George Town. Or rather, Stocking Island where all the 200 cruisers are anchored, across the harbor from the town. It’s a place unlike any other around here. The community of boats includes self-run events by long time cruisers that have come here year after year. An organized radio “net” each morning making announcements about the day’s activities. Yoga at 9, golf at 10, volleyball at 2pm. It’s like a summer camp for adults. It also links boaters who may be in need of help/repairs with others who can provide assistance, almost exclusively based on mutual aid and goodwill. It’s also one of the larger towns around, augmented by nearby resorts such as Sandals, and therefore has notably more grocery, shopping, and service options than most of the out islands.
On the flip side, there’s not much snorkeling or swimming going on for us right now. The harbor water is still blue but is cloudy with low visibility. The ocean side is often too rough for swimming, especially as we wait out strong winds. Even on calm days the ocean only attracts intrepid spearfishermen in search of a lobster tail or their next filet of fish. And it doesn’t help that Mike has a bit of swimmers ear right now… he won’t be getting wet for a few days anyway!
So…. We’ve been running in place for few days, either joining in these scheduled activities, or hiking trails to hills or beaches on Stocking Island, as well as just getting caught up on work, schoolwork, boat chores, hand laundry, etc. We’re trying to make the most of this different flavor of Bahamian island while we are here, though we’re quite looking forward to getting back to the less inhabited and completely uninhabited islands.
We are a little overwhelmed at all the people – several boats have commented how you meet more people here, but it’s hard to get to know them better due to the sheer numbers. Nevertheless, we have slowly over last 4 days are getting to know a few new boats (having left most of all the other boats we know further north). We’ve explored beaches, done kid yoga on the beach, helped organize a “Valentine’s making party” for the kids on the beach, collected shells, spent more time in large gatherings just “chatting” as kids would say. One night we did a fun “kids cookout” that had over 36 kids and parents there. Henry has found some active kids to play volleyball, throw a football and just plain run around with. Emma happily jumps in the water to swim at the beach and has come out of her shy bubble to befriend Lily. They’re now following each other around inseparably. This afternoon some boat parents and kids (17 people including Mike and Henry) played a fun round of volleyball against a local Bahamian team (7 people) and everyone had a blast.
Fun Afloat 