Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


Chris, our weather guru, says that it's going to be a good day to sail. Winds are supposed to be less than 20kts and the seas less than 6'. So, after getting a few groceries when the store opens at 8am, we'll be making our way north today.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


According to the weather forecast this morning, the winds and seas were supposed to moderate throughout the day so that tomorrow would be a good day for a transit. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell Mother Nature and if anything, the conditions have stayed the same or increased.

In spite of this, Dale and I made our way into town where we were in search of a laundry. The one we had originally gone to the first days we were here was closed. However, I remembered seeing one back in 2005 on our way down island and after cutting though a parking lot, across a gas station and looking through a few windows, we found it.

It was actually a good sized laundry with about 30 machines of which only half worked. They were all being used at the time but the sign on the wall stopped us dead in our tracks. They only accepted U.S. quarters and there was no change machine in the building. Go figure. We really don’t have American change at the moment. The Bahamas accept both currencies here but if you pay for purchases with U.S. dollars, you get Bahamian change. You can’t get coins from an ATM and being a holiday on the island, the gas station, supermarket and everything else was closed. Thus began our search for a fist full of U.S. quarters. We ended up walking about a half mile down the road to a hotel where we were able to get $2.50 in U.S. quarters. Good enough, I could hang the clothes up in the cockpit to dry.

The rest of the day was spent back on the boat. I ran the clothes line and hung the clothes, then took a nap while Dale worked on his CMEs. At least he was supposed to be doing his homework.

Tonight, the wind has continued to howl which leads me to wonder if we really will get away tomorrow. If you don’t see anything on the blog for a couple of days, you’ll know that we did. So wish us luck.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


Just when we thought the winds were dying down, they pipe back up and we have white caps in the harbor again. We weren’t going anywhere today in any event because we wanted to watch Orpailleur make their transit through the Panama Canal.

Dale and I took turns watching the webcams all day waiting for them to pass by. All we saw were the big boys, tankers and freighters. Then about 5 pm we got a call via Skype; Nicky is on the line wanting to know if we saw them waving as they passed through. They had completed their transit 2 hours before. We can’t figure out how we missed them. Except for the times when we had to reboot the computer when it seemed to lock up, we sat here the entire day watching the stupid thing. In hind sight, I kick myself for watching the bridge camera instead of the lock camera because they would have sat longer in the locks and we might have had a better chance of seeing them there instead of trying to catch them as they passed by the bridge.

Oh well, we had a nice chat with both of them. They said that the transit was painless and except for the fact that their line handlers ate them out of house and home, they were very professional and did and great job.

As for our journey, Dale and I figure that we’ll be able to start making some northward progress starting Tuesday when the seas in the Sound are supposed to drop below the 6’ height and the cuts from the Sound onto the Bank will be more navigable. Of course, we’ll listen to the weather tomorrow and before we take off to verify our observations just to be sure.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


Today we ventured over to Volleyball Beach and ordered a couple hamburgers at Chat & Chill. It was a wet side as the skies are still overcast, there are still white caps in the anchorage and it sprinkled off and on but the wind had died down to the point where we could get across without flipping the dinghy.

Boats are starting to venture back to this side of the anchorage out of necessity for either grocery shopping or their internet connections. The little boat across the harbor hoisted their sails and tacked back and forth to get a little sailing in. No one ventured out of the harbor.

I “chatted” with Nicky today to get a idea of when they would be transiting the canal so that I could watch them on the webcams. About 2 hours before they were to depart, the webcam on the Atlantic side stopped working. The Cooper Factor is alive and well. We’ll catch them tomorrow on the Pacific side; unless that camera quits too.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


Another gray day with winds gusting up to 30kts. The waves inside the anchorage are up to about 3’ and no one is going anywhere. Even the radio is quiet. Dale and I spend the day either reading, watching movies, or playing on the computer.

By evening though, the wind died down to less than 20 kts and the waves are starting to diminish.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


At least the day dawned brightly for a change. Although the sun was out, the wind continued to howl and the forecast isn’t changing for the foreseeable future. We had 20+ kts steadily with gusts up to 27/28 kts. The seas continue to increase inside the anchorage but are still about 2.5’.

Dale is starting to go stir crazy. He tries to read, play games on the computer and do CME classes. We even started watching movies in the middle of the day. Apparently other people are getting a bit boat-bound too. We watched a rather small sail boat hoist a full set of sails, then sail back and forth about 6 times along volley ball beach on the opposite side of us. After about an hour, listing dramatically in both directions, they dropped their sails and headed back to drop their anchor. Looks like a couple of vacationers decided they were going to sail regardless of the weather.

Since we have internet, I was able to “chat” with both Orpailleur and Annabelle 2 at the same time via Skype. Orpailleur is killing time in Panama waiting for the signal for them to join the convoy to cross the canal and Annabelle 2 is pinned down by the same weather conditions as us in Green Turtle, Abacos.

