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.