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.