Author: Cookies

We sailed about 20 north from George Town and went into Black cay. We snorkeled the bay and hiked to the top of the hill where this abandoned house project stopped several years prior.

We sailed back to George Town from Long Island. Most of the sail was lighter then predicted but in the last hour it moved from calm to heavy 22 knot winds and 3-4 foot seas as we approached George Town and some smaller carefully navigated channels.

We moved and re anchored 3 times due to a heavy westerly front that was predicted and came thru the area with 20-30 knot winds and heavy rains.

The next day was a calm and sunny day.

Some painting on shore with other cruisers

We sailed about 20 miles south to Thompson bay on Long Island. The sail down was a wonderful easy sail with deep blue waters. We enjoyed Scott’s birthday at a dinghy up restaurant and spent another day hiking the island and waiting out a strong wind blow for two days.

We walked to the Atlantic one morning and another day when it was blowing 30 knots we did some painting on the boat and was able to dinghy ashore when wind had dropped a bit.

Sand crab in surf

We spent another day in Calabash bay but moved anchorage for less wind and another beach to explore. We did a nice snorkel on a reef and various beach walks.

The rest of the week was filled with more island hikes and swimming and other events like yoga classes at chat and chill beach. One day was filled with boat clean up and laundry on the boat while we made water with our water maker and rung out clothes dry by wrapping them around a boat life line and squeezing that fabric dry and drying them in the strong winds. The winds were crazy strong so we had to safety pin the sheets from flying away.

On Saturday the Junkanoo festival happened where Scott and many other cruisers put on traditional Junkanoo costumes along with Bahamians with drums and bells and did a short parade downtown George Town.

We sailed from George Town to Long Island, about a 24 mile sail to the east. The wind shift that day allowed us to sail east which wasn’t possible for the previous two weeks.

At the northern tip of this large 50 mile island we anchored in a somewhat protected bay.

This island is famous for Christopher Columbus arriving here in 1492, along with a few other Bahamian islands. It’s turns out Christopher Columbus never sailed to USA or even close. He did sail to South America on another voyage.

Yesterday was filled with a few George Town 2025 regatta prep activities. We have been asked to participate in many of the annual regatta activities from the softball game to the Junkanoo festival. We have been to baseball practice and the first Junkanoo costume fitting and music practice.

We did a hike over the Elizabeth island to the Atlantic with mike the morning before he headed back to the states.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday here in George Town! We started the day with a nice organized hike with 30 other cruisers around the island infront of us. We then did some snorkeling and visiting with other cruisers at the beach. At the beach infront of the boat were super friendly rays that we were able to pet. Yesterday we picked up our first guest, Mike, for this 2025 boating season yesterday. We look forward to others coming to visit us at our boat this season too. George Town is a fairly easy spot to get flights to and planes fly directly from the US into this airport. Let us know if you wish to come so we can coordinate our sailing plans with your visit.

It is very common for cruisers to have kids, grandkids, or many other family and friends come visit them while they are anchored in George Town for a few months.

We are on day 3 of our George Town cruiser experience.

For many reasons this tiny town in the southern most part of the exumas has become a winter long destination for cruisers.

First the weather is a fairly stable 75 degrees day or night blowing 15 from the east. Some 300-400 boats work their way all the down from many eastern seaboard locations.

Once here the choice of activities are endless. On the cruiser vhf net each morning they announce activities from yoga classes, volleyball, bocce, and pickle ball. For those here long enough there folks will get in involved with two week regatta events that vary from dinghy parades to traditional Bahamas dance and costume shows of Junkanoo where cruisers get to participate too.

Yesterday was busy yoga classes, volleyball, and bocce ball and walking the beaches.

Today was pickleball and visiting the town of George Town with friends.

We sailed 40 miles to George Town on the open Atlantic today. We left at 7 am to catch the incoming tide at the cut to reduce issues of current against Atlantic swell.

It was pleasant sailing of 10-20 knots and sufficient easterly wind direction for sailing and seas 2-4 feet.

This is very popular cruiser destination with reported more than 330 cruisers anchored in this George Town Bay Area.

We sail about 25 miles from little pipe to big galliot to position ourselves for a sail to George Town tomorrow. Good 20 knot winds moved the boat at nearly 7 knots. We snorkeled once we arrived and chatted with other cruisers here.

To get to George Town one must exit the calmer waters of Exumas bank and go out into the Atlantic for a bit before getting back into more protected waters near George Town.

We are studying the currents at the cuts and winds for tomorrow’s sail.

Today we started the morning with a nice swim and snorkel in Warderick wells. We saw some amazing schools of fish and a good sized turtle up close.

We sailed about 15 miles to little pipe cay and anchored infront of the $100 million dollar house and next to a very modern stealth looking mega yacht.

Today we did a long 6 hour hike on this island and park. The island has maybe 12 miles of poorly marked trails and we had a map that showed trails that no longer exist.

We sailed about 32 miles today from Allen’s cay to warderick wells national park.

Good 15-20 knot winds off the beam made for fast 5-7 knot speeds under full sails. We started the day with some snorkeling in Allen’s.

Winds clock tomorrow more south easterly so we will wait another day before heading farther south so winds are not on the nose.

It was a very quiet day Allen’s cay. We started early with a snorkel at 7:30 am to catch the slack current. Amazing snorkeling with nice reefs. We saw some sleeping sharks which we didn’t disturb.

We spent much of the day with some more boat repair projects from trying to get our holding tank pump working and other water break repairs. Another swim and visiting the island where some small birds came and landed right on our hands!

We had a pleasant 40 mile sail from the Eleutheras island and headed across to the Exumas chain of islands.

Today while we wait out the high wind conditions we explored the cathedral caves and walk around the town with our cruiser family.

We moved from at dawn from governors harbor about 20 miles south to rock sound to wait out this 2 day northernly wind event. Rock sound provides almost 360 protection. Governors does not have good holding or northerly protection.

Sailing in the Bahamas requires daily checking and planning a few days out based on wind weather events. In this case a strong northerly event will start to occur tomorrow Saturday requiring protection from the north. One is constantly shifting from one side of anchorage to the other to get in the Lee of the island for protection.

We spent two days at this wonderful anchorage. We walked around town and walked over to the Atlantic twice. Today included snorkeling and spear fishing getting lobster and crab that we shared at a friends birthday party on their boat in the evening.

Today we moved from Hatchet Bay to Governors Harbor about 15 miles south on the Eleutheras Island.

We walked around a bit after kayaking to shore and met our cruiser friends for a nice dinner on our boat with some locally caught grouper fish.