There is another grocery store in town and we decide to try it.  This time we take our dinghy to the government dock which is in the center of the settlement. Strachan’s is smaller than Last Chance grocery, but to our delight it has ice cream.  I get some bacon, but no bread, no eggs, and no fresh vegetables.  The mail boat comes on Friday this week so I am hopeful of getting eggs then.  As we walk past Ocean View restaurant, eating our ice cream, we decide to stop in to get a drink.  Miss  Ruby the owner has no problem with our eating ice cream in the restaurant and we order sodas for the kids and some VERY cold beer for us.  They have a sign in the restaurant claiming the coldest beer in the islands and I would have to agree.  It is so cold there is ice on the outside of the bottle.  We take a seat, eat our ice cream, drink our cold drinks and watch The Mummy Returns on the big TV above the bar.  We are in heaven!

We made it to Rum Cay with no problems.  We were hoping to go further, but with the wind on our nose (AGAIN) we decided to pull into the Rum Cay Marina and see if we could get better sailing weather in a few days.  Tristan and I were on coral head watch the last part of the trip, as there are many reefs in this area.  The water is the most beautiful; most clear we have ever seen.  The depth meter is showing 40 feet and we can easily see the bottom!  Coming into Rum Cay marina is pretty well marked, even though we missed the last marker.  There are tall white poles that guide you in, and George from the marina told us to keep them to our right. I was at the front of the boat looking for reefs, and we passed by the poles.  We can hear George calling a boat, first he calls Stardust then realizes that is the wrong boat and starts shouting “Catamaran!”  I am up front so I can’t hear what he is saying and Dan can’t leave the wheel either.  I finally run back and answer.  “Didn’t you see the green ball?”  George tells me we were supposed to go between the green ball and the pole and we went to the outside of the green ball.  In fairness to Dan and me, the green ball is a about the size of a soccer ball and painted so dark you can’t see it.  Now I think we are not lined up to get into the marina. 
“Are we going to be ok?” 

“Well if you haven’t hit anything, you are ok.”  Welcome to Rum Cay!!

We are desperate for groceries, so after checking into the marina we begin the long, hot trek into “town”.  Actually the term is settlement and it is a good 15 minute walk down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere.  In fact we are just about to give up, when we see some flags hanging above the road.  This is the middle of the settlement. 

We see Kayes bar, and the remains of what was a park, but nothing else.  I ask an elderly gentleman sitting on a picnic table.  He points us further on down the road and around the corner.  At last we have found it, The Last Chance grocery store.  The sign outside boasts vegetables, fruits, ice cream; I am giddy with possibilities!  Inside the store is a big glass cooler and I am happy to see several cartons of eggs. When I open the first carton, all but five have cracks in the eggs.  I open the next carton.  This one is even worse with only 3 unbroken.  There is one carton left, and I am hopeful that maybe between the three of these I can make my own dozen.  As I take it out of the cooler, it drips egg yolk on my hands.  Only 2 unbroken in this carton.  Sadly I give up.  There is no fresh bread, no diet coke, no cereal, and no water bottles.  There is a small section of canned goods, and some frozen chicken.  I tend to stay away from frozen chicken in the outer island grocery stores as I don’t know how many times it has been thawed and refrozen.  I am able to get some lettuce, baloney and Gatorade.  When we get back to the boat, two sport fishing boats have pulled in and are cleaning their catch.   The kids run down to watch and Dan and I head back to the boat.  Dan checks on the kids a while later and finds Tessa hanging off the dock, holding a fish head in her hand, trying to get a nurse shark’s attention.  Glen, the captain of Jolly Rodgers, one of the fishing boats, cautions that while the nurse sharks are pretty tame, a bull shark will sometime come in fast and will make it out of the water.  Sure enough, a few minutes after Dan makes her give up this game, a bull shark swims under the dock.

