Hanging out in George Town

We stayed in George Town for a little over a week, and it was a great place to hang out since it’s the cruisers headquarters for the Exumas. It has a population of around 1,000, and several of the businesses cater to cruisers needs. We anchored in front of Chat’n’Chill, and after the first morning I knew I was going to love it there since there was a water aerobics class being held about two hundred feet from our boat. I got to exercise (something I don’t do often enough) and socialize, which we really hadn’t done since leaving Nassau. I took advantage of the water aerobics and also went to a couple of yoga classes that were held on the beach, which were unbelievably relaxing. A lot of cruisers spend the winter and spring in GT and volunteer their time to do things like teach exercise classes, tutor local children, and work in the library.

On Memorial Day, one of the sailboats organized a potluck BBQ that was held on Monument Beach. We were told that we didn’t need to bring anything for the grill since someone had caught two Mahi Mahi that they wanted to share. I whipped up a batch of broccoli rice casserole, put a bag together with utensils, plates, and drinks, and headed to the beach in the dinghy. We stopped at s/v Skybird to pick up some foam that Rick had offered to give us to help with our fridge issue. We had met Barbie and him at the Berry Island Club a few weeks back, where Rick had helped me grab ahold of the mooring line. We had seen them the first day we arrived in George Town, and it was nice catching up with them. Bacon rode with us in the dinghy to the BBQ…and it made me miss Trixie :( But I know that she is much happier staying with my mom and dad than being on the boat. It was a great night…getting to know people, listening to people play the guitar (including David), playing Left, Right, Center, and being gathered around the bonfire. There may or may not have been a search party looking for Jennifer from s/v Aegis and me, but that’s a story for another time :)

We finally bit the bullet and had the boat hauled out and re-painted. It was a little nerve-racking watching Dulcinea being lifted out of the water by only two straps and carried over land. But it all went smoothly. We lived aboard during the two days it took to sand and re-paint the bottom, which meant crawling up a tall step ladder to hop aboard a slightly swaying boat. Needless to say I stayed on the boat as much as possible. We also were able to get a free WI-FI connection from within the boat, which made me very very happy. We try to be conservative with the data plan that we have from Batelco so it was nice being able to surf the web and download songs to my heart’s content. After everything was done and we were sailing away, I realized that we had left the dinghy behind at the boat yard. Luckily there was someone in a small power boat going by so David hitched a ride to go retrieve it.

We spent the last night at Peace and Plenty eating BBQ and dancing to the tunes of a Rake and Scrape Band. We met Wayne and Sue from s/v Black Pearl and were invited to go have drinks with them and Rick on m/v 5ive, which was a luxurious 100 foot sport fishing boat. There were granite counter tops, outdoor a/c, full showers, washer/dryer, and massive bedrooms and living spaces. It kind of made it hard going back to our little 35 foot boat.

Chillin' at Chat 'n' Chill

potluck BBQ

Bacon!

 

Before

After