Georgetown, The Bahamas

Georgetown is a delightfully picturesque 

community of 1,000 people and serves as the 

southernmost cruising headquarters for visiting yachtsmen exploring the Bahamas. Travelling south, the town is said to be the last stop in the Bahamas and the beginning of the trip to the Caribbean. Georgetown is also called “Chicken Harbour” because so many boats head off to the Caribbean but are daunted very quickly and return to Georgetown never to venture further south again!

We are anchored at Stocking Island, which is an island opposite the town centre, off “Volleyball Beach” and a Caribbean style beach bar. There were approximately 30 yachts and cruising vessels anchored when we arrived. From reading the yachtsman’s guides and hearing conversations on the VHF, it seems that a large number of cruisers (both sailing and motor boats) spend their winter in this area. This boating community make their way to Georgetown every year and organise afternoon volley ball games, poker nights at the local resort and other social activities. They have an 8.00am bulletin board over the VHF every morning, where announcements and arrangements for social activities are made. We have been told that the number of boats can number up to 300 later in the season.

“Hasta La Vista” and “X-T-Sea” arrived on the 3 December planning to stay for a couple of days, then sail to the Dominican Republic for Christmas. Once again, the weather was not favourable. We were anchored at Stocking Island for approximately four weeks during which time we visited Georgetown to explore and restock our supplies. We perused the shelves of the well-organised second hand book library and also visited the many souvenir stalls which were owned by locals. Afternoons were spent sitting in the cockpit watching the world go by; dinghying to Volleyball beach to sit and talk to old and new friends; and occasionally we would have friends over for drinks and nibbles or be invited to other boats for drinks and nibbles and sometimes dinner. Our Christmas was an “Aussi” style picnic lunch on the beach with Diego, Sandra and Corizon from “X-T-Sea” and Bill and Rosemary from “Levity” a New Zealand registered boat.

We are on our way to the Caribbean!

We left our mooring on New River on the Thursday 6 November and moored in a lake just inside the coast for four days waiting for the wind to change. 

There was a window in the weather on Sunday 9 November which allowed us to make a dash for Running Mon Marina on Grand Bahama. We had a lovely sail to the Grand Bahamas with both sails up and arrived at about 4pm that afternoon. The family on “X-T-Sea”, Diego, Sandra and Corizon, their eight year old son, and Rick and Skipper (a golden retriever) on “Sorceress”, who we met at the Sailboat Bend dock on New River, were moored there and greeted us along with the owners of the other boats. Our stay at the marina was only going to be a couple of days, but once again, we needed to wait for that weather window. 

We ended up staying for one week but really enjoyed our time there. We walked and explored the local area and rode bikes to the marinas and resorts close by. We socialised with our new group of friends having drinks and nibbles on most evenings and enjoyed the facilities of the resort where the marina was located. We also had the opportunity to join Diago, Sandra and Corizon on a shopping trip in Freeport, the main town on the island.

“X-T-Sea” was sailing in the same direction as “Hasta La Vista”, so we agreed that we would sail together. We left on Sunday 16th November for the Berri Islands, a group of islands belonging to the Bahamas.

Our first stop was Panton Cove, Great Harbour. We anchored there for two nights and a day and explored the beaches and an old lighthouse and associated housing.

Next was Cabbage Cay off Little Harbour Cay where we anchored for two nights and days. The waters are amazingly clear in the Bahamas and one could see straight to the bottom. Once again we explored the beaches. We were moored in fairly shallow water and it was low tide.  Mal was talking to Diego, who was in his dingy at the stern of “Hasta La Vista”, when he saw a large black shadow moving close to the boat. It was an 8 – 10 ft or larger hammerhead shark grazing the bottom of not very deep water. We had caught a fish on the way and Mal had filleted it so the shark was obviously after the spoils that Mal had thrown in the water. It was amazing to see! The other thing of interest was that the beaches were covered with piles of Conch shells. The Bahamians eat the sea animal that the shell houses. Conch is bit like tough squid. The conch shell is a beautiful shell and I think it is terribly sad that these shells are collected when they are quite large for the conch meat.  Conch is a delicacy of the Bahamas. The shell is broken to extract the meat so the shells are not worth keeping and were old and bleached anyway. We found live conch shells in the shallow water along a beach on our first trip to the Bahamas when we sailed to North and South Bimini. They really are a lovely shell with different degrees of pinks on the inside.  While there, Mal found bits and pieces to make a dummy machine gun.  He thought that it might be a good idea to ward off pirates.  We were later told that if one aimed the fake machine gun at them, they would assume it was real and shoot with their real weapons!  

Mal was rather proud of his fake machine gun!

On the 20 November we sailed to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, on New Providence Island. Diego and Mal had both ordered parts and arranged for them to be picked up at Nassau so we planned to stay for a couple of days and explore the area. We anchored off Nassau in their main channel. We walked the main street and found a grocery store, marine shops etc and their fish markets which were very interesting.   

