We had a great sail down from Emerald Bay to George Town after a successful battery replacement.
This is an insert I wrote about our adventures when we replaced the batteries …
Wanted to tell you about our fun day...well fun for me anyway as I went along for the ride. As you may or may not know we had ordered some batteries from Ft. Lauderdale last Wednesday, to be shipped directly to George Town on Saturday. The ship came in on time Monday in spite of the big seas. We had hired a local man Bob Smith, recommended by the marina, to take us to GeorgeTown to get them. We could not rent a car at all anywhere on the island as there is a music festival here this weekend which we think we will try to get to at least some of the events.
So we went to town today from the Emerald Bay Marina at the north end of the island. We stopped at several places on the way to take brochures by as Bob now has his boat working and has a small tour business when it goes. We saw Palm Bay Resort, and another Augusta Bay I think both very nice.
Finally got to the shipping place which is a shed in a dirt parking lot. One half of the shed is the shipping company and the other is customs. G&G Shipping did not have papers yet but they would be available soon. We sat out on the deck in the shade and waited. In a bit she left in her car to get the papers from customs in town. When she came back Bill paid for shipping, got the papers and took them outside where a broker was sitting. He gave them to the broker who took them off and filled in some more paperwork. When he came back Bill had to pay him $50 (that was a rip off) and then Bill took the papers to the customs guy who was by then sitting on the porch too. He looked at them, took them into his office and probably stamped them, then we had to drive into the customs office in town to pay $10.00 as we didn't have to pay duty being a boat in-transit.
While Bill did that I did some grocery shopping just a few things that as usual grows to more. We went and had lunch at a local place that happened to be owned by the brother and sister- in- law of Bob. Sadly we had to wait a long time as they seemingly lost our order. It was good when we got it. The guys had grouper and peas and rice and I had chicken and peas and rice and little salads too. We were introduced to the MP for the Exumas, and also met Bob's brother. (There are 17 siblings)
We left and stopped at the hardware store called Top to Bottom. It was a hoot and is filled into every nook and cranny but very organized. We found a new dinghy gas can...not inexpensive, but ours has a hole and duct tape is not a solution! Also found some screws we had been looking for to put a lock on the new doors.
Well back to the batteries. .. We went back to the shipping place taking the papers to the customs guy next door and then into the yard where all the containers were. Our batteries had not been unpacked yet so they moved a container and brought the one over that they were in, pulled all the stuff out of it by lift loader pallet- full by pallet-full, and finally pulled them out and with the lifter put them into the back of the pick up. We had them finally! One more stop at the lumberyard to pick up a sheet of plywood for a friend of Bob's, and then a stop at the phone company as he has been waiting for a year for a land line and we headed back to the marina.
When we got back to the boat Bob pulled the truck right down to the dock where we were 3 ft from the shore at the edge of the sea wall, and unloaded everything. Bill and Bob lugged them all down, into Wind Spirit, took out the old ones which Bob was happy to take off our hands. We have new batteries and they work!
I, meantime escaped to the laundry and am doing a load and sitting here in peace and quiet.
We are headed to George Town (GT) tomorrow on the water!
Last year we had a great time here in George Town with the Roberts and the Elseas and Christine, but didn’t convince anyone to join us down here this year. We hung out with folks on 2 boats we had met at Emerald Bay, Pattie Cakes and Tahani Li and met lots of other sailors. We went to Beach Church which was a new experience, but lovely to worship outside in all the glory of the sea and the trees and beach. Met a couple there who had just completed a 4 year circum-navigation with their 4 children, and were trying to figure out how to reintegrate their family into life on land. Met several other couples who had been sailing down here for almost 20 years. Talk about snowbirding!
We dinghied over to GT and went to the Gospel part of the Music and Heritage Festival. Had a great dinner out at Peace and Plenty and then went to the performance. We expected to hear some Gospel choral music but it was all very loud Christian Rock! We did enjoy some of it but the ears were hurting as we went back across the harbor in the dark with the wind a bit higher than we had hoped. It was a wet ride across the harbor but we made it safely and had some good laughs with Pattie Cakes.
We had drinks one lovely evening on Tahani Li, and delicious dinner another night on Patti Cakes and of course dinner on Wind Spirit. We did got to GT by water taxi driven by Elvis another evening for some Rake and Scrap Music which was fun too with dancing , music and internet all at the same place!
The beach always pulls us so we had beach time on the Exuma Sound and on the Elizabeth Harbour Side of Stocking island too. Bill climbed up to the Monument on Stocking island and said the view was terrific!
The grand finale at GT was a huge bonfire on the beach with a huge group of folks speaking English and French! It did end with a rain shower but was a fun evening too.
We arrived at Long island which is about 40 miles south and east of GT a couple of days ago (27th)and have done laundry and eaten out and gone to the Atlantic Beach in Salt Pond. We are anchored in North Thompson Bay. There were 27 boats here last night many of whom we recognized from GT. Long Island Breeze Resort in Salt Pond is wonderful to sailors!
Tomorrow we will go to the island of Conception which is another National Trust Park. The weather is perfect to go there. We will be back here in a few days to wait for Bill’s family to come on the 7th of April. Looks like Christine and Mark will join us at Cat Island as we start to work our way north again. Fun times to come! Great to share our wild adventure.
All is well on Wind Spirit! Pictures will follow in next blog!
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