George Town to Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Feb 13 thru Feb 16

This blogpost covers our ocean passage between George Town and Emerald Bay Marina and, then, the first couple days of our stay over at the marina we didn't want to ever leave.

Thursday, February 13

The southeast wind was noticeably weaker in the morning (and predicted at 11 to 14 knots for the day) and the sun was shining brightly as usual.  Emerald Bay Marina finally came through for us with a slip that has electricity, providing we have a 50-amp adaptor (which we do).  We were really looking forward to being in a marina for a couple days, even though we had a lot of work to do there.

We weighed anchor near Monument Beach at 9:45 AM bound for Emerald Bay Marina, a distance of only 12 nautical miles.

During our short ocean passage to the Marina at Emerald Bay (as they prefer to be called) we faced 3 to 5 foot swells, some occasional ones up to 6 or 7 feet, as a following sea.  We arrived at the marina at about noon after entering through their narrow (but well marked) channel.

A boat leaving the marina through the well-marked
channel.  There were rocks on both
sides of the channel.

We filled up on diesel fuel (including our yellow deck jug) right away and then got settled into our slip (F-1).  After checking in at the office, we returned to the boat and immediately started the onboard A/C—it was already 83 degrees inside the boat! 

s/v Rainy Days docked at the
Marina at Emerald Bay
in Slip F-1.

There appears to be about 50 or more big boats (probably more sailboats than power boats) in the marina, most are actively used and most flying U.S. or Canadian flags.

Looking west in the marina.

On the way to the marina, Maggie and I talked about whether we want to go south to Georgetown when we leave the marina or head north and start visited the spots we missed on the way south and then go to Eleuthera. While Elizabeth Harbour provides excellent protection from high winds, the small dinghy engine we are currently using doesn’t allow easy access to areas we would frequent—it certainly makes life a lot more difficult for us. We are leaning toward traveling northward from here and exploring the island of Eleuthera, after making several more stops in the Exumas.

I felt so good after my shower that I couldn't
resist capturing this simple
but colorful image.

Friday, February 14 (Valentine's Day)

My whole attitude improved after a nice hot shower yesterday and a good night’s sleep in air conditioning last night. We really needed the little shot of luxury that this marina provided! We already talked about staying a few days longer than we originally planned.

Last night I worked out some navigational plans (using AquaMap) for day trips between interesting spots north of here and along the island of Eleuthera. Many of the planned trips are less than 10 nautical miles while the longest was an ocean passage of slightly more than 30 miles—pretty easy stuff!

This morning started out like most mornings that we’ve experienced in the Exumas with morning clouds gradually changing over to a beautiful blue sky. A heavy dew had fallen on the deck overnight. As I straightened up things on deck early in the morning, a big brown nurse shark circled and surveyed the water below the boat. Even though they are harmless to humans, the nurse shark looked menacing enough.

We pulled apart the forward section of the quarter berth (for the third time in two weeks) to gain access to the refrigeration compartment in advance of the refrigeration repairman coming at mid-morning. I also pulled off some insulation around the Freon tubing where I suspected a leak (upper right hand corner of photo below). I closely examined the area and couldn’t see a crack or hole but it might be so small that it was invisible to the naked eye.

The emptied out quarter berth compartment for
access to our refrigeration compressor.

By 11 AM our fridge was fixed!  (Caleb Rolle did a great job!)  The problem was simply too much Freon.  The repair cost was the best $200 I've ever spent!

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One of the many chores on my “to do” list for our marina stay was to clean our two fresh water-side strainers—one in the fresh water intake header and the other in the fridge drain line (which I guess is really gray water).  While both had some blockage, the one in the line from the fridge drain was nearly completely blocked.

The blockage in this strainer was from things in the
drain water that collects at the bottom of our
fridge. How could black cat hair
get into our fridge? 

With the way in which the fridge drain strainer was blocked, I don't see how any water got through to the pump!

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We went out for a Valentine's Day lunch at La Fourchette (meaning "the fork"), a tiny French restaurant (with the same name as a popular restaurant in Paris) about 3/4-mile away at a tiny resort called Paradise Bay--it was quite a walk!  It was the best meal we've eaten in Exuma!  (The young French owner/chef even gave us a ride back to the marina after our meal.)

