Underway Again # 16: Cruising Conch Ump Pah Pah

 

 

One of the most interesting things we participated in was the Conch UmpPahPah. If you want to view it and have a good laugh, see the video clip posted on You tube as Georgetown Cruising Conch UmpPahPah.

 



Which one should I use?



Practice makes perfect

 

Harry needs extra practice.

Roman was a tenor conch and he's wearing red bottoms and a blue top and he's just to the left of the conductor. What a hoot!

Tenor conches practicing.

We're leaving tomorrow for Long Island.

 

 Underway Again#15: Still in Georgetown

This is the entrance from the harbour to Lake Victoria.

As I mentioned, we are across the harbour from Georgetown and it is about one mile away.  That does not seem far but try going one mile in a dinghy over choppy water!  We usually arrive in town very wet.  The good part is that it takes only a few minutes to dry in the sun but the bad part is that clothes wet in salt water never seem to dry completely. 

 

This the dinghy dock on Lake Victoria around which the town of Georgetown is situated.

On our way to Georgetown to do laundry the next day we found that the glue was coming apart again!!!!!  We went to a laundry about two miles south of town and while I did the laundry, Roman hitched a ride to Brown Marina where he thinks he got the proper Hypalon glue.  It is made in Great Britain and was quite pricey($80.00) but well worth it if it does the trick!   We have yet to see if it works.

We have been stranded on our boat for the better part of the week but boaters have been great about helping us out and taking us with them.  On Saturday, Bill and Maureen took us with them on a bus tour of Great Exuma Island northwest to Exuma Point. 

 

 

We took pictures from the highest Point of the island,

 

We visited the town of Rolleville which is the oldest settlement on the island and the most populated.  Here is a monument to the slave Pompey who led an uprising in the early 1800's.  Slavery was fully abolished in 1838.

 

 

There are nine primary school but only one high school serving the entire island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at  Emerald Bay Marina and this as close as we got to Sandals Emerald Bay.

Exuma Point

 

 

 

 

We had a fabulous buffet serving conch fritters, ribs, several chicken dishes, fish, rice salads and a unique dish of plantains, carrots and cassava which was so good that I had a second helping. 

There we visited the caves where a white man from the States lived the last five or six years of his life. He apparently would walk around naked in Georgetown and he was asked to move on. He walked up to these caves north of Rolleville, asked permission of the owners of the property to live there and moved in.   He built himself a large wooden bed and even put Plexiglas up on the top opening of the cave. Building 62 steps, he planted crops on the land over the cave and lived, always naked, on that and honey. He died several years ago at age 77.

        

Underway Again #14: Georgetown

 

A view of our boat from Volleyball Beach

 

Boats are anchored quite closely

Georgetown, where we have been for the last two weeks, is on Great Exuma Island which historically was a home for pirates, a refitting base for British men of war and a World War II U.S. Naval Base.   It is on Elizabeth Harbour, a beautiful and sheltered basin which attracts a large collection of cruising boats, some of which spend weeks, months, and sometime the entire winter here.   Presently there are about 300 boats in the various anchorages, most of which are across from Georgetown off Stocking Island (different island from Lee Stocking).  There are countless little bays which are named Monument Beach, Honeymoon Beach, Sand Dollar Beach, etc. 

 

We are anchored just off Volleyball Beach

Dinghies on Volleyball Beach

Experiencing Reconnective Energy

Yoga under the Casuarina trees

 

 

There are different activities all the time- yoga on the beach at 9:00 every morning, volleyball every afternoon, bocce ball, water walk, rug hooking, art on the beach, softball, etc.  








Anyone that has an interest that they want to share is welcome to do so.  We have heard talks on the history of the Bahamas, on various technical issues, on cruising to different parts of the Caribbean, on  different health issues, just to name a few.  We have attended a meeting of the SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) which we have joined.

SSCA is the largest cruising association in the world.

 



Some get together just to play!

And the food...............In Georgetown there are a variety of restaurants with excellent food.  We have had succulent ribs, conch, shrimp, snapper, mystery delicious fish, chicken etc. etc.  Every Sunday, there has even been a pig roast on Volleyball Beach at Chat & Chills. There is something to please every palate.

 

Some of the musicians are quite talented!

Not only are there things to keep you busy during the day but also at night!  One of the evenings we went to a music jam session at Big D beach where a bonfire was lit after dark. Whoever has an instrument brings it. We even had bagpipes!  Another evening we went to a Valentine's Dance on Volleyball Beach.

