Camp George Town!

View from Monument Hill. Symbiosis is there -- somewhere!

It's been more than a week since we arrived in George Town. We are enjoying ourselves!

If you know anything about the Bahamas, you know that George Town is a mecca and a sort of southern terminus for boats traveling in the Exumas. Some go farther south, as we intend to do, but most hang out here for a few weeks or months and then slowly make their way back north.

The anchorage has a very elaborate morning radio net and the announcements read like a kids' summer camp -- volleyball, poker, yoga, lectures, etc. Amazing, really.

We've been in two anchorages thus far: the first was just off Goat Cay on the western side of the harbor. We waited out some relatively light westerlies there and then hopped over to the other side, in the lee of Monument Hill, where we've been ever since. Off Monument Beach, as it's known, has been ideal for protection from the north and northeast, which we've had a lot of recently. We are about to get even more from that direction, with two days of 30 knots forecast for tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday.

We expected to see our friends, Peter and Jeannie on Gratitude when we arrived in the harbor, but despite repeated attempts to contact them via VHF, we couldn't -- at least not initially. The harbor is chock-a-block with boats in various anchorages, so we had no idea where they might be or if they had even arrived. We finally gave up after a few days of trying on the radio and then we heard a call from them! Apparently they had some "issues" and were delayed. We left it at a vague promise to "see you in town," but we have yet to see them. Hope we meet up again before one or the other of us shoves off.

Meanwhile, at Monument Beach we ended up anchoring next to The Norm, a catamaran that belongs to Rhonda and Bruce, a very interesting couple that we first met in Charleston. We've enjoyed re-connecting with them and they've been most helpful -- their boat has an enormous generator and water maker; they've been saving us a lot of trips into town for water! They also gave us a whole flash-drive full of movies and TV. We had never seen Game of Thrones, but in the past week we've binge-watched two seasons. Count us among the newly converted.

Last night we also were over for sundowners with friends on DiscoFish. We met Marc and Joanne in Nassau. They are bound for the BVIs, so we are likely to keep bumping into them as we head in the same general direction.

Besides all the fun, I have managed to get some writing done too. Before we left Emerald Bay Marina, I pitched a story to Cruising World and they accepted. I just finished writing it yesterday after several days of reporting. It's slated to appear in the May issue. So look for it!

Finally, our good friend Doug Reynolds from Magothy Marina arrives today. Doug is going to sail with us to the Turks & Caicos. His schedule is a bit tight and (unfortunately) it's looking like it may be a week at least before we get suitable weather again for that passage (which might be multi-stop or straight-through -- we're not sure yet). Hope Doug likes George Town as much as we do!

Water, Water Everywhere ...

The crystal-clear water of the Exumas (that's our anchor in 10'), but you can't drink it!

Unless you're from Flint, Michigan, or perhaps somewhere in the western states at the height of summer, in the U.S., people tend to take the availability of limitless fresh water for granted.

Not so here in the Bahamas. It's not uncommon for marinas to charge $0.50 a gallon for "reverse osmosis water," i.e., water that's been desalinated and is (at least in theory) safe for human consumption.

So, water conservation aboard Symbiosis is part of our daily routine. We use seawater to clean dishes and do most of the washing, just using a spritz of fresh water at the end to remove the saltiness. And, when we get a chance for free or cheap fresh water to fill the boat's 90-gallon tank, we seize it.

Perhaps we're a bit too eager: The saga of the foul water in our tank may or may not have started at a marina in Nassau. There, the water was cheap and we topped off our depleted tank, only to find out later that it was considered "not potable." We asked around and other cruisers who had been around the block  -- and who didn't seem concerned with filling their tanks from the same source -- assured us it was just fine for drinking. That left me temporarily reassured.

A week later, on the advice of another old hand, we took just 5 gallons from a cistern at Norman's Cay. And a few days later, several gallons of reverse osmosis (R.O.) water from Highbourne marina. About this time, it presented an unpleasant smell, tasted bad and had a slight oily sheen to it. We were putting it through our water filter for drinking, but it was still difficult to drink.

It wasn't making us sick, just unpleasant to deal with while we cruised the Exumas, a place where the basics, such as fresh water, are even harder to come by than in the rest of the Bahamas. In short, we could have dumped our foul water, but we might not have been able to replenish it for some weeks, so instead we decided to put up with it.

