Tonight we were invited to a wonderful Mexican dinner aboard Avalon.  Joanne made a chicken tortilla soup with toppings of sour cream, tortilla chips and shredded cheese. We also had salad, rolls, a tortilla appetizer, and milkshakes for dessert.  The highlight of the evening, however, was Joanne’s wonderful violin concert.  Joanne is a professional musician in the Portland, Maine symphony.  The video below is a bit fuzzy as it was taken as a Quicktime movie on my camera, but the sound is good.  One way to watch it is to go directly to YouTube to view it.  Just click on the movie and you will go to this movie on YouTube.com.  The second way is to click on the pause/play button, drag the round button back to the beginning and let the red line load to the end.  Then click on the play button and you can listen to the entire movie uninterrupted by stops to load.

The weather has turned a little cooler here as a cold front went through. “Cold fronts” in the Bahamas are a bit of a stretch.  This one brought us down into the low 70’s.  However, the winds are quite strong, in the 20 kt range, so with the “wind chill” factor added in, it can be chilly enough to wear jackets and long pants.  Yes, I know this sounds whiny.  The weather is great here, but everything is relative, I suppose. 

We took a short walk to the Exuma Sound beach yesterday.  There are several named beaches in Elizabeth Harbour.   Most of the activities in Georgetown take place on Hamburger Beach and Volleyball Beach.  We started on Hamburger Beach and took a trail over the hill to the Exuma Sound side of the island.  This was one of the longest sandy beaches we’ve seen and it was a nice walk.  Some people were swimming, but with the wind and the clouds hiding the sun, we figured they must be Canadians as the water was not toasty. We only waded and enjoyed the sand between our toes.

Tomorrow, we will go ashore again to do some hiking.  While the area we are in is called “Georgetown” in reality, Elizabeth Harbour where the boats anchor is located between Stocking Island and the city of Georgetown, which is on the island of Grand Exuma.  Most of the cruiser planned activities take place on Stocking Island, where there are a series of named beaches.  They are Hamburger Beach, Volleyball Beach, and Sand Dollar Beach.  There are also three “holes” named Hole #1, Hole #2 and Hole #3 which are very protected mooring fields.  On the other side of Elizabeth Harbour, in Georgetown, there are quite a few stores and other services offered mainly to cruisers.  Two grocery stores carry a large selection of goods, many moderately priced.  Some items in particular are “price controlled.”  These are subsidized by the government and include cheese and some cooking supplies such as brown sugar.  I know this because when the cash register rings up your order, items are listed according to categories, such as produce, grocery, health and beauty aids, frozen, price control, etc.  There are several banks, clothing stores, beauty shops, propane suppliers, gas stations, and much more.  Most of the buildings are not quite what you would see in the States, but they are definitely a step above what we’ve found on the smaller out islands in the Exumas.