George Town: Are You Ready For It?

If you were looking for me during February or March, you could probably have found me on a 45’ catamaran called Migration. Mig, captained by a 28-year-old badass named Madde, was where all the young people in George Town, Exuma gathered every evening. I first met Madde and her friends in George Town on a Wednesday night at Chat 'n' Chill (“chat is free, pay for the chill”), the beach bar next to where Elpis was anchored. They invited Grace and me back to Migration after Chat 'n' Chill closed, and I was introduced to several people under the age of 35, cruising on all sizes of boats that were headed to all different destinations. That night, Madde was playing Brand New (my favorite band in high school) and Taylor Swift, so I knew I had to become friends with these people, but because it’s never until after that you realize the meaning in certain events, I could not have anticipated how much they would come to mean to me.

One of the coolest parts of this boat trip is how much unknown potential there is in every cruising situation. We had no idea when we dropped the hook in George Town that we’d stumbled into a community of 250 boats with the most unique, kindest, and most interesting people I’ve ever met. George Town is less of a location and more of a way of life. Every morning at promptly 8 am, Bill on Charisma would broadcast a Cruisers Net on Channel 68, where new arrivals to George Town would be welcomed, departures announced, boat items offered up for “Buy, Sell, and Trade,” and local events advertised. The only time anyone had a reason to remember the day of the week was on poker night, which was held every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Most people didn’t have cell phone plans, so VHF radios were used as the primary method of communication. People of all ages gathered every afternoon on nearby beaches, always ready to give cruising advice, assist with a boat project, or just share a drink. Grace and I had arrived at George Town exhausted, ready for a break, and slightly underprepared for Bahamas life; we left nearly five weeks later with an extra 20 feet of chain for our anchor, a gaffe for fishing, a new dinghy (L'il El, like L'il Sebastian), and unexpected lifelong friends.

Paradise Found at Flip Flop Beach

View from the top of Monument

A bit about some of the main characters in the George Town chapter of our trip:

Madde: Total badass and charter captain from Scituate, Massachusetts. Runs a sailing program called Syzygy Sailing in the summers that focuses on women sailors. Loves Brand New, Dashboard Confessional, and Taylor Swift. Expert pancake-mix pizza maker. Knows a lot about birds. Talks just like Juno. Read her blog: Syzygy Sailing: Tales of a Young Yachty

Mack and Max: Sailing on a C&C35 called Sukha from Ontario to Guatemala. Ages 30 and 26, respectively. Canadians who entertained us with their jokes about American politics and pronunciation of pasta (“paasta”) and introduced us to the Vinyl Cafe. Really into interpreting the lyrics of every song they listen to. Taught me how to play Settlers of Catan. Would win an award for best sunset conch horn noise sans conch horn. Most importantly, big Harry Potter and Game of Thrones fans.

Holly: An Ocean Spirit with no real timeline. On a Beneteau called Another Adventure. She plans to make it to Australia (“might take two years, might take five”). Taught herself how to sail. Can literally do anything, from sewing a wheel cover to fixing a diesel engine. One of the most inspiring people I know. Has a 25hp dinghy engine; riding with Holly feels like what I imagine being launched in a space shuttle might feel like. Check out her youtube videos: www.youtube.com/svanotheradventure

We're in this one: Chick A Sode

Will: Basically a permanent resident of George Town at this point. His boat broke down there and he just never seemed to leave. (Totally understandable; George Town is a wonderful place to be.) A kind soul; always willing to help out with anything. Excellent seafood chef.

Good Bye Round 2 at Blu

Sophie: First Mate on Shambala, a Morgan 41, aspiring boat captain. Excellent dinghy drifting partner. Hilarious. Learning her captaining skills from Captain Suky, who gives off the vibe of being really wise and perhaps one with nature.

Fisher: Son of Mike (from Samadhi). Finally, someone actually my age. Born and raised a spear-fisher. Stellar poker face. Part-time tennis pro. Appreciates a nice rum and pineapple, a good dinghy drift under the stars, and people who don’t feel the need to talk a lot (same). A Good Person.

(someone stole my sunglasses)

Young Mike: Called Young Mike to distinguish him from Adult Mike on Samadhi. Helped his neighbor deliver a boat, Ariel, from South Carolina to Exuma. Got bit by a shark while spear-fishing and survived, which meant he got to hang out in a hotel room with hot water showers and a TV for a night as a result. We were all slightly jealous.

Making shark fins because what else would you do when your friend gets bit by a shark?

Ashley: a local Bahamian. Could usually be found at Chat 'n' Chill. The friendliest guy you’ll ever meet. Makes Grace and me feel like celebrities when he shouts hello to us from passing water taxis.

There is something inspiring about meeting people close in age to us out living on the ocean rather than working in an office and aiming to get married ASAP. We’re not the only ones who dread the thought of a 9-5 job or aren’t interested in settling down right away. In fact, after getting to know these people’s stories, suddenly our own journey seemed way less crazy. There was a whole world of possibilities and places to travel that Grace and I had never even considered. There’s also something about being on the ocean that bonds people in a way that would never happen otherwise. Every relationship formed is accelerated and intensified because we spend hours each day and night in each other’s company, making the most of our time together before we sail on to new places, unsure of the next time our paths will cross. It’s strange how we meet the people we do at the times we do. The universe is unpredictable. We found ourselves eating fish and lobster speared by new friends just a few hours prior, discussing all the places we’d traveled and our craziest ocean conditions. We spent late nights rafting up dinghies and drifting under the Bahamian midnight stars (“dinghy drifting”). We found boat people with the same desire for adventure whose homes move with the wind, and we soon began to refer to ourselves as “ocean family.”

