All the Places We Have Been
Well it has been a while, apologies, we are in Georgetown now, arriving on March 7, 2023 to the Mecca of Bahamas cruising. Georgetown has a fabulous, large, well protected harbor and a substantial local support network built up around the cruising community, which first started coming here in the 1960's. We passed through in 2009 as well, very little has changed - a few more resorts but for the most part, same beach bars, cruiser volleyball and a lost of boats. Georgetown is also referred to as chicken harbor, because the sailing gets much more difficult/more open ocean exposer/fewer anchorages/longer distances, very few people leave until it is time to go back to the U.S. in April/May.
Let's roll back the clock three weeks though, we found ourselves in Oven Rock on Great Guana Cay, hiking into a fresh water cave - plenty of bats. Fishing was pretty poor.
A stop at Black Point Great Guana on our way north for some provisions and some hiking to some very nice ocean side beaches.
Next up back 20 miles north to the Pipe Cay/Pipe Creek area, an island, sand bar, coral reef area that is very intricate with deep narrow passes surrounded by the shallows. Weather was very calm and we got a chance to get to the Rocky Dundas, a reef and cave system facing the open ocean. Snorkeling in and out of these caves was incredible. Fishing was good, I missed a very large grouper but did bag a lobster and a yellow tail snapper.
Pipe Creek
We came back to Staniel Cay - this time with the promise of our new main sail shipping from the U.S. This worked out well, we were able to pull the old mainsail and start disassembling to allow us to reuse the material in various projects. The new sail is only partially battened so should be a bit easier to manage with the in mast furling. The fishing here has been great, we found a great reef that seems to be our own, though the current can run it tends to to have a nice back eddy so you can float one way then the other. We were doing so well that a local nurse shark took up residence behind our boat so collect our cleanings. The reef also had non fishable treasures, bull shark, spotted eagle ray, huge black and white striped Angel fish and of course the elusive grouper - only non fishable because they keep eluding my spear!
A little drama as well with the impeller on the generator going out, not sure why - was replaced in October 2022. New one is in and running well, cross fingers it was a one off type of thing.
Love the shark but I am not sure I would have been as close as Isabelle was!!
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