George Town, Exumas

We had a busy weekend here in George Town. On Saturday we took a dinghy ride into town to hit the book exchange, stock up on fruits & veggies, swing by the liquor store (rum was less than 5 bucks/liter), and find a few parts at the hardware store. Top II Bottom is the name of the hardware store here and as the name implies they are surprisingly well-stocked. We were able to find a thimble for one of my rope splices, an energy-efficient fluorescent light bulb to replace the one we broke, and silver duct tape aplenty (we had run out). Couple that with faxing in our US Coast Guard registration (which we did on Monday at the "Business Center" whose computers sport neither MS Word nor Adobe Acrobat -- sure made printing out the CG's online form difficult but we managed!), and we've finished all our shore errands for a while.

Sunday we went ashore at Stocking Island to hang out for lunch at the Chat N Chill beach bar. We kicked back with some burgers and a couple Kaliks and watched the scene at Volleyball beach. There were three games of volleyball going, folks playing bridge, dominoes, and even a bocce game (don't ask me who won, I can't figure out the rules). We hung out for a while and watched the games and wandered up and down the beach a bit before heading back to the boat.

Today is Monday and we are looking at a couple of days of light and variable winds, so we are planning to leave George Town tomorrow morning. If we're lucky, we will make the long 180nm passage to Mayaguana either motorsailing or just plain motoring. Normally the prevailing trade winds make this passage a tough one, so we'll take a light & variable motorsail if we can get it. Comfort is key. Plus landing in Mayaguana will put us in a good position to head over to the Turks & Caicos soon. If we don't like the conditions and decide not to go to Mayaguana, we'll just head over to Rum Cay where the snorkeling is supposed to be fantastic. Either way, we'll be going somewhere we've never been before so we are looking forward to it.