Farmers Cay to Georgetown – 43 nautical miles sailed, 3 miles in dinghy, 2 kilometres walked
As the hazy grey hues of dawn approached, I prepped the boat for our 43 mile sail to Georgetown.
Georgetown, Exuma is the epicentre of the cruiser community in the Bahamas and marks the halfway point of our trip and nearly the furthest south we will travel on our journey (we may venture further to Long Island next week…we’ll see). The arrival in Georgetown will be a special one.
We have been gone from Canada since Sept 28, a total of 116 days. Ana needs to be back for May 1, which is 99 days from now and I will return by June 1 with the boat, in 130 days. Do we feel like we are running out of time? Not at all. We have kept up a decent pace, always moving, deciding on routes day to day, and have seen so many incredible sights, met so many people, covered so many miles, that time has lost most of its regular meaning. We don’t often discuss or even recognize what day it is, it doesn’t matter when we get up or go to bed, and our daily activities happen as they happen and are not scheduled. This has put me in a fantastic mental state as the stress of time management in our regular lives can be punishing and relentless. It’s been a bit different for Ana as she kept her director position with the yacht club and needs to put aside time, usually daily, to work on various things, respond to emails, take calls, and so on. When she decided to continue with that role she thought she would need something to keep her busy during the trip, but it has not turned out that way. This role has been a real pain in the ass for her and has sapped some of her enjoyment of the trip. Not a lot, but definitely some. I think she regrets taking it on, but Ana knows the club needs her and is fiercely dedicated to the things she commits to, and does such an amazing job. But…lesson learned.
Back to the trip. I like to track things and have been noting our daily tallies for sailing miles, walking, paddling, locks, bridges, and even fish caught. At this halfway point, I decided to compile all this data, here are our totals:
Sailing – 2019 nautical miles
Dinghy – 135 nautical miles
Walking – 540 kilometres
Swimming/snorkelling – 1.2 kilometres
Driving – 1153 kilometres
Public transportation – 101 kilometres
Biking – 33 kilometres
Paddleboarding – 11 nautical miles
Number of locks – 32
Number of bridges – 75
Conch caught – 4
Fish caught – 3
Lobsters caught – 2
I don’t know why I do this. I think it’s the inner accountant in me. And I know I have not accurately captured every single mile or kilometre, but I expect it’s very close, and it's nice to have this data as it allows me to do some interesting calculations. For example, for days on land, we average 6.1 kilometres walking, 82 kilometres driving, and 17 kilometres by public transport. For the days we sailed, we average 36.7 nautical miles. And for the passages that involved steel infrastructure, we averaged 4.6 locks and 5.4 bridges per day. We only biked one day and those 34 kilometres were a killer!
Perpetual motion unrestricted by time. For me, this is a recipe for happiness.
We had an easy passage to Georgetown and sailed much of the way with a strong wind on our beam. I fished with our hand line the entire time and did not get a bite, which was made worse by some VHF chatter we heard between boats bragging about the two mahi one of had hooked into and landed one of them. I’ll have to keep trying.
We anchored on the western shore of Stocking Island alongside about 40 other boats then took the dinghy the 1.5 mile ride into Georgetown. There were boats anchored throughout Elizabeth Harbour, I am guessing several hundred, but that did not come as a surprise knowing the reputation of this place.
What did we find on land? We found a much larger town, with two grocery stores, several bars and restaurants, tourist shops, a small straw market, a convenient gas station, lots of vehicles, liquor stores, and all the regular living stuff such as churches, schools, banks, and medical facilities. Despite the preponderance of boats, it did not feel touristy, nor particularly cruisey. It just felt like a larger version of the other small Exuma villages we’d seen. It was nice, but not outstanding. But I know it takes a bit of time to figure these places out, so we’ll be patient as we explore.
We took a long walk around town, looked in the shops, picked up a few groceries, made a donation to some schoolkids doing a fundraiser, then treated the girls to a burger and fries lunch/dinner at the Island Boy Café. We returned to the dinghy (after the girls made a local friend) and got back on the water just as it was getting dark so had to do a bit of guessing as to which of the hundreds of boats was SeaLight but we found her without much trouble.
Young Anna would be turning 19 years old on her first day back in Canada so Ana and Stella got stealthy and had made her a cake during the day and hidden it in the v-berth. They brought it out with 19 flaming candles as we sang Happy Birthday. Anna was very pleased and blew out all the candles except two, and I know that probably means something but I’m not going to speculate.
We have one more full day with Anna then she flies out early Friday afternoon, completing her Caribbean adventure.
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