Georgetown

Thursday, we arrived in Georgetown, Bahamas after an uneventful flight that stopped in Miami. With this silly virus thing going on, we washed our hands a lot and swabbed our noses. So far, so good.

We rented a car and headed straight for town to do some provisioning before going to the boat.

Though Great Exuma is a lovely island, Georgetown is not much to write home about. This is the first of their 2 grocery stores.

 And . . . this is the second one. The supply boat wasn't due until Friday so we got what we could find & Jim went back to town on Friday to finish the provisioning.
 We are encouraged that they are trying hard to keep their island clean.

 This is part of "downtown". Hmmmm.

Fortunately, there is not much crime here so the police force isn't all that large.

 As luck would have it, they were having a Bahamian music festival downtown Friday night. Everyone said it would begin somewhere between 7:00 & 8:00 So we got there around 6:30 to get some dinner before the festivities started. Yeah, right!

 We had some "jerk" chicken ala barbecue sauce and then 6 conch fritters for $2.00. Wow, quite a good price. Here are the ladies deep frying our fritters.

 Notice who is on the big screen?

 Finally, the band got started around 9:30, ughhh! They were a very good calypso band with lots of rake & scrape thrown in. We finally left around 10:30 when the locals were just beginning to show up.

Friday, we left our marina around 9:30. The plan was to head 30 miles over to Long Island & tuck into a nice bay there. Well, once we got out into the ocean, the plan changed. The waves had been predicted to be 2' to 3' & we figured that was not a problem. Once we got out into the ocean, the wind was about 10 knots stronger than predicted and the waves were more like 4' to 6'. 

Though not dangerous, it was definitely uncomfortable. Instead of pounding into the waves for 3 1/2 hours, we decided to head for Stocking Island, a well-known cruiser's haunt. 350 boats to be exact!

 As we neared the anchorage, there were masts as far as we could see. We found a nice spot in close to a resort and put out the hook.

After lunch, we dropped the dinghy & headed in to see what this "Chat & Chill" paradise was all about. We had long heard of it but avoided it simply because we prefer to go to more deserted places, away from the maddening crowds.

Many cruisers spend the entire winter anchored here. For them, it is quite a social thing complete with beach volleyball and lots of planned social events. 

Even the cats chill out.

 You can also pet the stingrays here.

This is their version of a street sign!

And this is where all of the used conch shells end up!

 At this point, we're not sure how long we will stay here and where we'll go next. However, we are quite happy that we are not being quarantined. PTL!

We'll let you know what our plans are as soon as we figure them out.
Jim & Carol