Tag: Georgetown Exumas

The other George Town -Part One

George Town on Great Exuma in the Bahamas is a popular cruiser stop on any trip through the Exumas. Whether you stay there for the season or just pass through, George Town provides weather protection, a decent grocery store, free water and maybe more company than you would prefer.

We have stopped there many times over the years and always enjoyed it. A conch burger at Chat and Chill, washed down with a few Kalicks is sort of a must do stop for us whenever we pass through. While we have enjoyed the beach time, snorkeling and hiking on Stocking Island, we have never done much land travel on either Great Exuma or its southern sister, Little Exuma.

Northbound travel brings you past the airport, Sandals resort, Emerald Bay marina and generally well developed areas. Southbound is somewhat more rural and brings some interesting local culture to light.

Easy Riders

For our first adventure south we rented this motor scooter. We figured easy, fun and cheap. We figured wrong. It cost $50 when a car would have cost $80. While I used to ride when younger, handling a scooter is not like a big road bike, and having the extra rider behind me was a bit of a balance challenge. And while the roads are generally decent, there are many pot holes as deep as the little tires are high. Hit one at 30 mph and its all over. So that fear had my eyes glued to the road the entire trip. Regardless, we decided we would come back with better wheels and maybe even a guide.

On our next visit to George Town we were excited to hear about a guided tour south being arranged by one of the cruisers, thanks to Mark on CAVU. This tour would be guided by Cordell Thompson, a local Bahamian who traces his history on Great and Little Exuma back to the 1700’s. We had actually met him a while back when he was giving a talk on vollyball beach on bush medicine and home remedies. He turned out to be a wealth of knowledge about the island and its people.

Cordell with keel

Local Bahamian boat building is a fascinating story that goes beyond what I could cover here. But the sailing hulls they build, all out of local wood and all with 100% local materials and labor, are things of beauty. watching them race is as entertaining as it gets down here. In this picture, Cordell is holding a piece of mahogany with the correct grain pattern for what will become part of the keel of a racing slop.

Slave Plantation Ruins

We had to push through a fair amount of underbrush to get to the site of this former cotton plantation. British loyalists from the US were transplanted here, along with their slaves, after the revolution. This lasted until the 1830’s when slavery was abolished in Britain and all of her colonies. Many of the current population of the Bahamas can trace their ancestry to Loyalists (white) or slaves (black). We found it interesting that places like this plantation, with so much history, are left to crumble. Cordell said the attitude towards these sites was somewhat indifferent. And of course, there is little money available for such things when hurricane damage from two years ago is still to be repaired. (see our blog on the Ragged islands and Duncan town.

Some day we will come back and sit with Cordell to learn more. Comparing how the US recovered from slavery to how the Bahamas handled it would be interesting.

Mom’s Bakery

On a lighter note, here I am spooning on extra helpings of rum sauce on Mom’s famous rum cake. This is the real reason we made a second trip to Little Exuma.

Well its nearly 5 pm and I have a 24 hr cellular access that is just about to run out, so this is all for now. If you have a few extra days in George Town, we recommend a trip south.

Bahamas, how we got there Posted Late

Monument Beach

Plenty of room at the Monument Beach anchorage in Georgetown. Before Christmas, that is.

Mart and Sue from Alizan, another Krogen, stop by

There are as many routes to the Bahamas as there are blogs about them. Some better than others. Here is ours.
Our general starting point was Ft Lauderdale, post boat show, and our general initial destination was Georgetown in the Exumas. We chose to take the ICW down to Miami, stage out of the Venetian Causeway/islands area, and exit Government cut for Bimini as a day hop. We left at first light and dropped anchor that afternoon off the new resort on the NW coast of Bimini. Easy trip, decent anchorage in moderate prevailing easterlies. Next day we left at first light again and crossed the banks to anchor at Bird island. Night three we passed New Providence island to port, entered the banks just north of the reef and cut over to Shroud for the night. Weather was great, seas were flat and we never saw less than 10 feet depth. From there it was a night at Staniel, a night at Great Guana, a hop outside at Galliot and back in at Stocking and we were there. We cleared customs in Georgetown. (shhh!)
To be completely legal we should have cleared in at Bimini. but that would have entailed waiting till the next day and either staying over another day in Bimini, or getting to Bird isl. or some place nearby, after dark. This was our first time to Bimini and after a stop in Bimini on our return i can now add a few notes. First, I would not want to take the big boat into Alice Town unless it was slack tide. The current flies through there. That said, there are a few face docks at some of the marinas and the docks at the Bimini Big Game Club are new. And you can clear in there. I would anchor out and come in by dinghy. Stick around at the bar for shark feeding frenzy in the evening.
The other alternative is to take a slip at Bimini Sands on South Bimini. Stay a day or two. Nice pool. Totally protected although it can get a bit surgey at times. Short walk and short ferry ride to Alice Town to check in.
Or you can just wait to clear in when you get to Georgetown. I cant come up with any interpretation of Bahama entry instructions that would make that legal, but that said, the instructions are a bit vague, “…at the closest customs facility…” and “within 24 hours” shows up, along with, “upon entering Bahamian waters”. Probably within the law to sail directly to Georgetown as long as you dont anchor like we did. We did fly the Q flag and my response if boarded would have been that this was our landfall from the crossing. Again, I am not recommending any of this.
Alternatively, on a previous visit to the Bahamas we made landfall at Mayaguana, coming up from T & C, but anchored a long distance from the town. I called the customs agent in Mayaguana and asked if it would be OK to wait till we got to Georgetown to check in and she said, “No problem, mon” But I doubt she was speaking officially.
Anyway, we got here just fine.
Before Christmas, the Georgetown anchorages are pretty open. We like Monument and Honeymoon Beach anchorages. Excellent holding throughout. But they get pretty crowded as the season progresses. Later in the season we end up in Sand Dollar, although holding is variable here. There are some pretty weedy areas and some areas with a thin layer of sand over coral crust, as well as some long dead coral atols that can wrap an anchor chain. Since we were in and out of the Georgetown area this season, we tried them all.
The harbor has a good mix of transient cruisers and live aboards. Boats that either stop for a few days headed south, come here and stay all season, or stay all year and just get moved out from the hurricane hole storage and back every season. The greenery from their hulls is beginning to attach to the sea bed.