Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Feb 21 thru Feb 23

Our days in this marina, Emerald Bay Marina, about 12 miles north of George Town, Exuma seemed to pass so effortlessly.  If only I could bottle this atmosphere and take it home!

Friday, February 21

A heavy dew blanketed the boat’s deck in the morning. The air was very still and a haze surrounded the sun as it rose. I could feel the humidity in the warm air.  Some “no-see-ums" made an unwelcome appearance as we tested the second battery this morning--the stillness brings them out.  (The diagnostics on the second battery were practically identical to the first battery--I have kept detailed records of the battery testing.)

This is the first time that I noticed that the boat was facing northeast in this slip. (We are still in slip F-1.)  In this slip, like others I assume, the boat constantly moves fore and aft within the confines of our spring lines. There seems to be a resonance created by the tidal flow and the elasticity of the nylon spring lines.  I tightened the spring lines again this morning to prevent some of this motion.

I could think of no better way to start a new blogpost than with a couple images from around this beautiful marina:

A big Hinckley, s/v Yonder, has been docked 
in the marina since before we arrived.

A walkway lined with palm trees connects
the docks to the white building where
the office and a spacious boater's
lounge are located.

For other cruiser's who plan to come to the Bahamas (particularly the Exumas), diet soda is a rare commodity, except for Diet Coke and, occasionally, Sprite Zero.  In the U.S. we enjoy a wide variety of sugar-free drinks--not so much here.  Another item we have vowed to bring along with us on our next trip to the Bahamas is Diet Tonic Water because it is simply unavailable here.

Dixee crackers are a good substitute
for Ritz crackers here in
the Bahamas.

Ritz crackers are also very expensive here in the Bahamas.  We found the above substitute which are exactly like Ritz crackers but they are made in Trinidad & Tobago.  They were less than 1/2 the price of Ritz crackers in the local grocery store but were still much more expensive than Ritz crackers in the U.S.

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We got new boat neighbors in the evening--Bob and Bonnie on s/v Morning Dew, who keep their boat (a nice Pacific Seacraft 37) in Rock Hall, MD.

Saturday, February 22

In the middle of last night, I heard this scraping sound on the starboard deck. It was a different sound—one I’ve never heard before. I had to get out of bed and figure out what it was. (The wind had picked up considerably.)  When I looked outside the foreword port dock line appeared to be missing and the bow of the boat was about 10 or 12 feet away from the dock, only held by the forward spring line (being attached at midship) which was under a lot of tension. I immediately called for Maggie’s help.  (She was still in bed sleeping.)

Together, we pulled the boat closer to the dock by pulling from the middle of the forward spring line.  By this time we had woken up our boat neighbor and he helped too. We managed to get another dock line in place—our older 3/4” diameter white nylon spring line that we seldom use was on deck within easy reach. When we got the new line in place and the boat was held securely we closely examined the original 5/8” diameter black nylon dock line—it was one of our newest lines and it was chafed completely through at the point where it comes through the bow fitting. In my 40+ years of sailing, I have never experienced a dock line chafe completely through like this one had. 

Dock line that completely chafed through
in the middle of the night.

As it turned out, the noise that originally woke me up was our (ship side) shore power cable fitting being dragged along the starboard deck—the other end of our shore power cable was connected to the electrical pedestal on the dock. I was firmly committed to an investigation of all the other dock lines first thing in the morning. (There is never a dull moment on a sailboat!)

I cut the short end off the original dock line 
and added a brown leather chafe 
guard to the line.

I tested the third battery this morning--one of the two oldest ones (but only by six months).  These next two batteries to be tested are partially under the quarter berth and a little more difficult in terms of access.  The results of the first battery I tested today (the port aft battery) were similar to the two previous tested batteries.  It's looking more and more like the batteries are fine even though I have one more battery to test (tomorrow morning).

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Finally, it rained a little early in the morning but by 9 AM the sun was out again.  The high wind continued all day, tapering off a little bit late in the afternoon.

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We straightened out the spring lines just before noon--they were not positioned where the chafe guards could be doing any good.  We had to turn the spring lines end-for-end which was a real tough job in the high wind.  After the lines were all straightened out I put a second whipping at the end of each line that should be on the boat end of the line.  This applied to the spring lines and the new port bow line.

The end of the line with two whippings as shown
above is intended to be the boat end-
-not the dock end.  (The original
whipping looks like it's coming
apart--I'll have to fix it.)

We spent the entire day onboard.  We postponed our lunch out until tomorrow, hoping that the wind dies down and we feel safe leaving the boat for a couple hours.

A Google Maps representation of exactly
where we are located (the blue dot).

Sunday, February 23

Twenty-two knots of wind (fellow cruisers call this "blowing like stink") out of the northeast made for a restless sleep in this marina last night.  A little rain shower around midnight didn’t help either as we had all the hatches open for a change. I got up and closed the hatches and started the onboard A/C. From then on it was the irregular jostling and the strange boat noises that kept waking me. In the early morning I felt like I had saddle bags under my eyes and fog in my brain as I took the first sips of my (full caffeine) coffee.

The wind was expected to diminish to 13 or 14 knots (but still from the northeast) by the end of the day. Tomorrow, it should clock around to the east and then the from the southeast on Tuesday, though still about 16 to 18 knots.  As it clocks around we should have better protection from the wind and I should be able to sleep better at night--we'll see.

I keep having a bad dream about being presented with an enormous electric bill when we leave the marina in mid-March. The rate for electricity here in the marina is 85 cents per kilowatt-hour while back home it’s only 15 cents per kilowatt-hour—that’s 466% higher. (I think the high rate is due to the fact that the electricity is produced on a small scale by diesel generators.)  Consequently, minimizing the use of our onboard A/C is suddenly important to me. Up until now, we had been using it all day every day, even if it was only needed for a few degrees of cooling.  A/C in this marina is really an unnecessary luxury (because of the comfortable outside temperatures) except when there is no wind and the "no-see-ums" come for a visit.

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I performed the diagnostics on our fourth battery (the second of the two oldest ones) in the morning.  While all of the batteries seem to be in equal (good?) condition, I emailed the test results to the battery manufacturer (Ocean Planet Energy) for their analysis.

The 1-hour load test on the last
of our four batteries. (The
load was created by a
12-volt inflator.)

Our big goal for the day was to go out for lunch at Sandy Toes Beach Bar at Grand Isle Resort and have barbecued chicken, pork, or ribs (whatever they were preparing for the day). Maggie had barbecued pork and I had barbecued chicken.  (C'mon it's Sunday--it was supposed to be a day of rest!)

There are three restaurants at
Grand Isle Resort.

We had lunch today at Sandy Toes 
Beach Bar at Grand Isle Resort.

Like previous seasons I have been keeping a list of projects for the summer.  As of now, I have 32 projects, not including the ones to be done by the boatyard.  Fortunately, none of them are large expensive projects, except for re-addressing the suitability of our dinghy's outboard motor.

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In the afternoon I noticed that the leather chafe guard on the port bow line was severely worn--to the point where I had to do something about it.  So, I cut off an 18" length of 3/4" water hose to use as a new chafe guard.  While we were at it we replaced the leather chafe guards on both spring lines with rubber water hose as well.

The leather chafe guard I installed yesterday
had worn through today already!

Our next blogpost will include another road trip, this time to the northernmost part of Great Exuma.  Stay tuned...


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