Tuesday & Wednesday April 12 & 13:  One Last Time in George Town

     We raised anchor around eight am, happy to leave our rolly anchorage at Little Exuma behind.  The winds were finally calming down, but it would take awhile for the seas to follow suit.  We weren’t more than five minutes underway when I dropped my dry-bag laundry bag in the water and we had to perform a man overboard drill.  I was filling it with a little sea water to do a small load and it got away from me.  Dan marked the spot on the chart plotter, turned around, and told me to get the anchor ready.  The bag was already sinking, and we weren’t sure which way the current was going.  By the time the anchor was down, we’d lost sight of it.

     We don’t want to be responsible for more plastic in the water, let alone on the beach, so we broke out the wetsuits and snorkel gear and jumped into the water to find it.  It took a good twenty minutes of searching, but Dan did manage to find it.  By nine o'clock we were once more on our way to George Town.

     Rain squalls marked the end of the front.  Dan piloted from inside and I stayed outside to help the water collection system and to have a shower.  It’s the second rain shower I’ve been able to take - quite exhilarating!  The laundry was already hanging on the lifeline then, and it benefited from a good fresh water rinse.

     The skies cleared and the weather turned hot.  When we reached Kidd’s Cove off George Town you wouldn’t have known there had been a front or rain - it was like a hot summer day in Maine.  We collected the water and fuel jugs and I gathered up all the large laundry (sheets and towels are too hard to wash by hand) and the backpack and we loaded the dinghy for a trip to town.  Dan made several trips back and forth to the boat with water and fuel (purchased or collected in five gallon jugs) while I spent one last time in the Corner Laundromat and purchased a backpack full of fresh produce and meat.  

     We enjoyed steak on the grill and broccoli for supper and retired early - it had been a very long couple of days and we were tired.

     Wednesday we went back into town for another grocery run - this time to stock up on canned goods - and I visited the cute little post office to purchase some stamps and mail some letters.  (It’s only 63 cents to mail a letter from here to the US!)  Dan brought along a couple of spoons and we purchased a treat for ourselves: a pint of butter pecan ice cream, which we ate in the shade near the dinghy dock.  It’s been awhile since we’ve had ice cream and it was good.

Dan uses the free wifi at Redboone Cafe.

     We moved the boat from Kidd’s Cove across the harbor to the beach off Chat n Chill.   Cruisers were having a Treasures from the Bilge sale and Dan was eager to look over what people were selling and giving away.  He always finds something - this time it was a couple of brass hooks, a plastic case for binoculars, and an inflatable fender.  We also found peanut butter.  One of the boats was preparing to go into storage (many yearly Bahama cruisers leave their boat here for the summer) and was clearing out their food storage.  So far we haven’t donated any of our stuff to these sales, but one day we’ll probably find we have a few things that can find a good home somewhere else.  

Treasures from the Bilge.

     While we were there we finally hung a buoy with our names on the Chat n Chill sign post.  We’d been meaning to do it for a long time, and I mentioned to Dan that we’d better do it now or it wouldn’t happen.  So we’ve left our mark here in George Town, and hope to come back to see it some day.

     We are planning a run to Cat Island tomorrow.  (Not to be confused with Cat Cay.)  We mentioned this on the cruisers net this morning and later another boat hailed us.  They want to go with us.  We haven’t actually met them face to face yet, but we agreed to buddy boat with them, and hope to set off at 6 am as it’s a good 50 miles to our destination.  We’re spending the rest of today preparing for that early morning departure.