La Fourchette was located within a small
resort called Paradise Bay.

At lunch today, I had an absolutely delicious cucumber margarita. It was served on the rocks and without salt. It seemed like a regular margarita except with part (maybe third or half) of a cucumber blended in with the drink for the cucumber flavor.  I’ve never had anything like it before. (I might try to make one using our Baja Bob's margarita mix packets.)

Saturday, February 15

A beautiful day was in store for us today, Saturday.  Easterly wind of light to moderate strength was in the forecast for the entire week until Friday afternoon when some strong northeasterly wind (26 knots gusting to 32 knots) was forecasted to come into the area—we have to plan for good protection from this nasty upcoming weather pattern! (I don’t want to repeat our earlier high wind experience at Highbourne Cay!)

Today was “maintenance day” on s/v Rainy Days. (Sometimes it feels like every day on the boat is maintenance day!)  Starting out with changing the engine oil and filter first thing in the morning, I moved on to changing the engine’s water pump impeller (a job I hate because the space is so confined and I have to do it by feel and with my left hand!). While I was working in the engine room, I cleaned the engine raw water strainer—it contained some blades of sea grass but it wasn’t too bad.

By 1 PM I was cleaning the remaining two raw water strainers: the A/C raw water strainer (which also contained some blades of sea grass) and the strainer at the water maker’s raw water intake. While in the water maker compartment (under the aft portion of the starboard settee), I also changed the primary filter for the water maker--this was the first time I changed it and we had been running the water maker since January 14--about one month.

Sunday, February 16

Apparently, it rained sometime during the night (judging by the small puddles on our cockpit cushions) but I never heard it—I must have been sleeping very soundly. 

Little rain puddles on our cockpit cushions was
evidence of some light rain last night.

Yesterday, I put together a detailed plan (which is always subject to change due to weather) for the next couple weeks. The northward plan includes visiting some beaches on the west side of Great Guana Cay, visiting Warderick Wells (where the Exuma Land and Sea Park is located), and eventually getting to Highbourne Cay which will be our jumping off point to Eleuthera Island. In the morning, I looked at the current weather forecast with respect to our plan. Our weather forecast was for the next nine days, the latter part of the forecast was always subject to greater inaccuracies. The immediate weather we have to plan around is: strong easterly wind on Tuesday, and very strong northeasterly wind on Friday night and Saturday morning. So, we decided to stay honkered down here in Emerald Bay Marina through Wednesday, leaving Thursday morning for Galliot Cut and getting to a favorable anchorage on Friday morning for the big blow starting on Friday night.

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Being that it is Sunday and I don't have much on my day's agenda, I decided to get caught up on one of my favorite YouTube channels, Finding Simon.  Simon is working on a electric-power catamaran made of fiberglass-encased plywood and doing it all in British Columba, Canada.  In the most recent episode he was buying an old electric car and salvaging the components for the electric drive in his sailboat.  Take a look--I think you will like it too!

A scene from the most recent episode of the
YouTube channel called Finding Simon.

We decided to go out for lunch at one of the restaurants at Grand Isle Resort, about 1/4-mile away from the marina and it completely changed our outlook on our cruising plan. We got to know the bartender (Annette) at Sandy Toes, a beach bar at Grand Isle, while we were having a pre-lunch drink.  She mentioned that we should rent a car and tour the entire island of Exuma and she mentioned a number of places we should visit.  A couple (George and Amy) was sitting next to us and they mentioned the low cost of staying at the marina for a month ($0.75 per foot per day x 30 days which we quickly estimated at $900 for the month).  I'm not sure if it was the effects of the alcohol or what but we both thought at the time that staying here for a month was a great idea.


The following images were captured today:

Emerald Bay Marina looking
toward the west.

A view looking at the ocean
from the marina.

Ocean waves crashing onto the
nearby beach.

Looking at the ocean through
casuarina trees.

A mysterious couple at a table next to us in Palapa
Restaurant at Grand Isle Resort. 

Annette, our bar tender that filled
us with new ideas.

Annette cutting up limes for drinks.

We were planning to leave Emerald Bay Marina on Thursday morning--so, we'll see if we decide to stay for a month or leave as we originally planned.  Stay tuned...


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