March 2026

We planned this season to spend more time in the Bahamas as there are so many beautiful islands and we always feel we are rushing through on our way home. Bobby Alves had come down from Gloucester to help us sail the 700+ miles from the BVIs up to Georgetown. We had a great trip! With mostly following winds and seas we were able to fly the spinnaker daily and keep up a good pace. It took us 4 full days at sea to make the passage and on a beautiful morning (March 4th) we arrived to Calabash Bay, Long Island (one of our absolute favorites) to clear customs and take a rest.

During the passage, on an early morning watch, I noticed a strange gray lump on the foredeck. Lo and behold it turned out to be a homing pigeon (with bands and all). She (or he?) hung out a while, hopping about the deck and resting. I do wish I knew where she was headed!

From Calabash we made the short hop over to Georgetown to meet Bobby’s friend Kristine. We enjoyed the vibrant town, spent time on Stocking Island, we (well not Bobby) hiked to the top of Monument Hill and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at Chat n Chill. We even introduced Kristine to Mexican Train dominos and she played like a pro.

Next, the kids arrived to Georgetown for a week vacation – Trevor, Sarah, Ryan, Bridget, and Trevors good friends from Wisco, Hunter and Kate Williams. As most had not been to the Bahamas before, it was really fun getting them acquainted with the local culture: laid back, happy, helpful people, and the slow, easy pace of life.

Since we only had them for 5 days we didn’t plan to go very far and found there was plenty to do in the immediate Georgetown area: checking out the local blue hole, fishing (no catching), taking a few good hikes, swimming with some sharks and of course all the local beach bars that are only open until sunset which kept us (mostly) out of trouble.

It’s always nice to be back in Georgetown because it’s a real cruisers haven. Every morning at 8 am one of the local cruisers hosts the “morning net” on the VHF sharing activities and news, allowing cruisers to connect for anything they need. Georgetown has so many great resources: a good grocery store, farm stands, restaurants and laundry service (yay!). You can see why people spend months here.

This year while walking down the main street, we bumped into our Salty Dawg friends Kathy and Chris from SV Island Time who pointed us in the direction of the local fish store…which just happens to be a hair salon called Styles Seafood. Who knew?!? We got some great fresh fish and crab claws which were yummy.

Jane and Richard Fitzpatrick arrived into Georgetown a few days later and poor weather hemmed us in for a couple of days – but they took to the “snow day” attitude of being stuck on board – lots of reading, needlepoint and resting. They even enjoyed the morning net every day. And of course Jane is a great cook so we ate really well! We were able to get off the boat a couple of times to walk the beaches on the southern end of Stocking Island to include the Art Trail – so cool how people take trash that’s washed up on the shore, make it into art and distribute it along the trail.

During this time, we were heartbroken to hear of the passing of Jack McGrath at only 25 years old from a skiing accident. His parents Danielle and John were with us in February and we had such a wonderful time. Hard to be so far away from home during times like this, but the Bahamas Islands are known for many places where you can leave a marker to remember someone, so we left several shells and rocks in Jack’s memory at spots along our way. One was named Jacks Bay which seemed particularly appropriate. RIP Jack McGrath.

With the rough weather passed we headed for Staniel Cay which is about 60 nm north of Georgetown in the Exuma chain. We had a great sailing day and flew the spinnaker the whole way up to Farmers Cut – but just as we were readying to take it down, the spinnaker caught on the port spreader and what started out as a small hole quickly became a total shred-show! Such a bummer as we’ve really used the sail a lot this season, but we’ll have to wait until we get home to replace it.

Then, as we pulled into Farmers Cut we saw SV La Tortuga hard aground and in our effort to avoid them we ran aground ourselves! It was soft and sandy so no damage, but we were completely stuck. Luckily low tide was just a half hour away. We put the anchor to the aft so we wouldn’t slide further into the sandbar and while waiting for the tide to come up, we took the dingy over to talk to our “sandbar mates”. They were in fine spirits. They have a 7 foot draft and ours in only 4 1/2 so we got off the bar first, but eventually we both set anchor up the bay in deeper water and had a good nights sleep.

Finally, we made it up to Staniel Cay. While we didn’t have much time there, we did get over to meet the pigs and the nurse sharks. One of the pigs jumped right up on the dingy – I think he wanted us to take him back to the boat.

Jane and Richard had an early morning flight so we got to the airport quite early. It’s hard to describe how small and relaxed these local airports are. A simple open air covered waiting area, baggage is just a simple wheeled cart, anyone can walk out to the tarmac. We had a blast watching the action – and Jane and Richard made their connection and were home in Marblehead for dinner!

We have another 4 weeks here in the Bahamas before we head back to the US so I will cover that in “Bahama Time – Part 2” and hopefully it won’t take as long to publish as Part 1.