As the winds die down next week, we will depart George Town to cruise north thru the Exuma chain of islands, then stay in Spanish Wells for about a month. We will miss our friends & the beautiful blue water, but not the “George Town Shuffle”. Every 5 – 8 days, approaching cold fronts cause the easterly trade winds to clock around to the south, then west (usually in the 30’s & sometimes gusting to the 40’s) before north & back to the east. Hiding has become more difficult as the best protected anchoring areas have been closed off – now declared a protected park with just some moorings in one limited area instead. Recently, the count of cruising boats just passed 300 (yes, there is an organized count once a week) – confirming it’s time to leave!

The left photo shows a cold front’s approach when most boats (purple squares) scatter all over. The right photo shows most boats back “to normal”. Lots of boats? There are actually more than twice this many, as these represent only boats who continuously transmit an AIS signal. The yellow arrow on the right indicates our favorite semi-private, semi-protected spot with less than 4′ of depth & only 3′ on approach at low tide. Nice when we can snag it first after returning from a strong cold front (W – NW winds bring in waves, so we also have to “shuffle” off elsewhere, usually to the “Litterbox” – a shallow area with only depth enough for cats – get it?).

Looking out to 1′ – 2′ waves out in the main harbor during an average cold front. The next cold front brought 2′ – 3′ waves with many boats dragging anchor, snapping their anchor bridles & even one of the new, “secure” moorings breaking free.

To make things more interesting, one night there was a geomagnetic storm which interfered with GPS signals we depend on for navigation, including anchor drag apps (this shows our track while anchored & you set the circular zone you expect to stay within). Our anchor drag siren blasted away & showed us slowly dragging anchor out of our set zone. Engines started, spotlights out we noticed the fish trap float 30′ behind … was still 30′ behind us. Plus knowing our anchor was completely buried in good sand, we quickly knew this was a false alarm. Back to bed, but checking later, noticed that we magically “un-drug” an hour later, back into our circle. (Lori says- that drag alarm siren is damn heart pounding & why always at night?) Many other boats experienced similar anomalies such as dragging forward or moving around in circles.

We enjoyed many brilliant rainbows as light showers occasionally passed by offshore.

The combination of light winds & a full moon was a special treat.

While the bottom under our boat seemed to be just flat sand, our underwater lights show much more detail at night. Some sort of creatures build underwater ant-hill looking things.

In our 12 years in George Town, we’ve seen many changes. Never were there large yachts like this! This yacht, Voyager, is 300′ long & that strange extension is actually part of the ship (shown better in the insert). A week later, there were 3 more smaller yachts lined up, “only” 120′ – 220′ long.

Lots of fun times at Corts “camp house” he built on Stocking Island, with some of the motley crew.

Delicious coconut tart ordered from the in-town hair salon where we also buy our lobsters (of course!).

Finally! There is now a bakery (within walking distance) with various breads, pastries & yes, donuts!

We almost left the harbor on Friday the 13th, but it didn’t seem prudent & we were able to catch the annual “Rooftop Concert” the following day with fellow cruisers as the performers.

This year’s regatta t-shirt

As we depart, the 44th Annual Cruising Regatta is about to get underway. It’s 2 weeks full of various activities from volleyball to a dinghy poker run to bocce ball to a talent show to sailboat racing. In addition to fun for the cruisers, over $16,000 is raised for the local schools & organizations.

While we sadly don’t plan on cruising down to George Town again (for various reasons), it’s been a great 12 visits over 16 years with lots of great memories!

Our 12-hour weather window from Port Lucaya to Spanish Wells held & we made the 128 miles in 11 hours (noon – 11 PM). While we try to avoid nighttime cruising, you have to take the calmer weather when you can. Unfortunately, there was no moon up that night, so we had little visibility for our last 5 hours, other than radar & AIS (Automatic Identification System) – both which display vessels & ships on our chartplotter screen (around 2/3 of vessels transmit an AIS signal). Fortunately, the only vessels out there were a few cargo ships & a few cruise ships – neither you can miss.

The sun setting behind us as we motor between Grand Bahama & Eleuthera – not rough, but not dead calm either.

While it hadn’t been our original plan, we decided Spanish Wells would be a good place to enjoy Christmas – and it was! Their grocery store was well stocked (plus they nicely allow locals to sell homemade breads & treats right in the bread aisle), they held a decorated golf cart parade & even fireworks. This is “our” just finished, extended private dock in Spanish Wells where we will return for the month of March.

This little Christmas tree has traveled with us thousands of miles. The angel on top we bought for our very first Christmas tree many years ago while first dating & she has adorned early 6′ trees, our 10′ – 12′ trees during our years in CT & now this little 2′ tree on our 3 boats & 1 RV. Lori baked up some delicious coconut macaroons.

Our Christmas Babkas, a tradition carried on from Lori’s Dad.

After Christmas, the weather settled out nicely so we could begin our trek further south down the Exuma chain. We love when the wind stops & the water is so crystal clear. HEY MISTER ANCHOR (circled with the chain to the right) – aren’t you supposed to be out in front of the boat holding us in place, not hanging out next to us?

We snuck up on this ray in our dinghy, who took off when he spotted us.

It appears as though this shark scared me so much I blasted out of the water, up onto our sugar scoop! Actually, it’s not unusual to spot them following me, but I keep telling myself they’re more afraid of me than I am of them … or is that snakes? Even though the Bahamas is loaded with 40 different species of sharks, attacks on humans are fairly rare (the Tourist Board says 🙂 )…

Sunset behind us anchored off Rolle Cay, George Town, Exuma.

The big talk this year is of the Bahamas’ increase in cruising fees, along with new anchoring & fishing fees, adding to last year’s new fees for extending immigration. Just 10 years ago, it cost us $150 in fees for our 4 months. Now the same time 4 months (if initially granted only a 90-day visa & wanting to fish while here) would total 10x = $1,500! While this will likely accelerate the wind-down of our Bahamas years, it will be devastating for most of the islands, especially the smaller “Family Islands” who depend on both the short-term boats from Florida & cruisers such as us staying, eating & spending for several months. Marinas are reporting their bookings cut by more than half & one restaurant owner in Exuma sadly asked us “where are all of the boats?”. While we spend a few thousand in the Family Islands over 4 months, the much bigger loss will be the FL boats who used to blast over, spending thousands over their few days.

The government is pledging to re-assess the fees for next year, but they had originally planned on even higher fees before dropping them down to these current ones. Of course, fees are just a piece of the high costs, with most goods, food & fuel costing an extra 40% to double U.S. prices, plus a 10% VAT.

We will be bouncing around the George Town area for the next 6 weeks, catching up with cruising friends, especially Cort who bought land on Stocking Island & built a simple “camp house” several years ago. Even if we return to the Bahamas for another year or two, this will sadly be our last time down to George Town.

Anchoring is now prohibited in our favorite protected areas, so bouncing is indeed what we do on 5 out of 7 days as we are stuck anchoring with little wave protection in the large 1 mile x 5 mile harbor during the “George Town Shuffle” moving about with the wind directions as cold fronts move thru. We skipped coming here last year due to this but will make the best of our final year in George Town!