Georgetown

It seems one of the hardest things about this lifestyle is planning ahead for friends. This might be the single largest difference between vanlife and boatlife… especially because for the last few years we focused specifically on making our travels work around key events and timelines in our friends’ lives.

We knew we had open schedules and the freedom to go where/when we wanted while our friends had a more more fixed schedule… which meant we could intentionally make ourselves available for key events in our friends’ lives (or even just be nearby when we knew they had a light load and would be free to play). It never interrupted our travels because we didn’t wander far from the PNW and could easily hop north to Vancouver, BC or south to Santa Barbara as opportunities allow or dictated. It may have been an odd lifestyle to many, but it worked well for us!

Now, our movements and “hops” from one place to another are largely determined by weather windows. Before moving onto the boat i’m not even sure we knew what that meant, much less had an understanding of exactly how at the mercy of the weather and weather cycles we would be now.

We also miss our friends horribly, so we would do anything to get them to plan a trip and come see us. It was actually part of the selling point of this lifestyle when we first discussed buying this boat a couple months ago. We had wished our entire lives that we knew friends who lived on a boat in the islands so that we could plan our vacations around it… certainly our friends would feel the same if we were in fact, those friends living on a boat in the islands! ;)

But… when someone actually shows interest - it turns out it’s quite difficult to make plans because we in fact have no idea when or where we’ll be in a few months (much less a few days). Turns out there’s an immediate hurdle of trying to match what we know is a timeline for buying cheap flights and aligning schedules created with jobs and personal commitments back home that meets head-on with what is a very difficult time on our end being able to tell them where or when to meet us, especially because even as new sailors we’ve already learned that the easiest/biggest way to get in trouble when sailing is to have a schedule or a commitment that leads you to make bad decisions you wouldn’t ordinarily make.

Most other cruisers we’ve talked to have drawn a very clear line around this issue. They tell everyone back home that they are welcome to come visit, and that they can choose EITHER when OR where. If they choose where, the cruisers will give them 2 weeks notice of when so they can book flights. If the choose when, the cruisers will give then 2 weeks notice or where they should book those flights to.

We originally thought that was absurd and unfair. That it was both standoffish and unaccommodating to guests/friends… but then as we planned our gulf stream crossing and had friends interested in joining us in/around Nassau we began to realize just how important that structure is (albeit, still fairly unaccommodating for those back home).

Regardless… this time we were thrilled that a couple of friends not only understood the constraints and willing to work around them, it might be the only thing that kept us moving south to more islands - knowing that there were very few airports choices and that if we didn’t keep moving we might well find our selves having to head back to the states for hurricane season instead of continuing south (an idea we’ve never been fond of on any level).

We sailed into Georgetown knowing that it wasn’t going to be our “cup of tea” but knowing that the airport and other stores/opportunities would make it worth it (besides… for a chance to pickup friends, it was an easy choice).

Georgetown is commonly known as “chicken harbor”… its the point far enough down the Bahamas that many, many cruisers find themselves here and then never move any further. After Georgetown, islands and anchorages become fewer and further between, which makes sailing a bit more of an adventure, but the culture here also grabs on to many sailors and never lets them go (at least until the end of the season when they all turn around and head back north to the states).

For people looking for a community of other sailors with frequent events, a full social schedule and never a dull moment… this place is perfect. Every week is like being on a cruise, with a full itinerary to choose from - whether it be dominos, texas hold ‘em, water aerobics, or nightly trips to the bar… there’s never a dull moment in Georgetown if you choose to leave your boat and go find it.

There’s also “the Net”, which is a daily VHF briefing that goes through the daily schedule, discusses opportunities to meet other sailors, safety tips, the ability to buy/sell boat items, ask for help with repairs… you name it - the Net has it. Every boat radio in the bay (which is, at least right now easily hundreds of them) tunes in first thing in the morning for the daily net and hear what’s going on that day.

It’s very helpful… at least the first day you pull into the area. After that it almost became a humorous chance to listen to peoples’ odd social interactions and grievances. The oddest part of Georgetown, for us… is that most people in this lifestyle seem to have left home to remove themselves from the old lifestyle. But then they find themselves in a place like Georgetown where they try to recreate almost exactly the social structure, rules and society that they worked so hard to leave back home (except for maybe now they get to be in charge of it). ;)

We knew going in it wasn’t going to be for us, so despite the fact we had a friend boat in Elizabeth Harbor (right in the middle of the “action”) we stayed on the outskirts as best we could while still accomplishing some of the boat work we needed to do and provisioned/prepped for the arrival of our friends. We settled into a tiny bay tucked in between two tiny islands known as “Red Shanks” and despite the fact we were a quick dinghy ride to town (and we could listen to the net for morning entertainment) still felt as though we were anchored off a tiny island with only 2 other boats. Perfect!

We knocked out some boat projects (including sadly replumbing one of our heads, which has been causing us more and more problems… I’ll try to avoid the old “its a shitty job” joke, but it was certainly by far not our favorite part of living on a boat), but also managed to spear a couple huge mutton snapper outside the harbor, which considering there’s no spearfishing allowed inside the harbor, made us thrilled as we’d already prepped ourselves to have to buy fish for the first time in a long while.

On Jen’s birthday we pulled up anchor, went back to Elizabeth Harbor and even drank some bubbles - because, well… it was her birthday. While anchored here we did our major provisioning, essentially filling the boat with everything we would need to host and feed our friends (arriving tomorrow for 10 days) - and then joined our boat friends for a beach bbq they were throwing on a beach nearby known as flip flop (while we seem to be less-than-social, they happen to be quite the social mavens) where we enjoyed the campfire and sundowners while meeting several other cruisers who have been hanging out in the bay and/or are passing through like us.

At this party we also connected some strange Bahamas “dots”. I don’t even know how it hit us, but at one point we’re standing on the beach talking to a salty old sailor who’s been coming to these islands for (who knows how long), and as he’s telling one of his stories we realize that we’ve heard of this guy. Ian had told us about “Jewfish John” weeks ago as though it was an old pirates’ fable and we hadn’t thought twice about it until we were picking something up at Staniel Cay Yacht Club and saw an old faded photo of a guy on the wall with a massive fish bigger than he was and at the bottom of the pic, written in also faded ink were the words “jewfish John”. Now, here we are, standing on a beach talking to the man himself. And here he is, still sailing, still fishing and still hanging out on and around the beaches of the Bahamas. Awesome.

We finally retreated to the boat trying to escape the mosquitoes we had heard would wreck the beach party after dark and enjoyed a bit of quiet time in preparation of picking up our friends the following day.