George Town

Tonight we are anchored off of George Town, on Exuma Island. We arrived here about a week ago. We sailed down from a place called Cave Cay. We expected to have head winds against us which would have made us motor all day to make the 40 or so miles south from Cave Cay to George Town. We had squalls and heavy rains all the way down off and on, which we used to sail very fast. We were surprised we got to sail but the price we paid was we got really wet. The up side to that all of the salt got washed off of the boat!


George Town is a really big harbor. There are around 300 other boats here!! Some we have met along the way as far up north as the Chesapeake, and some are new to us. It's also very organized, as many of these cruisers have been here dozens of times. They have organized sports, games, bridge, exercise etc.... It's like a RV park for boats. Some of the folks here come all the way here from the north, stay till April, and head up again...every year! Like a migration.

They also have great stores here with plenty of food, produce and other things we need. Chennie and I walked about 5 miles round trip to the NAPA Auto parts store, where we actually found the correct fuel filters for our generator. Everyone told us it was too far to walk, and it was too hot, so we did it anyway. On the way back we picked up some coconuts, which we plan to crack open on the beach tomorrow.

Preston at the "Chat n Chill" beach, chatting with Dave off of "Puff". They also have a 37' Tartan!

Chennie and I have found that we are happiest when we are either getting ready to go to the next destination, or actually sailing off toward new horizons. Whenever we leave a place we are excited and always glad to be on the move again. We could never come down here and park for months on end. We really like it when we sail a long distance to a new island, drop the anchor and have a new place to explore. Once the exploring is done and the chores are complete, we are ready to go again. I just finished a great book about Captain Cook my sister Lesley gave me about 6 years ago. I think Captain Cook and I had a few things in common. He was never happy unless he was exploring!




We plan to leave George Town in the next week or so for Cat Island, about 40 miles northeast of here. From there, we'll head over to the south of Eleuthera, which is another 45 miles to visit our friends Buddy and Abbie at Princess Cays. After that we'll explore Eleuthera, then further north to the Abacos Islands. If you want know where all of these places are, just Google them, and also switch to Google Images for some pictures! We put a map at the top of the page, which if you click on it will enlarge. If you do that you can see where we plan to sail in the coming months.



The sun is setting, so until we get to Eleuthera....



Preston and Chennie

aboard Wy' East in George Town

23.500 N Lat

75.447 E Lon

Black Point & Farmer's Cay

After a week in Staniel Cay we decided to sail south a whooping 10 miles to Black Point. We heard they had a great laundromat there, and since we had not done laundry in about 3 weeks we really had to stop!!

When we left Staniel Cay I (Chennie) took the helm and sailed the boat right into the harbor. I'm starting to really get the feel of the boat and enjoying sailing her.

At Black Point we discovered a very nice small community. A school, grocery store, Loranies Cafe that had the most incredible fresh cocanut bread. We could of ate the whole loaf in one sitting! I made french toast with the coconut bread, and it was really good!! Preston enjoyed inspecting the wooden boat building going on near the main street of town.

We stayed in Black Point for a few days, then moved down further south to Farmers Cay for the 22nd annual 5 f's festival. They had a regatta (race) of small boats built by the local island's residents, lots of food booths, contests, and reggae music going really really loud. The racing boats were pretty interesting. They put 2x10 pieces of wood sticking out from the sides, and the crew climbs out when they are sailing to keep the boats from turning over when the wind is in the sail as they have no ballast. While we were in Farmers Cay we met a really nice couple from North Carolina on a sport fishing boat. They gave us a whole side of a 4' Mahi Mahi when Preston helped clean and fillet the fish! It was great, and we still have most of it in our freezer.

Preston entered the "best legs" contest, and lost, but he came home a winner since I was voted 2008 Princess of the Exumas in a wet T-Shirt Contest! It was pretty tame really. I won a new T-Shirt, a bottle of dark rum, and a red sash. When the festival was over we decided to sail back north to Staniel Cay so Preston could call his dad on his Birthday, and for the Super Bowl since they had a TV there. We had a great sail. The wind was from behind us and we just enjoyed the day sailing along at 6 knots with no engine running. All we could hear was the gurgle of the water past the hull. It was the best 15 miles we have sailed since we left NY. And I might add the water is like sailing in a swimming pool!! 12 feet deep with white sand on the bottom, and clear as a bell.

From here we are heading south to George Town about 4o miles away. There are hundreds of other boats there, and we'll catch up with friends we've met along the way for a couple of weeks.

Till next time,

Chennie and Preston

Aboard Wy East