Hope's and Howard's Sailing Adventures

After the initial bit of excitement, the remainder of our trip to George Town was straightforward. There was a beautiful full moon all night long that illuminated the sail and clouds, almost as if it were daylight. I even thought about checking to see if the solar panels were generating any amps…. but of course that would be expecting a bit too much. We ended up keeping the engine on for almost the whole trip, motor-sailing with the full main. We wanted to be sure we made it into George Town in good time but there just wasn’t enough weight to the wind to give us the speed we needed without a bit of help from the old ‘iron sail’. Our average speed for the whole 28-hour trip was 6.7 knots which is certainly one of our faster passages but also perhaps the longest time we have used the engine in one session. Apart from the initial thunderstorm off Mayaguana, we had good weather all the way and had good overhead sunlight during our midday final approach to George Town, which involved closely following the GPS track and keeping a sharp lookout for signs of coral heads or other potential hazards. After we had secured the boat, we set off in the dinghy to clear in with the officials. Clouds had rolled in and even though we wore our waterproof jackets, we were drenched by the time we got there. I was happy not to be still on our passage.

George Town is a popular place amongst cruisers in these parts but fortunately we have missed the busy season as most of the ‘snow birds’ have left already. I can see why it is popular; people are very friendly, there are lots of relatively protected anchorage options and some exceedingly good, secure anchorages. We are on a mooring in Gaviota Bay off Stocking Island, about a mile across Elizabeth Harbour from George Town, Great Exuma Island. Gaviota Bay is considered to be a hurricane hole as it is protected from winds from all directions inside the bay; our mooring is on the outer edge so would be exposed to winds from the S-W. Off Gaviota Bay, there are three even more protected hurricane holes, one of which is suitable only for very shallow draft boats. Having listened to the forecast this morning, it seems the chances of a tropical low forming are diminishing so we feel quite comfortable staying here. The weather is still somewhat unsettled, cloudy and rainy but the squalls have not been too severe today. We had a very pleasant walk on Stocking Island this afternoon, along the long fine sandy beach on the north-eastern side of the island.

Not sure what our plans are next; a lot depends on the forecast in the morning. It looks like Saturday may be a bit more unsettled but by Sunday it should settle down to sunny weather with the Easterly trade winds resuming. So, we may try moving further in Exuma Sound towards Royal Island off the N-W end of Eluthera Is…. watch this space.