Georgetown, Exumas

Hi All-

We are now in Georgetown!  Actually it's Elizabeth Harbour, also known as Chicken Harbour. It is known as Chicken Harbour because many cruisers with big plans to sail to the Caribbean get this far and then chicken out. Part of the reason many go no further is there are some long and sometimes rough passages from here to the Dominican Republic and then on to Puerto Rico. The other reason is because every year there are a lot of cruisers that come here with no intention of going any farther.  They come here year after year to see all their friends and hang out.

This week is Regatta Week and it's the highlight of the season here. Besides races for all shapes and sizes of sailboats there are races for dinghies, kayaks and paddle boards. There are also volleyball tournaments, bocce ball tournaments, yoga on the beach every morning, basket weaving classes, talks on just about any topic and all with some of the most beautiful water and white sand beaches anywhere. On the "net" every morning they go over the activities scheduled for the day and lots of other useful stuff. Yesterday someone did a census, 310 boats are anchored in the harbour. That's down from 370 last year.

We got here on Saturday and anchored close to Andrew and Sharon on Z-Raye. They showed us around the various places and we've done several hikes with them. Monday was the day for the regatta around the harbour. Z-Raye joined us on Good Morning Vietnam as we were anchored a bit closer to the course than they were. We had a great afternoon and even occasionally watched the race. We did keep our eyes on our mutual friends on Tumultuous Uproar, Russ and Lisa. They have done a fair bit of racing and showed their expertise by not only coming in first in their class but first overall.

Russ invited the four of us to race with them the next day in the race around the island (Stocking Island) but we were all a bit "exhausted" from our vigorous "cheering" for them on Monday. Needing a bit of a "health day" as Sharon calls it, the four of us hiked up to the monument to Christopher Columbus and watched some of the race from the top of the island. We also had a picnic lunch and a great stroll on the beach.

Wednesday night was the awards ceremony for both the harbour and around the island races. We cheered for Tumultuous Uproar when they received their prizes for coming in first in the harbour race (two bottles of rum) and second in the around the island race (two bottles of wine).  Every time we think we can't possibly have any more fun, we outdo ourselves. We did last night. Thanks Lisa for sharing your prizes with your cheering section.

Today has been a quiet day where we went into town to get fuel and groceries. Tonight Susan is fixing dinner for Z-Raye as they are leaving for three weeks back in the US tomorrow. We are really going to miss them. The good news is we know we'll see them again in the coming months.

That's it for now, I'll post some more pictures as soon as I can.

Take care.
Brian