We're still in the Georgetown area, but we've moved around to Red Shanks -- a very protected anchorage about a mile south of town. Much quieter than the Volleyball Beach or Hamburger Beach scenes. There's only about 10 boats here compared to several hundred in the main harbour, and we can sit out wind from any direction here and not have to re-anchor.

We did enjoy a few days of the Georgetown cruisers' experience. Yes, they do play volleyball at Volleyball beach every day. There's even a kids' court for the under 15s, and a list of rules on the bulletin board so there's no squabbling. There's lots of wooden tables for the scheduled afternoon bridge games and lessons, and for Beach Church on Sundays, not to mention the watercolour classes, basketweaving classes and afternoon beer drinking (no classes offered). Pedro's Conch Shack on the beach has great conch salad if you don't mind waiting in the hot sun for 20 minutes while he whips up a new batch, and the Chat n' Chill is good for beers, margueritas and bbq'd food. That's if you can get over the powerful surlyness of the big Bahamian woman behind the bar. Lots of the cruisers seemed to be on a first-name basis with her, so I guess they sort out some kind of working relationship that involves her giving them beer. She must get sick of this all-white crowd that never goes to work, and won't go home.

We've been doing our email at Balsound Electronics, a small music and electronics store that also has folding tv trays and chairs and cruisers seated all over the store checking their email. Don't get there at opening time, cause buddy is always at least a half-hour late for work in the morning. After checking the email, you can go round the corner and pick up a cold can of Guinness (for St Patrick's day) and walk back along the dusty road to town, stopping at the van marked "Mom's Bakery" to pick up bread and goodies. There's a hardware store, a couple of gift shops, a Scotiabank, a couple of small restaurants, a straw market and a food store. We're not spending much money, cause there's not that much to buy. I stopped at the market the other day and bought three cans of juice and a grapefruit, just cause I felt the need to go shopping. Yesterday, we spent $2.50 on 25 gallons of water, which Randy jerry-canned from Georgetown Marina.

The local people are nice, particularly "Mom" at Mom's Bakery, and the ones that are a bit abrupt can be forgiven. The population of their town is forever more than doubled with the relatively affluent boaters who land here and stay and stay and stay. They spend money, but it must be irritating to have your town full of tourist/traveller-types that are making themselves at home. Like us.

It's a very wet dinghy ride to town from here, so we only go when we really need to (beer), and we covet those big, hard-bottom dinghies that go roaring by. But we were sort of relieved to leave the main harbour with all the dinghy traffic, not to mention the very yappy dog about three boats away from us. But when we anchored at Red Shanks, with about seven or eight other boats in view, sure enough, we were greeted by a very yappy little dog. Why, I ask, why? This is balanced by a wonderful thrush of some sort that sings its little heart out a couple of times a day on shore just behind our boat. There's also a pair of osprey that we see and hear now and again, and a local turtle, and the usual ballyhoo that try to jump into the dinghy, or like last night, just thunked straight into us as we were coming back from movie night on Vixen.

This is supposed to be a work period for us. I've put together a canvas canopy for the cockpit, which is not particularly elegant, but we had the canvas, and hand sewing is rather soothing, and it keeps the sun off. Randy's changed the oil, slung the hammock -- a dangerous disincentive for work -- and run the wires and connections for the SSB. Varnishing keeps getting bumped to the bottom of the list. Maybe next week. We've also worked our way through the mahi-mahi: pan fried, barbequed, pan fried, barbequed, and then we shared the rest of it with Paul and Denise, cause they only had serro and snapper. We'll probably be here another week, then when and as the weather dictates, to Conception Island, Rum Cay, then either Samana or Acklands, then Mayaguana, Turks and Caicos, and on to Luperon in the Dominican Republic. We're probably looking at about two weeks for this next stretch of island hopping once we get on the way. Most of those islands are deserted, but I'll post again when I can.

(and a note from Tom: "Anywho I think you should liven up the blog a bit, nobody reads the whole thing they say they lose intrest half way through. You could make it shorter? See what happens when i'm not around!?" )