22 May 2007

Adios amigo.

May 22, 2007



Catching up over some beers in the cockpit (and avoiding the rain!)

This morning at 6AM we said goodbye to Matt as he got in the taxi to start his journey back to Maine after spending a week with us here in George Town. We spent the week dodging raindrops, and although the daily thunderstorms and squalls constrained us to Elizabeth Harbour in George Town, we found plenty of activities to occupy our time.


The sky switched from this to sunny in a matter of hours all week.

We spent a lot of time at the beach on Stocking Island: swimming, walking, hiking around on the trails, getting pummeled by the waves, drinking cold beers, watching a guy kite-surf and so on.



Taking advantage of a sunny spot in the day to hang out at the beach.


Hanging out on the beach. Kristen forgot her hat so took the opportunity to impersonate Lawrence of Arabia.

We spent one day on a pub-crawl of Great Exuma Island, hitchhiking our way north and stopping off for lunch at a small restaurant and stopping off at bars along the way when it started downpouring. In Rolleville, we met the owner of the D class sailboat “Fugitive” which he’ll be taking to the Long Island Regatta in a few days. They were so happy in Rolleville that some tourists (us) came to their town, that he gave us a ride halfway back to George Town and then some “Fugitive” hats for souvenirs. The next car dropped us at “Three Sistas” bar where a Bahamian who knew how to say “thank you” in Swedish taught us how to play dominoes!




Congrats Matt! He got the ring on the hook at Peace & Plenty!

As soon as the skies cleared one afternoon, we hoisted anchor and had a beautiful sail to the Red Shank’s anchorage. On Sunday we waved our fists at the sky and sailed Whisper out of the cut to sail over some deep water (3000 feet). No one wanted to go swimming! The rain clouds made us change our course back to George Town where we spent the afternoon at the pig roast at the Chat-n-Chill restaurant.

We ended the week’s festivities last night engaged in a loud, raucous and heated debate with some Bahamians at Tino’s Bar just north of town. We originally went to watch the Red Sox/Yankees game, but stayed for a discussion that wandered from the 2008 election to Iraq to weather to war and finally to religion. The three of us were out of our league at that point!




Two sailors braving the waters of Elizabeth Harbour.

It was great to have Matt on board Whisper and to share our experiences with a friend. Tomorrow we’re going to start heading south to the Dominican Republic, making stops along the way at Long Island, Conception, Mayaguana and the Turks and Caicos. We’ll be without internet again for a while, perhaps not until we get to the Dominican Republic in a few weeks.