Chattin’ and Chillin’ in George Town

Elizabeth Harbour is a beautiful, sheltered basin with Great Exuma Island on one side, and Stocking Island on the other. George Town is located on the Great Exuma side. As we entered the south entrance to Elizabeth Harbour, I noticed Gaby deeply focused on our chartplotter. “I’ve found them!” she suddenly cried, and then added, “I’m adding them as an AIS buddy”, as she deftly pressed buttons on the chartplotter, as only a tween-ager can!

The “them” that she was referring to, was “SandStar”, a Lagoon 500 from our hometown in Florida, with the Sandlin family on board: Dan, Kathy, Emma (13), Jack (10) and Sam (7). Dan and Kathy had contacted us the day before, or perhaps even on the day, that we left our dock back in 2016! They had found our blog and made contact, but we had never had the opportunity to meet. For 2 years we have been trading emails, discussing homeschooling strategies and cruising life, and we were very excited to finally meet them!

SandStar anchored in George Town

We rolled into the anchorage and found StandStar anchored off the beach. We found a little spot and dropped our anchor next to them. The wind was very light, and boats were swinging every which way! After initial introductions and “hello’s”, Dave and Dan went across the harbor to George Town, so we could check into the Bahamas. While they were gone, Kathy and I got caught up on our travels, and the kids got quickly acquainted, playing a game and chatting. Soon Dave was back, and announced we all had to appear at immigration, so we had to rush back, to make it before they closed. When all was said and done, we strolled around George Town for a bit and checked out the supermarket (always important!).

In George Town with SandStar:  Jack and Emma, Ben, Gaby, Sam, Kathy and Dan

Cruising Kids:  Ben and Gaby with Emma, Jack and Sam
(pics by Kathy)

We had arrived just in time for the Island Family Regatta, where sailors from all over the Bahamas come together for an annual regatta, sailing their A, B and C Class wooden boats. There were lots of festivities, and an area had been set up with makeshift bars and little eateries. There was not much going on at the time, but later that evening, we could hear the music from the festivities from our boats. During the day, we could watch the regatta, as the boats with their big sails floated by, trying to make the most of the light winds.

Beautiful, hand crafted wooden boats with big, white sails:  lovely to watch them sailing!

There is a big cruising community in George Town, and with it, comes lots of activities: volleyball, kids activities, aqua aerobics in the mornings off the beach at Monument (another anchorage), and so on! Lots of activity, lots to do! Much of it revolves around a place called “Chat ‘n Chill”. That’s where the volleyball nets are located, and where the kids like to meet. That afternoon, we joined Kathy and Dan at Chat ‘n Chill, Dave joining in a few games of volleyball, the kids playing with all the other cruising kids, and I just wondered around and took it all in. It was so different to the isolation we’d been used to, that it took a while to let it all sink in!

The beach at Chat 'n Chill

SandStar and Cool Runnings kids with other cruising kids having fun on the volleyball courts at Chat 'n Chill
(thanks to Kathy for the pics)

Dan and Kathy also introduced us to Gideon and Brett aboard “Panache”, a Voyage 50 catamaran. Gideon and Brett happened to be South African, and also happened to have patented a fix for the slipping cone clutch problem, so prevalent in the Yanmar SD50 Sail drives, the sail drives that we have on our boat. It was the slipping cone clutch that had us confined to a marina for 2 weeks in the Seychelles, and when Dave had checked the engines before leaving the Turks and Caicos, he noticed a very small oil leak in the port sail drives. This modification that Gideon would do, could possibly also fix the oil drip. After meeting with them, Dave decided it was probably worth getting both sail drives worked on, and hopefully the cone clutch problem, along with the oil leak could be fixed, once and for all.

We had arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and while Thursday was spent playing (the kids took the dinghy to Chat ‘n Chill), Friday was spent working! Gideon and Brett came over in the morning, and spent a full day working, taking out the sail drives and making the modifications to them. While Gideon worked, Brett kept us entertained with stories! We were very impressed with how thorough they were and what a great job they did! Since doing the modifications on their own boat, they have over 2000 hours on their saildrives, with no sign of slippage, so here is hoping our result will be similar!!

A foot pound is a unit of torque:  Gideon uses a very accurate "foot pound" to tighten something :).  Thanks, guys, for the great job on our sail drives!

Throughout the day, activity on the beach at Chat ‘n Chill had increased exponentially, with motor boats roaring past us, back and forth, making big wakes, and partying on the beach, with very loud, very inappropriate music getting to a level where we decided we didn’t want to stay there any longer. Together with SandStar, we upped anchor around 5:00pm, and moved a mile or two up the coast to the “northern suburbs”, and re-anchored off Monument beach for a much quieter night!

The following morning, Gideon and Brett, who were also anchored there, came past in their dinghy, and convinced us to join them for a session of water aerobics! They told SandStar, whom we had planned to meet aboard for coffee, and soon all 11 of us joined the group already gathered for their morning exercise! It was a lot of fun, and great exercise too!

With Emma, Kathy, Dan, Jack and Sam after our water aerobics class!

Having looked at the weather, we knew that we should leave either that day (Saturday), or at the latest, the next day (Sunday), if we wanted to get north and have a chance of meeting up with Moby. We decided that, since the kids were having so much fun together, and since the following day was Benjamin’s birthday, we would stay Saturday, and have a small birthday celebration for him with SandStar.  I baked some cupcakes, and SandStar came over in the afternoon. We had a great afternoon, picking Dan and Kathy’s brains on good places to go and anchor in the Exumas, while the kids had a ball playing with the paddleboards in the water.

SandStar arrives for the "party"; what's a birthday without cupcakes?!; Emma, Jack and Sam had made Benjamin some birthday cards and presents, and then they had fun in the water!

We ended the evening ashore with pizza at a small place that Dan and Kathy recommended, and the birthday celebration doubled as a good-bye get together, as we would be leaving the next day. SandStar will be going in the opposite direction, heading South, and plan to spend another 2 or 3 years sailing the Caribbean, while we are heading North, as our journey starts coming to an end. Dan, Kathy, Emma, Jack and Sam; it was wonderful to finally meet you!!  Thank you for taking us under your wing and integrating us into the Bahamian cruising community, and for mapping out a good path home for us, making sure we don't miss any of the good stuff! 

It was sad to say goodbye, but the good thing with this farewell, however, is that we know we’ll definitely see the Sandlin family again: when they return from their sailing adventures, we’ll be there to greet them and to welcome them home!

Ben, Sam, Gaby, Jack and Emma on Cool Runnings, anchored off Chat 'n Chill, George Town, Exumas, April 2018
(photo by Kathy)