Elizabeth Harbour—the harbor at George Town on the island of Great Exuma—has a lot to offer. It is 7 nautical miles long and over a mile wide. The bottom provides great holding for the anchor and there are numerous anchorages, where boaters can find protection from any wind direction if they are willing to move. There is an active social scene and a daily cruiser’s net on the VHF radio. There is a decent grocery store, two laundromats, several restaurants and bars, a gas station, and an airport that has flights directly to the US. There is a very nice dinghy dock behind the grocery store and access to free water. All of these advantages make the harbor—usually referred to as George Town—a very popular place. There might be a few hundred boats in the harbor during the busiest time later in the winter. The crowds count as a disadvantage for us. As does the large size of the harbor. It is so large that wind can make it very choppy. A dinghy ride across the harbor can be quite wet and wild...
Today is our last day at Cat Island, at least for the time being. We plan to sail SSW to George Town, leaving early tomorrow morning. The wind shifted to the S a bit today so we moved back to Old Bight. As an added bonus we were able to take another walk on that gorgeous, long beach—successfully timing our walk between squalls. Yesterday we joined Dee and Ron at Gippy’s for ice cream. We walked over to Olive’s bakery for a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread and had a chat with Duke at his conch salad stand. Duke also makes furniture from native Bahamian wood and we were able to see some of his work in progress. A bench and table made by Duke. If you zoom in you can see the “feet” on the bottom of the table legs. Table legs in progress.