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!