Monday, December 30, 2019
Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas
23.31.160N
75.45.475W

Today we learned that we’re going to be sitting here for a while.  After our normal routine of weather and net listening, Dale tried to call the watermaker people, yep, closed until 1/2/2020.  Then he tried to call the sail people to see if they had been able to send the batten end pieces.  No, they had not, in fact, because they couldn’t get a price for said end pieces, chances are that they would not be able to send them until after the first of the year as well.  You could see Dale’s shoulders slump with the news, so I didn’t have to ask what they had said. 

As disappointing as this was, we decided to settle in for the week.  First, we went in to town and got another jerry can of water.  While Dale was doing that, I went into the market and picked up a case of Diet Coke and some potato chips; just the necessities of life today. 

We made our way back across the channel with less water in the dink than yesterday and put the items away before heading into Chat N Chill as the net said they were having some guest speakers talking about their travels.  As we sat waiting for others to arrive, another couple came up and we invited them to sit with us and struck up a conversation.  They, too, were embarking on their first Pacific crossing this year.  They told us that they planned to go straight from here to Panama and then on through to the Coconut Milk Run (the trip from Galapagos-French Marquesas).  We compared our cruising histories.  Again, they had never made the island hopping down through the Caribbean but instead made direct runs from Georgetown to St. Martin and Georgetown to Antigua.  We were sure surprised when we learned that they were in fact, the guest speakers.  They apparently have a television show where they show their many travels across the Atlantic, through Europe and the Middle East but they’ve never done what we’ve done.  In the middle of the talk, they actually directed peoples’ questions about the “thorny passage” to us.  Holy Smoke!  Hope there aren’t many.  There were about 3 couples that did approach us afterwards and hopefully we were fair and honest about the trip. 

Another set of speakers told of their experience on 12/23/2019 in Red Shanks Harbor where they were hit with a “water spout.”  I put water spout in quotations as they said that it was wind, more like a tornado, not a column of water that a water spout can be.  Apparently, it lasted about 2-3 minutes, they didn’t have time to do anything except go inside and hang on.  Although their boat listed dramatically and spun around a couple of times, their dinghy took the brunt of it being completely torn off its painter D rings.  They said that thanks to other boaters in the area, the only things they lost were the jerry can covers and a life vest that had been in the dink.  Don’t think I ever care to go through that. 

We listened to the last speaker who made a presentation on the proper way to anchor to see if there were any tips we didn’t know about but didn’t learn anything new. 

That actually took up most of the day.  We made it back in time to get an internet call from Gerry and Nicky, who are making their way around Puerto Rico.  We relayed our mail problems and most likely will meet up with them in the BVI’s. 

Tonight looks to be quiet as the winds have finally died down and the seas are finally settling.  It would have been a great weather window but one we’ll miss but can’t be helped.  I guess that’s about it for today.