I also spent a couple of hours looking at real estate listings and played with mortgage calculators on the internet. Might as well do a little research while we’re sitting here waiting.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


At 6:15 this morning while waiting for the weather forecast to be broadcast, Toucan Dream hailed us on SSB from Big Major, an island to the north of here. Bob said that we made a good decision in choosing to wait here as there were standing waves across all of the entrances to the bank. In their approach to the bank yesterday, their 15’ Boston Whaler they tow behind them got broadside to the waves on 2 occasions while transiting the entrance; not good. He said that they also saw funnel clouds dipping out of the clouds though none touch down near them. To top it off, the anchorage had 30 boats in it. After those descriptions, I think we made the right decision too. The last time we were in Big Major, there were only about 6 boats. I think that it could hold twice that many without any problems and possibly as many as 20 but 30 would be leaving a few with their sterns hanging out.

The forecast detailed more of the same for this area with waves in the Sound up to 14’ with no hope of relief until possibly this weekend. Although the rain wasn’t as prevalent today, the winds were stronger at a steady 25 kts gusting to over 30 at times. Its odd that after the wind has been howling at such a high intensity, when it finally dies to around 20 kts, it seems rather quiet. We’re well dug in and certainly not going to drag without a fight.

Needless to say, we didn’t go anywhere today and watched as boats came in from both ends of the anchorage before trying to anchor in the nasty conditions. Even in a well protected harbor, the wind waves from the fetch worked their way up to about 2’. Most of the boats are willing to do the Georgetown shuffle, back and forth across the harbor to which ever side has the best protection, but we are sticking it out on the town side where we can connect to the internet. Dale was able to catch up on a couple of his continuing medical education classes during the day, then I tried to catch up on all of our e-mails.

At one point we got a call via Skype from Gerry & Nicky. They told us that they have been scheduled to transit the Panama Canal on May 29 about 5pm. They gave us an internet site where you can watch the boats go through the canal. It’s at: www.pancanal.com/eng/photp/camera-java.html . It’s amazing what you can find on the internet these days.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.409N
75.45.770W


The weather forecast wasn’t any better today so we moved in a little closer to town and ran in to get a WiFi connection code for the week.

Vagu and another boat decided to try to make Emerald Marina a little farther north before the bad weather took hold but then didn’t leave until about lunchtime. We hope they make it.

Dale and I dinghied across the harbor to Volleyball beach and dropped in at Chat & Chill for a couple of cheeseburgers. We spoke with the owner/proprietor about his plans on expansion and hope that his dreams come to fruition. Chat & Chill is a little wooden bar & grill but built solidly. He has huge barbeques on the back deck and a clean kitchen behind the bar. He hopes to add WiFi to his services but wants to do it right. Quality hardware in a separate, air conditioned and dry building. Sounds like he has the right ideas.

We came back to the Palace as the first of many raindrops started to fall. The wind picked up to 20 kts with gusts to 25 and doesn’t sound like its going to quit anytime soon. Dale and I have decided to pull out some of the DVDs we brought with us and start watching them.

If we're going to be stuck on the boat, we might as well enjoy it.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.605N
75.45.490W


Another day of liquid sunshine and the forecast doesn’t have anything different for at least another week. Toucan Dream, NoCall and Aye Doc, bit the bullet and headed north hoping to get as far north as they could before being pinned down again. Our laundry wasn’t due back until after 4pm today, so we didn’t have an option of whether to go or not.

We listen to the weather broadcast in the mornings but also subscribe to the service that sends us the detailed report in written form via satellite. We were surprised that it took almost the entire morning before the written forecast was sent to us. However, once received, it caused us to pause and think about it a bit. The winds are within tolerable levels but the seas in the Exuma Sound are very high. We’ve been caught in 10’ seas before and done fine but we haven’t voluntarily gone out in them. We’ll listen again tomorrow morning before making our final decision. At this point in time, I suspect that we’ll opt to wait here for a week instead of going to another island where we’ll find good protection but little else.

If we do stay longer, we’ll trek in and find an internet service.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.605N
75.45.490W


It was another day of rain, wind and reading.

Between raindrops, Bob came over and looked at some of the paper back books we had finished reading. We had planned on taking them to a book swap but it was rained out. We were having a nice little visit when dark clouds came over the island and the wind picked up to 30 kts. He made a hasty retreat back to his boat about 200’ behind us, barely making it before the skies opened up and let loose. Dale had let out an extra 10’ of chain yesterday when things picked up and we were glad of it today as the weather deteriorated quickly.

The squall had no sooner passed, when the radio livened up and we listened as people debated the age old “ to go or not to go”; most are waiting to hear what the weather report is tomorrow morning. The biggest factor is whether or not the bad weather over Jamaca and Cuba develops into a tropical low. If it does, it would be best to stay here, if not, most are willing to take the chance to run north a little each day dodging the squalls that are pouring out of the same area.