Ocean fam dinner at Lumina Point (thanks, Adult Mike and Roarke!)

We spent over a month in George Town. While the first part of our trip had been about fixing things and learning the boat and moving fast to escape the cold, this part was all about maintaining a way of life.

Money. As Mack once said, “Spending money is for rich people.” How can we spend less money in a place where groceries cost at least twice as much as in the states? A pint of ice cream, much to Grace’s dismay, was $9. Solution? Catch fish. Learn to filet. And maybe get some breadcrumbs because I’m not totally sold on fish yet. Occasionally splurge on a pack of 12 cheese sticks and eat all of them in one day, because we (still) don’t have refrigeration.

Energy. We arrived in George Town exhausted. My friend Ryan visited when we first arrived, took one look at us, and said, “You guys look like you just sailed a Mackinac race.” We spent our time in George Town committed to relaxing. Every day we put on bathing suits. Grace would swim and dive and spear fish. I’d string my hammock up between the mast and forestay and read or listen to music or reflect on how I was the happiest at that very moment a human could possibly be.

Friendship. Spending every day for months within ten feet of each other can get old, no matter how much Grace and I seem to have turned into the same person. Every so often, we have to work to maintain a sense of peace and balance. It helped that we sometimes spent time in different social circles. Grace, more of a people person, loved to socialize at poker and participate in Regatta activities. I preferred reading and hanging out in the evenings on Migration. We often shared sunset cocktails and had daily life talks about how we are the luckiest people in the world. We’ve decided that when we return to Detroit, we’ll only talk on VHF handhelds instead of cell phones, and we’ll arrive at each other’s houses and announce our presence by conch horn.

Dinghy entrance to (free!) water and the Exuma Market

Other George Town highlights:

Holly held a conch horn workshop on the beach, which meant that almost every boat had a functioning conch horn. Every night at sunset, 250 boats in Elizabeth Harbor formed a conch horn symphony.

We were there during Regatta, which meant George Town basically turned into what our friend CJ called “summer camp for adults.” Examples of activities include a Bahamian softball league (Grace played, I spectated with adult beverages), volleyball tournaments, and a poker run / bar crawl on shore. There was also an actual regatta, in which Elpis participated with Fisher and Adult Mike and took second in class. Go team.

Young Mike, Will, random puppy, Em, Grace, Holly

When you get talked into entering your boat in the George Town cruising regatta

Migration parties. Every night. The start was always signaled with the loud bass introduction to the first song on Taylor Swift’s Reputation album, “…Ready For It.” We always behaved responsibly. Email me for a less adult-appropriate version of these events.

Serenading each other with my favorite Brand New song "Soco Amaretto Lime" at Elpis' good bye party

The water. The most beautiful blues we’ve ever seen.

Hurricane Hole 2

The ride across Elizabeth Harbor for groceries

Dinghy entrance to town

The sunsets. Absolutely gorgeous. Every time. I think it rained once the entire time we were in George Town. My entire camera roll is pictures of George Town sunsets.

George Town really drove home some important lessons:

I realized that most people are good people (no one judged when I had gone eight days without showering, although none of us were showering, so we all probably smelled bad and just couldn’t tell).

It’s the people that make an event as good as it is, not the place (although being in the Bahamas doesn’t hurt).

It really doesn’t matter where you went to school or how much money you have or what brand your clothes are (we’re all just wearing bathing suits anyway, and I think I went weeks at a time without wearing shoes, even at the grocery store…which I later regretted. There’s a lot of bacteria on bathroom floors, did you know?).

There are some really cool people in this world, and they’re out there looking for unique experiences, living simply, boldly, and genuinely. To quote (again) Tim from Miss Norma, if you open yourself up to the world, the world will come to you.

Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely challenging moments. Elpis' engine cooling system is temperamental. If you’re wondering how long it takes before you get tired of eating oatmeal every day for breakfast, the answer is six months. There was no pump out in the Bahamas, which lead to us getting creative. Interpret that information as you will. Never having a consistent internet connection made it difficult to do tasks for grad school. I also began to seriously question whether grad school was the right decision or if I should look into options that would allow me to continue sailing after this trip is over (don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I already committed to school… but have definitely caught the travel bug). But all of that is so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Living on the hook there was like living in paradise, and the hardest part of George Town was leaving. I couldn’t have asked for better memories or better Good People to share them with. Relationships formed while traveling are so strange and bittersweet because they are transient and fleeting, but they also teach us to trust that people who are meant to come into our lives will, particularly when we least expect it. Every day in George Town I wondered if I was the happiest person in the world. Every day I said, thank you, Universe.

Chat 'n' Chill

Grace at Flip Flop Beach

Emily at Flip Flop Beach

The happiest of places