On our way to Long Island, we officially crossed into the tropics. The latitude of the Tropic of Cancer shifts about a half a second of latitude each year, and right now it is at 23 degrees, 26.275 minutes.
We had a nice time in Salt Pond. Sunday, the parents went to a Super Bowl party, and we had a “sorta super bowl” party on Ruahk. We ate popcorn and watched a football movie called Facing the Giants.
Monday, we rode on Ruahk to a blue hole about a mile away from Salt Pond.We all got in and snorkeled over the blue hole, which was very interesting. A blue hole is a deep tunnel that leads under an island and out into the ocean. Sometimes they are in the center of the island, but these were about six to eight feet underwater. They look like deep dark caves. After exploring the blue holes, we had fun jumping off of Ruahk's catamaran and swimming around and under their boat.
Monday night, we had our last night with Ruahk. We played music and had a lot of fun. It's amazing close we became with them during our month of cruising together. We'll miss them, but we're hoping to keep in touch via Single Side Band radio. We're also hoping to re-connect somewhere on the ICW on our way north. Early the next morning we pulled up the hook and waved goodbye to Ruahk as we headed north to Georgetown.
We didn't know what to expect coming into Georgetown, because there were 275 boats in the harbor. While the anchorages are crowded, the harbor is quite large and so it's fairly comfortable. Mom was especially pleased when she hiked over to the sound side beach the first morning and had the whole beach to herself.
We planned on staying at Georgetown three or four days, but somehow we've already been here a week and a half! That is partly due to the fact that the wind speed and direction have not been good for going out into the sound, which we need to do to leave here, and partly due to all of the opportunities for socializing.
Now that we're in Georgetown, there's a new schedule for our days. We wake up and listen to the Cruiser's Net, and hear about all the fun activities planned for the day. Since we've been here, we've started a Kid's Net, where all the kids get on the radio and talk about plans for the day. Then, we rush to get all of our schoolwork finished so we can get over to the beach. We join in some of the adult activities, like basket weaving and volleyball, but we also play Capture the Flag, football, geocaching, scavenger hunts, etc. Some evenings we have campfires on the beach, other nights we get together with other families to visit and play board games.
We've been over to the town of Georgetown twice, and visited the straw market and delivered school books for the Operation Bahamas Project. We also took a trip to the only high school on Exuma Island. We toured the school and were given a typical Bahamian lunch. The trip was part of a fundraiser for the school's athletic teams. Whenever they want to compete against a different school, they have to travel by boat or plane, and many of the kids cannot afford that.
There are now about 40 kids/teens here, and new faces appear on the beach almost every day. The boat count is up to 335.
