Routine Matters

Two weeks in George Town and we're settling into the cruiser's life and beginning to meet some families. We were spoiled a bit by the discovery of 15 kids in Warderick Wells - there are much slimmer pickings here in George Town. I think there are just two other families with children around Jeanette's age. But, we're told many more will arrive in the next month as roughly twice as many boats show up for the annual Cruiser's Regatta.

Hey, where are the kids?

For the first time, we're in one place long enough that we've developed a routine. Every Monday we leave wherever we are so that we can anchor next to George Town, making it easier to get into town to replenish our water and supplies. After the basics, we figure out which beach we want to anchor next to. We're sampling beaches at this point, no firm winners or losers. They all have attractive points and few downsides.

With the routine comes a more relaxed attitude as there is less stress from constantly moving to new destinations. While each destination brings new experiences, it also brings complexity and stress into our lives as we have to figure out how to safely anchor the boat and take care of the essentials. It's nice not to have those worries now.

Let the Hunt Begin!

Yesterday, we heard a call for a "kid scavenger hunt" on the radio, so we rallied there with a couple of other families. We only wound up with 3 kids, but we hiked a nature trail - saw a huge termite mound, hermit crabs, and lots of the different flora and fauna that make up these islands. We wound up on the Eastern side of the island - which has beautiful beaches and a rugged feel to it as it faces rougher waters.  We finished up at a delightful beach (Hamburger Beach - on the West side) where a deserted waterfront restaurant/shack is slowly falling apart. Tables and lounge chairs are still there, so we just sat around getting to know each other while the girls pretended to create gastronomic fantasies in the little bar area. Such a relaxing time with no worries, no chores. 

Beth strolls the eastern beach on Stocking Island

I'm always following in Beth's footsteps...

Another view of the eastern side

Jeanette's serving the speciality of the house: a sand and weed filled leaf taco!

Today is Sunday, "pig roast day" at Chat & Chill - the bar/eatery perched on the beach across from us. They roast a whole pig and then all the cruisers show up to help eat it. The food was far better than I expected, so it is now part of our weekly routine. There are many other events like this to chose from, but we've been a bit shy and retiring so far. We're letting things come to us more than taking much of an initiative.

The Stars Come Out

One of our routines is to lay out on the trampoline after dinner and look up into a velvet night sky dusted with brilliant glimmerings. We're far from the constant glow of cities and towns and we've got clean, clear air above us for prime viewing. When we have a moonless, clear night, we're treated to a rich display of nature's most brilliant gems. We use binoculars to stare deep into space and time, revealing infinite pricks of light where our eyes see just hazy patches of lighter darkness. We have an app on the iPad that tells us the constellations we should see and where they are located in the sky as we move the iPad. You hold the iPad up to the patch of sky you're interested in and with ethereal music playing, it exposes the names and configurations of the constellations. We trained our binoculars on what we knew had to be a planet (turned out to be Jupiter) and we could even count 4-5 of it's moons strung out above and below the yellowish-orange orb. Of course, the downside to this is that the iPad impairs our night vision for a time.  

One night, as we lay there, we were treated to the largest meteor that I have ever seen. Normally, I see a small streak of light that lasts maybe 1-2 seconds - so they are easy to miss. This monster appeared right in front of us and was large enough to have a shape and continued to flare across the blackness for 6-7 seconds - it just kept going!  What a rare treat and a wonderful memory for all of us.