Thursday 14th December

Monument, Stocking Island, Georgetown.

23 31.96 N
75 46.54 W

We had planned on an 07.00hrs start to the day to make sure we arrived at Georgetown before dark – everyone had told us that the channel into the harbour at Georgetown was a bit tricky to navigate. Unfortunately the wind was still howling at 07.00hrs. We prepared everything for leaving, Gerry received a weather fax via the satellite phone which said that the winds would be 15 knots and the seas 2- feet out through the other side of the cut, so armed with this information we decided to bite the bullet and set off. The trip for today involved going through a break in the Exuma island chain which would take us from the Exuma Banks to the Exuma Sound body of water – this was The Galliot Cut. We hauled our anchor up and began motoring towards the cut and almost immediately received a call on the radio from one of the other yachts that anchored with us overnight asking if we could give them a weather update. We told them what we had and said that we would let them know what it looked like once we were the other side of the cut. When we called them back we told them that the wind was 18 – 20 knots, the seas about 7 feet and that we thought the trip to Georgetown would probably be an uncomfortable one. We continued to monitor the radio and were amused to hear our information being relayed to several other boats in or approaching the area – we had become the weather Guru’s for the day! It also amused us to hear comments about ourselves – one boat said that he thought we must be “the Australian couple that we met in Nassau (?) –who were heading home to Australia” Another comment was made that we didn’t seem to be too worried by the 7 foot waves! (well we have been in worse), to which a reply came “ well if they are Australians they probably cut their teeth sailing in Tasmanian waters” (if only they knew we are die hard Queenslanders who prefer to sail the Whitsundays!). Anyway at the end of it all no one else followed us out of the cut, they all elected to stay until the weather was calmer. We ended up having to motor all the way to Georgetown as the wind was on our nose and we were bouncing through the waves, so much so that at one point I was thrown across the cockpit and ended up on the floor – it didn’t help my already painful back. The waves stayed pretty big for all but the last hour of our trip, I’m telling you Disneyland, Wet and wild, Seaworld etc. have nothing on a trip on our boat – maybe we could market it to appeal to the thrill seekers and make our fortune. Just for your amusement picture trying to sit on the toilet which is bouncing up 7 feet in the air and then dropping away beneath you 7 feet, it’s bad enough to leave you constipated for ever! Men have it so easy at times – not having to negotiate going below in the first place and also not having to sit on the toilet to use it must make life so very much more comfortable, no wonder most sailors are men!!
The highlight of the trip was seeing a dolphin fish (not a dolphin) leap out of the water chasing a flying fish, it was a beautiful iridescent blue on top and silver underneath which reflected the sun, unfortunately it was just too far away for us to catch! I don’t know if it caught the flying fish or not, we only saw it the once. As we were only making an average of 3.5knots we didn’t even both with a fishing line – we were unlikely to catch anything at that speed, but I will get Gerry to throw out a line eventually.
We reached the entrance to Georgetown Harbour just as the sun was setting and I took a couple of pictures of the sunset sky over Goat Cay as it was very pretty. We managed to negotiate the channel without any problems and elected to anchor at the first anchoring spot which was off of Monument Cay. It was an easy spot to anchor and we spent a peaceful, if breezeless night there.
Update: Gerry’s burns have split the skin now but are looking OK. – He’ll live!