Hard to believe a month has already gone by! The weather has been mostly good, with the usual weekly cold fronts having us do the “George Town Shuffle”, with many boats moving to a better/different anchorage for protection from the upcoming high wind direction(s). We’re taking it a bit careful & easy this year, but have enjoyed getting together with several friends, both fellow cruisers & past cruisers with nearby land dwellings.

While it hasn’t always been this calm during our weeks here, we enjoy it when it is!

The Find Your Anchor Game – on wind-less mornings, you might drift next to your anchor.  The arrow is showing all your can see of our anchor shank – it’s well dug in! Does this photo look fuzzy? Well, not when you consider you’re looking down 11ft.

Many beautiful & interesting sunsets

Lots of partial rainbows as showers pass nearby. Not only is this the end of a double rainbow, it was so intense it seemed as though the trees might ignite!

One of the paths from the harbor to the ocean beach is called “The Art Trail”. People (especially kids) take beach trash & get creative.

One of our anchorage spots in Red Shanks has several sunken boats, as boats are left semi-abandoned over the summer & don’t always make it. This 35′ sailboat had been almost completely below the surface for many years. It took 2 days of difficult work using air bags to first get some lift, then attempt to get straps around it, break it free from the bottom & de-water it – finally towing it away.

Speaking of wrecks, this trimaran was found offshore & towed here, after crossing the Atlantic – upside-down! This Groupe Drekan 50′ trimaran capsized off Portugal during a transatlantic race in 2017 & 2 years later drifted to off the Bahamas. Last we heard (2 years ago), the French owners were hoping to raise $50,000 to have transported by ship back to Europe for “repairs”…

Bread products (especially this year), are difficult to obtain so we’ve added naan bread to our do-it-all-yourself list. Surprising simple – thanks Benj for your recipe!

It is often joked that the definition of cruising is “making repairs in exotic places”. Fortunately our repairs are usually minor, such as this “spun prop” on our dinghy outboard. Since a replacement prop would be nearly impossible to obtain here, I found this quick fix on-line.

Lori’s been busy! Just a sampling of her pieces since early December.

Hey everyone- Lori here!! Been a LONG time and figured I needed to toss my two cents in at some point. Music- we have a limited selection and whenever we come across new songs that we love enough to download it’s a big deal.

Lately Twin Sisters is listening to: “Everyone’s Talking”, by Izzy Bradburn (available on iTunes, etc) – I know we might be prejudiced on this one. 🙂

“The Whole of the Moon” by the Waterboys (popularized by the Netflix series, “The Affair”).

“Abby” by Travis Denning  – (you know, Any Body But You) 🙂

We’ll be here for roughly 3 more weeks, before very slowly heading back north through the Bahamas.

We have been extremely lucky this year with fantastic, calm weather for every one of our several 60+ mile “offshore” legs from Florida.  Our last leg from Musha Cay (mid-Exuma) down to George Town (southern Exuma on Great Exuma) was no exception.  We even hooked 3 fish trolling along the way.  A barracuda (threw it back), a ??? (chomped off half of my lure) & … a small yellowfin tuna!

While we knew it was some kind of tuna, a quick text & photo to Ron on powercat Fruition (we had just passed them 1/2 hour before) confirmed it was a small, prize yellowfin tuna – “bleed the hell out of it & cut it like a gold” was his sage advise!

“Fillet like gold” made me even more anxious, but with my iPad propped up with a “how-to” diagram, I managed enough for 4 generous dinners.  2 nights were variations of ceviche.

2 nights we seared our catch on the grill.  We were lucky the ship had just arrived with fresh food, so the market even had asparagus & avocados – Lori could really “kick it up”!  I’m not usually much of a “raw” fish guy, but WOW was it great! Between it’s small size & the freshness – we’ll never experience this again.  When you order yellowfin tuna in a restaurant (often called “ahi”) it is often from 200 – 400 pounders caught thousands of miles away.

Always interesting cloud shapes over Elizabeth Harbour

Our first few days remained beautiful & calm

It’s not all paradise – laundry day aboard Twin Sisters. We do it all ourselves – even make our own water with our RO watermaker powered by our solar panels.

The depths shown are in meters

We will remain here in George Town for January & February, alternating between anchoring spots, depending on the winds.  While our first few days were calm, more traditional “winter” weather has since arrived with days of winds 15 – 25 knots, followed by a calm day or two, repeat.  The desolation of our beautiful anchorage spot with no other boats close by, unfortunately, will be short-lived.  This small spot is great for us with only 4′ depth at low tide, a 3′ depth approach & surrounded by a small island & shallow sandbars.  For many years, a sailing cat named Little Sister would hang out in this spot, but they have moved onto the Caribbean, so Twin Sisters will enjoy it as long as possible!  Most years, over 400 boats will crowd into the harbor complete with anchoring too close, dragging anchors, noisy generators & whining wind generators.  So … this is bliss!

Along with the rest of the world, we’re keeping a close eye on COVID, but we’re never indoors except for the grocery store (where we wear our KN95 masks).  We’re glad we crossed to the Bahamas when we did, as travel & testing requirements have since become more stringent.  Hopefully the authorities won’t need to institute mandatory curfews & other restrictions, as they did last year.