Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Mar 18 thru Mar 20

We were debating whether or not to "shelter in place" here in Emerald Bay Marina for another three weeks OR one month and three weeks. 

Wednesday, March 18

All the COVID-19 precautions we've heard about on the news have hit Great Exuma.  Some restaurants have "take out only" offerings, the nearest liquor store allows only two people in the store at a time, and proprietors in shops are wearing plastic gloves and regularly wiping counters with sanitizers.  These precautions seemed to initiate overnight.

A pickup truck sits outside Exuma Markets
with a small selection of fresh
fruits and vegetables
for sale.

After grocery shopping this morning, we decided to try a new restaurant, Shoreline Restaurant and Bar on the north end of the island.

The entranceway to Shoreline
Restaurant and Bar. The
food was "take out"
only.

Some of the outdoor seating
had a spectacular view!

We are seriously considering staying in the Exumas longer than we originally planned because of the coronavirus.  We can extend our stay here at the marina for another three weeks and that simply means we add another deeply discounted rate for another month's stay--we are already a week into our second month.  (Or, even add another month on top of that!)

We feel very safe here and there haven't been any coronavirus cases reported on this island.  (There may be a couple of cases in Nassau, mostly people on cruise ships, which I think have stopped coming into Nassau.)

Thursday, March 19

Yesterday we canvassed some family members by email about our decision on whether to stay here on Great Exuma for a while or come back home to the U.S. in the midst of the corona virus epidemic. This morning we got the responses. I would say that it was unanimous that our family members thought that we would be safer here. My sister described the eeriness of the town where I was born in Pennsylvania, with the grocery store shelves bare and no toilet paper available anywhere in the area. One of Maggie’s sisters pointed out the extreme difference in medical care (much better in the U.S.) if we do get infected—this was the only comment in favor of returning to the U.S. at this time.

All of our family members were essentially already “sheltered in place” in their homes. So, we decided to “shelter in place” here in Emerald Bay Marina until April 12 (the end of our second month here) and then, on April 12, make another decision for the following 30 days. It would be possible for us to “shelter in place” here until mid-June, if necessary. Our cruising permit is good through the end of June (I’m glad we elected for a 6 month permit!) as it stands right now. It would take us about 2 weeks for us to travel from Great Exuma back to the U.S. (if we hurry).

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The power is out again—a scheduled shutdown for a couple hours. The marina’s emergency generators are running to make up for some of the power loss. As a result of the power outage, we don’t have internet access for the moment. 

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It is a beautiful day outside—not a cloud in the sky.  We did have a light rain shower this morning—it lasted all of five minutes.  A nice cool 15-knot breeze was blowing out of the east southeast all day.

A palm tree on the marina's
grounds. I love how the 
palms move in 
the wind!

I must admit that seeing one of the marina workers wearing surgical gloves this morning was a bit unnerving.  I can only imagine how most people feel in the U.S.

Just think, if John Bolton had not dismantled the mechanism (National Security Council's Global Health Office) to deal with pandemics in 2019, today's situation in the U.S. may have been very different.  For more information, please read the following links for a USA Today article and a recent clip from CNN (which I could not attach as a link).  If only we had a President that took advice from the experts! 

Friday, March 20

Though it’s a beautiful day outside (sunny with a cool breeze), today seemed to be another day of waiting—waiting for the Coronavirus pandemic to settle down in the U.S. so we can go back home and waiting for my back to heal. I don’t do “waiting” very well—I always have to be busy doing something, anything.  (I was thinking about organizing my 12,000+ photos on my portable hard drive in the afternoon. What a job!)

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On the Coronavirus front, the good news is that there were no new cases in China (where the virus started) for two days now. So, it took about 3 months to finally stop the spread of the disease (if it, in fact, has stopped). If that same timeline holds true for the U.S., we will be through with all this by the end of May or thereabouts. If we leave this marina on April 12 (after our 2-month stay), we could meander through the cays (anchoring out most of the time) and be back in the U.S. easily by the end of May. (This depends on my back completely healing within the next three weeks while we are still here in the marina. I believe this is possible but not assured.)  Alternatively, we could stay here in this marina for our third month, leaving on May 12, and still make it back to the U.S. by the end of May.  Maybe a timeline between these two alternatives is preferable, for example, leaving in late-April or early-May.  (Also, we don't know what we will face upon re-entering the U.S. in terms of quarantines.)

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Our previous decision to stay in Emerald Bay Marina as opposed to rushing back to the states, has been supported by the fact that there are fewer cases of the Coronavirus discovered in the Caribbean (and the tropics in general).  In fact, this island (Great Exuma) has much less tourism than most of the others in the tropics.

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We are planning our next road trip for the coming Wednesday, this time to two cays north of Great Exuma which are connected by bridges.  Of course, we will minimize contacts with other people.

Sheltering in place is a tough job in this
marina but someone has to do it.

Just as an indication of how bad my back pain has been, we celebrated tonight because I didn't fall down today.  Stay tuned for more of this season's adventure...


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