15 March 2019 Elizabeth Island to Georgetown, Exumas
After breakfast, we motored over to anchor off Georgetown. It was scarily shallow and, at one point, we touched the bottom causing me to quickly reverse off. We gave up trying to get close to the shore and anchored at 23 30.59N 075 45.59W in 3 metres depth on fabulous white sand. We’re about ½ mile from town, but that’s much closer than anchoring at Stocking Island.
We took the dinghy ashore and went for a walk around Georgetown, basically circling around the lagoon. After visiting the tourist souvenir market, we went to Peace & Plenty hotel for lunch. It was expensive at $25US per head for sandwiches and a soft drink, but the food was very good and we were in a lovely location looking out across the emerald water towards Stocking Island.
The afternoon was spent chilling out and packing suitcases. Craig brought an extra bag, so we filled that and another cargo bag with stuff that we no longer need on the boat. He’ll be storing it in his loft alongside the 15 boxes that we already store there.
At 17:00, I took Craig and Kristen ashore in the blustery conditions to catch a taxi. We managed to stay dry for most of the way, but unfortunately, as we approached the channel into the lagoon, a big wave caught us from behind, tipped us nose down, causing our heavily loaded dinghy to plunge into a wave, which sloshed over the front of the dinghy. We’d put the luggage into bin liners, but some of their bags were a bit wet.
Back at the boat, Glenys and I remained in the exposed anchorage overnight, which was okay.
16 March 2019 Georgetown to Monument Beach, Exumas
Having guests for a week had severely depleted our provisions, so we went ashore to do some shopping and dropped off a big bag of laundry, which I was able to pick up a few hours later. Later in the afternoon, we motored over to Stocking Island and anchored at 23°31.54N 075°45.90W off Monument Beach amongst 50 other boats. It’s a well-protected anchorage, but we’re not used to being in the middle of so many boats.
17 March 2019 Monument Beach to Elizabeth Island, Exumas
We had a very quiet night, but the anchorage is far too crowded for us, so we upped anchor and moved down to Elizabeth Island again. The anchorage is a little more exposed and a bit bouncy, but there are only two other boats here.
Time is marching on and we want to head off to the East Coast of the USA soon, but the weather isn’t playing ball. There’s a front coming through on the 20th, which will send the wind around the clock with at least 24 hours of westerly winds. We don’t want to be in any of the anchorages further north because they are totally unprotected from that direction, so it looks like we’ll be stuck here until Thursday, 21st and even then, we might be motoring into north winds to get moving.
We sent most of the morning looking at alternative routes to get to Florida. Our original intention was to sail to Cape Canaveral, but it looks like the canal leading to the Intracoastal Waterway has shoaled to less than 5 feet and we won’t be able to get through. Another option is West Palm Beach, which is one of the closer ports and has a customs office in the port, but we’d be a lot further south and have an extra 2-3 days of motoring up the boring Intracoastal Waterway.
After a lot of debate, we’ve decided to make our landfall at the Ponce de Leon Inlet. It’s not a big ship port, but the channel looks to be fairly well marked and isn’t too shallow. Customs and Immigration are at Daytona Beach airport, which is about 12 miles away, so we’ll have to sort out the logistics of getting there to clear in. We have a friend, Tony Uragello, who lives in the area, so we might be able to impose on him.
So, our plan is to leave here in a few days’ time, stopping at three anchorages along the Exumas. We’ll leave the Exumas at Highbourne Cay and have a 32 mile passage across the shallow White Bank, for which we need good weather and good light. Once we get into the Tongue of the Ocean, we can either stop for the night at the west end of New Providence Island or carry on a further 320 miles to Ponce de Leon Inlet, which will be two nights at sea. Hopefully, we’ll be in Florida by the end of March.
18 March 2019 Elizabeth Island, Exumas
I wasn’t able to put it off any longer – it was time to sort out the blockage in the front toilet. The holding tank empties by gravity, so it looked like either the outlet hose was blocked or the blockage was in the holding tank itself. I snorkelled under the boat and poked a length of stainless steel cable up the outlet hose. It went in fairly easily up to a metre, so I believe that the hose from the holding tank to the outlet seacock is clear.
I then checked that the overflow/breather tube was clear (by unfastening the top end and blowing down the tube) – yuk! After tightly replacing the tube, I closed the outlet valve and then pumped more water into the holding tank from the toilet. I knew that the holding tank was completely full when sewage came out of the overflow skin fitting – yuk! Interestingly, when I opened the holding tank valve, it emptied a little bit, so I must have dislodged the blockage and then it re-blocked itself.
I’m now in a dilemma. The blockage is definitely inside the holding tank, but there’s no access into the holding tank except for the hose fitting at the bottom. I can’t remove the hose because if the contents do come out, the sewage will go straight into the bilge – yuk! I also can’t remove the holding tank while it’s full – there’s not enough room. So my only option is to leave the system alone until we get the USA when I’ll be able to get access to a holding tank pump-out station. I’m hoping that the huge vacuum will suck the blockage out.
We had a quiet afternoon lurking about – there’s a cold wind and we can’t be bothered to go snorkelling.
19 March 2019 Elizabeth Island, Exumas
We’re still waiting for a weather window. The forecast is very confused with a couple of large weather systems pulling against each other. It looks like we might be here for another 4 or 5 days.
Glenys suggested that we put some drain clear into the holding tank to try to clear the blockage. I was very sceptical, but it was worth a try – especially because the powder has come from south-east Asia, so it’s likely to be very strong stuff that wouldn’t be allowed in Europe or the USA. We put a hefty dose into the toilet and then pumped it into the holding tank. After 10 minutes, I opened the holding tank valve and to my surprise the whole contents of the holding tank came out. I filled the holding tank with water again and it emptied with a reassuring gush – job sorted.
We had a quiet afternoon on board.
20 March 2019 Elizabeth Island to Stocking Island, Exumas
At dawn, a cracker of a squall came through giving us 25-30 knot winds for a few minutes. The weather then cleared up, so after breakfast, we upped anchor and moved closer to town, anchoring off Chat & Chill Beach.
We last filled up with diesel in Puerto Rico and our tank was approaching ½ empty, so I topped up with the diesel from our three jerry jugs. One of our cooking gas tanks is about ¾ empty, so I swapped that out. Loaded with three jerry cans, a gas bottle and a big bag of rubbish, we headed into town to restock.
While Glenys went to the supermarket, I dropped off the gas bottle and filled the three jerry jugs with diesel. I met Glenys in the supermarket and helped her carry the provisions back to the dinghy and then went off to the liquor store to buy two cases of beer and some more wine. By 11:30, we were back on the boat fully provisioned.
After lunch, I nipped into town to collect the full gas bottle and we then lazed around for the rest of the afternoon – it was blisteringly hot and very humid.
21 March 2019 Stocking Island to Elizabeth Island, Exumas
The day started off with a grey drizzle and the forecast is still frustratingly unsettled, so we have decided to wait here until after the next Norther, which will be in three days’ time. The skies brightened up during the morning, so we pulled up the anchor and moved back to Elizabeth Island.
Our initial plan was to go snorkelling out of one of the passages between the islands, but they were too rough with a large northern swell crashing on the rocks. Instead we went for a snorkel on the reef just south of the boat channel, which was surprisingly good. We found a large Nurse Shark; a Green Turtle hiding beneath a coral head; and best of all, I snared a lobster.