Last Two Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Friday, April 17

This morning was very calm, quiet, and serene as we now have determined when we are leaving Emerald Bay Marina and the Bahamas in general. We were growing roots here as a “virtual” storm approached (Coronavirus pandemic) and possibly real storms (hurricane season) approaching on the horizon—not a good condition at all. 

We did more preparations today like emptying our composting toilet’s solids container (Maggie calls this "the dirty deed"), cleaning dodger windows, cleaning and spraying hatch screens with “no-see-um” insecticide, and charging batteries.

Our Travel Plan Out of the Bahamas

As previously mentioned in our last blogpost, we will be departing from Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma on Sunday, April 19. We will motor on the ocean-side of the lower Exuma cays to Galliot Cut where we will pass through to the bank-side and continue northeast to Black Point on Great Guana Cay. (We will anchor overnight near Black Point.) The very next day (Monday, April 20) we will continue traveling northeast to Highbourne Cay where will anchor overnight. From Highbourne, we will travel northeast to the outskirts of Nassau and anchor overnight just off one of the small islands on the east end. Then, we have a 50+ nautical mile trip across the Northeast Providence Channel to the northern end of the Berry Islands (near Great Stirrup Cay) where, again, we will anchor overnight. 

Our 355-nm route (in red) back to the U.S.
is about as direct as possible.

From the Berries, we will travel northward (55+ nautical miles across the Northwest Providence Channel) to Port Lucaya on the south side of Grand Bahama Island ending in another overnight anchorage. Before leaving Port Lucaya, we will refuel at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club (one of the marinas designated by the Bahamian government to stay open for departing vessels) and the proceed on a 30 nautical mile trip to near West End, Grand Bahama. We will anchor overnight just outside West End so that we can leave the Bahamas very early in the morning (before daybreak) and cross the Gulf Stream to the U.S. (at Fort Pierce, FL).  It will take us 7 straight (long) days of travel (mostly motoring unless we have favorable winds) to get back to U.S. waters from Emerald Bay Marina. The total distance to be traveled from Emerald Bay Marina to Fort Pierce, FL is approximately 355 nautical miles (equivalent to over 400 statute miles).  (Our plan does not allow for any weather delays.)

The reason we chose Sunday for our departure is because the sea state is predicted to be very low (under 2 foot seas).  We can make the most boat speed through a settled sea state.  We want to make good time while on the ocean-side of the cays.

Maggie's home-made pizza dough.

Just two hours later, we had
pizza.  It was delicious!

Worried About the Fridge

As you may recall, our refrigerator couldn’t stay cold shortly after we arrived in George Town. I added Freon and accidentally overcharged the system and the electronic controls automatically shutdown the compressor to avoid a failure. We came to Emerald Bay Marina where we could meet up with a local refrigeration technician who was able to remove the excess Freon and get the system working properly again. The fridge repair was slightly over 8 weeks ago.

The original problem with the fridge was too little Freon—the system only holds 5-1/2 ounces!  The leakage of the Freon from the system happened either (a) over its 6-year life, or (b) during our horrific experience in high winds just 2 or 3 weeks before the failure to stay cool.  The rough conditions could have caused a hole to be abraded through one of the copper lines. We never found leakage in the tubing (by visual examination) but we didn’t do a high-pressure leak test either.  So, here we are, a little over 8 weeks after the fridge repair, ready to make a 7-day passage back to the U.S. with some concern.  Is it warranted?

Plan for Fresh Water

We will fill up our forward fresh water tank just before departing on Sunday morning. (The port fresh water tank is already full.)  We will not fill the starboard tank that we use as a day tank for the water maker because we will make fresh water during our travels on Sunday. From then on, we will draw our regular fresh water needs off the day tank. This way, we will keep 115 gallons (110 gallons in 2 onboard tanks + 5 gallons in a Jerry jug on deck) of fresh water in reserve. 

Saturday, April 18

We deliberately woke up early this morning (6:30 AM) to get accustomed to early rises and long days on the water.  Several of our days traveling between island chains in the Bahamas will be 10 to 11 hour days, maybe even a little longer. Our first 3 days will be under 50 nautical miles (a little over 8 hours).  For the first three days, if we get underway by 7:30 AM, we will be anchoring between 3 PM and 4 PM—these will be nice easy days.

The outside temperature was very warm today, reaching 83 degrees in the afternoon. The wind was blowing at 11 to 12 knots out of the southeast most of the day.  Our A/C ran almost continually today since Maggie was doing so much cooking down below (using the oven). 

The fridge held a steady temperature of approximately 41 degrees throughout the day, even though the compressor seemed to run a lot.  Normally we would be using auxiliary water cooling for the fridge but the pump was inoperable for most of this trip and, anyway, the water temperature is nearly the same as the air temperature here. The warm outside temperature also works against the fridge because of the heat transfer through the hull. 

Today’s Agenda

The following list comprises our agenda for today, our last full day at Emerald Bay Marina:

Today's "to do" list captured early in
the day.  Some items were
flagged as completed by
the red diamond
symbol.

Continued Preparations for Departure

Today, we stowed our little 2 HP Honda outboard motor on the cabintop and securely tied it to the stainless steel handrails and the aft whisker pole mount.  The nice thing about this little outboard is that it only weighs 27 pounds and it is very easy to maneuver around the boat.

Little 2 HP Honda outboard
was stowed at mid-ship
inside the shrouds.

I completed all the preparation for navigation early in the day and Maggie did laundry and a lot of cooking (home-made bread, Asian-style slaw, and a pasta dish) as preparation for our departure.

Lola was awake all through
the night studying charts
for tomorrow's trip.

By the end of the day, we completed all the items on our agenda.  We have another (much shorter) agenda for early tomorrow morning, just before departure.  At this point, I'm anxious to get back to the U.S. and get through the next 7 long days on the water.

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I'm going to try to maintain our 2-day schedule for blogposts.  We expect to have a good WiFi signal all along our route (except maybe in the Berry Islands).  Stay tuned...

Stay safe and thanks for following our blog!