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The largest town in the Exhumas (an island chain in the Bahamas) is Georgetown. It is also the place where many cruisers congregate on their way to and from the Bahamas or Caribbean. We are always looking for kid boats and Georgetown is where you find them when in the Bahamas. A weather system with high winds was forecasted so we sailed to Georgetown as it offered the best protection from the wind and seas. We were also looking forward to finding other cruisers on similar paths. Georgetown did not disappoint. When we entered the bay we were amazed at the sight of all the anchored cruising boats. There were over 250 boats anchored in the large bay. At the center of the bay is a place called Chat N Chill. It is a small restaurant on the beach with picnic tables, volleyball courts, trees meant for climbing, rope swings and lots and lots of people to socialize with. It is the cruisers hangout while in Georgetown. After the big weather system passed by we moved Samadhi right into the middle of all the action just in front of Chat N Chill. We would spend the next 3 weeks here amongst the crowds of cruisers coming and going. Everyday we would hangout at Chat N Chill. We would play volleyball, discuss future and past travels. The kids would be building treeforts, playing soccer, swinging from tree branches and just running around having fun. At any given time there were no less than 30 kids of all different ages. We had a blast and made many friends, many of which are headed in the same direction as us. We also found a great place to run and workout and we nearly always had people join us in the morning for our workouts. We really loved our time in Georgetown and despite our excitement to continue making our way to the Caribbean, when the time came we were sad to leave.

Swimming with turtles
These two had no fear of us
This one would swim up to you and nuzzle you to pet it like a dog.
They are not small and expect you to get out of their way when they swim by.
I found this plant on the seafloor and offered it two him. He went right for it.
They almost seem to pose for pictures.
OK now he is really showing off for the camera.
More friendly animals in Georgetown
There are about 10 large rays that frequent the beach in front of Chat N Chill.
If people walk by the swim right up to the beach for some petting.
They seem to really love the attention and physical contact
This guy even inspected my bare feet and was not bothered by the smell. Must be a tolerant species.
As you can imagine this is where Victoria would often spend hours with the rays.
Alexander is feeding this one remains of conch
They very gently take the bits of conch from the kids’ hands.
The rope swings at Chat N Chill
This is about as high of an elevation hike as you can find in the Bahamas
There was a concert on the houseboat for anyone who cared to listen. It was nice and there was some talent on hand.
I created an obstacle course race around the beach. This is the prerace meeting.
This is the obstacle that Ashley supervised. It was the weighted carry and run.
Cruisers volunteered buckets and the kids had to fill a bucket full of sand and carry it 50m and back. While running/hurry in the loose sand.
It was very fun to watch. There were 30 such obstacles throughout the course.
Tree climb and rope swing obstacle. The kids’ favorite!
We had a slackline and parent assistance if needed. Thank you parent volunteers!
In town we found a community playground and basketball court.
We would go play basketball with the local kids after they got out of school. We left them with a few new basketballs when it was time for us to leave Georgetown.
The kids and I talked Ashley into making a German Apple pancake for our departure morning breakfast.

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