Good Bye George Town, Heading Back North

Well we have been here in George Town for just over 6 weeks.  We have made this our temporary home and are quite comfortable.  We haven't been too adventurous lately but we are enjoying ourselves.

We still read a lot.  Christine even wrote a 42,000 word book herself and is working on her second book.  I have been practicing the guitar everyday and play Star Craft 2, an online video game at night.

For exercise we have been swimming laps around the boat.  I can't do many but Christine usually does about 25-30 while I lay out on the pink floaty :)

Our nightly routine has been to go to shore and plug in at a picnic table at the local play ground and play online till 2 am.  We our really gonna miss this view.

We finally had our first engine problem in the Bahamas.  In preparation of our departure, I changed our primary fuel filter, secondary fuel filter, oil filter, and both oils.  Of course after this the engine wouldn't start.  I thought it was a battery problem since our batteries are dead.  So we charged up the starter battery with the solar panels and it still wouldn't work.  Luckily while we were at the park another cruiser asked to use our computer and we got to talking about the engine and he offered to come check it out.

He was a cool Frenchmen named Franswa (sorry if its misspelled) aboard French Summer and after an hour of trying we finally got the engine up and running.  In the process we learned how to use the compression levers, ether starting fluid, and to bleed the fuel injectors.  That's the only good thing about a troublesome engine is we always learn something.  It is rarely the same problem twice.

And as a result of this we had our FIRST boat dinner guest!  We invited Franswa over for spaghetti and garlic bread and he brought over a cheese and bread platter that was much better than the main dish.  He has a fridge and water maker so her even brought over cold water!  Yes that is a luxury on Bright Eyes.

We ate and talked into the night and were glad to finally host someone.  It also gave us a reason to clean up the cockpit some which it needed.

Lastly we'ed like to warn anyone against the use of the Bahamas Post Office.  Before we got here in early April my mom sent us an underwater camera via the Post Office.  Some people warned us that it could take 3 months to get here and I didn't believe them.  Well it's been almost 2 months and we can't wait around any longer so hopefully they will return to sender.

We did have success with Christine's e-reader which was sent through DHL to Top to Bottom (a marina store).  It arrived in 5 days.

So we will just buy a disposable underwater camera in Staniel Cay to take Thunderball Grotto pics.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  We haven't done anything too impressive recently.  Here's a cool cloud we saw :)

 But it is time to finally start heading back north towards the US.  We plan to spend June revisiting the Exumas.  Then we will meet my mom in Eleuthera in July.  Then we will visit the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Island on our way back to Florida In August.  So there is still plenty of exploring to do and we are going to try to put our kayaks to use more!

Our Stay At Sandals Emerald Bay

Sometimes you just get lucky.  

While walking around the George Town Regatta we stopped at a Sandals Emerald Bay booth.  Sandals just opened this location a year ago and was providing a station for their guests visiting the Regatta.

Christine just happened to be wearing the sandals necklace that Sandals gave us for returning the 2nd time and being Sandals Select members.  (We honeymooned there in 2008 and vacationed there in 2009 which is what inspired this whole adventure from the beginning)

We talked to the lady running the booth who was a Sandals manager and she noticed Christine's necklace.  She said we were family and needed to come home, that we should come by and she'd let us in.  Our faces lit up and we said we definitely would!

So after the Regatta was over, on Monday, we cabbed it to Sandals Emerald Bay!

Here's a view of Sandals from a hill that the cab driver showed us.

We arrived on location bright and early at 8:30am. 

All Sandals seem to have island cats.  I'd live here too if I was a cat.

We immediately went to the breakfast buffet and dived into all the foods we had been dreaming about since we left Maryland.  Sandals is Heaven!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating, drinking, exploring and having fun.  It was nice to swim in fresh water and to order food without price tags.

Here's the view of the hill the cab driver took us to from the bottom

We felt only slightly out of place since most couples there were staying for the week.  And as we met people the first questions asked are where and you from and how long are you staying?  Christine and I would look at each other and slowly bumble into how we are actually living on a boat down the water and are just staying the day.

The couples were always surprised and began asking questions which we got pretty good at answering.  One of the Sandals excursions was to visit Thunderball Grotto and the Pigs so we told everyone to go see them.

After five more meals and a beach party we didn't want to leave.  So we decided we would just drink at the bar till the 2am close and figure out the sleeping thing later, maybe pull an all nighter.  We ended up meeting a really nice couple our age from Indiana on their honeymoon, Nate and Casey, and drank with them all night till the bar closed.  Then they brought down their room drinks and we had a late night pool party.

When it came time to say goodnight they invited us to spend the night in their living room.  We felt bad intruding but they insisted and it at least solved our sleeping dilemma.  Our sleeping quarters were separate from theirs and we moved to the pool at the crack of dawn but that was really swell of them!

Needless to say we missed breakfast but got two lunches before finally calling the cab to take us home.  The manager who invited us saw us the next morning and we were a little embarrassed extending our stay but she didn't mind.  Christine just told her we had so much fun that we missed our ride last night.

Here is our annual leaving Sandals waiting in the lobby pic.

If you have never been to Sandals we recommend you go to their website and book a vacation right now!  It is the greatest place on earth!!!  All inclusive.  Buffets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Fine Dining, all cuisines.  Pools, hot tubs, the beach, excursions.  Normal bars and pool bars.  And they treat you like royalty. Just show up and have as much fun as possible!  

