George Town

For these couple of weeks we have just been enjoying the weather and slow pace of life here in George Town. The days are filled with days on the beach, sailing the dinghy, and visiting with friends. We are not the only ones with friends and family coming and going. We invited Bill and his daughters, Lily and Chloe, over for dinner after hearing that they had had oatmeal and omelet's for dinner the previous night. I guess Lily and Chloe feel that Sue (Mom) can't get back from the U.S. soon enough.

We haven't had any equipment or systems on the boat break down lately, so naturally we felt overdue. Wouldn't you know it, one of the heads had to break down. After getting the effluent out of it and letting the appropriate digestives sit in it for 24 hours I took it apart. The pump piston was in pieces, held together only by the Teflon piston ring. Having prepared carefully before our departure for many eventualities I had two rebuild kits on board. But of course the only essential part not in the kits is the piston! After getting more parts than I asked for and paying all the requisite import duties and expediter's fee this turned into a VERY expensive repair. Had we been in the U.S. I could have bought an entire replacement marine toilet for less than this repair cost us. There is a lesson in here: check the parts list in your rebuild kits before you leave the U.S. and expect the parts not included in the kit to break.

Along in this period we also decided that our dinghy (Chris' Craft, a nesting, homebuilt, hard dink that rows, sails and motors) was just too slow. We experimented with a larger engine; an 8 hp as opposed to our 2.5 hp. With just me in the dink the 8hp would get it up on plane so that it really zoomed along. But it was very wet! The water passing beneath the hull was under such pressure as the boat went up to plane that it was forced up through the joint where the two halves are bolted together. In addition the water would catch under the gunwale guard and be forced up into the boat. When I got back to the beach Christopher wanted to go out with me with the bigger motor; he had spotted me zooming around. With the two of us in the dinghy it would not go up on plane. That meant that the water came in the joint and past the gunwale guard in torrents. In spite of the gallons of water in the boat with us, Christopher wanted this bigger engine. Cooler heads prevailed; we would go slow for the rest of our time in George Town.

There all kinds of boats that make the trip to the Bahamas, generally, and George Town, specifically. Island Packets are over represented in the fleet, given the number of them we see back on Chesapeake Bay. Given the number we see on the Bay at home, Hunter and Beneteau are under-represented here in the Bahamas. Sabres and Tartans are present in about the numbers one would expect. There are plenty of full keel, heavy boats of all sorts of manufacture. It is clear that they aren't a pleasure to sail. We never saw them under sail coming down the waterway and they don't ever seem to haul anchor for any side trips from George Town. Most boats are in the 33' to 50' range. We did see a 22' O'Day from Peaks Island, Maine and a 15' homebuilt from North Carolina, but these are the rare exception to the rest of the fleet.

From 3/2 through 3/7 we had Cathy (my sister) and Paul Leary visiting us in George Town. They took a fantastic room at Regatta Point that gave them plenty of space, a nice breeze and great views. For their stay we rented a go-fast runabout so that we could get into town (in about 3 minutes as opposed to 20 minutes in our dink) and around the harbor with them. We did some harbor sightseeing, snorkeling and walking on the beach with them. They are avid hard court volleyball players back in Boston so they got in as much time as they could on the beach volleyball courts here in George Town. While they were visiting with us the mid-Atlantic and northeast had one of the biggest snow storms of the winter. The storm system made our weather cool and windy in George Town, but it sure beat the heck out of shoveling snow at home.

	Two Turtles is another of the popular hangouts in George Town. One night in the week they have a buffet dinner and a band afterwards. A good time is had by parents and kids.
	Elizabeth Harbor in George Town is quite large and open. When there is any breeze to speak of it can be pretty choppy. Most cruisers learn the "George Town Stand". They stand up in their dinghy so that they can stay dry for the ride into town.
Another beautiful sunset in paradise. 'Nuf said.
	Diana and some of the other kids built this club house under the trees on Volleyball Beach.