We have to wait around until we can get our laundry back tomorrow afternoon in any event but with weather in the Caribbean Sea exploding and no end in sight, we’ll probably head north as quickly as possible too.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.605N
75.45.490W

After a good night’s rest, we finally met Nigel, Pelu and Juliette on Vagu this morning. Nigel had already told us that he was British but we learned that Pelu is French and their daughter, Juliette, was born in Italy. They speak all 3 languages on board. We have a hard enough time with English. They told us that they were picking up some friends tomorrow from the airport but that they were trying to get to the northeast US before hurricane season.

On our way into town, we dropped by and said hello to Caren on Toucan Dream. She had invited us to join them and their guests for dessert later in the evening . We know that one of Bob’s favorite toys on board is an ice cream maker, so we needed a time to make sure we weren’t late.
In town, we dropped off our trash, searched for a laundry but decided that the laundry service would be a better use of time considering the darkening skies. We bumped into Nigel and the family on our way back to the dinghy dock and on our way to the grocery store. Most of our shopping today was for fresh produce since I’m trying to use up our canned provisions at this point. Dale made the observation that the last time we were in Georgetown we were surprised at how small everything was at the rather famous cruising spot. This time we were delighted with the selection that was available at the grocery store. Our perspective has changed considerably over the last 18 months.

We returned to the Palace and while I put groceries away, Dale ran the laundry back in. He got back just before the skies opened up and the rest of the day was liquid. As we’ve done over the past week or so when it rained, we read, played on the computer or took naps. In fact, we weren’t sure that the invitation was still open on Toucan Dream but after a quick call we grabbed our rain jackets and headed over with spoons in hand.

We met Tom & Barbara on their last night of a month long visit with Bob & Caren. We sat around telling sea stories and eating homemade ice cream with chocolate syrup and coconut rum topping. Yum!!!

We learned that a lot of the boats in Georgetown have been here for over a week, Toucan Dream among them. Most are anxious to get moving again. We, on the other hand, figure that although the weather may have us socked in here for awhile, at least we have a grocery store with fresh produce available. Its all perspective.

Georgetown
Great Exuma Island,
Bahamas
23.30.605N
75.45.490W

185.3 NM
32.4 Hrs.
5.8 Avg
7.9 Max

Current Odom: 7689.7 NM



The dawn finally crept up and erased the cloud to cloud lightening from our view. In spite of the storm, we were still on schedule for a 9-10am approach to Rum Cay. However, once again, as the sun rose higher in the sky, the clouds cleared out, the winds filled in and we debated our situation.

We knew that more bad weather was coming up from the south originating around the Jamaca/Cuba area and was supposed to cross the Bahamas with squalls containing high winds. If we stopped at Rum Cay to rest, we could leave on Saturday morning for Georgetown and make it in a day. The 6:30 am weather report indicated that squalls were still in the area but that the really bad weather would most likely occur on Saturday night. If the weather came in quicker than expected, we’d be stuck at Rum Cay; good holding but exposed to the south and west which is where the weather would be approaching from.

We radioed back to Vagu that we were going to keep on going to Georgetown and expected to arrive about 5pm if we maintained a 6 kt speed. Nigel, a Brit, told us that he had never been to the Bahamas before and was leery to approach the bank on his own. However, he also had guests that were flying into Georgetown on Monday and he had to get there by then. He decided to keep going with us.

We had fairly decent winds as we approached Long Island but as we rounded Santa Maria point (where Columbus lost his ship,) the winds died out and a long line of dark clouds could be seen coming in our direction. We took ourselves about 20 degress off course and scooted along the side of them and only had a light shower to contend with. Vagu opted for an even more conservative course and probably didn’t even get a sprinkle.

As hoped for, we reached our first way point to approach Great Exhuma at 4:30pm. We slowed and waited for Vagu to fall in behind us and then with Dale on the bow, we made our way onto the bank, entered the cut in the reef and transited between the islands. Our original intention was to anchor at one of the outlying islands until the morning, but since we still had good light, we continued on and made the main anchorage at Georgetown by 5:30pm.

Bob & Caren on Toucan Dream (friends and neighbors from our home port) had radioed us earlier in the day and told us where they were anchored, so when we approached, we spotted our sistership and headed for a spot in front of her. Bob had seen us coming in and came flying up in his “dinghy”, a 15’ Boston Whaler. He yelled across that he had 500’ foot of chain out and not to drop our anchor anywhere near his. Of course, this was a joke and we knew it. Unfortunately, Vagu didn’t and veered off at such an acute angle that half the anchorage was drawn to commotion and got quite a chuckle out of it.

Although we wanted to visit some of these islands we missed on our way south, staying safe has been more important to us on our way north. We’ll have to see them on another trip.

Right now, we’re safely anchored in deep sand, surrounded by islands with at least one grocery store and laundromat within dinghy distance. Our only casualty was a little bird (like our last hitch hiker) we found on our forward deck this morning. We’re not sure if he was trying to ride out the storm and drowned or if he flew into our mast mistaking the steaming light for something safe. He was unceremoniously buried at sea.


Photo: Toucan Dream (sistership to Gypsy Palace) at anchor in Georgetown, Great Exuma.