Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2008
Edit Blog Post
About Time “Parked” in George Town
We arrived in George Town December 17th after a tricky entrance to the harbour due to a strong cold front. We anchored in Elizabeth harbour for “the night” just off the famous adult playground Volleyball Beach. As of January 21st , we’re still in the same spot. We haven’t raised the anchor , but…we hope to soon!
For Christmas, our son Steve, and Sharon’s sister Patti, joined us for 2 weeks, then friends from Guelph Ingrid and Gary Gander joined us for a visit, and presently long time friends from Aurora Lucy and Fred May are here. So, we’ve been pretty busy here, the “Christmas Winds” have been fairly strong , and it’s awfully nice here so … we’ve been enjoying Georgetown.
Christmas, and New Years was sure different here than back in Ontario, but really nice. When we arrived, there were about 50 boats in George Town and by Christmas that doubled. The boaters here form a very close community and there were lots of events over the holidays. There were bonfires with carol singing, pot luck dinners for Christmas and New Years, a Christmas celebration and of course Junkanoo, on
Christmas Day
Eggs Benedict breakfast with Patti and Steve. Christmas night. Junkanoo is a Christmas celebration, held by the Bahamians in major Bahama centres . It starts about 3:00am and local groups design and build floats and dress up in cool individual costumes. They have marching bands that play music, that reflects the culture of the Bahamas. The reason it’s held at such a dreadful time of night, is that in olden days the slave owners gave the slaves this time off to celebrate among themselves, and they started this tradition, which seems to get bigger, and more impressive all the time. The Bahamas government strongly supports Junkanno , and offers big money prizes for, best costumes and floats. It is very competitive, and impressive to watch. It’s similar in many ways to Mardi Gras.
Having Steve and Patti here for Christmas, really helped us fill the void of not being with all our family over Christmas. We were able to enjoy the fabulous weather, go for lots of beach walks, and snorkel and dive on the beautiful Bahamas reefs. As an extra bonus for Steve, he was able to meet up with several old friends he’d made on other boats 10 and 12 years ago, when they
Christmas Day
Doug entertaining at pot luck. were all kids. One boat in particular called “Scud” returned from a 3 year around the world trip, just 3 days before Christmas so that was a big surprise. We were quite interested in how much Steve would remember, after 10 years, and were pleasantly surprised at how many memories it did bring back for him.. Volleyball is a very big part of life in George Town, and Steve played almost every day with the very competitive players. Sharon and Patti, got into searching the beach for all the treasures of shells, and sea beans. They also learned how to make baskets out of palm branches, and although I was a real scrouge and didn’t let them bring all the palm branches on the boats, I have to admit they both made some impressive baskets. Sharon still is working on baskets’ and I’m sure we’ll have quite a collection of baskets to go along with the shells, when we return home in May.
After Steve and Patti went home, Gary and Ingrid Gander joined us for a week. The Ganders were another family cruising boat that was here in George Town during our first visit 12 years ago. While
there are many changes, since our last visit here, the beauty we remember remains, and it’s one of the true paradises for boaters to visit. We seem to maintain a pretty busy social schedule here and Ganders fit right in. Hopefully they will re join the cruising life soon, and we hope we gave them a reminder taste of how terrific it is. Gary is also a guitar player, so in addition to bringing one of my guitars down, we had a chance to play some music together.
Currently our friends Lucy and Fred May are here. Fred was a high school friend, and for all these years as we had families we have continued to enjoy their friendship. While Fred and Lucy have spent much of the last 15 years, abroad in Switzerland and Los Angeles, they recently moved back to Aurora, and are taking a break from that cold, cold Canadian weather, that we are trying to escape. Since they got here the weather was great, but last night, a cold front came through and they are getting a taste of the challenging weather that we get sometimes. (It’s still 75 degrees and sunny so not so
bad)
A little bit about George Town now, as I’m sure many of you are saying “Why would anyone spend a whole month in one spot). And we’ll be in the area for most of the winter. George Town is in the Central Bahamas and at the bottom of the Exuma chain of Islands. The latitude is far enough south that many of the cold fronts stall out so that the climate here is a little better , with a little less strong winds. IN THEORY THAT IS. This year so far it seems like it’s been fairly windy, although true to fact the cold fronts have fizzled just north. In front of George Town there is a 3 mile long island called Stocking Island, and Stocking Island hosts one of the most beautiful white beaches we have ever seen. 3 Miles of it! It’s spectacular to walk on, and on any given day you can find beautiful shells and sea beans. We try to go for a walk on the beach every day, and we say that the hardest decision we have to make when we go over the path to the beach is “do we go right
5am Boxing Day
At Junkanoo. Doug is rather sleepy. or left for our walk”. Between George Town and Stocking Island ( about 1 mile ) there is great protected anchorages for lots of boats, and it is not unusual to have 300, to 400 boats in the anchorage by the time the cruising regatta takes place in March. The colour of water here with the sand bottom is that beautiful blue that you see on post cards and calendars. There are some great reefs for diving around George Town, very close and it’s faily easy to spear a fish or lobster, if you work at it. Many boats make George Town their winter destination, as it has lots to offer, plus conveniences like a great grocery store, Wifi, and other services that are not always easy to find in the Islands. There is a fantastic beach on Stocking Island called Volleyball beach, and the cruisers meet there at 2:30 every afternoon to play volleyball, watch volleyball, critique volleyball, make baskets, swim, or enjoy their favourite refreshment. Since we were here last time there is a new really cool bar on volleyball beach called Chat and Chill so if you don’t like strenuous activity you can sit in the bar
, watch TV, and socialize. Another description that seems fitting for Georgetown is “Adult Summer Camp” . It’s a good description. Also they call George Town “Chicken Harbour” because lots of boats never get farther south than this. I’m sure that is part of the reason there are so many boats here, but for sure I don’t know how it could get much better than this part of the Bahamas.
I’ve met some very good musicians to jam and play guitar with here in George Town. One guy has a complete PA system on his boat so we’ve been having some very good sessions. I’m one of the “new guys” but they let me join in, and I really enjoy that.
That’s it for now. We hope that the pictures capture the real beauty of the area. Our son Steve is a very good photographer and we have included many of his pictures in the blog. We will be leaving George Town off and on and taking some short trips to the other surrounding Islands, but we intend on making George Town our base until mid March. Hopefully winter is not to cold up there, and you all
Junkanoo
Law was present. get to enjoy the snow and winter activities. Look forward to hearing from you.
Take Care,
Sharon and Doug
Aboard SV About Time
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0688s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mike Bondy
non-member comment
Doug and Stephen are looking bearded.
Hey guys thanks for the pictures, looks like you are having a great time. Oh how I miss Junkanoo. Maybe I will do it once again. Sharon and Doug in the last picture are looking pretty happy, or Sharon is at least awake. Doug could use fake awake! Can't wait to get down there, it's awful cold here. Cheers