George Town Exumas & Paula

We've been busy for the past 6 weeks with wonderful guests and spotty internet connections, so haven't posted. The priorities when we DO have an internet connection are to first download weather info, then research whatever we need to repair or replace aboard; there's always something.

Bill wrote about Paul and Mary Beth's visit, where we cruised the Exuma Cays, Bahamas, from north to south, looking for bonefish, and exploring the exceptional beaches we find every mile. On the last day of their visit, coming into George Town, the supposedly-repaired-in-Fort Lauderdale roller-furler for our genoa jib fell apart. This large sail provides the main power to move the boat and is a beast to manipulate even in calm conditions, so the roller-furler is a huge safety feature, not just a nice gadget. The good news is Hood agreed to replace the furler at no cost, and we happily emailed the address of the George Town Exuma Market to the Hood guy in Tampa Florida. Locals said four business days from Miami for FedEx packages to arrive. Since my great friend Paula Hudson traveled two days from Montana to spend two weeks with us, we didn't want to delay her cruise, so we headed north from George Town with the genny lashed down on deck, and the staysail rigged. With occasional assist from the engine, we made good time on all our sails.

We first visited Little Famer's Cay, a quiet cay with 55 residents and few services, and were pleased to hear the All-age school fair, listed in our cruising guide as the next-to-last Saturday in March, was delayed a week, so we happily dinghied ashore to find the school, which currently has 10 boys enrolled. (Photos) Paula spent about $10 at the hoop toss trying to win some shampoo, and I became the Woman's Musical Chair Champ We were hot and dusty when we returned aboard, so rewarded ourselves with fancy strawberry margaritas, made in the blender Paula carried with her across the country.. (You may recall my dismay at a previous school fair where I did NOT win a blender.) The drinks were complete with little umbrellas that Paul and Mary Beth had brought on their visit. (Here I'll say "thanks" again to our guests for bringing us the supplies and parts we requested. We know it's tough enough to pack for a cruise without having to find space for an outboard propeller or airport-security-no-no spear tips.)

There were maybe 10 boats in the Farmer's Cay harbor, including the nice family we had met earlier on Sea Fever, their home-built 32' yawl, with 11" draft. Garth and Lilly, with daughters Rose and Isabelle led us on a hike to an underground cave with a salt-water pool, where we swam before picnicking on a nearby beach, (photos) then they then joined us that evening for my birthday party dinner with specially-made carrot cake that Paula and Bill arranged for us at the "Yacht Club". The girls made me a beautiful card and read me a lovely poem about friendship, and they gifted me a wonderful book of short stories about small boats. I'll always rememer that fine celebration.

We moved on to Staniel Cay expecting to amaze Paula with the wild swimming pig experience. You recall the pigs made me squeal and leap away (to the middle of the dinghy) when they aggressively tried to climb into our dinghy, while snorting and showing their long canine teeth. This time many cruisers in dinghies were dumping food on the beach for the pigs, and the pigs could barely walk, let alone swim out to get our lousy lettuce. Staniel Cay is one of the more developed areas, and we whined about the extra noise and bustle. It takes very little time to get spoiled by peace and quiet.

We sailed back south to Black Point Settlement, Exuma's second largest community, for what we heard through the cruising grapevine would be a big Easter celebration. Ever'ting's relative, but it was a busy day in town for sure. Paula and I offered to lend a hand on Saturday, and were assigned the task of tearing the raffle tickets out of their books of 20, and putting them in the Wash-Wizz (hand laundry bucket that spun with a handle) for the drawing later that night. Small town, small festival, so we figured we'd kill a half-hour on the job and meet some locals. Three hours later, we were still folding tickets into small packets (don't know why, they just insisted the tickets had to be folded small.) Turns out they'd sold nearly 4,000 tickets, not the couple of hundred that made us pity the small festival, and feel certain we'd win the roaster oven. Jeesh.

