| December 2006 Georgetown to Montigo Bay, (update) Jamaica. We arrived in Georgetown, Great Exuma on the 16th of December 2006; the boat count was still in the thirties and that was testimony to how the weather had been treating us up to then. Normally there would have been be well over a hundred boats at this time but everyone was running behind schedule, spending days if not weeks, sheltering from one bout of windy weather after another. It was nice to reacquaint ourselves with old friends; Ron, Leslie and “T” were already in and packing their bags to spend Christmas back in Toronto. Norman, with “Walkabout” who we had met in the same location both three and four years previous; he was waiting for Ellie, his other half, to arrive from working in the U.S. “Seaquel” was there with George and Julie, who we had met many years previous in Sri Lanka. One thing about the cruising world is that you always have friends wherever you go! I was a little disappointed that we had had to use the motor so much getting here, especially on this last leg from Rudder Cut, I had umm’d and arrr’d about waiting till the next day when there was a promise of more wind. However when the next day came it was blowing twenty knots again and more East than promised so it was probably just as well that we had bitten the bullet. We had clocked up one thousand, three hundred and forty-five miles since leaving Coan River but it had been a hard time for the motor having done one hundred and seventy-seven hours. We had motored or motor-sailed more than half the distance to get here and that was a shock to our systems as we like to think of ourselves as ‘sailors’. Still, I noticed on the Radio that there were several boats that were in Florida with us, trying to get away; that were still in Florida and looking for a window. On the positive side we did the “Accountants shuffle” and decided to count our totals from January 1st to January 1st. This I’m sure will allow us to maintain our usual rate of ‘less than’ 1 hour per day for the year! There were a few changes in the Georgetown area since our last visit but not a lot. This part of the Bahamas is well away from the seat of government and change takes time to reach out this far into the islands. The St Francis Resort is now up and running in Gaviota Bay on Stocking Island. They have a nice Bar and Restaurant, which I guess is quite reasonable if you have a good pension coming in! I think that $2 for a coke is a bit heavy but we did have a couple whilst using their Internet Service, which came cheap at $1 per hour or $3 for the day. We even shared one of their Hamburgers at $8, which was a nice treat however not something we could afford to do too often. They also have Wi Fi for boats near to them in Gaviota Bay and a Laundry with Washers and Driers, this we found an improvement on carting all our washing over to Kidd’s Cove in the Dinghy. Over in Georgetown they now have free “RO” water on the dock and there is some pressure behind it. So gone are the days of waiting for a dribble of well water to fill your containers! There are now quite a few places in town doing Wi Fi and such like services so we found little need to use our Pocket Mail device or to use Batelco’s expensive phone cards! On the negative side of things there was much talk about increased restrictions on fishing, a total ban on taking Conch and a ban on using any type of fishing spear without having it endorsed on ones permit. This was all new regulation and still very much subject to change, it will no doubt be another year before everyone knows exactly where they are going on that one. There was more bad news in that they are starting to build on Crab Cay and have closed off Ruin Bay. As part of this development they are to build a bridge from Crab Cay to the Mainland and this will effectively close the back door to Red Shanks anchorage, a route used by many shoal draft vessels and much local traffic. There is talk afoot about laying moorings in Red Shanks and more moorings in Gaviota Bay plus up to one hundred between there and Hamburger Beach. If this were to occur, it would be a lot of moorings, I don’t know how the cruising community would receive it but it is noticeable that more and more of the regulars are now moving further south. For many of them the DR has become the “next best thing”. The price is right and the weather is less temperamental! We had a lovely Christmas lunch aboard “Seaquel” where George and Julie did a fantastic Roast Turkey dinner. We were also with Gale and Bob from “Star” (a Blue Bristol 38.8) so we were all Bristol Owners together! During the lull’s in the weather, when we got one that is! I went out with Norman in his dinghy and we usually managed to come back with a bucket full of Lobster etc. Sometimes it was tough going, especially when he was operating in over fifty feet of water! I was a little short on weight and very short on flipper power so that by the time I reached the bottom I was about spent