Staniel Cay to Black Point Settlement, Great Guana Cay to George Town, Great Exuma Island May 2—4

     We had a short trip from Staniel Cay to Black Point Settlement.  This was a neat, very small town, but it is home to probably the best laundry in the Exuma Islands.  It has its own dinghy dock, and so we took our laundry in.  If the proprietor is not present to sell tokens for the machines, you hike a block down the road to a restaurant which sells them, but they were “out”.  In about an hour, Miss Ida returned, emptied the machines of the previous day’s tokens, and sold them to the waiting customers.  $ 3.75 each for washer and dryer…a bargain by Bahamas standards!

     She was also quite an entrepreneur…in the same building as the laundry is a convenience store with a few hardware supplies, and her mother runs a restaurant “out back”.  Ida sells various lunch items, pastries, cakes, etc.  Upstairs above the laundry are motel rooms for rent.  She cuts hair on the back porch.  Etc., etc.  Kay, the East Texas girl, was enamored to find pine trees adjacent to the palm trees.  She insisted upon having her photo made with them (note the size of the pine cone in her hand).

     After a couple of days, it was time to move on.  Black Point Settlement is not the anchorage for any type of west wind…too much swell and rolling all the way across the Exuma Bank.  We passed through Dotham Cut into Exuma Sound, and were almost immediately in water so deep that our sounder would not read it (3000 feet+).  There was about a 45-mile run down to George Town on Great Exuma Island, the largest town in the Exuma Islands.  I trolled fishing lines, but only hooked one fish, which got off about 100 feet from the boat (I don’t think it was very large, anyway).  I may need different lures…  The entry to George Town Harbor is quite convoluted with many shallow spots and coral heads.  We pulled up in a narrow anchorage on the western shore since a front with thunderstorms and westerly winds is forecasted.  After that passes, we will move to the eastern side of the harbor behind the barrier island for protection from the prevailing easterly winds.  We will spend some days here…many people come and spend the entire winter!  We celebrated our arrival at what will most likely be the southern extent of our travels this year by NOT EATING CHICKEN!  Remember that East Texas girl…not too far from the Bayou State?  We had Ragin Cajun Andouille sausage, baked beans, and hot biscuits with Bonne Maman peach preserves—Boudreau, this may not be as good as it gets, but it is getting close!  More to come after we experience more of George Town…



Krogen Owners Discuss "Technical
Issues" at Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Not Quite an East
Texas Pine Cone

Roadside Artwork, Black
Point Settlement