CODA : Living the life in the Exuma Islands, Bahamas.
17 February 2025
Sand Dollar Beach, Elizabeth Harbour, Georgetown, Great Exuma Cay, Bahamas
No it's not a pirate ship entering the harbor. It's an inter-island freighter. Think of it as a huge invasion barge. The bow of the ship drops down to off load cargo including large containers. Georgetown has significant commercial traffic for a remote island.
Marc- Today we will describe the more mundane things we have to do while living aboard a boat in the Exumas. We awoke to zero wind this morning and the many anchored boats doing their own thing so to speak. Meaning, as long as the wind is blowing from from the East (the usual trade wind direction) all of the boats line up and point east. If the wind direction changes then the boats act in synchronized fashion (for the most part). When there is no wind boats can get jumbled up. This morning our neighbors came by and told us that our boat was too close to theirs. Mind you we had not changed our position in a week. We were planning to leave after breakfast so it was a perfect time to pull up the anchor. The anchor did not want to come up without bringing part of the bottom up as well. Sue went up on the bow and persuaded the clay and grass (Sue called it cement) to return to the bottom.
Heavy rain started and continued for 1-1/2 hours. I am so glad Coda has a pilot house and a windshield wiper. Our original plan was to return to the southern end of the harbor and anchor just outside of the border of Moriah Harbour Cay National Park, get our snorkel gear out and take the dinghy out to the reef to see some coral and fish. We changed the plan due to the weather. Plan B was to head over to Georgetown Village and do some laundry and refill water, diesel and gas cans. Sue took charge of the laundry part. Water is free here. I met a local guy at the Shell station who was loading his boat with lots of diesel fuel, water and gasoline. He has a service that delivers these items and picks up your trash very reasonably. He also has a water taxi service with a different boat. Glad I met this guy.
We passed this beauty in the harbor: yes, this is White Seal from Ferrisburgh, Vermont.
Another beautiful boat at the Lake Victoria dinghy dock. The only non-inflatable boat around. This is a row boat that can actually be rowed! This could only mean that Mary Langworthy was in town. I did a double take when passing the first restaurant / bar and there was Mary at a table with several friends visiting from the States.
The price of Diesel is steep here.
Once back on Coda I reserved a mooring for when our friend John Gilmartin comes, in order to have a secure location at Sand Dollar Beach, where anchor holding is reported to be variable. This is not a good thing when we are expecting high winds to return later this week. It also appears that the moorings are in the prime anchoring spots. We got number 42.
Another day in the Exumas is ending.
Sue: We didn't do much today. The highlight of my day was doing the crossword with Brian Gilmartin and Marc. We got the puzzle done, but our finishing time was not something to write home about. If only Grampa Michael had been available to help us.
The laundry here costs a total of $14 for one load to be washed and dried. The lady who runs the laundry, Lee, takes your name and tells you when a washer will be available. We had a 1/2 hour wait. Then she gets the washer going (I was not allowed to touch any of the settings), I put the laundry in, and went to close it, but she told me she would do that. She let me remove the laundry when it was done, showed me what dryer to put it in, and she took care of starting the dryer. From there she let me be. The machines were great, and the fans in the laundry made the place far more hospitable than the outdoors. Meanwhile Marc was walking around finding the Shop Rite grocery store (a second well stocked grocery store with more local customers and no other tourists. The Exuma grocery store gets some locals and a lot of tourists/boaters) and filling the Jerry cans. We inquired at the Exuma Yacht Club about diesel fuel. We had not seen the fuel dock. A staff person showed us where the dock is and told us they were out of diesel today. They might have it tomorrow.
6 comments:
I think they call it the "mail boat". You can actually book passage on it. From Nassau to Georgetown would take several days.
Always wondered what it would be like to book a trip on one of the mail boats.
Wondered about the moorings. How expensive are they?
Do they still play Volleyball in the afternoon over at the chat n chill...played a lot when we were there!
Moorings are $31 per night.
Volleyball is still very popular as well as bocce ball
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