We've been on the hook here for more than week now as we wait for the clock to count down to the day we can head to George Town to extend our visas to stay in Bahamian waters. The earliest we can get this done is the 20th, which is 2 days sooner than the rules state thanks to the official in the George Town office. Another a lot of opportunity to do anything as the island has minimal trials for hiking and we need to conserve outboard gas for our plan B trip ( explained A little further down)

Lynn and Larry left a few days back to head up to Staniel to pick up their friends who were flying in on the 18th. A day after they left the wind virtually stopped here and there was a mass exodus from the anchorage as almost 30 boats left, leaving 3. I was starting to wonder if I'd missed the memo as seemingly everyone was headed somewhere else. Was there some storm coming it's a western wind component I did know about? But, by the end of the day new boats had arrived so it was more a case of people wanting a change of scenery.

https://youtube.com/shorts/42c5F0KsZtk?si=rpVzx91acPFld3P_

We also got to see another Space X launch on the 18th just after 6 pm. The sun had just set and there was a bit of cloud cover but we saw the vapour trial come up from the horizon, disappear behind the clouds and then the rocket went directly over our boat. Awe we're also watching live coverage on line with commentary, which was the best of both worlds. at the time it went over us it was doing over 17000 kph, just you could see the flames and the huge con trail. as a bonus, the reusable first stage rocket booster was a touching down on the recovery barge about 35 nm north of us just east of Staniel Cay. We didn't see that but e did hear a sonic boom as it came down. A very neat added bonus to being here.

Getting to George Town from here was a 24 nm trip, with more than half of that trip being on the windward side of the island chain. This is open deep water with waves whipped up by the prevailing east wind. So the plan B of dinghying to Barraterre at the northern tip of Great Exuam Island and driving to George Town sounded like a lot better choice. George Town seems to be a destination of choice for a lot of boaters like it's some kind of badge of honour destination but we good with cheating a bit.

Barraterre is a very small town but they list Norm's Car Rental on the map so I contacted them and reserved a 6 passenger van, (lynn and Larry, their friends and us) for the 20th. The guy got right back to me and said no problem. He was very brief it's his replies to emails and didn't answer some of the questions I asked but I figured that's life doing business in the middle of nowhere. I again contacted him to confirm we had a suitable vehicle for the 20th a couple of days ahead of time and he said we were all good. And, true to his word, he met us at the dinghy dock at 9 am with the keys!

https://youtu.be/4T2GmGSNvaM?si=DU4T1ILijUdc8S2A

After a 45 minute drive we got to George Town, did our paperwork at the immigration office, along with several other boaters. It too, about half an hour but we got our extensions for the low, low price of only $200 a person. AAfter that we did a bit of looking around and then headed to the George Town Yacht club for lunch. The food was good but we lunch ended up being a 2 hour event due to how busy it was with the club being 1 of the poker run card pick up locations, I had the double cheeseburger!

True to the continual theme of this trip, ( recall Ep. 31 having to leave Isle of Hope Marina because of the art show coming to town for the weekend, and Ep. 26 snagging the last slip in Myrtle beach due to the fishing tournament) we just happen to be here on the busiest week of the year with the cruisers poker run going on this very day! The grocery store was pretty depleted of produce due to the number of boaters in town, estimated at - 400 being at anchor here this week.

It was pretty chaotic on the water here while driving was relatively uneventful aside from driving on the left side of the road. The van had a right hand steering wheel so it was different yet again from when we drove on Grand Bahamas. It all worked out great and our dinghies were waiting for us back at the dock when we returned. We tipped the guy "guarding them" $20 which was money well spent. I love it when a plan comes together!

https://youtu.be/FPQlXNH36mI?si=mPpo3uxqTEtDWTEZ


Today's shot of us having lunch at the Georgetown Yacht Club living the "Cheeseburger in Paradise" lifestyle!

https://youtu.be/jBsPZV14I-k?si=st8cnu1_745_fGmT