On Saturday, June 21st, we motored for eight hours to George Town (Exumas) from Rudder Cut Cay, taking the outside route (in the Exuma Sound). The day was quite breezy with the wind almost on our nose, so we didn't sail. Since we were in open water, we decided to try out our fishing handline (a set-up with only a reel of line - no rod) for the first time. As we have more open-water passages ahead of us, we didn't expect much on the first day of trying it, especially because we were just motoring along a chain of cays which were less than a mile away. Geoff thought that the line might not be long enough, because we clearly saw the lure skipping along on the surface behind the boat. Well...Within an hour of putting the line out we had our first fish! We identified it as a Cero (a type of mackerel), and we filleted it on the back deck right away (and ate half of it for dinner at the end of the day). Inspired by our success we put the line back in the water. Two hours later we had another bite! We pulled the fish in close to the boat. It was another Cero. While attempting to gaff the fish, he somehow got off the hook and slipped away. Disappointed but undaunted we dropped the hook in again. This time it took less than five minutes for the next one to bite! Our third fish in as many hours. This fish was an Almaco Jack (we think). His fillets went into our freezer.
As we entered George Town harbour, we noticed that our depth sounder wasn't working - it has had some intermittent problems for a while, but now it just wasn't showing any depth. Because we are comparatively shallow, we generally trust our chart plotter and don't worry about the depths too much. When we anchor, however, we usually try to get as close in to shore as possible to get the most protection from wind and waves. So when we went to anchor off Stocking Island across from George Town, we had to use the old method of a lead line to figure out the depth - an interesting proposition when you care about a one foot error! We anchored safely and added a new depth sounder to our list of things to do. As it turned out, we ended up with a fish finder as that was the closest thing we could find in George Town.
George Town is the largest town of the Exumas, but is still fairly small with little in the way of services. The town surrounds a small lake (Lake Victoria), which is accessible by dinghy via a connection under a bridge to the main harbour. Most of the beach anchorages are across the harbour from George Town along Stocking Island, such as Volleyball Beach, Hamburger Beach, and Sanddollar Beach. We were anchored just off of Volleyball Beach, near the Chat'n'Chill beach bar. During the winter at the height of the cruising season, hundreds of boats stay in George Town harbour (properly called Elizabeth Harbour). Because we were there in the summer, there were only a handful of other cruisers around. We spent a couple of fun days with Renata, Kuno, and Tatiana from Blue Moon.
Geoff with our first fish (a Cero)
Geoff with our third fish (an Almaco Jack)
Dinner!
Geru at Volleyball Beach on Stocking Island
We've come a long way...
Exit from Lake Victoria, George Town - with Geru out front
Some fun on the beach at night (Tatiana and Ruth)
