Friday, January 28, 2011 Georgetown, Great Exuma

I got up, put the coffee on the stove, and watched sunrise as it rose over monument hill. The sky changed from dark gray to pink to golden amber, casting the monument in shadow. It never ceases to amaze me how each sunrise can be soooo uniquely beautiful.
I listened to the weather and the Georgetown Cruiser’s Net on channel 72. Each morning at 8am it starts with the weather, then opens to local business announcements, community announcements, boaters general, then new arrivals and departures from Georgetown. Elizabeth Harbor transforms into a community of cruisers of all nationalities that Great Exuma seems to cater to and thrive with. Quite a few boaters head down and spend their winters here. There’s a self-selected committee that sets up activities from volleyball games, art classes, yoga, boating seminars, picnics, clean-up activities and of course the regatta at the end of February, beginning of March. It’s a unique community of water gypsies that self-police and celebrate the locals and the kindred spirits that gather here each year. It’s quite the eclectic band of souls that travel together, or alone, then meet up to swap tales, share life for a while, then move on again. Each boat/person has their own destination and personal stories to share and hold close to their hearts.
Ah, coffee is never so good as when watching the sunrise in a peaceful harbor at the end of January!
Today Skip (from Flying Pig) gave a talk on wireless communications at Volleyball Beach. We attended, hoping to learn some things for Azaya on their SSB but it was really pretty much about wireless communications. We heard a hail for Tamarah Sue! That means that Tammy & Joe are in the harbor somewhere! We have a bottle of wine to share with them when we run into them (Joe was my partner in the grape stomping contest).
After the Skip’s seminar I joined Mary Clare & Axel for a walk up to the Monument. I’d forgotten what a steep climb it can be, but it didn’t take as long as I remember it from the first time (two years ago). The view of the anchorage and the surrounding islands floating in various shades of aqua, green, midnight blue and sky blue is still breath taking. You can look out on the sound and see breakers over the coral that surround the island. Little islands of brown coral washed over by the aqua colored waves with their foaming white crests.
From the monument, we walked down to the beach (Oceanside) collecting shells and followed the beach down to St. Francis, where we stopped for a rest. Then we walked back towards the Peace and Plenty on Hamburger Beach stopping to take a brief dip in the water before figuring out what trails in the hills would take us back to the boat. It was a fairly decent hike up and down Monument Hill and its brother hill, down the beach and back.
I’d worked up an appetite so after sponging off the salt from my body I made a hearty dinner of ground beef, onion, and peppers with a mushroom gravy over garlic mashed potatoes with corn. It really hit the spot & now I’m stuffed! Time to rest…