Hands on Hips

X-ing File #5_Antigua to Bahamas (perhaps) continues…

Bahamas: George Town

We planned to only stay 3 but 5 nights passed too quickly in the friendly and safe South Side Marina.  Given our boat chores (yet another electrician to see to our electrical woes), a dinner out with other cruisers (organised by Matt, from our dinghy welcome committee), Kiwi’s to chat to and evenings at Bob’s Bar, we lost track of time.  It’s a great place to be. 

Turtle Rock near Sapodilla Bay  anchorage in Turks & Caicos..
Oh come on, use your imagination! 

A nasty weather system (actually a cyclone) to our north kicked up quite a swell and on our way to the supermarket, we caught sight of huge waves crashing over the reef on T&C’s north shore.  GS was not keen to leave, but our Cap’n had little sympathy (the toughen up princess variety), so off we set to slide out of the Funnel into the wild blue yonder to make for the Bahamas.  The Funnel was not too bad an exit all things considered, however the swell, once we were out in it, was almost Pacific Ocean stuff – big rollers giving us an elevator ride.

Looking back over the T&C Bank from The Funnel

For a change of pace, we headed east to come up the inside of Acklins Island and made for the Clarence Town harbour (on Long Island).  Waves crashing into the harbour reminded us of winter storms off the Victorian coast.  Not. Good.  While the Cap’n assessed his chances of surfing in, GS prepared the life raft and her speech for the moment of mutiny.  Fortunately, it did not come to this and we sped on and into the night for an early morning arrival at George Town.  “We” considered the merits of the first protected cut (an entrance across the reef onto the bank) for calm waters and safety.  It too, would have put us side on to swell breaking over the reef – a dangerous sport, so we moved on to the next cut with fingers crossed.  It was wide and deep enough with less challenging breakers and we watched as several boats made early morning departures.  If they could get out, we could surf in. 

Yes, I'm sure we can get in, somehow....

Yes, we did.  In one piece.  Here's proof.

The busy anchorage though calm-ish, held other dangers.  A cranky boat owner asked us (nicely) to move away from him.  We clearly export our best overseas.  Too tired to argue, we moved on and dropped anchor not far from the early morning aqua-aerobics class on the beach.  George Town has a “resident” community of boaters – perhaps 200-300 – who arrive annually to spend a pleasant winter in the tropical paradise that is the Bahamas.  Masthead lights twinkled at night across the broad bay giving it the look of fairyland.  “We could easily do this”, sighed GS…

View from our very nice lunch stop, Blu on the Water

Doesn't every Supermarket have a dingy dock? George Town, Bahamas