Georgetown and the Tuna

It was the week before Christmas and finally the northeast winds let up enough for us to move further south. We spent several days in Black Point before moving 6 miles north to Staniel Cay where we spent another several days. Staniel Cay has the Yacht Club which is owned by a Florida businessman. It has more modern amenities including a wifi signal that we were able to pick up right on the boat.

On the Friday we moved south by about 15 miles sheltered from the waves by the several islands on the way and staged for our trip to Georgetown at Cave Cay. We had stayed there last year as well when we made the jump to Georgetown and the anchorage was familiar to us. We spent the afternoon of a fabulous day in the water and on the beach. The next morning we pushed off for Georgetown at slack tide so the current and waves at the cut leading to Exuma Sound were at their minimum.

We expected a northeast wind to push us south to Georgetown however the wind shifted further east and south and we ended up motor-sailing and motoring most of the 35 miles. The fishing rods went out as soon as we cleared the cut and boats all around were catching fish but not us. Then when were two thirds of the way we got a strike on the lighter of our two rods and this time the fish did not get away. After about 10 minutes we got the fish close enough to see that it was faired sized but manageable. When got it on board we were surprised to see that it was a 15-20 lb tuna and not a mahi that we expected to see. The curse seems to finally have lifted.

We will be staying in Georgetown until after Christmas as the winds are again expected to blow pretty hard. We'll have supper at the Peace and Plenty restaurant and then get up at 2:00 AM to attend the Junkanu Festival that dates back to the slave days. Should be fun.

We are planning on leaving next Monday Dec 29 and head south to the turks and Caicos. We had hoped to meet another boat heading south like us so that we will have company on this more difficult part of the trip but there is nobody we have met in Georgetown on our schedule.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukah and a Happy New Year.

Liz & Menno