Georgetown & Conception Island

Georgetown, Exumas

February has been a month that went nothing like our plan, but we still had a great time!  We were going to kick on further south and east to explore the outer islands but a combination of unfavourable winds and an easy fun routine means we have spent 3 of the 4 weeks in Georgetown, with a break in the middle over at Conception Island.

Georgetown time passes easily, lots of walking on Lee Stocking Island plus regular afternoon beach volleyball for me (Tim). 

Bleu Marie, Bella, Merlin and Chandelle have been here too so with them and our new friends to keep us amused there has been lots of social time, drinks on the beach round the fire, sundowners on the boats and even a Valentines  night dance party at the Chat N Chill bar.

Our trip to Conception is the other extreme, anchored in blissful seclusion with nothing to do at night.  We stopped off at Calabash Bay Long Island en route, catching a nice Mahi Mahi on the way.  From there another great sail to West Bay, Conception Island one of our favourite anchorages in the Caribbean.

We had the perfect weather window meaning clear calm seas and lots of opportunities to explore the island.  The only disconcerting thing was our neighbours. 

We had a swim and then while toweling off saw three sharks arrive under the boat swimming languidly, I assumed they were the usual Nurse sharks so dropped back down the ladder with camera in hand for some photos. 

Closer inspection revealed them to be 3 Lemon Sharks (around 6’ in length), not really dangerous unless you are spear fishing but still unnerving to have living under you boat which they did for 5 days! 

On the first evening  just as we went to bed there was  bang from the boarding ladder, I went to investigate and found one of the sharks swimming round it very agitatedly, not sure if he hit it by accident and got annoyed or saw it shining in the moonlight and tried to eat it, either way he wasn’t happy!

Sharks aside we had a great time, daily snorkels on the reef, a trip through the mangrove interior snorkeling with turtles and rays, plus an excellent dive on Conception Wall.  The sea bed drops off vertically from around 15m to 1000m and the wall is covered in corals and amazing sea life with yet more big sharks to keep us silent company.    All too soon it was time to sail back to Georgetown to escape rising winds, and here we sit.  We are looking after Chandelle while they fly home, and then picking up our next visitors from the airport.

January In The Exumas

Georgetown, Bahamas

After the Wilson’s leave we have nearly two weeks until our next guest so we return northwards taking in some more of the sights of Exuma Park and the northern Exumas.  We spend the time with some combination of Chandelle, Merlin, Bella and Bleu Marie so there is no shortage of social time, making the new years resolutions of less drinking hard to stick to!

We manage to bag a good few lobster when not in the park, filling the freezer to eat them while in the park, and it is good to alternate between hunting and photography modes underwater.  We continue to get a few cold fronts with grey weather and strong winds so quite a bit of time is spent at Cambridge Cay, a lovely anchorage, well protected and with great walking along the island cliffs.

Mid month Tim’s cousin Kate arrived for a holiday, our last holiday together we were probably about 6 years old so who knew what to expect! 

We had a great time, catching up and reminiscing plus visiting Staniel Cay, Leaf Cay and Georgetown.

 

Kate qualified as a diver last year and I got to take her for her first ocean dive during the trip. 

She took everything in her stride, normally you get off the back of a nice big comfortable dive boat for your dive but not on Matsu - it’s the contortionist exercise of getting kitted up in a 10’ RIB before a back  roll into the sea and waiting while your dive buddy goes through the same exercise!

We waved Kate farewell at Emerald Bay marina, our first visit there and the first time since clearing customs that we had been anywhere near a dock, Charlie was very excited at getting a night to play ashore, while we were over the moon with a free laundry and WIFI!

We are now anchored in Georgetown along with 200 other boats and will work out our plans from here.

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December In The Exumas

The Exumas

So a month in the Bahamas has passed already, and it has been superb to be back in the land of sun, sand and lobsters.

We picked up Josette in Nassau and she spent two weeks with us.  A week of which we spent tucked up at Allan’s Cay at the north end of the Exumas. 

With unseasonal westerly winds we had a great opportunity to hunt on the reefs on the east side of the islands and quickly got back into snorkeling  mode.  We bagged a dozen lobster over a few days, eating like Kings and putting a few in the freezer to cover the leaner days ahead.

The rest of her trip was spent in the Exuma Cays National Park, snorkeling, walking on the beaches and enjoying the sunshine and sand.

After Josette left we had 2 weeks to ourselves, a lot of which was spent holes up at Cambridge Cay as a succession of cold fronts swept down from the USA.  Although we weren’t shoveling snow, we were getting cold and very windy weather, so spent a lot of time catching up on reading and sheltering from the howling wind.

With perfect timing the weather cleared up in time for a lovely Christmas Day party on the beach. 

We were joined by 5 other boats that we know from different parts of our travels in the Bahamas and Caribbean over the past few years

Despite being a long way from our families we still managed to eat and drink far too much in the traditional Christmas way, but it was sad not to be able to get to a phone to say a proper hello.

After Christmas the weather stayed perfect for Kate, Roger and the kids visit for New Year.  We had a great little “holiday”; snorkeling in Thunderball cave, feeding the swimming pigs of Big Majors and a few games of beach cricket which is rapidly catching on in the Bahamas cruising community – maybe the Ozzies can unearth a batsmen here?

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We waved them sadly goodbye and move into 2011 with few definite plans.  Current favourite is to explore the Bahamas until May then return to the USA for summer, with a side trip on a airplane to the UK to visit the relatives.

Finally In The Bahamas

Nassau

We left Palm Beach at 4am on the 27th and had a relatively straightforward trip across to West End, Grand Bahama.

The wind was a bit on the nose to start with, which combined with the strong north set of the Gulf Stream made us think we would have a hard trip again (3 years ago the trip to Bimini took forever and we were hoping not to repeat it).  But after a few hours the wind came round more to the south and the Gulf Stream died out after about 30 miles and the trip ended up as a simple sail under sunny skies – we even caught a small Mahi Mahi to really spice up the trip.

Bella crossed with us and we were soon tied up at West End, customs formalities complete and cracking open a cold beer to celebrate their first international trip, the culmination of our 1100 mile trip from Annapolis.

The next day we parted company, Bella to the Abacos and us towards Nassau, the first part of the trip was definitely not what we signed up for.   

We were just out of the marina and some squalls turned up, dousing us with heavy rain and killing the wind, we were then shocked to see a water spout about a mile away heading towards us. 

We fired up the engine, and furled the genoa leaving just the main to douse should it get too close.  About 10 minutes later it broke up and a new one formed about 200 metres off our stern, or exactly where we would have been if we hadn’t fired up the engine! 

We don’t have any photos of that one as were too worried about it!  Luckily it went the other way and we were spared the damage – a scary sight indeed.

The rest of the sail to the Berry’s was superb, we averaged 8 knots and romped along, we caught a tuna and dropped anchor in Great Harbour just after dark. 

Next day off to Nassau, bagging a King Mackerel to make it 3 fish in 3 days, another water spout but far enough away to be interesting, finally getting into Nasau at sunset.

We are picking up Josette here for a holiday hence the rush through the Berry Islands, we will have to enjoy them on the way back north.

So another month gone by, and we are hoping that in December we can stop endlessly sailing to the next place and enjoy the Bahamas.