We love Sandals!

Our End Destination: George Town

We arrived in George Town a week before the Bahamas Family Island Regatta which gave us time to get used to the busy city.

George Town is the destination of a lot of seasonal cruisers.  They all know each other and come back year after year.  The local dinghy dock is basically a parking lot.

We also met up with a lot of cruisers we have met along our journey.  Joseph and Ruth and their dog Kiwi were familiar faces.  We first met Joseph when we ran aground together outside of Fernandina Beach, FL.  We then saw him again in Miami, Nassau, and Staniel Cay.  Kiwi and Nala finally got to meet as well.

We finally met up with another blogger Matt and Kristie aboard Kaleo, http://www.svkaleo.com/

We got to see our cruising expert friends George and Janice aboard Calamus.  And we saw Celtic Rover who we got snowed in with back in North Carolina!  It was a fun reunion to enjoy the wonderful town with fellow cruisers.  We also made some new friends Art and Brenda aboard Zippidy Doo Daa, and Shawn aboard Manna.  Shawn hailed looking for guitar strings which I had extra of and he gave me an electric tuner in exchange!

We have a reasonably priced grocery store here.  New shops and restaurants to hang out at and we do plenty of relaxing.  We have been reading almost full time.  Christine must have passed the 100 book mark since we left and I just finished the whole bible. Sadly Christine's Nook broke so she has to have a cheapo version sent here. Cheapo version because import duty is 40%.

We love finding small empty beaches to call our own.

George Town island cat

We learned a new form of music, Rake n Scrape!  It involves using a broom with a string attached as the bass and a saw to make the scraping noise.  They get down!

The regatta was a big festival and everyone was partying!

We got to try essential island dishes like Sheep Tongue Souse (soup)

But the most important part of the regatta was the races!  They have three classes, C (17ft), B (21ft), and A (28ft).  The A class boats win a big prize and are eternalized among the greats.  This is the 58th annual regatta. Some boats have won multiply years and are fan favorites.

We walked down to the docks and met with a C class skipper.  Mr Moxey here just built this boat (Revelation 3:19) and was racing it for the first time.  We cheered for him out there but he came in last :(

We could see the races from our boat and at some points the boats would sail through our anchorage, right by our boat!  During the course the boats have to tack upwind, then sail fast across the wind, and lastly sail down wind.  They do three laps.  Some of the races were boring because one boat took a quick lead and held it, while other races were really exciting with boats passing each other, colliding, and even some fighting photo finishes at the end.

Although we could see the races from our boat we liked to watch them from the local "wall" which was where all the locals watched and it got real wild with shouting and cheering.  There were 13 races including a kids race.

My favorite and a local favorite was Red Stripe.  They won the first race and third in the second race.  The third race tonight will decide the over all winner. GO Red Stripe!

Update: Tida Wave won the 2nd and 3rd races and took the overall crown for a record 15 times over 58 years.  That is one fast boat!

Heres Red Stripe, maybe next year.

Today is the last day of the regatta and we are gonna watch some local competitions including onion peeling, conch cracking and greasy pole climbing!

The finale was a high school marching band and then the Police Force marching band.  They were both very good and entertaining

Bimini, The Gateway to the Bahamas

We hopped off the boat Tuesday afternoon and immediately began exploring!  So much has happened in such a short period of time and our fun has just began.  Enjoy the pictures

The main drag, King Hwy.  They drive on the left here.

Bahama Nala! sike the dock we were at had two cats that looked just like Nala

 The famous Dolphin House.  The entire house was built by hand with beach finds like coral, conch shells, glass, tile, and other trinkets.  All stuck together with hand mixed cement.  It was quite impressive.

The Bimini 24 hour library.  Christine felt right at home

The water here is exactly as we imagined it, post card worthy!

These guys took a wrong turn.  This ship has been here for a hundred years

It took awhile to get this wave crashing pic

A Conch Garden

We went to the sand bars at low tide to look for conch

The first day we only found huge hermit crabs hiding in conch shells.

And a scary Sea Urchin

The second day we went to a better spot and caught our first live conch!  MMM lunch!

We also found this really big star fish. It was way cool!

We took our catch to the local hangout where they showed us how to get the conch out, skin it, and cook it.  They were all impressed with how pretty ours was.  It was almost too pretty to eat, almost.

We ate some of it raw and grilled the rest.  It was delicious and we can't wait to find more. 

We found this Eagle Ray at night, you gotta watch out cuz they will sting you!

The girl cat looked like Nala and the boy cat looked like an Avatar

Along one of the beaches we found some sea glass.  It was fun looking for different colors and nicely rounded pieces so we are gonna get a big collection and then make something out of it.  We found some tiles too and took them to the Dolphin House.

FYI: No Pot Smoking

One of the coolest things about Bimini is that we were docked right next to Janice and George.  Janice is the editor of the Doziers Bahamas Guide which we and most all cruisers use!  They have been cruising for 45 years and were a wealth of knowledge and a lot of fun.  Janice was kind enough to sign our cruising guide and George has been stung by a stingray three times which has temporarily scared fearless Christine out of the water.

Since we got here the winds have been around 20 knots and pinning our boat against the dock.  So we stayed at the marina an extra night.  The winds never let up but we were done paying for dockage so we left North Bimini and anchored in South Bimini.  We will see how good our trusty anchor is in these winds. It has never dragged before though.