Georgetown

We have arrived Thursday Feb. 21st. at Emerald Bay Marina about 10 miles north of Georgetown. We sailed here from Black Point yesterday. We left the anchorage at Black Point at 7:15 a.m. hoisted the main and headed for Dotham Cut. Because the tide was against the wind at that time of the day we hobby horsed out the cut to the Exuma Sound. The Sound on the east side of the Exumas is more like being in the ocean. The waves are higher and the water a lot deeper than on the Banks which is on the West side. We had anticipated 12-14 knt winds out of the east based on Chris Parkers morning cast, but the winds were consistently above 20 and the waves 4-6 ft. We had about 40 miles to go to our destination. It was a bit rough.

Our stay in Black Point was very enjoyable. We had dinner at Lorraine's Cafe (a Bahamian buffet) and met a nice young couple from Montreal who were on a captained charter for 10 days. Their experience was very different from ours. No boat repairs, meals cooked and served, taxi service to and from shore, and no cleaning up.They want to buy a boat and bring it down sometime in the future. 

 We visited "the garden of Eden" which is a garden of driftwood sculpture that takes some imagination to define the subjects. The sculptor, Willie, lives in a house in the middle of the garden and he came out to give us a tour. He is an elderly gentleman with a great sense of humor. He described what each sculpture was in his mind but understood that we might envision something else. There must be about 30 of them. He then took us on a tour of his vegetable garden and fruit trees. It was quite amazing to see how much he could grow in between the rock that made up his yard (apple, papaya, banana, grapes, peas, squash, lemon grass, almond and much more)

I forgot in an earlier update to tell you about the Pig Beach in Staniel Cay. It is a beach on the West side of Big Major Spot where the island pigs, expecting to be fed, swim out to meet the incoming boats.. They are huge and great swimmers. We went just before the big blow so it was a bit rough with the wind starting to pick up. We had heard from other cruisers that the pigs try to get into the approaching dinghies and can do damage. Fortunately for us, there was a tour boat bringing out guests with lots of food for the pigs. They swam to the tour boat and we were able to watch them and take a few pics. They ignored us and rightly so as we did not bring food. 

Today we did laundry and are waiting for the fuel dock to open (the fellow who mans the dock had to drive to Georgetown for a part) and then we will take a walk.