirate wench, Amy. Amy has developed a tradition of observing Pirate Friday, usually on Friday, but with Amy you never can be sure! This was also Kenny’s birthday and a fun night. Amy tells us that when Kenny is not privateering he is an exotic dance instructor.
Next along the channel is Volleyball Beach, the hub of the cruiser’s social scene. It is hopping from morning to nightfall, and even later on dance nights. Every afternoon people gather to play volleyball, swap stories with old and new friends and perhaps have a cool drink.
One morning Corinne and I took the dinghy down to Sand Dollar Beach, near the bottom of the Elizabeth Harbour channel. We had hoped to find elusive sand dollars washed up on the beach, but had no luck. This view, though, looking out from the beach, shows some of the 290 boats in the harbour.
The VHF radio net on channel 72 at 8:00 am each morning announces among other things, the activities for the day. Corinne and I attended excellent sessions on forecasting the weather, purchasing marine insurance, sailing through the Far East, sail trim, … We missed the bridge lessons, the yoga classes, trivial pursuit and, yes, the exotic dance. We did get to a couple of the cocktail gatherings on the beach and jam sessions by a number of very talented folks.
From where we were anchored it was a two mile dinghy ride to George Town. It was often a rough and wet ride. In town we were able to get water from the dinghy dock at the grocery store, Exuma Markets, do our grocery tshopping and pick up fuel. We found that the best bread comes from Mom’s Bakery, the purple van in the picture. Mom is in George Town three days a week and includes a large hug with each purchase.
Internet access, and our link to home, is not accessible from the boat, and somewhat erratic from other locations. We discovered J&K Computers which provides excellent access. They charge five dollars a day, which is much cheaper than the two Kaliks we would purchase at the bars with free access. It is also very popular.
The Cruiser's Regatta is upcoming, but we are going to head north when the weather is good and stop in at some of the places we passed by on our way down.