The channel, where we were anchored had a gravel and sand bottom.  We thought we had a good hold.  One night we woke up with a bang and a thud.  We rushed up to the deck, only to find that we had dragged and had hit an 80ft white boat moored in the marina.  Everything was quiet, so we started our engines and re-anchored.  Early the next morning, Mal checked out the hull of the white boat in the dingy.  There was no damage!  We had hit the large stainless steel anchor plate, thank heavens, and there wasn't a scratch.  That was a close one and we breathed a sigh of relief!!!

There is a very impressive resort called “Atlantis” which we visited. It was quite amazing and its architecture is just what you would imagine Atlantis would be like. It has an amazing aquarium, its own exclusive marina, and huge man made beaches and pools. Our stay in Nassau was for one week.

From Nassau, we motor sailed over to the northern tip of the Exhumas - Allans Cay for a night, then Warderick Wells for another night. We then stayed at Staniel Cay for a couple of days until a very strong south westerlie wind changed. There was a little marina and grocery store and internet access so our stay was enjoyable.

From there, we anchored for a night a Lee Stocking Island and then made our way to Georgetown towards the southern end of the Exhumas.

 

 

August, September and October 2008

We continued working on “Hasta La Vista” throughout the remainder of August, September and October. Our Tomos motorbike was off the boat and was our transport. Each day Mal would head off with a list of items to buy from marine and hardware shops and return to complete the jobs for the day. The work on the air-conditioning and the cushions for the dinette were completed. The washing machine was delivered and installed by Mal and I. We had the mattresses on the bunks recovered and continued our cleaning, polishing and repairing.

In September, we felt we needed a break as living on “Hasta La Vista” allowed us to work ten hours a day, seven days a week which we did. There was always a new job to tackle! We hired a car and drove over to the west coast of Florida, North, back to the East coast and south to Fort Lauderdale again. This trip lasted three days as we found there was not much to see except high risers and freeways but it was a nice break. In October, we joined an “Autumn Colours” coach tour. We flew to Boston and then travelled on an organised coach tour through seven states of New England. We really enjoyed our tour; there was an excellent tour guide and a lovely crowd on the coach, most our age. The coach travelled a couple of hours each day so we had a lot of time to explore cities, towns and fishing villages and saw some wonderful autumn views. At the end of the tour, Mal and I flew to New York and spent three days in Manhattan. Mal had already been there but I hadn’t. Our accommodation was in a boutique hotel just across from the northern end of Central Park. We walked some of the streets of Manhattan, Fifth Avenue and the shopping district, the Theatre District and the Financial District. We passed the site of 7/11. We went to the top floor (87th) of the Empire State Building and on a harbour cruise where we viewed the Statue of Liberty. We visited a native American display in the old Customs building and toured the building and generally saw as much of Manhattan as we possibly could in two and a half days. There was just too much to do in too little time. 

Sailboat Bend on The New River, Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale

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After we returned from the Bahamas, we discovered that we could tie up along a riverside dock at Sailboat Bend on the New River in downtown Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale. This mooring cost the same amount as the mooring buoy and we had online power, water and cable television, access to rubbish bins and a laundry.  We were in the city with the Entertainment Centre and the Museum of Discovery and Science, which included an Imax Theatre.  All were opposite to where we were docked. We were close to shops, bars and restaurants and any contractors could step from the shore directly onto “Hasta La Vista”.

Our short trip to North and South Bimini, Bahamas

The Bahamas is a 700 mile long archipelago. The extensive chain of islands or cays (pronounced keys), for the most part are low and rocky, surrounded by coral reefs and sandbanks through and around which channels lead into the most perfect harbours and coves. The crystal clear water ranges in colour from a translucent midnight blue off to the palest of blues and bottle greens close in shore.

In mid August, we motor sailed to North and South Bimini, The Bahamas, and stayed for three nights, then motor sailed back to Las Olas on the fourth day. We were required to exit America and then return, so that we could apply for our "Cruising Permit".  It was just like sailing the Whitsunday passage going out with 5/10 knot winds. It took us 7 ½ hours to get there and 5 ½ hours to get back. We were disappointed with both North and South Bimini. We weren’t quite sure what to expect. When reading the travel books, they write about marinas, restaurants, bars etc. They are there but nowhere near the standard that one expects. Anyway we enjoyed our time away. The water was aqua blue and the visability was 100 feet or more. We could see the shadow of Hasta La Vista on the bottom of the ocean as we were sailing! Just amazing! We moored the second day at the top of North Bimini. We were the only boat moored there and the water was glassed out all day. It really was just wonderful.

