While we often hitch a ride with our friend Cort for errands, propane refill & lunch at one of the nicer restaurants north of George Town up near the Sandals Resort, we had yet to bug him sufficiently to head south. Santanna’s, we heard, was a “real” beach bar.  Johnny Depp ate there while filming one of the Pirates Movies … maybe.

Our friends Mike & Ann on Traveling Soul graciously asked us if we wanted to join them in their rental car driving south – Of course!

Bet you didn’t know that the Bahamas is the secret testing grounds for self driving cars!

So off we went.  Santannas’s was indeed a treat.  Great food & a fantastic beach view.  As with much of the Exumas, the seafood is mostly fried but they did a great job preparing fresh grouper & lobster.

Ladling rum over our rum cake!

The “real” reason to visit the “real” beach bar was to visit the only “real” bakery on Great Exuma (actually Little Exuma), Mom’s Bakery!  For many years Mom had loaded up her van with goodies & would drive to George Town, parking under the same shade tree for the cruisers to stop by.  Unfortunately, she became ill & stopped the year before we started cruising.  Her daughter(?) kept the bakery going, but didn’t continue the Mom’s van tradition.  Mom’s Bakery is still in business & conveniently located right next to Santanna’s.

Mike & Ann playing tourists

Onward to several other points of interest, we stopped at the Tropic of Cancer Beach, where the Tropic of Cancer crosses Great Exuma.  On our prior sail catamaran we sailed south of this “most northerly circle of latitude at which the sun can be directly overhead”.

Next stop was the “famous” Salt Beacon.  This Roman Tuscan Column was erected during the vibrant salt trade in the 1600’s to guide ships from various parts of the world to anchor & load up with salt.  Actually, the Spanish arrived even further back, in the 1500’s to establish a salt colony.  The topography was perfect as many Bahamian islands had huge, natural “ponds” near sea level which would flood & drain every tide cycle.  Back then salt was good – not bad – as it was the most reliable way to preserve food.  It was so valuable that departing ships would be escorted by gun ships to protect their cargo from those nasty pirates hangin’ about.  If you look very carefully at the photo of the old salt flats, you can make out faint lines in the water – those are the remnants of the walls between the rows of the old salt flats.  It was quite the process to dry & rake & dry & rake again & process the drying salt.

That “growth” on the roof is a termite mound.

Lastly, we stopped at a “Bahamas Heritage Site” – we think – no signs or preservation.  This was an old plantation of Loyalists.  After the American Revolution, Loyalists (faithful to the British Crown) weren’t too popular back in the new United States of America so many went into exile in the Bahamas, where the Crown granted them land (England owned the Bahamas back then).  Among them were some wealthy plantation owners who escaped to the Bahamas bringing their slaves.  They foolishly thought they could continue on, growing cotton in a new world.  Unfortunately, the soil sucked & while some tried other farming, nothing was very successful.  Eventually the owners gave up & their land was divided up & deeded to their former slaves, however they had no sailing sloops to provision in Nassau (as their plantation owners had done) or money to pay for supplies even if they could.  It must have been a tough existence until sponging, working the salt flats, fishing & other endeavors allowed them to push towards their future.

We’re finally leaving George Town, Great Exuma, heading toward Eleuthera.

We’re often hidden away in Red Shanks, Rolle Cay, The Litter Box or off Crab Cay

Still hangin’ out in George Town, doin’ the George Town Shuffle, as it’s called.  Elizabeth Harbour is large – about 1 mile wide by over 5 miles long.  Who the heck decided that this was the ideal spot for hundreds of boats at anchor out in for weeks, with cold fronts, squalls & generally breezy weather? As the wind builds and/or clocks around, many boats shuffle about the harbour looking for protection, while some don’t want to give up “their spot” so they just stay & take it.  Of course, high winds or squalls cause boats to drag anchor, which only adds to the fun!

For a few mild days we had a great spot up very close to Monument Beach in shallow water, no one in front of us, with the 40 or so other boats well-spaced on each side & behind us.  Another boat even stopped over in their dinghy & joked that we were the envy of the anchorage with such a great spot.  That soon changed!  This 50′ sailing cat anchored very close to the beach, off our forward bow – not great, but clear of us.  20 minutes later they suddenly began dragging about 75′ to alongside of us.  We yelled over “You’re dragging!”  The captain stuck his head up & said “Don’t worry – I didn’t set my anchor – it will set itself”.  WONDERFUL!  While his anchor did seem to have now caught, we’re both swinging at different intervals & sometimes only 15′ apart.  Twice I told him (no need to yell anymore) “I don’t think this is going to work”.  Finally after a few close swings he agreed & retrieved his anchor – Yeah!!  Wait … what … now he’s re-anchoring about 75′ directly in front of us!  Oh yeah, the guy who thinks it’s fine to let his anchor drag to “set itself”!  With the wind remaining in the same direction & increasing during the night, we gave up & just moved.

Our next anchorage: That little speck in the middle is us.  In a harbour of 300+ boats, we found a spot with no other boats for 1/2 mile – probably because this entire side of Crab Cay is very shallow.  We draw 34″ & our rudder was brushing & smoothing off the nice, sandy bottom at low tide.

In between shuffling around the harbour & waiting for winds to lie down, we’ve been enjoying friends, happy hours, lunches, dinners, paddleboarding, kayaking & some of the annual Cruising Regatta activities on the calmer days.  This year, we joined our friends Chris & Erin on the Poker Run.  Poker Runs are often high-speed boats racing around to collect cards at different stops.  As Erin pointed out, this is more of a pub crawl – we just dinghy around the harbour stopping off at different restaurants & beach bars, picking up a card at each venue.  The winning poker hand wins a bottle of rum.  We didn’t win, but had a fun time!

Our time here is coming to an end.  We’ll be soon looking for a weather window to slowly begin our trek north once again.