We’re settling in to life here in Elizabeth Harbour. Although there are very few cruisers here at the moment, there are enough of them and other visitors to make things at least a little interesting.
Hundreds of boats are here in the winter, we hear, because the weather is warm, but we have found adversely, that many of the home owners and regular cruisers come here in the summer too, because the temperatures are milder than in other parts of the southern U.S. We have been enjoying temperatures in the high 70’s at night, and the very low 80’s during the day. A nice combination.
Yes, summer is hurricane season. We are reminded of that fact occasionally, the latest being Topical Depression Dorian, which is currently fizzling out, if not diminishing altogether.
Once we have to experience a hurricane first hand, we’ll undoubtedly have other opinions, but we are tending to share the opinions of other boater and home owners in this area; with proper preparation, people and property can exist in hurricane country. Much like people exist in tornado, landslide, flood, forest fire, and other natural disaster country. You can live in fear of the unknown all your life, or just deal with it as it comes.
Georgetown has enough to offer for cruisers in the “off season” to keep them occupied. In the last week, we went to the market, the library, the BTC office. We took trash, got gas in the dinghy, and went to the hardware store twice. Heavy stuff, but adventures each and every one.
For fun, we go to the beach at Chat ‘N’ Chill, and never fail to meet someone to talk to. We bought a small umbrella to clamp to the dinghy seat so Holly can get out of the sun. She sits perched under the umbrella on the dinghy seat and takes in the scenery like the queen that she is. There is usually plenty of women and girls coming by to comment on how cute she is. Rosie's string bikini is usually the attraction for the men. The staff there is starting to know us and treat us like regulars. We are getting status!
We also went to Peace & Plenty again on Thursday night and had a good time. The owner made it a point to come over and talk to us. His companion thought I was a rock star come to visit. An aging rock star nonetheless, but that’s better than being confused with a serial killer. He was also curious about the “attractive woman” who I was with. I told him she was the serial killer.
We also went over to the Exuma Beach Club for happy hour one night, the night we went last time when Sands beers were two for $5. There was a different bartender there who was preoccupied with stocking his bar to say hello when we took a seat. Eventually he mumbled something about “what would we like?”, and I mentioned the Sands beer special on Tuesday night. He said that the special was only on Fridays and Sundays, which we knew for certain that we were there on a Tuesday last time, and mentioned that very thing. He asked a passing waitress if the beer special was on Tuesdays, and she thought for a moment, and then responded that it wasn’t. Never mind that we had testified in full confidence that we had been there on a Tuesday and it was a special on that Tuesday, but perhaps the policy had changed.
A smart businessman would have an exucutive decision right on the spot and offered us the beers at two for $5, but he instead ignored us and went back to stocking his bar. I looked at Rosie and said, “Let’s go”. We left the bartender alone to finish his work, being no other patrons.
We went next door to Splash, a casual place we had been wanting to check out anyway. A lethargic girl behind the huge circular bar sauntered over and asked what we wanted and I asked what the happy hour beer specials were. Without a word, she pointed to a sign over in the corner. I asked if they had Bud Light, and she pointed to a row of bottles. Not a people person, it seemed.
I was beginning to consider leaving, when another woman with better business skills came over and started chatting us up in a friendly way. Because of her, and her alone, we stayed and had a bucket of beers and a large pizza. Meanwhile, the other girl sat morosely in a corner and waited on a handful of customers when she had to.
We get this from time to time in The Bahamas, but for the most part, people are nice and appreciate us being here spending money.
The wind had died down considerably, so we anchored just off the beach at Chat ‘N’ Chill. We were entertained just by sitting on our bow watching boaters come and go. Elvis, the boat taxi driver, waved to us like we were old friends every time he passed by, which was several times a day.
Yesterday we took the dinghy over to the St. Francis Resort which sits at the back of a small bay next to Chat ‘N’ Chill. We had heard that lunch there is very affordable, and we were pleasantly pleased with the service and the food. If you’re interested, they have one of their South African catamarans sitting at the dock, a model currently for sale, or you can special order one. Ballpark price: “About a million”. Sadly, they only offer a 50 footer. We were thinking at least a 55.
We do, or at least I do, look at other vessels and consider them as a replacement for Swing Set. Generally, this process involves observing the points about another vessel that I don’t find acceptable, and then realizing that our boat fits the bill just fine, or that replacing our current boat with another is just not worth the hassle. You can substitute “boat” with “woman”, or “mate”, and get the same result.
Last night, after spending a nice afternoon over on the beach, we brought Swing Set back over to our comfortable anchorage under the monument, just off of Hamburger Beach. The remnants of Dorian are expected to pass through tomorrow, and we’ll have better protection from the easterlies here. After that, we aren’t sure what we’ll do.
Lobster season starts later this week, and I’d sort of like to get back to some more remote islands to try my luck at catching some of those critters, but living is easy here so close to Georgetown, and we still have two months left on our cruising permit. We’ll both know it when it’s time to head out, for the moment we’ll just take it day by day.
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