Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Feb 28 thru Mar 1

Our month-long stay in Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma Island continued into this weekend.  We have exactly two more weeks to go before we travel back up the Exumas cays and eventually back toward the U.S.  In the meantime, I am really digging this weather!

Friday, February 28

Before I even finished my morning hot beverage, I browned beef cubes and cut up potatoes and carrots for a beef stew I was making in the crock pot.  I added celery, mushrooms, beef bullion, black pepper, a pinch of garlic, and, of course, some red wine.  The stew will be our lunch for today and a few other days as well. 

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I walked around the marina this morning and took the following photographs:

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

Our bow line with the newly installed rubber
hoses for chafe protection. (Note the
duct tape on the hull--its covering
a puncture from the anchor.)

I added rubber hoses for chafe protection of the
spring lines because the leather chafe
guards were worn out. (Even this
had to be changed the
following day.)

Is this the future of sailing?  Instead of
sails, this racing catamaran
has a huge air foil.

Fifteen knots of wind out of the north was very pleasant today. The breeze was steady and cool. Our next big blow (>25 knots) is expected on March 6, 7, and 8 during our last week here at Emerald Bay Marina (unless we extend our stay).  I found the following graph of the average wind speeds in George Town throughout the year.  March may not offer us much of a reprieve from the high winds.

The average wind speeds in George Town
 throughout the year.

The sky was overcast all afternoon and I thought it would be a good time to fix a few things on my camera (sticking on/off switch and a faulty button to raise the flash) but I couldn't get the camera apart even though I have the necessary small precision screw drivers.  There seemed to be a seal in the frame that simply would not break loose.  Rather than force it, I decided to get it professionally repaired when we get back to the U.S.  I can use it in the meantime and turn it off by simply removing the battery.  (I've picked out a small water-proof camera on Amazon that I want to buy as a back up camera--Olympus Tough TG-6.)

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Today, I noticed that the port bow line was starting to wear through the 3/4" diameter water hose that I added just four days ago as the "improved" chafe guard.  I was running out of things to use for chafe protection.  I moved the hose so that it wore at a different spot to buy some time until I could get more hose material--not metal-reinforced this time!

The chafe experienced through a metal-reinforced
hose in just a couple days.  The white double
braid rope next to the chafe guard
is a back up dock line.

Saturday, February 29 (Leap Day)

According to Wikipedia, "A leap day is observed because the Earth's period of orbital revolution around the sun takes approximately six hours longer than 365 whole days. A leap day compensates for this lag, realigning the calendar with the Earth's position in the Solar System; otherwise, seasons would occur later than intended in the calendar year."  Leap days occur every four years.  (The way I look at it is that it is a bonus day and one that doesn't add to my age at all.)

I feel like a slug this morning.  Last night we slept with the A/C off and the hatches open. It was cool, but somewhat humid. 

In the morning, a fifteen-knot breeze was blowing out of the north, pushing us away from the dock. The wind should follow it’s normal pattern and clock around to the northeast tomorrow, as it strengthens to near 20 knots, and then, to the east, the prevailing direction here in the Exumas, but remain at 20 knots or so. (northeast and east are the worst wind directions for this marina.)

Lola loves to walk around on the cabintop in
the early morning.  (As soon as I tried
taking a photograph of her, she
started walking toward me.)

One of my goals for the day was to rearrange our dock lines in the interest of reducing chafe. I intended to change the spring lines to go from the bow (and stern) to a cleat on the dock near mid-ship—hopefully, reducing the effective length of the spring lines and the extreme "stretchiness" they experience.  Previously, the effective length of each spring line was equal to one boat length—rearranging them reduced the effective length of each to about 1/2 boat length.  In addition, I wanted to change out the chafe guard on the port bow line (to a nonmetal-reinforced hose) where the most chafe has been experienced.

After all the line rearrangement was completed, there were no places where any of the chafe guards had to be bent at sharp angles and the boat seemed to ride the motion in this slip much better.
  

I replaced the rubber hose chafe guard on the
port bow line and tied it off to the starboard
bow cleat to reduce bending in the line.

We kept a spare bow line in place as a safety precaution, in the unlikely event of another bow line failure.  As we were working on the lines, the wind significantly increased in velocity (to 20 knots), like it was testing our improvements.

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Today, I measured some key dimensions for the purchase of an Ultra Flip Swivel for our anchor.  It seems expensive (near $400) until you consider the costs of fiberglass repair for the puncture on our bow that was caused by the anchor coming up backwards and flipping off the bow roller.  The Ultra Flip Swivel assures that the anchor comes up over the bow roller in the proper orientation every time.  

The Ultra Flip Anchor Swivel

To see the Ultra Flip Swivel in action check out the video at this link!  When you consider all the time we spend at anchor and that most times I pull up the anchor it comes up backwards and I have to try and turn it around with our boat hook, this is a real improvement!  I intend to order it tomorrow so that we can get it in our mail (and install it) in Vero Beach when we pass through.

Sunday, March 1

Last night was cool (down to 67 degrees F!) with a nice breeze (12 to 15 knots) and we had much less boat motion than we had previously.  (Sixty-seven degrees was the lowest temperature we experienced in the Exumas!)  We slept like babies. In the early morning, the wind picked up into the 20+ knot range and we experienced some light rain showers.  It felt cold--I pulled the quilt over my head until the sun came up.  By 7 AM the puffy white clouds with their dark underbellies were rapidly moving through the sky and the sun was peeking around them.  (The wind was expected to remain in the 20-knot range for the next couple days, out of the northeast today and, then, out of the east tomorrow.)

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In the morning, I ordered the Ultra Flip Swivel online while I was sipping my coffee.  I also identified several projects (having our outboard repaired, etc.) that can be accomplished in Vero Beach since we always stop there for at least a couple weeks.  I also identified a few projects that I can accomplish here in Emerald Bay Marina if I can get out of "vacation mode" long enough to accomplish them.

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At mid-day, I performed some long overdue software updates on my iPad and my laptop--each took about two hours to complete--this consumed most of the afternoon.  I also finally found the white balance adjustment on my Photos app after consulting some online help.

s/v Rainy Days with dinghy
attached in Slip F-1.

Maggie had a burst of energy today and polished all the external stainless steel hardware and cleaned the windows which were encrusted with salt from the salt water spray.

Our next blogpost will feature our next road trip.  Where will we go next?  Stay tuned...


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