Let me pause here for a second...  For those of you that haven't cruised down here, when the tide is falling all of the water on the banks is trying to drain out the few inlets and passes between the Cays to get out into Exuma Sound.  This creates strong currents going out of the passes at upwards of 5 knots.  When you combine this with a strong, opposing wind; 20+ knots in my case, the passes can have high breaking seas in them.  Hmmmm... sounds a tiny bit like my St. Augustine experience...  Ok, now back to the story...

I come up to the inlet and noted that the tide was still going to be falling for another hour.  "Those breaking seas don't look so big and...  I think I see an area in the middle of the pass that’s deep enough and with no waves breaking."  "Woo hoo, let's go!"  I get almost all the way through the pass when an exceptionally large wave looms up in front of me.  "Oh, oh..."  I need to speed up or else the wave is going to break on me, but I don't want to speed up because I don't want to slam into the wave.  I speed up.  I get past where I think the wave is going to break and slow down just as the wall of "green" water sweeps over the boat and rushes up the windshield...  Right about now I'm wishing that I had waited for slack tide, hindsight and all of that, but the boat and I survived the wave no worse for wear and tear.  I then look forward and see an even larger wave looming in the distance.  "Oh  #*@%!"    "No way!"  I full throttle the engines, spin the boat, and surf the smaller seas back into the inlet.  "Whew...” I'm always good for one stupid trick per cruise, although I thought that I had gotten that one out of the way on the east coast - guess not.  I beached the boat on the back side of Soldiers Cay, had lunch and checked over the boat while waiting for slack tide.  The boat was fine because I had securely tied down the dinghy and all of the hatches were dogged down tight.  When I left an hour later, the inlet was totally different.  There were still big swells coming in but no breakers.  The rest of the trip to Georgetown was rolly but uneventful. 

I arrived at Elizabeth Harbor (George Town) mid afternoon on Sunday "just in time for the pig roast at Chat & Chills. “Oh boy!"  As I'm pulling up to Chat and Chills to anchor the boat, I note that there's an awful lot of activity on the beach in front of the bar and grill.  I'm thinking that KB is doing real well to be putting out all sorts of beach furniture in front of his place.  When I get the dinghy to the beach, I notice that the quality of KB’s clientele has definitely improved this year. “Wow!”  I can hardly get myself to go up into Chat & Chills... wow!  I finally make it inside and see Arlene behind the bar.  We scream “hellos” and “great to see ya, to be back etc.”  She then explains that Southern Boating Magazine is doing their annual swimsuit edition photo shoot here...

To be continued... near the end of December

I promised you in my last post that I'd try to make this one more interesting and look less like a cruising guide.  I hope that I'm succeeding.  And remember kids (lawyers), "don't try any of this at home!"

Happy New Year from George Town, Great Exuma Everyone!

Continued... 01/01/2007

I know, a lot of my readers here are going to be a bit annoyed with me.  When I went in to Chat and Chills on the beach that Sunday afternoon, I hadn't thought of bringing my camera in with me.  Should I have gone back and gotten it?  Maybe, but then I would have missed out on the experience.   My apologies, anyone wanting to see the models at Chat & Chills will just have to buy the swimsuit issue of Southern Boating Magazine.

The winds blew hard for the next couple of weeks with some days recording in excess of 30 knots.  During these times of high winds; people tend to hole up on their boats and read, visit with neighboring cruisers and limit their movement to areas that have reasonable protection for travel by dinghy.   For the most part, I did the same.  Fortunately for me, my MC30 has such a shallow draft that I was able to anchor very close to town tucked up into Kidds Cove.  I was therefore able to spend much of my time catching up with both my Bahamian and my "local" American/European friends that own houses on the island.  Of course I still spent some time on Stocking Island walking the beach and going up to the monument as well hanging out with friends at Chat and Chills on Volleyball Beach.  I also went out diving with friends on 2 rough days and both times I came back with my body aching from the bouncy ride to the reefs.  I did get 3 lobsters on the first dive which went into a lemon-pepper lobster salad that I made for that evening's beach party.   The second dive I wasn't so lucky and got skunked - no fish, no lobster.  Hey, at least I got in the water, had fun and got some exercise.  The evening after the second dive, I went to meet up with friends at the Peace and Plenty Hotel.  While there I met Arlene, the mother of the New Orleans Saints player #51, a very nice lady.  She was at Glenn's bar watching a Saints football game and turning the event into a party, everyone welcome!

