Endless Summer

After spending around a month in Georgetown it was time to move on. Georgetown is a nice place for services and what ever you need, but way to many boats for us. The weather has been great as it is always sunny and I believe we had one day of rain for a few hours during our stay there. Do not get me wrong if you like structured events and certain times to do things then Georgetown is your place to be. They have crafts , volleyball, different seminars on cruising topics, and poker ect. On one of the morning vhf Georgetown nets it was talking about the poker night prior and it sounded like it got rather heated. It would have been just as fun to set and drink beer and watch the adults piss and moan because they could not get in to play poker. But it is way to structured for us. Last count we heard was over 350 boats in the harbor. While Jeannie was gone back to the states I had no trouble staying busy. Georgetown is like the catch all. It where everyone you have met along the way seems to end up. Jeannie arrived back on the 15 of February and was glad to be back in the warmth and sun. I think she finally figured out that the snow is not in her vocabulary. As getting snowed in a few times and the cars stuck while at home was not fun. During Jeannie’s time away I had dinner with Lori and Clint on Escort a few times along with a few on Polar Pacer. Just about everyday I was out snorkeling trying to hone my spearing skills to provide us with a few seafood dinners. A lot of time was spent with Steve and on Hey Jude and Clint and Lori on Escort out in the Sound of the Exumas as that is where the fish and lobster hang out. My trouble is that not knowing what to eat as I am at a point I do not shoot unless I plan on eating the fish. But shooting and hitting the fish is a skill also. So now that is a double whammy on my half. Well thankfully we have met up with Sapphire and Barry on Night Hawk. Between these 2 guys the have taught me some of the in and out of spearing. One of the first was I was passing up way to many fish that were great eating. So getting that down pat now we are having some fish for dinners. Lobster, well that is a different story. They hide out in totally different places then fish as one needs to think like a lobster and where would you want to hide. Down under the ledges and under the rocks down deeper. With that down now I working on honing those skills as well. I can say now that we have had 5 lobsters but a couple were on the small side. Fish, well they are easier to get at times. But you can tell the ones that have been shot at before. They are more elusive and harder to get.

Getting out of Georgetown was nice as getting over to Long Island was like leaving a huge city of people and moving to the country. They have about the same number of stores and as well stocked as Georgetown does. But way less people and boats. We counted 34 one day and that was the high that we have seen so far. Local people here are very friendly and always glad to speak to you or to help you in any way they can. Long Island Breeze is a local resort that caters to the cruisers as Mike and Jackie are a couple that run it and Mike does a morning net on the vhf radio at 8:30 to give you some news, weather and local info. Long Island will be our furthest point south that we will go as we wanted to actually get in the tropics to say we had Mutual Fun in the tropics. Some of our days include long walks out on the beaches on the Atlantic side of the island looking at all the trash and finding what one might be able to use. Then snorkeling at low tide amongst the coral heads and elk coral searching for food and fish searching for us, Sharks yep we’ve see them off and on while snorkeling. 2 of the days on Long Island we took and shared a rental car with Rhapsody which is also a Catalina 36. Skip and Carol had already been at Long Island once before this year so they were our tour guides and all of us had so much fun. The first day we toured the southern end of Long Island down all the way to Clarence town. There we toured one of the older churches which up in the one of the towers it gave us a remarkable view of the area. One of our stops was to Max’s conch bar which is a road side bar and was very cool and great people there. Day 2 of the car rental we went to the north end of Long Island and walked up to a monument the that talked about Columbus landing on the north side of Long Island. What a view that was as well. The road getting their was not what we all call a road. But we made it thanks to Skips great driving.On the way we dropped our laundry off to be done which was new to us but would do it again. One of the places that we went to we passed a house that Skip and Carol had met the couple from the states that own it so we had to stop by. After an hour meeting Bernie & Karen and getting a tour of their place. What is interesting is to see how they grow their own produce. It is what is called pot hole gardening. They make a hole in the coral then fill the holes with soil and plant their plants. After seeing them we were off exploring once again. Going about a half mile we went to a vacant home that Carol had been to which gave us beach access where we had lunch. Just down the beach from where we were was the home where Elizabeth Taylor and Senator John Warner got married at. Then on the way back we had to stop at Stella Maris Inn for a bite to eat and a few drinks. Once again we meet a couple from Margareta and their friends from the Island. Penny was a local and loved her wine, Jeannie got along well with her especially she loved her top she had on. It said O to naked in 1 ½ bottles. Penny lives in a home that over looks Thompson Bay and will often hale cruising boats in the bay just to meet them. After we leave Long Island we are not sure what way we will start our journey back to Florida but we will be in the Abaco’s sometime in early April as we have some friends that we are wanting to meet up with that we came down the ICW with last fall. Weather plays an important part in our plans as we have we have learned more about the fronts and when to move and when to sit. We usually try and look out at a 3 day weather window as that gives us enough time to run and hide if we need to. I will say we have been very luck in our weather so far as not have one of those oh god days. One thing we both have learned is not to be in a hurry and there is always tomorrow.
NOTE due to band with we can not download pictures at this time, We will update this part when we have better wifi.