and had to return to the surface with little to show for my efforts. Still, we did OK and were not short of food from the sea. We had New Year in Red Shanks and were guests at the Red Shanks Yacht and Tennis Club. There we met all sorts of gregarious people who were living up to the gregarious name of their club. Work wise, we went to town on the Rub Rail and the Toe Rail, I removed the Stainless and we scraped down to bare wood and then sanded till we were ready to coat. We managed to get five coats on everything, including the ‘eye-brows’ and the Dorade Boxes. It was not easy as we could never get away from the wind and the short chop, which made dinghy operations most difficult. At five we decided to let everything harden up for a while before proceeding further. There were many other jobs that we caught up on whilst in the Georgetown area but the most difficult one was for Paula, she had to sew up a new Spray Hood as the old one was falling apart. It is not easy to tackle such a major sewing project in such a confined space. Time moved on far to quickly but slowly we were getting on top of our ‘jobs list’. More friends arrived from the north, this time it was Geoff and Merel with Sifar, whom we had known from way back when we were cruising in Australia so many years ago; small world! It was really good to see them again especially as they were also headed for the Pacific. During our time together Geoff came over and gave us some instruction on Bread Making and since then we have been enjoying some superior bread. Not quite as good as what Geoff makes but well on the way! All to soon however it was time to make a move and a favorable window presented itself. We had by this time made friends with another cruising boat heading south, “Kindred Spirit” with Chris and Lyn aboard. They were aiming for Panama and on the same route as us going to take the north coast of Jamaica before heading south. We were both looking at the same window however Chris had some advantages over us; firstly they were a bigger and more powerful boat. Secondly he had a draft of less than two feet! Thus when we left to go south on Tuesday 30th January, Kindred Spirit went through Hog Cay Cut and we went round the Coamer Channel and added an extra four hours on to our journey. The tide was just wrong for us unfortunately but it goes to show the advantages of shallow draft. We managed to get off the banks to the SW of Long Island before nightfall and went on the wind most of the way to the Windward Passage. There was a period of three hours where we were forced to motor as the wind came right out of the south. It was frontal and eventually went round the clock and back to the East. Once in the Windward Passage we started to loose the wind and I made the mistake of getting West of our course line. What I should have done as the wind failed was to come up to the south and then motor in that direction until we got into the Caribbean wind system. As it was when we did pick up the wind it was ten knots more than what was forecast and right out of the South East. We went crashing to windward in what built up to be a really large and breaking sea. The boat did really well and we actually got to within twenty-five miles of Port Antonio before a block pulled out on the Vane Gear and I decided to run off before doing further damage. We finally made it into Ocho Rios in Jamaica on Saturday the 3rd of February and there we remained for four days. We managed quite well but for some time wished we were in Port Antonio, that was until we heard from “Kindred Spirit” that they were having Disco problems in Port Antonio and sleep was out of the question until almost sunrise! Ocho Rios was not without problems, some days they would have three Cruise Ships in and the anchorage area was in a small bay where they let the passengers loose with Jet Ski’s. They would go round and round us all day, always trying to get closer. We felt like Settlers on a Wagon Train encircled by Indians……… We did manage to get the Cockpit Coaming scraped down whilst here, and Sunday was a good day as there were no Cruise Ships. By Tuesday however we had had enough and were ready to move on. I went ashore and got a Clearance for Montigo Bay and the following day we bailed out. There was a nice breeze that came up late morning and we had quite a nice sail along what is quite a scenic coastline. Unfortunately our arrival in Montigo Bay coincided with some very heavy rain, which rather put a damper on things. We went down to the yacht basin and anchored as the wind was blowing in from the north and this basin gave the best protection. Once anchored, we retreated below to watch a movie and relax whilst the rain continued to cascade through till the early morning. So here we are in the Murder Capitol of the world, not one of our favorite places but a good place to be to make the ‘jump off’ south to Panama. We are ready to see new places and look forward to some challenging sailing. John & Paula |