Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Mar 6 thru Mar 9

In this blogpost, we continue our stay in Emerald Bay Marina as we enter the last week of our stay.  We now expect to leave the marina on Saturday, March 14.  So, we will have just one more blogpost from Emerald Bay Marina.

Friday, March 6

We had a marina-wide power outage last night sometime between 11 PM and midnight. Our A/C went off once (the boat’s cabin temperature rose to 78 degrees), it came back on for about 15 minutes and then went off again for about 15 minutes. (All the lights on the electrical pedestals were off too.) There was someone working on the main power supply at the marina shortly after midnight—afterward, it was working fine for the remainder of the night. This was the first time we experienced a power outage here.

This morning we moved from slip F-1 to E-14, a distance of about 50 yards.  The reason for our move was that there is a bigger boat coming into the marina that needs our old 50 foot slip--our new slip is for 40 foot boats.  We knew this move was coming.

A view from below as Lola sits on
the companionway hatch in 
the morning.  (Maggie was 
outside watching her.)

After we moved the boat, we discovered that a 3/8” braided nylon line holding one of our fenders in place was nearly worn through—I replaced the worn line right away.  

Our boat is now facing west southwest whereas previously it was facing east northeast.  We expect another big blow over the next 4 or 5 days (from the north and east) and this time, our starboard stern line will be most at risk (previously it was our port bow line)—so I put a heavy rubber hose chafe guard on this line plus added a second safety line tied to a different cleat with less tension than the primary dock line. We put all four fenders on our starboard side, spaced about three feet apart.

s/v Rainy Days in Slip E-14
at Emerald Bay Marina
on Great Exuma.

Every day since arriving in the Exumas I have had lower back pain.  I've tried heat packs and I regularly take Ibuprofen (several times a day, in fact).  Today, I started exercises designed to get rid of back pain.  I did the exercises in the boat's cockpit.  Something snapped (a good snap?) in my back as I did them.  I hope exercises help!

Saturday, March 7 (My 73rd Birthday!)

The strong northerly wind started sometime before 4 AM.  We were expecting it.  We had rubber hose chafe guards on those dock lines expected to experience the most strain.  We were tied tightly to the massive concrete floating docks to minimize boat motion. There were a lot of bigger boats around us, shielding us from the wind.  Still, in my mind, I can picture the loads on the lines and cleats and what more I could have done to tolerate those loads.  Damn!  The spring lines were adjusted too long—the same elasticity issue I had in our previous slip would happen again. It’s still dark outside at 5 AM—there is little I can do about it now but wait for daylight...

First light on March 7, with an overcast sky
and a strong northerly wind. (The 50' 
power boat in this photo is the 
one that took our old slip.)

This partial image from WINDY shows
the wind we expected over the
next couple days.

Our weather window for leaving this marina has moved out a bit further--to Monday, March 16.

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This morning I wrecked our Android-based BTC cell phone.  Apparently last night I plugged the micro USB cable end into the phone (for charging the battery) upside down. This morning, I had to remove it with a pair of needle-nosed pliers—in the process, I destroyed the phone’s internal power receptacle. (This couldn’t have happened on an iPhone!  In fact, I thought about trying to simply switch the SIM cards and use my iPhone.  I actually accomplished this later in the day--it was easy!  My iPhone is so much better quality than the Android-based Samsung Galaxy cell phone we used for the BTC service!)

At mid-morning, we straightened out the spring lines, re-adjusted all our dock lines and added another (heavier) aft spring line for when the wind clocks around to more of an easterly direction. (It seemed like everyone on our dock was outside adding lines but some got a little carried away with it.)

Four bow lines--one is even tied
around the steel piling!

There’s not much one can do outside with 20+ knots of wind. It actually felt cold today, even though it was in the mid-60’s.

We went out for my birthday lunch at Palapa, the mid-level restaurant at Grand Isle Resort, next door to the marina. (There are three restaurants at Grand Isle Resort—all three are expensive.  Lunch cost us $75.  We had no drinks nor dessert, just sandwiches and a shared appetizer.)

We shared a small platter of conch
fritters as an appetizer.

The underside of the roof at
the Palapa Restaurant.

After lunch today (between 1 and 3 PM) there was a scheduled shutdown of the water supply system on the northern end of the island.  Apparently there was an emergency shutdown of the system over night and this scheduled  shutdown is for the purpose of fixing the original problem.

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To complete my birthday, Maggie made a Banana Bushwhacker for me for Happy Hour.  It used our normal frozen bushwhacker recipe but with 1/2 banana added to the blended frozen concoction.

Our new special drink, what we call
a Banana Bushwhacker.

Sunday, March 8

I don’t get much sleep on windy nights (like last night).  I listen to every little noise and try to determine what’s causing it. The boat noises and the irregular motion drive me crazy that way.  Every couple hours last night, I checked the dock lines. (Nights are generally a lot more peaceful at anchor.)

We have experienced a lot more “strong wind conditions" here in the Exumas this season than any of the two previous winter seasons we spent in the Abacos.  I checked the wind conditions in the Abacos for today and they were fairly close to what we are currently experiencing.  So, there must be some truth to what fellow cruisers have told us--that the this season has been unusual with the many "strong wind conditions."

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Today would have been my mother's 100th birthday (if I did my math correctly).  She died when she was only 55 years old from cancer.  My mother and I were the only ones in our immediate family who shared March birthdays--everyone else's birthday was in October.

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In the morning I made eight new upgraded lines for our four fenders using the 1/2' diameter line from the old anchor bridle.  In the late afternoon, we attended a gathering of cruisers in the marina's lounge--it was a nice event.  This constant strong wind is getting old and we will be in for more of it tomorrow!  (Sorry, no pics today!)

Monday, March 9

We must be getting accustomed to 20+ knot winds or maybe the reduced boat motion was due to the constant improvements I made to the dock lines and spring lines because I finally got caught up on my sleep last night. (We had three distinct rainfalls during the night but they were each very light and short-lived.)  Our weather window for leaving has just changed slightly—it now looks like Saturday, March 14, (five days or so from now) is our best day to leave. We expect to get back to the U.S. at Fort Pierce FL by about April 15, one month from now.  (We have a lot of places we want to visit in the Bahamas before crossing the Gulf Stream.)

We used all four of our 10" diameter
fenders to keep us off the dock.

My back feels a lot better since I started my back exercises a few days ago. This improvement has certainly brightened my mood considerably.

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We experienced an island-wide power outage in the morning.  The power came back on about 11 AM.  Fortunately, our onboard solar panels picked up the slack for us—we were generating 5 to 10 amps (less when cloud cover blew overhead) until the power came back on.  We continued to run our water maker during peak sunlight hours (9:30 AM to 2:30 PM) despite the morning's power outage.

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We walked out toward the marina inlet before lunch and captured the following images of the rough sea:

The inlet to the marina is in a "rage" condition.
(You can see both the red and green
buoys in this image.)

The waves crashing into the breakwater
near the marina inlet.

Beautiful blue waves crashing
onto a nearby beach.

To fully experience the power of the sea, one would have to hear the roar of the surf and the force of the 20 to 25 knot wind.  No photograph can do this condition justice.

Stay tuned for our last week in Emerald Bay Marina...

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