Too windy to dinghy to Georgetown

Note* over the last couple of times with Wifi I've added a few photos to the 7 blog posts I'd posted without photos from Exuma Cayes Land and Sea Park. There are some photos out of sequence added to the wrong post. Also it's still slow internet in Georgetown but a lot better than the Park.
Anyway..back to the present.

We had met an interesting single harder sailor on New Year's Day when we took the dinghy to the beach on Stocking Island. He was also on the beach oil painting. Later he stopped by our boat to ask if any of us wanted to go snorkeling at a nearby patch reef. Candace and I went with and it was ok but a bit murky. Then we ended up visiting his boat and cracking open coconuts. I like coconut water but really don't care for the 'meat'. Later when he brought us back to Asperida and we were taking and suddenly were thinking of heading to town to check out the evening scene. Actually it was already well past sunset so More like checking out the night scene the night after we years? As we were waiting for him to come back we nixed the idea and invited him to just have soup and more conversation. The conversation got very metaphysical. He has lived on his boat, a 50' ketch, for 14 years. He had volunteer crew but lost them in Boot Key Harbor as they were off to Haiti by plane to volunteer with a reforestation project. Candace is also volunteering in southern Haiti at an orphanage in Les Cayes which is on the mainland 6.5 miles across from Ile a' Vache.

We are anchored near Stocking Island which is the barrier island parallel to Great Exuma Island that creates Elizabeth Harbor. There are a lot of anchoring options and the cruising guide says at times nearly 500 cruising boat are anchored here. We are in a cluster of about 20 boats give or take as they come and go. We are within view of another much bigger cluster and other clusters are closer to Georgetown. Closer to town are mostly catamarans or shallower draft boats. We have a 1.25 mile crossing to reach Georgetown. It was a wet dinghy ride back after our time in town yesterday as its been getting windier since the evening of New Year's Day. It's supposed to peak early Sunday with gusts to 35 knots. That's according to the Grib files but our new friend Steve who gets his weather from Chris Parker says gusts will be 40 knots. I'm sure we will be get to town once more before we set out again, but it won't be today or tomorrow. So far our 45 pound Manson Supreme is holding great...though a boat the size of Asperida should use about a 65 pound anchor. Tonight and tomorrow morning will be a good test.

As we were on the beach yesterday Candace went off jogging and her turn around point was a little beach bar/restaurant called Chat & Chill. Candace has us all making a fish shaped sign for Asperida to hang near the Chat & Chill. They have one of those posts with signs pointing the direction and indicating the distance to different cities and countries from here. There is one or two that just say the name of a boat but dozens and dozens pointing to places with distances. I think we will try eating there when the sign is ready? It needs only the lettering painted on it and an eye for the fish. OK Candace painted the fish sign this morning but I haven't put the photos on my iPad. We ended up going to town this afternoon and hence I'm posting this.. I'll write one about the sign and post it later.. Here's a few photos from earlier.









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Location:Anchored near Stocking Island across from Georgetown, Bahamas

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