After seven weeks of fun and boat projects in Georgetown, I am finally on my way to my next destination(s). The time in GT was great. There is a wonderful cruiser community and this time of year there are a couple hundred boats in the harbor at any time, many coming or going every day. In addition, for two weeks in late February or early March, the annual Cruising Regatta is held. This is a fun and social time with games and events almost every day including round the island race, dinghy races, talent show, poker run and many other events and parties. GT is already a social hub and regatta week just ups the ante.
The only slight downsides to GT are the high cost and limited availability of many goods and services. Food and sundry pricing is about double what you would pay in the states and many items are just not available (it is a small town on an island). It is also somewhat of a challenge and also costly to get things sent in if you absolutely need something that is not available locally. A few companies will ship things in either by air or by boat but usually, deliveries are only available on a single day each week and then when they get to the island, they need to go through customs. Even with a broker, this can be costly in fees and duties. If you are able to get the right agent or the stars align, you can get duty waived on items for your boat, but otherwise duty is around 65%. Plus VAT of 12%. You really have to want what is being sent to pay and wait.
Anyway, I digress. I left today at 8:30am after a parting farewell on the cruisers’ net, and headed East out of the harbor. My first stop planned was to be either Rum Cay if I got going early enough, or Calabash Bay on Long Island if I was only doing a short day. Since it took me a little longer to get everything up and running after 7 weeks, I ended up going the short day route to Calabash Bay.
This was a sail of about 25 nm, including getting out of the harbor and as there was very little wind, I motored the distance. Left at 8:30 and arrived about 2pm so about 5 knots overall. With light winds out of the North and East, the bay gave great protection and was very uncrowded with only 2 other boats even in the same bay. Water was pristine and most of the anchorage was about 12 feet with clear white sand bottom. If I had wanted to stay longer, there were quite a few reefs very close that would have provided great snorkeling, etc. but I was trying to catch a weather window.