Georgetown! 02/16/13

Georgetown is a big player in cruising destinations.  It is where some cruisers spend their entire season and some avoid it completely.  It’s a great place for preparing for journeys points south or a great turn around for seasonal sailors. 

We arrived around noon on Valentine’s Day, hoping to take advantage of a rumored dance party that evening.  We anchored at the first anchorage we found (it’s a huge harbor that houses sometimes over 400 cruising boats!) and immediately headed into town.

Georgetown Harbor is located between the island of Great Exuma and a chain of cays including Stocking Island.  There are numerous anchoring areas to accommodate just about any need from solitude to services, fun to safety.  The services for cruisers here are impressive – a well maintained and protected dinghy dock, an amazing grocery store, several typical Bahamian restaurants, a library and small straw market and the numerous and required liquor stores!

Stocking Island is where all the action happens.  We moved yesterday to  anchor off of Volleyball Beach where the bar Chat and Chill lies.  There’s several regulation volleyball courts, picnic tables, a good landing beach and the BAR!  The dinghy ride to Georgetown is about a mile from here. 

After our arrival we headed to town to get the lay of the land and handle some business.  After email and coconut rum at 
Eddie’s Edgewater, Rob and I headed to Chat and Chill for the famed Valentine’s dance.  Along the way we saw Majiks and Blue Moose, boats we had met in Coconut Grove, Florida before our crossing. They most kindly invited us aboard for their Valentine’s dinner and we enjoyed our first meal of lionfish, the bane of the coral reefs.  

We heard the music get going onshore and we all headed over for a night of nonstop dancing to tunes provided by a cruising couple turned DJ.   With no shoes and the deck bouncing, we dove into the groove of this island destination. 

We due to be here for several weeks and we’re settling in just fine.  I’ve been attending yoga on the beach each morning and Rob’s getting into the afternoon “volleyball for fun” group.  The morning “net” happens each morning where everyone tunes into channel 72 on their radios and shares happenings, needs, questions and whatever. 

Yesterday we heard about a plant sale happening a couple miles north of here.  Since I’ve been growing herbs onboard and enjoying them in my salads, I was hoping to score some new plants or learn something new so Rob and I headed into town. 

Exuma Market is the grocery store here and they do an amazing job of providing any item from food to service that the cruisers need.  Before the age of GPS and wifi, they even did rescue services!  They have at least a little of just about anything including CAVIAR – go figure!  And, although everything here is VERY expensive, they’re about as reasonable as we’ve seen along the Exuma chain.

We went there first yesterday to find out what we could of the plant sale.  Not only were they able to pull out a flyer about the event and give directions and such, the owner gave us a ride!  It was fun talking with Mike on the way and hearing the progression of his support of cruisers over the past 27 years and the changes he’s seen.  Pretty impressive!

The plant sale was definitely of Bahamian size and style, simple but sincere, and we bought some organic spinach, a loaf of casaba sweet bread and a home grown perfect papaya – not a plant or an herb – but a great time nonetheless!  A 4 mile walk home provided some exercise and we’re ready for the next Georgetown experience to come!