When the sun went down, and the basketball game between Black Point and Nassau finished (the first to reach 21 points wins the half. If they had a clock, the game would be timed. Black Point lost.) the Junkanoo began, led by The Valley Boys from Nassau. Bill, Paula and I boogied down the street with a spirited mix of locals and cruisers, with Bill playing our dinghy whistle along with the band. Paula and I were hugely impressed with the local girls' high fashion and colorful, elaborate hairstyles. We can't figure where they're getting the clothes...there are no shops in sight. The guy with the sound system picked up and left for no clear reason sometime after the basketball game, so the raffle drawing was postponed until the next day, we think. Paula arranged if we won anything it would go to Tiny, our co-folder from Black Point, who would love the roaster oven.

We had a rip-roaring sail back to George Town on Easter Day, then said farewell to Paula on Monday. leaving her somewhat soggy at the dock since the wind had picked up to nearly 20 kts, and hasn't abated until yesterday.

That's the outline of major events, but the best parts are really the smaller adventures: walking deserted roads to find the local dumps, where we can leave our trash for free, instead of paying $5 per bag at the marinas or casually shampooing your hair in the ladies room of the bar to conserve our onboard water. (We have the luxury of a watermaker, but that takes energy, which we'd rather use to make ice for the blender drinks) At Black Point Paula and I visited the "famous" Garden of Eden driftwood scupture garden, lovingly built over many years by Mr. Rolle, whose wife and daugters were happy to chat with us when we self-consciously began roaming in their yard to admire the plants and scuptures. We offered a small donation, and then received a handful of home-grown peppers and tomatoes, so then we returned later to gift some Scrubbies that Paula had made (she left with 15 or so...sailing is made for crocheting. Remember Mary Beth and I crocheted string tote bags with the 6 brand new balls of twine we found in a vacated, decaying drug-runner's home on Norman's Cay.) I'll never forget Paula trying to give me a much-needed haircut in the George Town basketball park, only to march me across the street to Hot Steps salon, with the towel still around my shoulders when she determined I had too much hair. Another great moment was spying a whole basil plant floating on our way into the George Town dinghy dock, rescuing it with a fresh water rinse and having a local fella in the liquor store offer to find us some dirt. Honest, only dirt.

Now remember the roller-furler was supposed to be waiting for us at the supermarket when we returned to George Town but, alas, it had only been shipped the day before, not 2 weeks before, and should arrive in 4 days (Friday.). Our major entertainment over the next week--better than TV--was watching the Fed-Ex tracking page come up on the computer each day showing our package traveling from Tampa to Miami to Memphis to Delaware (huh? for 3 days!) to Memphis to Miami to Nassau, then receiving a post that it was waiting for us to pick it up at the counter in Nassau. Adding to the suspense, midway through the adventure, the address listed on the tracking page changed to Georgetown, Kentucky. The story has a happy ending as a local man named Latroy retrieved it in Nassau, got it to the market, and the jenny is smartly furled as we speak.

Our guests have been terrific about learning to sail, as well as putting up with the somewhat fussy habits we have aboard a sailboat: put your toilet paper in a can; no daily showers, and then you might shower on deck; wash dishes with salt water (with fresh water rinse...don't worry); keep your dork light handy, especially for reading in bed, save your paper towels if they're pretty clean (paper products are expensive and sometimes hard to find); try to sleep through the various clinks and clanks through the night, hoist and launch the dinghy at every anchorage; shoe-etiquette (wear on deck to avoid toe-stubs and remove below to limit dirt and sand); wet dinghy rides; brush your hair on deck (you have NO idea how much hair and skin accumulates inside a boat); and I'm sure many more that we don't think about any more. I trust the reward of powder-sugar beaches with warm, crystal clear turquoise water, gentle rocking to sleep, no bugs (!), and remarkably friendly Bahamians makes up for the hardships.

Tomorrrow, 4/19/2010, we head east from George Town, bound for the British Virgin Islands to visit Ben and Nikki. We'll stop in Puerto Rico, but not tarry, as we must be ready to leave the hurricane belt by the beginning of June.