Today, just our first day at Georgetown, we went ashore at “Chat and Chill”. Technically speaking from a correct grammar, parts-of-speech type of standpoint I believe that “chat and chill” should be capitalized since it is the name of an establishment, however since the establishment is also just a small wooden shack with tattered t-shirts hanging from the ceiling that serves as a bar and beach restaurant I think that you should overlook this seeming grammatical faux pas.

While the “chat and chill” may not have much to offer in the culinary, amenities or atmosphere front the “chat and chill” owns one of the prettiest and most popular beaches in Georgetown. Some of the things that make this beach special are it’s white sandy stretches that are uninterrupted by rocks or other blemishes. This in itself would not make the beach unique, as there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of white sandy beaches in the Bahamas with at least a dozen or more scattered around Georgetown.

Another thing that attracts cruisers is the volleyball courts. These are more difficult to find in the Bahamas than beaches are and there are two at “Chat and Chill”. Nearly as magnetic a pull (at least for cruising kids) is the collection of tree swings. There are about a dozen in different flavors including one that the kids climb up into the tree with and do this crazy Tarzan thing on. The beach chairs, picnic tables, and easy dinghy tie up also contribute to the pluses at “chat and chill”.

For me though the real pull is the roombas. Before I go any further I should make sure you know what a roomba is. Back home my neighbor has a real Roomba. There it’s round electrical device that’s a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a robot. For a mere couple of hundred dollars you too can have a vacuum cleaner that, once activated automatically negotiates the rooms of your home sucking up all the scraps on the floor. When it encounters a static object it is programmed to reverse slightly, change course by a few degrees and then move forward again. In this way it is able to work its way around chairs, other obstacles, and out of corners and continue on its mission of sucking up all of the pieces of junk on the floor.

Here the roombas I’m talking about are quite similar but most people call them stingrays. Near the chat and chill there is an even smaller and less impressive structure, which is a close cousin to the lemonade stand back home. It is the establishment of the “conch salad guy”. Here a young and enthusiastic Bahamian guy shows up. His schedule seems to have no pattern or rhyme or reason to me but when he shows up he always has conch, onions, peppers, oranges and a couple of baggies with mystery ingredients to make the conch salad.

He is the reason that the roombas come. When “conch salad guy” shows up and starts to prepare the conch he puts the scraps on a big piece of drift plywood nailed to a nearby tree. Those who are brave enough to pick up the slime-covered stuff then hurry to the waters edge (just mere feet away). In come the roombas, better know as stingrays. They glide silently along the waters edge and converge in a collection of 2-3 foot diametered dinner plates at the feet of their mentors. Their long stingers trailing behind make them are distinct and remind us that they are not harmless.

Much like their namesakes, the Roomba these stingray slide along the floor of the ocean coming into the shallow water and hovering over the outstretched conch-filled hands. They suck up the scraps of conch and then slide forward gently bumping against your feet and ankles. As they encounter the barrier of your ankles they reverse change their direction by a few degrees and go forward again. They are for me, “The Roombas of the Sea.