George Town, Sunday, April 3 to April 6, 2011

Sunset at Lee Stocking Island

movie star iguana!!

Well, here we are!  The farthest south!!  To be precise, we are at latitude 75.46 West and longitude 23.315 North, just slightly north of the Tropic of cancer (23.30N). Our next move south to Long Island will cross the line!!  Pretty exciting!

We traveled down from the Exuma Land and Sea Park back to Blackpoint.  From there, we moved onto the Perry Institute for Marine Research on Lee Stocking Island.  We spent a couple of days there, hiking the island, and attending a tour of the research facility.  Woods Hole it is not, alas. At one point, many years ago, while its founder was still alive, it seemed to thrive.  These days, it felt like the institute was in much need of some TLC, including some better advertising and funding!  A worthy cause, but also quite a challenging one.  We did see a very photogenic and vain iguana on Leaf Cay, who came running out to have his picture taken as soon as he saw Chris with the camera!!   In any case, we moved on from there to visit Barraterre and Rolleville, both on the way to George Town.    Chris did some fishing on this route, and caught two 3 foot long barracudas!!

business end of a barracuda!

We arrived finally in George Town, and immediately found many of our friends from the Selene rendezvous here.  We also reconnected with Dirk and Nancy, and have already had some fun playing cards and generally hanging out.

George Town is quite a small town, but Great Exuma Island, where George Town is based, is quite a large and happening place.  There are many businesses here, and quite a lot of new construction.  Some of the construction seems to be stalled, but it is truly a lovely place well worth visiting.  We have already spent a couple of days exploring, and will most likely stay here for a few more.  There are many boats here, and there is quite a community atmosphere.  There are volleyball games most afternoons, yoga, and other organized events. 

We are anchored just off a lovely beach, and have been taking our dinghy into George Town the last couple of days, though the winds have made it a pretty wet ride across the channel into town.  We are starting to think seriously about our next move, as we have about 6 weeks before we have to start heading back north.  We will think about it over a rum drink, and let you know!!

Our anchorage at Monument Beach near Georgetown