TEXAS RANGER: George Town, Great Exuma Island May 4--10

Supply Boats Arrive!

Monument Beach

George Town is the winter home to hundreds of boats, though the count is decreasing markedly this “late” in the season. Many have to be north of Florida by May 31, and have already left. There are probably fewer than 100 boats here now…and you could count the power boats on one hand! We have met folks from England, Canada, France, Germany, and many other places, but the number of Canadians—especially French Canadians—is staggering. I suppose one will travel any distance to escape the cold, and from my memories of our trip to their homeland a couple of years ago, the only time it is not cold is late July and early August—and even that is relative. Some of these boats will be returning north soon, and some are venturing south into the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Hispanola, or Cuba.

From all that I had heard and read, I think I expected more in George Town. Truly, the cruising community creates its own small city complete with a daily morning radio net, but otherwise this largest town in the Exuma Islands is still quite small. One enters Lake Victoria (a shallow, almost fetid ¼-mile diameter waterway ringed by the town) through the extremely narrow bridge depicted in the photos below, walks up the hill from the dinghy dock, and enters upon the street. There one finds a pretty decent grocery store, a Shell station, a craft market, a hotel, a couple of churches, a couple of laundromats, and a few very small eating establishments and shops—mostly outdoor—and that is about it. A trailer parked near the hill will receive bags of garbage for $3 each (pretty fair by Bahamas standards), and with a car one can find a few slightly more refined establishments and an airport farther up the island. It is, however, still quite “limited”.

We did dinghy into one of the small restaurants on Stocking Island (the barrier island behind which we are anchored) for Mother’s Day lunch. It was, at least, a rare chance for Kay to not have to cook! And yes, there was a card which accompanied me all the way from Florida for this celebration. We are anchored at Monument Beach, beneath the remains of an old, gas-light beacon (all of the glass structure is long gone), pictured below. There was excitement one morning…the “mail boat” arrived. Actually two at the same time, and they carry not only mail, but fresh produce, supplies, etc. There will be a run on the grocery store late in the day, or the next day after arrival of the mail boat. The miniature tanker pictured had been here a couple of days earlier to deliver fuel…it can’t get close enough to the shore, so it anchors off about 1000 yards and runs hoses attached to floats to the fuel depot ashore. We will move north again shortly, and seek other locations not yet seen. We are truly on (or even off?) the road less traveled, and seeing parts of God’s beautiful creation about which we had only read and dreamed!