Wind Wind Go Away

Note: Since my cell service is weak, and wifi is weaker…I am going to attempt to post this blog in several pieces.  I am hoping the signal is strong enough to add 2 or 3 pictures at a time, but…we shall see how that works.

We have spent most of the past two weeks pinned down by strong wind.  We stayed in Georgetown at Great Exuma, which is an interesting place (more on that a little later), for nine days waiting for a break in the winds.  Waves were forecasted anywhere from 5-10 feet during those 9 days…all numbers higher than we would prefer.  Since leaving Georgetown, on Monday, Dec. 20, we made a 25 mile trip to Calabash Bay at the northern tip of Long Island, then a 45 mile leg to Clarence Town.  

The two trips were polar opposites in terms of wave conditions…even though the forecast was identical on both days…yikes! My confidence in trusting the forecasted wave heights is shaken.  The problem we are facing at the moment is which forecast to believe.  On the day of our journey to Calabash Bay one forecast called for 4 ft waves, while two predicted 2 ft waves.  There were actually 0 ft waves…an amazingly beautiful day.  The next leg had the exact same forecasts from all three sources, however, we battled 4-6 foot waves on the nose for 8+ hours…ugh!  We now sit in Clarence Town, pinned down by strong winds again.

Thanks to Nations Online Project for the use of this map for educational purposes.

Just to review our journey thus far, for those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the Bahamas.  The purple line shows a rough interpretation (drawn with my finger while aboard a rocking boat) of our route, with yellow dots showing stops.  The green line shows future plans, if the wind should ever stop blowing.  We are now only three days away from our winter destination of Turks & Caicos, where we plan to spend two months of snorkeling bliss…best laid plans!

Back to our time in Georgetown…

Clearly, feeding the rays at ‘Chat n Chill’ is a tourist attraction.  Keith just bent down to touch, he didn’t have food…he/she left disappointed!

So Georgetown is a cruisers destination.  Much like a popular campground in Florida, many people flock here to escape harsh winters and join a social community.  This cruiser community is very well established with a morning cruisers net (radio broadcast) that covers everything from classes, meetings, potlucks, give aways, announcements, and even a joke of the day.  I have been told that, at times, 500 boats have been in this harbour…luckily for us, there were probably only around 100 when we were there. 

I understand the social aspect that some people seek, and if spending their winters here is their dream…good for them.  What I don’t understand, however, is why people work so hard to find paradise, then have no qualms about destroying it!  During one of the morning nets, the announcements quickly went from water aerobics will meet on the beach at 9:00 to…”please me courteous and don’t dump your holding tanks (aka large amount of raw sewage) in the Harbour in the middle of the day when people are swimming, at least wait until night.” 😳!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!! (That is the yelling in my head).  I had to turn the radio off and walk away!  These people have the wherewithal to bring their boats hundreds of miles to this ‘paradise’ location, but can’t be bothered to move 3 miles offshore to dump tanks safely???  Unbelievable…get me out of here!

Since we weren’t going to be swimming in this harbor, we spent a nice afternoon hiking across the island to the ocean side.  Beautiful.

This one gives you a good idea of why we aren’t leaving the protection of this island.

This beach offered so many opportunities for great pictures.

Clearly, the town has embraced to migration of the cruisers.  One enterprising resident parks his truck near the dinghy dock so cruisers can dispose of trash.  The charges are listed on the window, and you slip your money through the crack.  The drivers seat is usually piled with cash.  The grocery store has also grown to accommodate the large cruising community.  The store is very large and well stocked satisfy North American (both US and Canadian) preferences. 

The church has beautiful stained glass that is appropriate for the community.

The view from the hilltop church is stunning.

On our last evening before departure (after Eddie and Gail treated us to an amazing lunch at Kamari Resort) we took the short hike to the high point overlooking our anchorage, to take in the view one last time.

You can see our boat in the distance (not the big one).  There are three main anchorages here, and we are anchored in the least favorite…in case you are wondering why you see so few boats.

I didn’t know hermit crabs climbed trees.

Goodbye our friends.  There have been many things we have enjoyed about cruising with Gail & Eddie, but the thing I will miss most is having snorkel buddies who are always ready to jump in!  I love that all four of us are water babies down to our core!

As previously mentioned, our trip to Columbus Monument (just north of Calabash Bay was glorious!

As soon as we anchored (after getting a few drone shots) we grabbed our snorkel gear and jumped off the back of the boat.  If you enlarge this picture, and look closely, you can actually follow the anchor chain right off the bottom of the picture.  That is amazing when you consider the drone is approximately 130 feet in the air, and the water is 18 feet deep!

Immediately after dropping the anchor this huge ray swam past the boat.  It was at least 4 ft across.

There wasn’t much coral along this beach, but there were a lot of large holes that contained a variety of fish and huge urchins.

The first dolphins I’ve seen since leaving Florida.  A mother and baby were fishing around the boat.  This baby was very small!

We waited a long time for this perfect day, but our wait paid off!

The next day we rounded that point and went to the ‘dark’ side (where the water is 2,000-3,000 ft deep) for the 45 mile (miserable) leg to Clarence Town…where once again we are waiting for a perfect day.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Future post will need to be extremely abbreviated, as this post took 8 hours (not 8 straight hours, but frustrating) to get online today…ugh!