February 18-26, 2001 -- George Town

I am going to depart from my usual format for this log entry. I won't go into great detail about what we did, though I will mention some highlights. But first, I want to talk about something else. For two years, we have heard about George Town. We have heard differing accounts of the place, both good and bad. The one thing everyone has said is that you have to go to George Town atleast once. It is nice to be able to say that we have 'done' George Town. I can also say, truthfully, I hope we will not do it again. The town itself is wonderful. The people are friendly and the shop keepers wonderful to deal with. While we enjoyed seeing many friends that we haven't seen in a long time, it was very crowded (400+ boats) and overly organized. As I look back on it, I remember many fun times; ultimately, I think it is these memories that will persuade me not to avoid George Town in the future. After having heard them on the radio for so long, it was great meeting Jeff and Terri on Ariel and Stephanie and Neil on Rhapsody. Rhapsody stopped by in the morning to introduce themselves and we loaned Ariel our dinghy so they could pick up Paul and Lise from Effie (they flew down from Maine to spend a week in George Town). Ron and Karen on Sea Dancer had a going away cocktail party for Sue and Leon on Masade since they are headed to Trinidad. They invited us as well, and so we shared cocktails with Sea Twist, Daisy Bee, Windswept, Poco Loco, Taj Muha and Just Desserts on Sea Dancer. The next night, we had cocktails on Sand Dollar beach was another highlight that was great. Windom arrived, and despite dinghy engine problems, Britt and Illana were able to attend. They are also planning to head south this year, so hopefully we will travel with them. Just so you don't think that George Town is all drinking, we did manage to fit in some snorkeling. While it was too rough to dive the exterior reefs, we did snorkel in a shallow cut looking for shells, then moved on to a reef in Elizabeth harbour. That gathering included Taj Muha, Wanderer, Daisy Bee and Southern Wine. A boat was lost in the entrance to the Conch Cay Cut. A J-30 racing boat was attempting to enter the cut at 2:00 AM EST when they struck the inner reef. The boat partially submerged, but everyone was able to get to shore safely. The cruisers of George Town reacted quickly to get the three men to safety as well as gathering donated clothing and necessities for them from people willing to donate. It truly shows the cruising spirit that in the face of tragedy, the cruising community does pull together and take care of its own. That afternoon, we attended a 'going south' discussion which was informative. Afterwards, the cruisers at Hamburger Beach had a cocktail party to thank the organizer of the rescue, as well as those who went out on dinghies to help. Finally that night, Ron and Karen on Sea Dancer organized a 'Death By Chocolate' night. We gathered at the "Chat and Chill" on Volleyball beach and dished up some delectible, and highly fattening desserts. That brings us to February 26. Our last day in George Town was spent scrambling around to get all of the last minute things done we wanted to do before heading to stage at Fowl Cay at the southern entrance to Elizabeth Harbour and George Town. After spending 10 days there, I can understand how George Town can be the end point destination for some cruisers. It is certainly an experience that I would never trade. The friendships renewed and the friendships developed only served to enrich our lives and our cruising. So, my bottom line is simple. If you ask me about places to stop, I would include George Town. You have to do it once, stay a week or so, but not during Regatta unless you really like crowds. On a bad note many of the cruisers have placed structure around this harbor and over organized it. Apparently whenever you have that many boats together it brings out the Type A personalties and they try to take over and control & regiment life. This is not something you want on the high seas, in fact this type of attitude can get you trouble real fast as you need to be able to flow with sea and weather conditions. Bryan and I have fought our Type A personalties since starting this voyage and to find an out island where it's rampant is disgusting. We along with a lot of other boaters, thumbed our nose at this and would make jokes about them having synchronized toe nail painting groups. When the locals can only make announcements about their businesses on the boaters morning net on this day if their business starts with the proper letter and using channel 68 as a calling channel until 9:30 then we should use 16 after that, etc., etc., etc. You would really think that these folks should have their own life to worry about, instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing. These type of people give boaters everywhere a bad name and only piss off other boaters and the locals that have their own way to do things in their own country! These folks should just go back home and live in a development where they can be happy on the neighborhood committee controlling the type of porch light thier neighbor puts up!