Here we are at Emerald Bay Marina, just short of Georgetown -- a nicely protected place to wait out yet another westerly blow. The water is $0.40/gallon on top of a 10% service charge. Expensive still, but enough was enough with this agua! We poured bleach into the remaining 40 gallons or so in the tank, drained it,  rinsed, repeated, until it was running clean. Still, we didn't waste the water -- using the rinse water to wash Symby's topsides, which had become encrusted with salt from our recent offshore passages.

Where did the bad water come from? We still don't know for sure. We ran into the guy at Nassau who assured us the water there was good. He had also been to the same marina (Highbourne) where we took water and he insisted that's where the foul-smelling stuff came from. I have my doubts. We filled one extra 5 gallon jug with the Highbourne water and it was just fine 2 weeks later (I checked). Or perhaps it was that cistern on Norman's, although it seems hard to believe that just 5 gallons could have so badly contaminated the other 85.

The water is running clean, but putting it through the filter for drinking still produces the unpleasant smell and taste. I think the bad water has now thoroughly funked up the filter. So, tomorrow my mission is to change the filter cartridges!

Sea Life And Salted Pork

Yesterday, Noi and I celebrated our 7^th wedding anniversary. Yes, we were married on Groundhog Day, but at least this year we can definitely say that we are not reliving the same old thing! 

Since my last post, we have done much, albeit in a fairly confined geography:

After leaving Highbourne Cay Marina, we made tracks south for Warderick Wells Cay, part of the Exuma Land & Sea Park. It's a protected area where fishing and poaching is prohibited. It is considered one of the real gems of the Exumas. 

Noi and I agree that it’s been the high point of our experience so far. This is a place that is nearly inaccessible for anyone but us cruisers. Each day, a few boats are invited in to take a mooring and stay as long as they like for just $20/day (at least for our size boat). Getting into the park is a bit nerve-racking, however. First, one must thread one's way down a thin and shallow channel, weaving between a sand bar on one side and a row of already-moored boats on the other – all the while fighting a strong current. Let’s just say that you're close enough to the boats to exchange pleasantries on the way in if it weren't that your attention is focused on the tricky entry. We had a moment in which the park administrator called us on the VHF to warn that we were too far from the channel marker and in danger of running aground. We spun around a few times before getting our bearings and finally picking up the last mooring in the field (#22).

Once we got a chance to settle in and look around, we knew we’d made the right decision to come here. Wow. Words, and even photos, don’t do the place justice. Within two hours of our arrival (and just as we were discussing a quick salt-water dip), a rather large looking reef shark buzzed Symbiosis.

We ended up spending several days at the park, hiking around and enjoying the scenery. We trekked up Boo Boo Hill to leave a driftwood placard with our boat's name -- a tradition among cruisers at Warderick.

We also spent a fair amount of time on the beaches on the Exuma Sound side of the cay. Unfortunately, there are several beaches that are inundated in plastic that's washed ashore. We collected a large trash bag and brought it back to the park HQ for disposal. Our effort didn't even make a dent. We encourage anyone visiting Warderick to do the same. If everyone filled one large bag, it would go a long way toward keeping the beaches clean.

Next stop was Big Majors Spot near Staniel Cay, where pigs don't fly, but they do swim! Noi especially enjoyed the piggy-paddling swine. There are a few different stories about how the pigs got here. One legend says that Columbus' men left them when they landed here in the Bahamas. Others say there's a more recent origin to the porcine invasion. Anyway, it's worth seeing. And, Big Majors Spot is a very nice anchorage. The other attraction is the Thunderball Grotto, so named because a scene in the James Bond film (Sean Connery era) was filmed there. Spectacular! We swam in at low tide and got some shots on the GoPro, which I'm still in the process of processing.

To complete the experience, we ended up anchoring right next to Jeannie and Peter on Gratitude, who we had not seen since Vero Beach, Fl.

Now, we are in Black Point, a lovely anchorage with a community that really gets the cruising thing. Ida's Rockside Laundry is a one-stop shop: wash clothes, get a shower, pick up some outboard oil and best of all ... free and reliable wifi (which I am using as I write). Lorraine owns a wonderful little restaurant. Garbage disposal and free water, too, which seem like a given, but in the Bahamas, not so much! If you need a place to stop and recharge, this is it. Most definitely our favorite anchorage save the Exuma Park.

We are expecting more foul weather and unfortunately, Black Point is not the right place for it. Our plan now is to head a few miles south tomorrow (Thursday) and shove off on Friday for the last leg into Georgetown.