Hello from sunny – and very windy – Georgetown, Exuma! We’ve been here for almost two weeks,riding out a nasty gale and enjoying the annual Cruisers’ Regatta. We haven’t done a good job of keeping everyone up-to-date on what we’ve been up to, and a lot has happened since our last post, so here’s a quick recap of the past few weeks.
After spending a quiet afternoon and evening fishing and snorkeling
all by ourselves just off Darby Island in the Exumas, we sailed into a very
crowded Elizabeth Harbor (Georgetown, Exuma) on Friday the 24th,
escorted by a zodiac driven two of my oldest friends, John Schnauck and Tim
Evans. John and Lex Schnauck have been cruising with their two kids, Tyler and Eliza, aboard their Pearson 36-2 since last summer, and Tim (Lex’s brother) was down visiting for a week. Pretty surreal to catch up with our good friends, who live in Marshfield, MA, way, way down here in the tropics. In another it’s-a-small-world encounter, the very next day we caught up with two other long-time friends, Robin and Sid Graves, on the beach directly in front of our boat. In any
event, after arriving in Georgetown John and Lex quickly pulled us into a terrific
group of boats they’ve befriended, all of which have kids aboard. All of the Davenports – or, as the other boats call us, the “Cheres” – have had a ball ever since.
As I mentioned, our stay here has coincided with the annual Cruisers’ Regatta, which is a two week festival of sorts put on by the huge fleet of cruisers that fill Georgetown this time of year. I have to admit, we were a little shocked –
and frankly, bummed out – when we first saw close to 300 boats in the
harbor. Not exactly the kind of solitude we had in mind. But despite the crowd,
we’ve had a great time during the last two weeks. This is almost entirely due to all of the great people we’ve met and spent time with, including the families on Osprey, Good Trade, Three At Sea, Symphony and many other boats. Really interesting
people from all walks of life, with fascinating backgrounds and life stories. Nat, Ben and Win especially have enjoyed getting together with other kids; this is the first time since leaving Florida that we’ve been around other boats with kids, so the boys have played hard with their friends. Typically, all of the kids will start calling each other on the VHF radio after school is over, then a pack will gather on the beach and head off to play games and explore.
The Cruisers’ Regatta itself has been pretty fun too. All of the Regatta events, from racing to poker to volleyball to sandcastle building, are highly organized and meticulously run by a web of committees. These committees are staffed by a fervent, dedicated group of retired cruisers who bring great zeal to their work, and whose goal,it seems, is to bring order and fun to this small corner of the Bahamas. All in all they do a great job, but needless to say the people-watching opportunities are many. On opening night there was a big party featuring a few skits, and Nat and Ben jumped into a play/presentation about the night sky organized entirely by one of their new friends, a 15 year old phenom from Three At Sea. The kids put on a great show in front of a huge crowd. We’ll post some pics. Next came the big boat races. I crewed on Schnauck’s boat – driven by Johnny of Osprey – for the in-the-harbor race, which was a lot of fun. And thanks to Johnny’s driving and John’s fast boat, we did well, coming in just behind the winning boat in our class and scoring a $10 bottle of rum for our efforts! The winning prize was two bottles of $10
rum. Maybe next year . . . .
The big excitement last week was a multi-day gale, apparently the strongest to hit this part of the Bahamas all season. The wind blew 25-35 knots for several days
and nights; in fact, the wind hasn’t dipped much ever since. Right now it’s blowing 25+ in squalls. The first night of the gale was the most interesting, with boats dragging their anchors throughout the harbor. Recall that the harbor is jammed-packed; a boat dragging its anchor is bound to hit a few other boats as it pinballs its way downwind. And that’s exactly what happened all night long. From about 1am
until daylight, we could hear air horns and shouting all over our little
section of the anchorage, coming from people warning dragging boats that they
were about to hit something. I wanted to keep my eye on three upwind boats that seemed to be dragging, so I slept in the cockpit while Betsy came up for frequent checks. Around 2 am one of those boats drifted down on our bow, and the owner – an experienced sailor who was on board alone – started his engine just after pushing off our pulpit. Because pulling and resetting an anchor solo is difficult even in the best conditions and just about impossible in a 35 knot wind in the dark, I jumped on his boat and drove while we repositioned. An exciting way to meet a neighbor.
In between all of these “events”, we’ve been fishing, hiking, shelling, working on boat projects and carousing with friends. Because of the wind and restrictions on spearfishing in the harbor, the fishing has been pretty slow. But Nat and Ben teamed
up on their first lobster last week – a 6lb + monster that Ben found and Nat
manhandled out of a deep hole. And Nat and Tyler Schnauck spent three days
this past week getting their scuba certification. A terrific accomplishment for both of them. (They quickly put their diving skills to work cleaning the bottom of Osprey, along with the Osprey crew).
We’re now waiting for a good weather window to leave Georgetown. Our tentative plan is to spend a few weeks cruising with Zusammen and Osprey and hopefully a few other
boats, before we head over to Cat Island to meet up with the Nugents. Given the weather outlook, the southern Exumas give us the most options in terms of protection, snorkeling, fishing, etc., so we’ll likely end up there. We'll try to get a post out before we leave tomorrow morning. We probably won't have any email access for a few weeks, but as always we're reachable through our Bahamian cell (call or text).
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