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.