 

You can see the sparks from the fire!

Of course Georgetown has its own straw market.

 

Boating is not only fun and games but also one problem after another, one repair after another.    Our latest problem is our dinghy.  Every Sunday there is a non-denominational service called beach church which is held under the casuarina trees on Volleyball Beach. 

 

 On our way there last Sunday, our dinghy started taking on water.   By the time we got to the beach, Roman was in knee deep water.  While I sang in the choir Roman pumped out the dinghy, took off the motor, turned it upside down and discovered that the bottom was coming apart from the inflatable sides.  We got a ride back to our boat after church and appealed on the net for assistance.  A boater came by and brought some glue and took Roman back to repair the bottom.  The next day, after yoga, Roman put the engine back and we got to the boat only to determine that it was leaking again.  If you look at the picture on the right, you can see me exercising.

 

Our friend Harry from Sea Schell helped Roman hoist the dinghy onto our deck and gave him a ride into Georgetown which is a mile away across Elizabeth Harbour. He bought some glue and spent the next two days cleaning the old glue off and applying the new glue which was not what he wanted but what was available. It seemed that everything was fine.

We went snorkeling on the reef in the harbour. Nothing as nice as Thunderball Grotto but look how close I got to a huge turtle. I have not enlarged the photo. I really got that close!!

 




Can you see the fish?  They completely blend into the bottom.

Roman relaxing white waiting for me while I am snorkelling.

These goggles are prescription and worth every penny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underway Again # 13:  To Lee Stocking Island

We left Black Point early Monday morning for Lee Stocking Island but did not get there that day.  We sailed along the inside on Exuma Bank and planned to go out to the Sound through Conch Cut but then decided to go out through Cave Cut instead.  Not a good decision as we got grounded on a sand bank just before the cut.  We had to wait for the tide to come in.  We threw an anchor but it did not hold and the current pulled us closer to even shallower part.   Roman got in the dinghy with the anchor and about 50 feet of chain and dropped the anchor off the dinghy.  He then pointed the bow of the boat in the right direction with the dinghy.  Eventually the water rose and when we tried to steer of the sand banks, we could not steer.  In went the anchor, holding better this time, and down went Roman into the hold under the cockpit to check the steering mechanism.  He worked on it until we noticed the tide dropping again, slowly but surely!  He rigged up his emergency tiller which I never even knew we had and we very slowly steered our way to the Cave Cay anchorage where we dropped anchor for the tenth time today probably and Roman then tried to take a bend out of the rod that went into the hydraulic cylinder.  He could not bang it as that would flatten it so he tried several things and finally rigged up a temporary vise on the bow of the boat.  He certainly is resourceful!  Finally the cylinder was back in place and we could steer again but for how long?



 

The next day we went through Cave Cut with 12 foot waves and on the Sound all the way to Lee Stocking Island the waves were about 4 feet and the wind was right on the nose. That means motoring only - bump, bump, bump.  Not pleasant at all!  Fortunately it was not for long and in a couple of hours, we went through Rudder Cut and anchored  in front of the Perry Institute for Marine Sciences, Caribbean Research Centre.  As one of the six National Undersea Research Centres sponsored by NOAA, the instituted facilitated educational programmes and scientific research .  No one answered when we called for permission to go ashore and to book a tour of the centre. 

The anchorage at Lee Stocking Island

We went ashore and unfortunately it looked as though the funding sources had dried up because the place was deserted.  The buildings ( and there were many) were all locked up but we saw empty spawning bays, rusting equipment and felt a desolate air of desertion.  What a shame! 

 

We explored the island-many buildings, even paved roads.  We decided to hike over to the other side to look for shells and just to see the other side.

 

The paved road turned into a gravel road.



Then into a path.



Unfortunately none of our pictures worked out except the one of a sailboat on Exuma Sound probably on the way to Georgetown.  See the different blues of the water?  And the sky is yet another blue.

 



On the Exuma Sound shore we met our friends Brenda and Bob who joined us for dinner and told us they had met a caretaker who lived on the island and tried to maintain whatever he could.  However, this is job for more than one man.

 

We even found some coconuts which Roman split with an axe.  With his hammer he broke the coconut and we had it for dessert after dinner.

 

 

 

 

After going out Rudder Cut, the next morning we had a most enjoyable sail  all the way to Georgetown.