Our New Home

We moved on to Hasta La Vista on Thursday 31 July and spent the night at the dock where she had been delivered and then moved to a mooring buoy near the Fort Lauderdale City Marina in Las Olas which is in a canal that runs parallel to the beach. We were close to shops and restaurants and had a nice breeze blowing through the boat at all times.

We registered “Hasta La Vista” as an Australian vessel and because “Hasta La Vista” is a foreign vessel, we were only permitted to stay initially in Fort Lauderdale for three months. We were required to leave the US and come back in to obtain our US Cruising permit or just keep going. We decided to clear customs as soon as our Australian registration was ready and spend a week in the Bahamas and then come back in to obtain our cruising permit and have most of the work on the boat completed in Fort Lauderdale before sailing to the Bahamas and then south in November/December.

Duduza / Hasta La Vista

 

We became proud owners of “Duduza”, which immediately became "Hasta La Vista" (“See you later” in Spanish) on 23 July 2008, only four weeks after we arrived in the US! Everything just seemed to fall into place. “Hasta La Vista” is a 46ft Fountain Pajot Bahia (24ft beam) with a large cockpit, spacious saloon and galley, four double cabins with ensuites and one single bunk. We arranged for the boat to be delivered to a mooring right next door to where we were living in our apartment. This was ideal, as it gave us a week to get “Hasta La Vista” organised, ready for our move aboard at the end of July.

On delivery to the mooring beside our apartment, Mal noticed that the stern was quite a lot lower than the bow which meant there was a lot of weight on board. There were 10 diving tanks on the stern that had to go and a very heavy inflatable dingy but that didn't seem to explain the weight. On investigation on the first day of officially owning her, we discovered 11 years of accumulated possessions by three owners. There was diving gear, water skis, surf skis, old linen, crockery, bread makers, eskys, old bent parts and numerous other items from years gone by. We cleared the gear by hiring a trash/second hand collector who went away that day with a full tip truck of old and grubby items.

Our second day was spent exploring each cavity to establish what else was on board. There was every spare part that you could think of. “Hasta La Vista” is fully air-conditioned but the system was not working so that was our first job; to organise an inspection and a quote to repair. Mal and I also made a list of the repairs, replacements and changes we wanted to make before we left Fort Lauderdale for the Caribbean.

During our first week, organising quotes and jobs to be carried was a priority, in between commencing the cleaning of every inch of “Hasta La Vista”. We also shopped for crockery, cutlery and other items for the galley, linen and work tools, hardware and marine parts. We installed a radar, commissioned the air-conditioning water chillers to be replaced, ordered new seats for the saloon and a new inflatable dingy and outboard. Mal installed a flat screen TV and DVD and plans were made to rebuild the galley oven and microwave unit, install a washing machine as well as generally replace every ageing item on "Hasta La Vista”. Mal bought new tools and equipment for the work he needed to carry out and a 49cc “Tomos” motorbike to put on board for transport when we are down island.

Shopping for a Catamaran

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On arrival, we contacted boat brokers and arranged to view the available catamarans as soon as possible. The reason being, that on talking to boat brokers, we realised that there were not many catamarans around let alone catamarans for sale. We had a choice of three in Florida, one in the Bahamas and then there were a couple for sale in the Caribbean. After looking at two and being very disappointed at the presentation of the boats, let alone the price that they wanted for these vessels that were terribly neglected, we asked to have a look at “Duduza”, a 46ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran, three hours north of where we were living in Fort Lauderdale. “Duduza” was neglected and dirty but had a lot of new equipment on board and the vessel was in fairly good order. We made an offer quite a bit below the asking price and after some negotiation; the vendor accepted our second offer. Buying a boat is not as simple as it is in Australia. First of all, liens can be placed against a boat if the owner has not settled his debts or has borrowed against it as security. Secondly, most boats are owned by companies. This is so that, when sued, only the company can be sued and not the individual owner/s. We were advised by the boat broker to contract a “Boat documentation company” to carry out searches on the vessel, arrange for the release and re-registration and take care of any customs documentation that was required because we were buying a foreign registered vessel (“Duduza” was registered in the British Virgin Islands) and we were registering her as an Australian owned and registered vessel. That worked out very well, as we had no idea of how to go about doing any of the above, except for the Australian registration, but as the Documentation company offered to take care of this all inclusive, then why not? We also needed a postal address to receive confirmation for all of the above, the receipt of insurance policies and other documentation. The Documentation Company gave us the website address of a company who would allocate a mail bag at their address and set up an account on their website. For a small monthly fee, they accept mail on your behalf, list the details of the mail received, and forward it to another address when requested via their website. On setting this up for Mal and I, we also discovered that they would also open mail, scan it and place the scanned document on their website, accessible through your account of course. The result being that we could read our mail on line. We signed up and you can imagine how useful this has been, not only providing a residential address for us in the US but enabling us to access mail either on line or arrange for it to be forwarded wherever we are on our travels. We hired a car after two weeks of being in Fort Lauderdale as taxiing and walking was not an efficient way to source the best places for marine purchases when the time came. In the end, we hired the car for four weeks and we could not have done without it. Mal became very confident driving on the other side of the road. I, however, did not become a very comfortable passenger on the other side of the car and I used my break (foot on the floor) all the time!