A cruising friend of mine, Toby, came down mid month to spend a week diving and spear fishing.  He and his wife, Donna, would have been here on there own boat by now except for a family medical issue that kept them in the states this year.  It was Toby's luck to come down just when the weather finally broke for two days.  That was enough time for us to take off for the more remote Cays of the Jumentos (story posted 12/23/2006 under the Jumentos hyperlink on the Home Page).

Time has passed quickly for me, as I'm sure that it has for you, with the holiday season approaching.  More cruisers arrive every time the weather lets up a bit.  Guests arrive for the holiday season to see their friends or just to experience Exuma so the town seems to grow exponentially this time of year.  I too had a guest come for the holidays.  My roommate, editor of this Web Page and most importantly my very good friend, Susan, found time to come down and take a break from her new job.  We got in a day of snorkeling before Christmas and then were able to spend Christmas day with "Mom".  Mom of  "Mom's Bakery" makes a variety of scrumptious baked goods, such as; coconut and banana nut bread, rum cake, turnovers and even wheat bread.  She bakes most of the night at her Bakery in Williams Town and then drives into George Town to sell the baked goods out of her van.  Everyone buying her bread not only gets the baked goods but a warm, heart felt hug as well.  Each year, Mom throws a Christmas day celebration at her house to thank everyone, Bahamians and cruisers alike, for the year's blessings.  There were too many different foods on mom's table to even try to start listing them here.  People sat at tables in the front yard, out back overlooking that beautiful blue water or just standing while talking to others.  The whole time, Mom was walking around with a big smile on her face, visiting and making sure that everyone was happy.  Merry Christmas Mom and thanks! 

After the day at Mom's, we went to the evening "cruiser's" Christmas dinner at the St. Francis Resort on Stocking Island  where I enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones.  Then it was to bed early so that we wouldn't miss the Junkanoo celebration that started about three o'clock in the morning on Boxing Day (Dec.26).  I've been fortunate enough to see the Junkanoo festival several times over the years and still enjoy it immensely.  Susan, having never experienced Junkanoo, was mesmerized by the colorful costumes and the rhythmic beat made by the drums, cow bells and whistles.  As she just recently sold her "Greenville Times" newsprint magazine, I asked her to write her first time impressions of the Junkanoo celebration for my Web page.  You can find that, along with pictures, here.

In between Christmas and New Years, I was lucky enough to have my friends Jim and Ronnie loan me their car for a day of exploring Great Exuma.  I invited a couple other cruisers, Genie and Norm, to go explore the island.  It was very interesting to see the amount of building going on just since the last time that I was here two years ago.  We tried to have lunch at Coco Plum (the food and location is wonderful) on the beach, but it was closed so we ended up at the NW tip of the island at Fisherman's Inn in Barraterre.  We chatted with the locals, had grouper fingers and turtle steaks and just enjoyed the local ambiance.  On the way back to George Town, we went to the leeward side of the island and stopped at the Cays to watch the sunset.

Sunday December 31, New Years Eve, we spent the afternoon at Chat &Chills BBQ enjoying food and friends before heading over to Buzzie's at "The Fish Fry" for the Bahamian C-class sailboat races.  Followed by an evening at Charlie's with mainly Bahamian friends bringing in the New Year.  Great fun!   Happy New Year Everyone!

Then next posting should be "Conception" on January 11, 2007.  Enjoy...

P.S.  After seeing my Web page on a bunch of other computers, all of them at different resolutions and screen sizes, I decided to change my page layout in order to have it easier to read  and control the "Look" a bit better.   I also have put a "Quick Link" to my posts on the top of my Home page to make it easier to follow the stories in chronological order.  I have Tom on Dream Catcher to thank for that idea...  Hope that this works for you!