We have heard fellow cruisers we’ve met along the way south speak wistfully of George Town. They get a faraway look in their eyes and their voice changes as they say something like, “yes, we’re on our way to George Town”. Then there is a brief pause in the conversation as all those who it seems must have been through some initiation rite involving banned substances give a reverent pause and a quiet sigh as they gaze longingly toward the south. It has been a puzzling thing for us because on the charts there is nothing really special looking about the George Town area other than it is a slightly bigger town than many we have been in and is at the southern end of the Exuma island chain. Why in the world would seemingly all cruising boats be headed to George Town? Mary Beth and I look at each other, and I know my thoughts run along the lines of “what is wrong with these people, have they been drugged or is maybe one of those strange cults we all sometimes hear of”?
Well, we’ve been in Georgetown now for a few days (yes another big blow has us pinned down), and it is unique among the places we’ve been; Note I’m not implying that unique is necessarily a completely positive attribute. If we had to summarize it in one sentence, it would be something like: Summer camp for old white people who live on boats. There are a few younger cruisers and some families with kids, but mostly it is old white people (counting us in that category in case you were wondering!) from the US and Canada. It reminds us of the camp in the movie Dirty Dancing.
The day starts at 8am with a 45 minute long “cruisers net” which is a radio “program” with community announcements, any requests for assistance, items to buy/sell/trade, local business news and announcements. It’s actually very informative, but has a feeling like we are at camp. Everyone is just so cheery! There are organized activities every day. There is morning yoga on Volleyball Beach (yes that is really the name), water aerobics, AA meetings, garden club meetings (not sure how this applies to boaters, but oh well…), organizational meetings for the upcoming Cruisers Regatta, Bible studies, Trivia night, Open mike night at a local restaurant, and on and on.
Volleyball beach:
There are 297 cruising boats here at last count so there’s chatter on the radio with people catching up and planning things and dinghies driving to and fro all day long. Every night people are on the radio around 8:00pm saying “Good night cruisers, sleep tight”, “Goodnight John Boy, goodnight Mary Ellen” and other silly camp counselor kinds of things. The other night I responded asking if it was ok for us to stay up a little longer, anonymously of course. Our friends Donny and Diana said they counted 400 boats here once in a previous year. Apparently it builds all season leading up to Cruisers Regatta Week two weeks from now. Many of the boaters cross the Gulf Stream from Florida and sprint down here to stay all season in one place. Some have been coming here for over a dozen years or more so they all know each other.
We are clearly not typical cruisers since we want to be far away from here as soon as possible. Our cruising dreams are of quiet anchorages with beautiful views, nice snorkeling, maybe a trip into a small town occasionally for some local food and conversation, and a few friends. Fortunately for us, with so many boats in George Town, there are a lot of nice quiet places to anchor on other Cays with these attributes. Everyone is here and not there.
On the positive side, we have enjoyed seeing many of the friends we have met along the way during our cruising season. We had 9 people from our marina back home over for happy hour the other night. Today we went to Beach church (David played his harmonicas with the choir) and to a talk about Bahamian history.
Beach church (David is playing harmonicas):
Yesterday we played volleyball on the beach and socialized. MB went to beach yoga one morning. Someone’s dog was lost on the island today and many cruisers scoured the beaches and hills helping to look for her. It is a very close knit and supportive community. It’s just not what we are looking for in our cruising experience.