George Town

What can I say about George Town? Here is my top ten list.

10. There were beautiful hiking trails
9. Great grocery store
8. Yummy jerk ribs!
7. The morning cruisers net. Especially the part about what boaters needed help with or were looking to trade.
6. The many conch horns blowing at sundown every day.
5. Lots of boats to look at. LOTS! At one point 344 boats in the harbor.
4. The locals are so friendly.
3. Meeting new people, Friends of Bill Meetings on boats, hosting Shabbat dinner on our boat - very special, and spending time with Pam, Steve, Sophie and the wonderpup Gerri!
2. Listening to the French Canadians on the houseboats pronounce cantaloupe (cantaloop) and mango (mangu) on the vhf radio. Tickled me every time!
1. And my number one favorite thing was the sound side, deserted beaches and gorgeous water.

The view of the North Monument anchorage from the Monument.

We took the dinghy across the channel to Fish Fry Village. It is a local area with restaurants that are basically shacks. Our plan was to have dinner out but the water was so rough and the dinghy anchorage so intense that we carried out instead. We had to basically surf out of the anchorage! But man were the ribs from Tinos delicious!

The view from the restaurant and Zoom anchored at the beach. It’s hard to tell but it was waves crashing on the shore!

One more from Fish Fry Village. Yes, those are conch shells from making conch salad at the restaurant in front of them!

The magical sound side!

After Long Island we returned to GTown. The world was beginning to be on tilt from the Corona Virus. In the US people were hoarding toilet paper and groceries. In the Bahamas we were listening to news of countries closing their borders. One case of the virus had been reported in New Providence, about 135 miles north of GTown.

We decided to depart on the next weather window and begin our hop north. Well, once again, as a fellow cruiser has said, our plans were written in sand. We lifted the anchor and departed the harbor, traveling with Bonnie Jean II, Lemonade and Redtail. While we waited for the others to lift their anchor we lost an engine but we were able to restart it. We got out into the cut and it was kind of rough. Lemonade made a decision to turn around - they are an unstabilized trawler just like us. The other 3 of us were going to continue north. But that was not to be the case. In 80’ of water with the wind blowing us towards rocks we lost one engine and then the second one. Not a good day for Seaquel.

Thank God for Bonnie Jean (a 44’ sail cat) who seemingly knew what he was doing, launched a tow rope and towed us back into the harbor. He did hit our boat, sadly causing damage to his boat. They towed us back into North Monument beach. It was a gorgeous spot. Eddie spent the rest of the day cleaning out the fuel filters and lines and polishing fuel with the help of Steve from Morning Dew.

Seaquel under tow. :(

Two dinghys that came to help us with the tow lines so they wouldn’t get tangled in Bonnie Jeans props when we were released.

After a couple of days of fuel polishing, and a new Tee to share the one working fuel pump, we did a trial run in the anchorage and again lost one motor and then both. Ugh. I could see the frustration on Eddie’s face. Luckily we were able to re-anchor, now at North Monument Beach. More fuel polishing, reconnected the primer, more test cruises holding our breath. We eventually cruised across the harbor and anchored outside the fuel dock. Our goal was to get fuel while it was still available, add new clean fuel to the tanks and prepare to travel north. Both engines held!!!

Let me tell you about docking at the fuel dock in the wind. I’d say it took us a solid 30 minutes, some of it from poor directions from the dock master who after we came in bow first, insisted we turn around in the fairway and come stern in. We would be docking in between a large Hatteras and a 45’ish Tolly Craft Trawler. After trying to get stern in, in the wind - not possible, we again turned around in the fairway and came bow in, with 2 guys on the dock helping with our lines. My Captain kept his cool and did great. Not something I’d want to repeat!!!

But the silver lining in all of that is that the Tolly Craft was C Shells. They are an adorable Canadian couple whose videos we have watched and been inspired by for 2 years! It was so nice to meet them. Cindy was saying, OMG you need a drink after that, so stressful! And Sheldon and Eddie talked about windage and hard top biminis! A real treat to meet them! They were on the dock filling their water tanks as they don’t have a water maker.

And by now Corona is getting even more serious. There are new rules from the Bahamian government. No inter island traveling, curfew from 9pm - 5am, 6’ for social distancing, restaurants and non essential businesses closing, beaches closed, allowed to do 90 minutes per day of exercise in your yard. And so we stayed put in GTown. Listening to trivia on the vhf at night, doing Zoom 12 step meetings with friends from home and waiting out the winds again!

As it turned out you could leave GTown if you were headed home. So that’s exactly what we did. On March 26th, we left GTown for a stunning cruise where our Seaquel ran like the champ that she is. The seas were calm and we were happy to be on the move. It seems like our fuel issues are resolved, tho we do still need a fuel pump for the starboard engine. It is running from a primer pump.

Elizabeth Harbor the morning we left GTown, like a lake! Perfect for our trawler!!!

Leaving GTown, this is the Exuma Sound, flat like glass and I never want to forget the color of the water! That’s the bottom and it’s like 25‘ - crystal clear!

We are at our current anchorage at Rudder Cut Cay and don’t see the need to continue moving north. This Cay is owned by the magician, David Copperfield. There are no trespassing signs on the beach but cruiser’s lore is that its ok to go on the shore unless he is in town and then his staff will let you know you can’t be on his island! It is a beautiful spot, we have snorkeled and played around with our hookah scuba set up. Lots of turtles here! And to top it off yesterday Morning Dew arrived. Great to have friends!

The Bahamas are on a 24 hour curfew now through April 8. There are 14 reported cases of the virus here, all in the Nassau, Grand Bahama area. There are also crew cases on cruise ships that are docked or anchored in the Bahamas. We feel like we are more safe here on our boat than we may be in the US.

We have plenty of food and power, we don’t need anything from shore. Eddie has been fixing a part of the fly bridge deck that felt squishy. I have been cooking! Falafel, Mediterranean Red Lentil Soup, Tio Pepe’s Garlic Shrimp, Spaghetti squash “coconut” custard pie, Chocolate chocolate chip cookies for the Cookie Monster. We have been exploring on our dinghy, snorkeling, reading and connecting with friends from home over Zoom. We are incredibly grateful to be here and also grateful that our families are all healthy at home.

A few shots from Rudder Cut Cay.

David Copperfield installed an underwater sculpture off the SW coast of Rudder Cut Cay to amuse his resort guests. The underwater stainless steel sculpture consist of a mermaid lying in attentive rapture on the seafloor near the bench of a baby grand piano with open lid. Its hard to tell in the picture, this is life size and sits in about 15’ of water. Jason DeCairnes Taylor Is the sculptor. She’s cool!

We dinghyed into an inlet, anchored Zoom and walked across to the Exuma Sound side. It was sea glass heaven!