and George Town
Tony was up most the night on Wed. nervous with the anchor in the swift current we were in. We woke Thursday morning and the forecast was not good to try and get further south to George Town. We decided instead to head over to Little Farmers Cay, where there was a nice town and a few things to explore. Our friends on board Aura joined us. We arrived at Little Farmers Cay about noon and picked up a mooring. Hopefully on a mooring Tony would get a better nights rest. Our faith was not restored when we went into town to pay for the mooring and the guy managing the moorings suggested we drop an anchor, …”just in case”. This was of course after he collected the $10 fee for the mooring.
A woman named Chrisanna, a freed slave from Barraterre, settled little Farmers Cay. She moved to Farmers Cay with her two sons who bought the island from the English Crown and willed it to their descendants as generation property. Most of the 55 permanent residents are descended from those hearty ancestors. Today the island’s beauty remains unchanged with its sheltered harbors, inviting beaches and the exquisite shades of the surrounding aqua water with lovely coral gardens to explore.
Later that afternoon, we headed over to the far beach to check out the shipwreck that was ashore. It was a beautiful day and we wanted to see what the wreck looked like. We found it to be deteriorating, and based on the locals’ information, it was an old fishing boat that ran aground, was left abandoned and was swept ashore in one of the storms.
We arrived in George Town Friday, Feb. 13 after a pleasant run down along the Exuma islands chain. Geeorge Town was our major destination goal. We stopped at many of the out islands along the way and really enjoyed exploring the different ones. It was a bit stressful getting into some of the islands with their shallow inlets sprinkled with sharp coral reefs, but we managed just fine.
The Tropic of Cancer runs directly through George Town, the capital and principal settlement of the Exumas, located on the island of Great Exuma. Some 1,100 people live in this seaport village, which opens onto Elizabeth Harbor, a 15-mile long harbor. George Town is part of the tropics and part of the temperate zone, which is why it is a favorite winter haven for so many cruisers.
George Town was very different from our experiences on the remote islands. It has a huge harbor, Elizabeth Harbor, that is a beautiful and spacious sheltered basin that attracted more than 350 boats by the time we arrived. Many boaters spend the winter season here due to the nice weather and the limited number of storms that make it down this far south. They arrive in December and many stay through the festival and regatta that is held the first week in March. By the time the regatta rolled around, there would be more than 400 boats in the harbor.
Given the number of boats that spend each winter here, a unique society has evolved with its own activities and hierarchy. The beaches are packed with cruisers who have organized games of all sorts such as, volley ball, bridge, dominos, chess, swings for the kids, etc. Our beach, Volley Ball Beach, had a small restaurant/tikki bar where you could get burgers, beers, water and ice (what else could one need?). The restaurant that was on our beach was called, "The Chat and Chill", very appropriately named. It became our favorite hang out for what would be the next six weeks.
At sunset, there is a wonderful tradition by the cruisers, they grab their conch shells as the sun is just setting and blow them as long and hard as they can. The sound is similar to a tuba being blown. See the photo of our friends, Pat and Lucy, from Ontario Canada, onboard Illusions II, blowing their conch shells and Monica in the cockpit of Laissez Faire blowing her conch shell.
conch at sunset