Georgetown
Stardust Log:
3-15: Filled water tanks at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (90 gal, $46). Posted blog containing Rachel’s Corner and her poems. Sent and received e-mail. Sailed to Black Point and anchored in our old spot again. Beautiful sunset with light wind for a change, and ate dinner in the cockpit.
3-16: Left Black Point under motor into the south 15kt wind straight on the nose. West winds are coming and very few anchorages are protected in a west wind so we headed for Little Farmer Cay and made the tricky entry through coral reefs into the shelter of the cay. Much current, tried to anchor in the narrow channel but dragged the Delta over the hard scoured bottom. Hooked up to a mooring for $10 a night. Went ashore to pay for the mooring, and had a hamburger for lunch! Tried some snorkeling but too much current, swam around the boat and inspected the mooring which was buried and not visible. Squalls from the west overnight caused us to drag the mooring and we ended up bumping the bottom next to shore. So instead of dragging our own anchor, we paid someone else for the pleasure of dragging their mooring. (I never did dive back down to see what the mooring was made of.)
3-17: Tide came in and we stopped bumping so stayed put till morning. Another squall coming, so we changed to another mooring. After the squall passed, skies looked good enough to head for Georgetown in the NW wind. Exuma Sound was flat as a pancake for a change, due to the west winds, so we had a wonderful sail into Georgetown. We covered the 42 miles at an average speed of 6.1kt and top speed under sail of 8.4kts! As we sailed the front arrived bringing north winds blowing 20kts. The seas were still moderately smooth so it was very comfortable. I caught a 2 foot barracuda and threw it overboard. Another fish (probably barracuda) stole a silver spoon. So no fish for dinner. We knew that Jim and Pat were nearby on Shamrock, and it was St. Patrick’s Day so we looked for them and found them at Monument Beach in Elizabeth Harbor and anchored next to them. At midnight fireworks woke us up. Kathy got up to watch the show, I stayed in bed and Rachel never woke up. It was very nice of the folks in town to welcome us to Georgetown with a fireworks display!
3-18: Banana pancakes for breakfast. The 3 of us took the 1 mile dinghy ride across the harbor to meet Jim and Pat for a stroll around town and lunch. Most stores were closed on Sunday afternoon so we headed back to the mothership against the wind and waves with ponchos on. We invited Jim and Pat over for candles in pastries for Jim’s birthday. Rachel played “Happy Birthday” on her clarinet and wrote him a poem. Then I took Whitefoot ashore and we hiked to the top of Monument Hill for a look around. It was a stunning view of the various hidy-holes with boats anchored everywhere. There are “only” 200 boats left, since the regatta is over. There seems to be a contingent of boats numbering 100-200 which leave the states in December, head straight for Georgetown, and then return following the regatta. At night the anchor lights on top of the masts are very pretty, competing with the stars.
3-19: Winds increasing to 30kts from the east. It will blow like this for the next 5 days. We dragged our 45lb Delta with 80 feet of chain and 20 feet of nylon in 12 feet of water and had to re-anchor using the 35lb Bruce and the Delta. No one else is using 2 anchors here and it’s considered bad seamanship to anchor differently from everyone else, but so be it. I sleep better at night on 2 anchors.
3-20: Moved Stardust to Kidds Beach so we are close to town for shopping, internet, mail, etc. Blowing 15kts and expected to increase. Rachel took the helm for the move, from anchor up to anchor down again and did a great job.
3-15: Filled water tanks at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club (90 gal, $46). Posted blog containing Rachel’s Corner and her poems. Sent and received e-mail. Sailed to Black Point and anchored in our old spot again. Beautiful sunset with light wind for a change, and ate dinner in the cockpit.
3-16: Left Black Point under motor into the south 15kt wind straight on the nose. West winds are coming and very few anchorages are protected in a west wind so we headed for Little Farmer Cay and made the tricky entry through coral reefs into the shelter of the cay. Much current, tried to anchor in the narrow channel but dragged the Delta over the hard scoured bottom. Hooked up to a mooring for $10 a night. Went ashore to pay for the mooring, and had a hamburger for lunch! Tried some snorkeling but too much current, swam around the boat and inspected the mooring which was buried and not visible. Squalls from the west overnight caused us to drag the mooring and we ended up bumping the bottom next to shore. So instead of dragging our own anchor, we paid someone else for the pleasure of dragging their mooring. (I never did dive back down to see what the mooring was made of.)
3-17: Tide came in and we stopped bumping so stayed put till morning. Another squall coming, so we changed to another mooring. After the squall passed, skies looked good enough to head for Georgetown in the NW wind. Exuma Sound was flat as a pancake for a change, due to the west winds, so we had a wonderful sail into Georgetown. We covered the 42 miles at an average speed of 6.1kt and top speed under sail of 8.4kts! As we sailed the front arrived bringing north winds blowing 20kts. The seas were still moderately smooth so it was very comfortable. I caught a 2 foot barracuda and threw it overboard. Another fish (probably barracuda) stole a silver spoon. So no fish for dinner. We knew that Jim and Pat were nearby on Shamrock, and it was St. Patrick’s Day so we looked for them and found them at Monument Beach in Elizabeth Harbor and anchored next to them. At midnight fireworks woke us up. Kathy got up to watch the show, I stayed in bed and Rachel never woke up. It was very nice of the folks in town to welcome us to Georgetown with a fireworks display!
3-18: Banana pancakes for breakfast. The 3 of us took the 1 mile dinghy ride across the harbor to meet Jim and Pat for a stroll around town and lunch. Most stores were closed on Sunday afternoon so we headed back to the mothership against the wind and waves with ponchos on. We invited Jim and Pat over for candles in pastries for Jim’s birthday. Rachel played “Happy Birthday” on her clarinet and wrote him a poem. Then I took Whitefoot ashore and we hiked to the top of Monument Hill for a look around. It was a stunning view of the various hidy-holes with boats anchored everywhere. There are “only” 200 boats left, since the regatta is over. There seems to be a contingent of boats numbering 100-200 which leave the states in December, head straight for Georgetown, and then return following the regatta. At night the anchor lights on top of the masts are very pretty, competing with the stars.
3-19: Winds increasing to 30kts from the east. It will blow like this for the next 5 days. We dragged our 45lb Delta with 80 feet of chain and 20 feet of nylon in 12 feet of water and had to re-anchor using the 35lb Bruce and the Delta. No one else is using 2 anchors here and it’s considered bad seamanship to anchor differently from everyone else, but so be it. I sleep better at night on 2 anchors.
3-20: Moved Stardust to Kidds Beach so we are close to town for shopping, internet, mail, etc. Blowing 15kts and expected to increase. Rachel took the helm for the move, from anchor up to anchor down again and did a great job.
posted by Stardust at 8:25 AM
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