First Impressions

People are ever so friendly and polite. Wherever you go, they will say good morning or good afternoon and it is always “Sir” or “Maam”. Most things are cheaper – up to half the price!! But then we have to account personally for the exchange rate from the US dollar to Aus Dollars when we buy. There aren’t bakeries, newsagencies, bottle shops, grocery stores just around the corner – quite strange!! One has to travel to shopping centre and even then, there are no newsagencies! Light switches go from down to up and not up to down like Australia and electrical power points don’t have an on/off switch at all. It is against the law in most of the states of the US to hang your wet washing outside! We can’t quite get used to the tipping system and are still trying to work it out plus whatever we buy, a 6% sales tax is added onto the price displayed. We found it difficult and inconvenient not having our own transport. Taxis and buses were readily available but it would have been nice to have our own car!!! Street addresses are North West/South/East Street and 1st 2nd....Street, really weird and hard to adjust to especially when I have no sense of direction!! We found that Australian wine was readily available and at very reasonable prices. I made it a habit of buying ‘Yellow Tail’. Accents – Mal and I are still trying to get used to accents and the way of talking. I think many of the people we come into contact with think of us as being aliens and find us quite difficult to talk to and understand. And most people assume that we are from England!

The Apartment

The living room of our apartment.

 

The apartment was on a canal and this was the view from our living room window.

We had been taxiing/walking discovering Fort Lauderdale on arriving. Fort Lauderdale is situated on man-made waterways/canals with a huge number of very expensive cabin cruisers, monohulls and very few catamarans moored along the waterways and in the many marinas. They actually call it the “Venice of America”!

During the first week of our stay, we were looking at boats along a canal and Mal noticed that there was a one bedroom apartment for rent, short or long term. We arranged to have a look, rented it on a month by month basis and moved in only four days after we had arrived. It was old, with 60’s decor, but clean, comfortable, totally self contained and on a canal, so the outlook was very pleasant and Mal said “NO TRAFFIC NOISE!!” (For those of you who don’t know, the traffic noise where we lived in Airlie Beach was horrendous!) The apartment was within walking distance to the beach, restaurants, shops, bus stops and downtown Las Olas which is a very trendy part of Fort Lauderdale.

The weather was hot and humid. The apartment had full air-conditioning and we had it going 24 hours a day. We were also getting afternoon thunderstorms, the type that one experiences in the tropics when it is really hot and humid!

Our trip to the USA

 24 June 2008

Airlie Beach, Whitsunday, Qld, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The trip to Los Angeles (QANTAS) was enjoyable but it was a long trip. Our flight departed at 11am and was approximately 13 hours. We dozed but didn’t sleep so were really tired when we arrived. The first connecting flight which was to Dallas left four hours after we arrived in LA and following that, there was another connecting flight from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale. We were warned that customs could be quite horrendous. As it happens, on arriving in LA, we first went through a passport check at which time, after some discussion, our passports were stamped with a one year visa. It seems that, even though we had a five year visa approved, we could only have our passport stamped from time to time, with a one year maximum. So be it! We will deal with the next stage when it happens. We then made our way through many buildings and many queues to the next terminal, where we were pulled aside for a full luggage and body search. As tickets for flights are issued, the computer selects people at random, and our tickets had been targeted!! It wasn’t as bad as we expected and the body search consisted of a “feeling down’’ and the luggage search was just checking for drug powder residue with a wet wipe.

The second stage of our trip to Dallas was a three hour flight. As you can imagine, we were getting more tired and more weary. The Dallas airport was amazing, with skyrails connecting each terminal. We had a half hour before we connected to the last of our flights to Fort Lauderdale which was a two and a half hour flight. So total flying hours and the connection time was approximately 27 hours!!

On arriving, (11pm US time) we had a few drinks, something basic to eat and then crashed. I have experienced jet lag before but not with this difference in the time zone. We were fourteen hours behind Queensland time and eight days later, we were still trying to adjust!!

We had booked into the Fort Lauderdale Grande initially for two nights. Fort Lauderdale Grande is located on one of the main waterways in Fort Lauderdale and is surrounded by marinas, bars and restaurants. We extended our stay to four nights and three days while we organised a US mobile telephone number and an internet connection. We contacted boat brokers and enquired about somewhere a little less expensive to stay. The Grande was very luxurious, but we were so busy organising things and catching up on sleep that we really didn’t have time to enjoy our stay.