George Town, Great Exuma Island, has become a winter destination for
hundreds of cruisers. Many cruisers choose to spend the
majority of their winter in George Town.
The town looks out over Elizabeth Harbour, a vast natural harbour between
Great Exuma Island and Stocking Island. At the height of the season,
for the March regatta, there are over 400 cruising boats in the harbour.
The number of boats using the harbour could give the impression of an obstacle free
entry. In fact
Elizabeth Harbour has one of the most treacherous entries in the whole
Bahamas. It is strewn with reefs and great care has to be taken. Even within
the harbour, there are very shallow sand banks that tend to change shape and
size with the currents.
Once inside the harbour, there is a choice of many good anchorages,
so the vast number of boats is spread throughout and boats can change
anchorage regularly for a change of scene. Distances into town are so great
from some of these anchorages, that many sailors take their boats and anchor
just outside town and dinghy in
from there to pick up supplies, rather than make the long dinghy ride from their chosen
anchorage.
In the centre of George Town is Lake Victoria. This small lake is entered by
dinghy under an 8 foot high bridge under the High Street. Inside lies the
dinghy dock which gives access to the supermarket, bakery, propane supply,
bank, internet cafe, restaurants and car hire. The dinghy dock itself cannot
cope with the number of dinghies and on return to the dock with your
shopping, you may find your dinghy 6 rows out. This takes some juggling to
bring it back through the mélé
to load up.
Despite the number of cruisers and the time they spend there, there has been
very little development within the town itself and the choice of suppliers
and supplies is very limited.
Due to the size of the cruising fraternity in George Town, a strange and dynamic
cruisers' community has been established. One beach, called Volleyball Beach has
become the main social centre where a number of permanent beach volleyball
courts have been established, in addition to bridge, backgammon, domino and
large communal eating and meeting tables.
There is a permanent radio frequency assigned for inter-vessel communication
on channel 68, so that normal distress and call channels are not over-run by
the number of vessels. Each morning there is a radio net which keeps up to
date with new arrivals, departures, gives weather forecasts, puts vessels in
touch with one another and advises all of planned activities, local
suppliers, happy hour timings and other trivia.
We deliberately slowed down our journey to George Town as we wanted to enjoy
the trip through the Exumas. The vast social scene of George Town also did
not appeal to us, so we waited until the boat count was down from 400+ to
200+. Even that was a little overwhelming. We anchored off Volleyball Beach
for 2 nights, just to see how it all worked, enjoyed the Sunday Pig Roast at
the beach restaurant, then moved over for two nights to Kidd's Cove, the
anchorage off George Town to look around town and pick up supplies.
While we were there a trip was organised to Williams Town on the adjoining
Little Exuma Island, to a church cook-out. Three buses of cruisers left town
for the 45 minute journey. The food was great, and it was a good day out,
but not all the buses turned up for the return journey!
In common with many other islands in the Bahamas, Little Exuma Island has
the remains of loyalist plantations. Usually cotton or sisal. We visited one
of these just outside Williams Town.
We met up with Mick & Sue from Breathless in George Town who were awaiting
the arrival of Mick's daughter who was to join them for the trip to Turks &
Caicos. We also met up with Ken & Cathy from Chill and Gene & Wilma from
Ge-Wil. Ken and Cathy were very despondent having suffered a cracked mast on
their brand new boat. They were awaiting a splint in order to make a
temporary fix so they could motor back to Florida for major repairs. Their
original intention was to sail down to Trinidad or Venezuela for the summer.
Gene & Wilma, whom we last met in Staniel Cay, were turning around and
heading north again. We may meet up with them again in the Abacos in May.
We left George Town on 30th March and sailed to Thompson's Bay on Long Island.