While I try to take a quick nap, Dan hangs out with the guys.  He comes back to the boat and tells me it is Ladies Night at the Out of the Blue marina restaurant and that I should go up and meet everyone.  Usually I am uncomfortable in these situations where everyone knows everyone else but me, but I decide to go anyway.  Cathi is the first to greet me when I walk in.  She lives on the island with her husband Brian.  She is very warm and outgoing.  She introduces me to Marcia, who manages the marina with her husband Adrian, Michelle, Melanie who is the wife of Captain Glen on Jolly Rodgers, and Todd who is their first mate. Everyone is very nice and makes me feel very welcome.   There is a potluck on the dock that night and Dan, I and the kids are invited. 

What a feast!  Jolly Rodgers had a good day of fishing and Glen cooked up some fried conch and fried grouper. It was very good.  Later that night we met the other Kathy who lives with her husband Bill on the island.  They are former sailboat owners who decided to end their trip in Rum Cay and build a house.  It is a great group.  Tristan and Tessa make friends with the other kids there, including Chance and Nick, Melanie and Glen’s children.   We have a full night of great food and new friends!  

We know many sailors/cruisers love Georgetown, but it is just not for us. We anchored at Stocking Island outside the Chat N Chill. They have a nice beach, with huge friendly stingrays, and a great tree swing. Georgetown proper is actually a mile long, wet dinghy ride across rough, windy water. We couldn’t anchor in Georgetown Harbour because of the wind direction. There are only a few boats here, with several in the “Hurricane Holes”. No one seems to be on these and they are here I guess until November. Georgetown is pretty primitive compared to Marsh Harbour It is much smaller, only about 900 people and much poorer. There is a pretty good grocery store here, the Exuma Markets. The owner is very generous and provides free RO (reverse osmosis) water to boaters. He has also built a really nice dinghy dock and has a picture showing 100 dinghies at this dock in peak season. There are some nice beaches on Stocking Island and it is known for good shelling, but we didn’t really see any. What we did like about Georgetown were its very friendly people.
We had 6 large laundry bags filled with dirty clothes as we hadn’t done laundry for almost 2 weeks. We docked at the dinghy dock but still had to carry the bags about 4 hot blocks, watching out for traffic, to the Laundromat. While the kids and I did laundry, Dan set out to find an internet café. We had seen a few advertised. The one he eventually chose turned out to be a betting joint with internet access. About 70 people were in there placing bets and Dan was the only one using the internet.
When we were finished with the laundry, the lady who worked there saw our huge pile of clothes and gave us a ride in her car back to our dinghy. The next day we headed back across the 3 to 4 feet waves in our dinghy and went to Eddie’s Edgewater Restaurant. They had free internet access and the guidebook said they had very good food. A sign on the front door said it was closed from August 1st to August 30. This was August 3rd. The door was open so we went in. Another sailing couple was there using the internet. I went up to the bar and asked about lunch. The lady behind the bar said that the kitchen was closed the month of August. I said alright, and bought some Gatorade instead. A few minutes later she quietly called me over and said she could make some fried chicken and fries for us. The chicken was excellent. As we were leaving she gave us a big smile, and told us her name was Larissa. She said she loved to cook and even though the kitchen was officially closed, if we came back she would be happy to make us lunch again.
We needed to get some fuel before we left to head to the outer islands, where there is little to no provisioning. There are no fuel docks for boats. If you need fuel you need to jerry can it. The town has 2 gas stations. On this day, the Shell station had run out of gas, so everyone headed to the Exxon station, causing huge traffic backups in town. We loaded up 2 six gallon jugs with water and 2 five gallon containers of diesel. The wind was really kicking up the waves on the way across the harbor. The dinghy was so loaded down with the water, diesel and the 4 of us. The waves were about 4 feet and quickly filled our dinghy with water. Luckily we had 2 empty Gatorade bottles. Tristan and Tessa used them to bail out the water that was quickly coming into the dinghy. Tristan said he didn’t sign up to be the bailer on the SS Titanic. The kids really got into the bailing, filling the bottles and flinging the water over the side, as fast as they could. It was really funny and even though we were thoroughly soaked by the time we reached our boat, we had a great time.
But there is just something about the place that doesn’t make us want to stay long. As soon as we got a good weather window, we were gone.