CODA STILL HERE IN THE BAHAMAS 2025 (32)

CODA : exploring the Exuma Islands, Bahamas.

11 February 2025 

Monument Beach, Elizabeth Harbour, Georgetown, Great Exuma Cay, Bahamas  

You can visualize our day's travels on the above satellite image.  The blue ball is Coda anchored at Monument beach. We traveled south across the harbor, avoided several reefs, to the Exuma Market and  BTC (phone).  What you don't see is the wind driven waves from a southeast steady fifteen knot wind.

Marc- The Predictwind App forecast has been spot on.  Increasing winds out of the east for the next week getting to 24 knots (sounds like fun).  So far we are in a very quiet spot at least for winds up to 15 knots.  That being said we did get somewhat wet from spray on our 20 minute dinghy trip over to Georgetown Village.  The most exciting part is going through the narrow tunnel into Lake Victoria where the village docks are located.  The tide going against the wind in here was a wild ride lasting only a few minutes.  The tunnel is narrow such that boats can only come through one way at at time.  We went through and tied up at the public dock behind the Exuma supermarket.  The Reverse Osmosis (very pure water made from filtering the salt and other nasty stuff from ocean water) is free here.  I got right in line and filled a 5 gallon jerry can.  The guy in front of me was from Montreal and had filled 6 jerry cans ahead of me.  He was helpful is telling me where to get oil nearby.

Sue and I next tried once again to get e-sim cards for our phones from the BTC telephone office.  It was a slow process that caused us to wait for nearly an hour while lots of locals went through while we waited for the correct codes.  Finally I just got in line again and planted myself in from of the Batelco agent.  She indicated that the codes had just come in.  She indicated that Sue's phone was locked and would not accept a e-sim from any provided other than Verizon.  My phone was un-locked so she indicted that it would work but that I had to prepay for the e-sim.  I refused to prepay since we had tried this in the BTC office in Bimini and it would not work.  We got nowhere so I left very upset with Verizon for not fixing things on its end for Sue's phone and for somehow causing problems for me.  The BTC agent says Verizon creates problems to prevent its customers from going elsewhere.  Sorry for the gory details.

Our next stop at Exuma Market was excellent.  This is a real supermarket with full shelves including fresh produce.  The prices are higher than in the States (at least the grocery prices we knew when we left 3 weeks ago).  Eggs for example are $ 9.00 a dozen.  We only bought the essentials.  We found a very nice lady who sells her homemade coconut bread at a table across the street for $7.00 a loaf and we bought some.  We have really enjoyed the Bahamian bread.

I did some minor electrical repairs and some cleaning.  Sue and I went over to check out the Coconut Club that is on the beach close by our anchorage spot.  This facility opened late last Fall and is very impressive.  Everything is new and first rate.  They have all sorts of beach activities and rafts to allow patrons to sit and have their drinks.  There is a net to keep things that bite or sting away.  There is a bar, restaurant, and store.  I think we may go back for lunch someday.

Public dock behind Exuma Market.  Note the narrow tunnel all boats need to pass through.  Boats going in have right-of-way.  Sometimes you have to wait a bit.

The shell fuel station.  All we bought were 2 quarts of 2-cycle engine oil for our Yamaha outboard.  Two cycle engines are still popular here.

The Coconut Club is on the beach right in front of Monument Hill.

This dock is about 1500 feet from where we are anchored.

Now this could be fun.

Bocce pit.

The beachfront and rafts.

A beautiful sunset after dinner.

Sue:  It was fun going to the Village on a bustling weekday.  The Exuma Market was by far the best market we have seen in The Bahamas.  The prices are high, but that is to be expected - the food is not made or grown locally, and it's why we brought as much as possible with us.  It was a lot like a smaller market in the U.S.  The frozen meats were from the U.S., I think the produce was, too, and they had all kinds of the bad-for-you cereals from the U.S. (Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Trix).  10.4 oz of Cocoa Puffs cost $9.29, and 14.9 oz of Lucky Charms cost $12.69.  We didn't buy any of that except frozen hamburgers with a U.S.D.A. stamp on them.  

3 pounds of honey crisp apples (about 7 of them) cost $12.99. grapes were $7.49, bananas $1.69, 8 oz of wish bone dressing cost $4.49, a quart of Bragg apple cider was $15.19, a can of Lindsay black olives was $4.09, a can of Field Day green olives was $5.39, 5 oz of already washed organic spring mix was $8.79, a small container (10 oz) of Sabra hummus was $6.39, 6 Bays English Muffins were $6.09, a can of Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce was $3.79 and highest of all were Dole mixed fruit cups - four 4 oz cups for $5.89, and the Field Day organic diced peaches (four 4 oz cups) were $7.09.  We didn't buy any of those things.  We bought a few Granny Smith apples at a lower cost, and bananas.  We splurged on La Croix seltzer (a case of 12 for $16).  We're not out of seltzer yet, but we are getting there.