George Town tale: I was knifed on Volleyball beach

Elizabeth Harbor in George Town, nicknamed ‘Chicken Harbor’ for the amount of boats that are semi-permanently anchored (and don’t go anywhere else), is full of boats during high season (Jan-April).  The anchorage is actually across the harbor from the George Town settlement and has a life of its own- for better or worse.  Many anchored here do not and will not interact with the Bahamians on the mainland unless they are ordering a drink or paying for propane.  The hub of activity on the boat side of the harbor, not surprisingly, is centered around a beach bar named Chat n’ Chill.  There are permanent volleyball courts installed next to the bar and daily volleyball games (giving the beach the name volleyball beach).  There are also plenty of picnic tables to lounge around and open space for kids and dogs to play.  (There is also a conch salad shack- which makes the best conch salad around!  The discarded conch attracts sting rays- which swim right up to the beach- pretty cool.)

Our stay in Elizabeth Harbor has included quite a few trips from our anchorage to Volleyball beach.  And although we don’t really participate in the PLETHURA of organized activities, we did get caught up in the week of the cruiser’s regatta. The regatta is a 7-10 day blitz of activities ranging from very serious big boat racing to a whacky coconut harvest to coconut boat races.  The coconut boat race is where my foot and a blade crossed paths...

During the lead-up to the coconut boat race, a fellow cruiser organized a coconut boat making workshop.  Not really the workshop you might imagine, but more like 4 picnic tables full of power tools, sticks and coconuts, and kids and adults everywhere…using powertools…with bare feet.  Sweet 8-year-old  Eli, Cyrus’ best buddy on Whistling Cay, was standing next to me, trying to pry the flesh out from an opened coconut with a mutli-plier knife. I remember Eli saying, “Oh no!” and looking down at my foot where the knife was sticking straight up from what looked like between my 3^rd and 4^th toes.  I thought at first that the knife was simply between my toes, but when I bent down to pick it up, I noticed that it was stuck through my foot.  Eli, who is the nicest kid around, and of course would be the last person to ever hurt anyone, was mortified and more upset than I was.  Nathan, Eli’s dad, and Tyler came over and offered to pull the knife out, but I knew that I had to do it myself.  I removed the knife and looked up and realized that I had a 400 meter trek across the beach to clean out the wound.  Wendy, Eli’s mom, helped me across the sand and eventually out to her dinghy and boat and their amazing first aid kit.  There is a clinic in George Town, however, it was closed-of course- emergencies do not happen during normal business hours.  My treatment on Whistling Cay was awesome, however, and I don’t think the George Town clinic would have served me rum drinks with my ibuprofen.

..and now I can say I was knifed on Volleyball beach.

G-Town

It is 8am and everyone on the boat is still asleep- except for me of course.  A typical morning on Mirage begins with me quietly making coffee and straightening up the boat while everyone, including Zander, snores away in the V-berth.    This morning I am sitting in the cockpit, looking back at the boats we played on last night.  We are currently anchored in Red Shanks, which is about 5nm south of George Town in the Exumas.  We are here to wait out some crazy weather that is predicted- which, so far, we have not seen any part of.  This smaller anchorage feels remote compared to where we’ve been for about a month- more on why that happened later- but there are still about 18 boats anchored near one another, wind generators whipping away, kids playing, VHF radios on, and I can see cars driving by on the mainland.  “Remote” is relative here.

So is time, which is truly the reason why my blog posts have fizzled.  I’d like to say I haven’t posted because of major internet problems or lack of battery power on my laptop, but in actuality, island time has a good hold on all of the crew of Mirage.  Days melt away somehow here- it has nothing to do with Rum or margaritas- but there is a “Jimmy Buffet song” sense to cruising the Bahamas.

We are anchored in Red Shanks with four other “kid boats” – which seems high, but is actually a fraction of the kid boats in the main George Town anchorages.  The Bahamas are very much a kid and dog paradise.  You can imagine kids swimming, zipping around on dinghies, running around exploring beaches and islands- endless opportunities for fun.  It was very easy to get “stuck” here in George Town after seeing only 1-2 kid boats travelling down the Exumas.

We all know that our time here is fleeting, however.  We, and everyone else we’ve been getting to know, must move on soon.  Some boats will be lucky enough to be able to sail further south.  Some, like us, will turn north and head, slowly, back to the states to work and look forward to another sailing season. 

But, for the moment, we are talking one more little trip south and west to the Jumentos.  I’m not sure if it will actually happen, but the diving and fishing is supposed to be some of the best in the Bahamas.  Tyler has been diving more often- free diving- not scuba- and has yet to spear a fish.  The temptation to travel just a little further and find that illusive ‘big one’ is great.  We shall see if reality or fishing wins.