Sunday, April 12, 2015

Day Five: Governor's Harbor


Waking up in Governor's Harbor, Captain Tom decreed a day or rest and exploration.  Governor's Harbor was the original captial of the Bahamas, and the attractive town rolls up a steep hill above the harbor which is protected to the south as well as east by a projecting spit of sand that has been lengthened by the addition of a long jetty.  Due to our late arrival, we were anchored quite a ways offshore, outside some moorings and other anchored boats.  Still our night had been settled with a good breeze and no bugs.

So, after yoga and leisurely coffee followed by a gorgous breakfast by Bette Lee, we lowered the dinghy and went ashore to explore.  Like all good cruisers, we were first drawn to address boat life concerns, that is whether the stores here in Governor's Harbor might have more, better or different produce and food products, whether the hardwarde stores might cough up something useful or the liquor stores better rum at better prices, and, for Tom and Bette Lee, a phone store to get Bahamas SIMs in their phones for phone service and cellular data.  It's not cheap, but it is cheaper than roaming!   

Once again Don and I rued our committment to Verizon, which doesn't enable the use of SIM cards, although Don had had the foresight to prepay for International calling.  That meant we could call Tiffany to check on the family and the business,and  call Debbie to check on our furry kids as well.  However, you'd better get all the right switches clicked off in Settings or you can be in for some expensive surprises.  The stop at the phone store paid off for us when the agent there took care of that for us after our having already run up some inadvertent data charges.  Yikes!  Note to self:  Buy a unlocked SIM phone for travel.

Bette Lee is having some knee issues, so our foursome didn't walk quite as far afield as we once might have.  In truth, after all these years of island travel, the allure of unexplored territory is not always strong enough to overcome inertia!  Plus daytime temps on the street were pretty warm.  So we all happily took a local's recommendation to backtrack for lunch at Da Perk, a coffee nook we passed right at the waterfront.

The boys still had some dinghy fuel projects, so when we returned to the boat, we decided to move her closer in.  The chart claims that Governor's Harbor has unreliable holding, and so we found we we struggled to get the anchor rest.  Good thing we had lucked out the night before in the dark!  So, while the boys went back ashore, Bette and I "stood watch" out on the foredeck tramps talking and enjoying the breeze.  We were all prepared to jump up and reanchor if we had to.  REally.  These two lady captains could have handled it just fine.  Fortunately, the anchor seemed to settle in.


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