Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Mar 25 thru Mar 27

As we continue our "sheltering in place" here in Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas, I'm hoping that everyone back home is successfully dealing with this awful pandemic.  We'll all get through this together!

Wednesday, March 25

This was normally our day to rent a car, get groceries, and then tour the island but all that has been put on hold by the Bahamian government (and for good reason).

Effective March 24 thru March 31, “all (Bahamian) sea ports shall be closed to regional and international seafaring and private boating.” (Airports are closed too.) If our boat leaves this marina during the above time period, we won’t be able to enter this or any other (Bahamian) port during the above time period. I fully support this clampdown—measures like this are the best way to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. In fact, I think this 8-day clampdown will have to be extended beyond Match 31 to be fully effective because it depends on similar clampdowns in the U.S., which have been very spotty to date.

In addition all Bahamians and visitors are confined to the homes/boats and their yard (in our case, the marina's grounds) except for essential errands (getting food or medicine).

My light reading for today, tomorrow, and
maybe even the next day.

We ordered our week's groceries from Exuma Markets by email yesterday.  It was nothing like ordering on Amazon.com but it worked.  (Exuma Markets is a little bigger than a very large Seven-Eleven in the U.S.  They have shopping carts but they are about half the size of those in the U.S.  The shopping isles are narrow and there are probably only five of them.  The coolers are around the outer perimeter of the store.)

Lola sleeping on my messy
navigation station desk.

The outside temperature was in the high 70’s today and there wasn’t much wind. We had the boat’s A/C running all day, even though it was set at 75 degrees, just a few degrees below the outside temperature. It drizzled a couple times but just for a few minutes each time.  I didn’t even go outside today.

Thursday, March 26

Today began with a very light westerly wind, an usual direction for the Exumas. I had never seen the water’s surface so calm in this marina!  Tomorrow, the wind is expected to clock around to the east and strengthen a little.  By Saturday, the wind will stiffen to 12 knots or so from the east and stay that way for several days. The outside temperature was 76 degrees at 9 in the morning and was expected to reach a high of 79 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. The daily temperature range has been pretty typically less than 5 degrees all season so far.

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Something I had not previously mentioned in this blog is that (before the clampdown on personal movement was put into effect because of the Coronavirus and while we were having lunch at the Lighthouse Cafe on one of our Wednesdays with a rental car) I asked the proprietor of the restaurant if it ever rains all day here. She thought for a few moments before answering. The friendly 50-something Bahamian lady told us that a long time ago when she first came to Great Exuma she remembered it raining all day just once.  

Plants along a rarely used dirt road on the
marina grounds spread out their roots
over the road to collect every bit of
available moisture when it rains.

Because there is so little rain, there are no cisterns for storing rainwater here like are commonly found in the Abacos.  (I don't think the cisterns in the Abacos are used for potable water anymore.)

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Again today, we ran the boat's A/C all day.

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The latest U.S. data on the Coronavirus outbreak is 68,906 cases and 1,037 total deaths, as of the end of yesterday, March 25.  The number of cases in New York City was doubling every 3.4 days.  These statistics were depressing.

Friday, March 27

My morning routine here in the Bahamas has been to read the world news on my iPad while I am drinking my morning tea or coffee.  I usually read articles from at least three different news sources: CNN, Reuters, NBC, and sometimes the BBC.  Thankfully, there is good internet signal all along the Exumas, particularly here on Great Exuma.  However, our BTC cell phone ran out of minutes--so, I couldn't read the news first thing in the morning.  (Maybe that was a good thing?)

The beach on the east end
of the marina.

The easterly wind returned today and provided a nice cool breeze in the morning.  In the afternoon, it wasn't enough to keep the boat cool, so we turned on the A/C again today.

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I walked 1/2 mile today without my back brace!  This was the only way I could eventually strengthen the muscles that gave me so much pain during the past couple weeks.

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When we first arrived in this marina, we were locked in here by very high winds that caused a raging ocean at the marina inlet. Lately, we have been locked in by the threat of an invisible virus. In both cases, we have been locked in, unable to move our boat for a total of about 1-1/2 months. We probably have a little less than one more week of isolation dictated by the Bahamian government. After that week is up we have to evaluate the marina closures in the U.S. before leaving the Bahamas. (We will probably stay in this marina until May 12.). People back home have been locked in their homes, sheltering in place, waiting for the virus to pass. Everyone is in uncharted territory from here into the future.


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