We continued to enjoy the area around Georgetown and Elizabeth Harbour, getting used to the weather patterns and finding things to do here and there. For Thanksgiving Day we cooked the full meal aboard Mystic Star with turkey (partial), dressing, most all of the trimmings and pumpkin pie for dessert. We had our new friends from the Netherlands Elise and Christiaan aboard (from ELZA) and enjoyed sharing the tradition with them. They had not previously experienced a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner so it was a delight to have them with us. We saw their pictures of their cruise a few years ago to Venezuela and up the Orinoco River there, quite exotic.

Daily, we continued to enjoy hiking around on Stocking Island with its great trails and beaches. Later on we picked up and moved to the Red Shanks area which is a group of small islands and cays with a lot of shallows. On our first attempt we found the sun angle impossible for reading the bottom so we planned for a better time the next day and found our way into a cozy anchorage. The weather was forecasted to be quite windy from the east to ESE so we came here for escape from the chop of the main harbor. Once inside we were happy with a very protected spot and found places to go ashore for walks and long tours by dinghy of the south side of Crab Cay with its near vertical banks of jagged limestone bedrock. One day we found lunch at an upscale resort complex known as February Point on the main island of Great Exuma. The marina there, like a few others, had been damaged by hurricanes in past years (possibly mostly by Matthew), but there was no problem finding a spot to tie up the dinghy at least. The place consisted of rather huge private villas with a nice pool, beach area and restaurant/bar. On another dinghy expedition we made our way to a very small beach (low to mid-tide only) that was bordered by impassible solid rock walls at the southeast tip of Crab Cay. The place is referred to as the “Red Shanks Yacht and Tennis Club”—an attempt at humor perpetrated by the cruising community, and does appear as such in the guide books. Apparently folks collect there for drinks and socializing at sunset (in the high season yet to come) when the tide timing makes it possible. The surrounding rock wall is decorated with dozens of painted conch shells commemorating cruisers visits. Beyond that we continued our planning of more extensive excursions and doing various boat maintenance projects.