George Town - Out and About

The other day at the Chat N' Chill we were treated to the unsightly view of a leathery man in a black speedo. Now, I am anti-speedo on principle. Nobody needs to see that. But in this case I was even more repulsed because the elastic was wearing loose and it was definitely a saggy speedo. The guy was from another country and oblivious to the show he was putting on for all the other beach goers. Or so I thought. This morning we wake up and realize that the man on the boat next to us IS Saggy Speedo! Even worse he is walking around in his cockpit completely nude! I guess he had just taken a shower on his outside transom (back part of the boat that allows you to step down to water level) because within a few minutes he put on a towel. But geez! What a way to start the day.

Today we had a long list of things to do in town. We got in the dinghy and just then one of our friends from Xanadu (another Manta catamaran) came up in his dinghy asking if we needed any help. (We had told him about the outboard propeller problem). Jim, who is from the south, has the ultimate southern gentlemen's accent; he sounds like the guys in Gone With the Wind (or Foghorn Leghorn for those of you who haven't seen that classic film). We chatted for a bit, and he offered to tow us if we needed it, or ferry us over to town; turns out he had the same problem and ended up buying a new outboard. But since our propeller was only slipping at higher speeds, it was still usable. So we thanked him and motored very slowly on our own into George Town.

George Town has an interesting setup. There is the outer harbor where all the boats are anchored, and then there is a shallow inner lagoon called Lake Victoria that is shaped like a circle. There is only one way into the lake, and that's by dinghy under a low bridge. Almost all of the businesses are located on the shores of the lake so you just dinghy up to one of the dinghy docks and step ashore. We found Minn's Marine right away and although he wasn't able to get the prop re-hubbed for us, he was able to order us a new prop. So hopefully that will get here by end of week. We wandered around town, stopping in at the internet cafe (yes there are new photos, starting with St. Patrick's Day) and sending a fax to Spectra Watermakers (hopefully they will send us a new clark pump this week also!). We stopped for beers at Eddie's Edgewater (guess that jingle does it's job, since we'll never forget the name of the place) and then had lunch at the Two Turtles Inn. Basically we did a circuit around the whole lake and scoped out the entire town. Our last errand was to pick up a few groceries at Exuma Markets, which is one of two well-stocked grocery stores. Hooray, we have lunchmeat again, no more PB&J!