Being at anchor on a sailboat is pretty amazing. Your boat is always facing into the wind, so there’s a nice cool breeze running through. Bugs like land, so I don’t have to worry about any more noseeum attacks. And the views are usually spectacular. My favorite moment is after we’ve eaten dinner in our cockpit and we are watching the sun set with cocktails in our hands. Life on the hook can be pretty magical. But there are some pretty nice things about staying in a marina: hot showers, laundry access, free internet, unlimited water, no long and wet dinghy rides to shore to walk the pups, and better protection from strong winds. When we pulled into the Emerald Bay Marina, we figured we’d stay a few nights…we had no idea we’d be staying eight!
We met Will, Tori, and Ryder (Sailing The Button) before we even secured our dock lines. I think they were just as excited to meet another young cruising couple as we were. Not to mention that they were traveling with a very adorable Boxer. It was St. Patrick’s Day evening and I was on a mission to find green beer. We all walked to the one bar/restaurant in the area. Mission complete—they had green beer. Little did I know that instead of food coloring, they added shots of apple pucker to achieve the color. It was horrendous, but I choked it down in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day. Just one though. I ordered a normal color yellow beer for my second round.
Over the next few days, we did a lot with our new friends. We had dinner at each other’s boat, we snorkeled, let the pups run on the beach, and hung out by the nearby resort pool. While we love the ocean, it felt amazing to soak in fresh water. We’d been moving fast for the last month and traveling can be exhausting. It was nice to relax. We spent several nights sunk into the most comfortable couch I’ve ever sat on in the boater’s lounge watching Netflix.
With the green beer mission complete, our next mission was to drive to Georgetown to get medication for Baxter’s ear infection and the replacement fuel line for our engine. The fuel line had sprung a leak about a week ago and rescue tape was the only thing preventing diesel from spewing all over our engine compartment. Getting these two items turned out to be a bit of a challenge and demonstrated how unorganized things can be in the islands.
There is one vet clinic in the Exumas. The vet flies in from Ft. Lauderdale once a month and we had just missed him. However, the clinic was willing to sell us the Zymox we needed to clear up the infection. We tried spraying vinegar in Baxter’s ear, but it wasn’t helping. The clinic’s hours are noon-1pm on Wednesdays. That’s it. They are only open 1 hour a week. And of course we pulled into the marina on Thursday evening. After leaving a few voicemails, the clinic called me back and said that I could pick up the medication from a “colorful hotel on the north side of town”. The woman couldn’t remember the name of it, but there was a restaurant on site called “Splash”. Well, I can’t say I had a high level of confidence that I we’d be able to get the Zymox, but we had to try. We rented a car and drove to town looking for a colorful hotel. And sure enough the medicine was waiting for me at the front desk.
That was strange, but easy enough, now it was time to find the engine part. I had called a Yanmar dealer in Nassau and they shipped the part to the Exuma Market in Georgetown. The woman from the Yanmar dealer told me the part would be $53 and that shipping would be somewhere around $35. She didn’t have a total for me, but she was confident that it would be around $100. We went to the market, which is really just a grocery store, and asked if they received a package for us. They hadn’t. I then rang the Yanmar dealer again and she told me that I needed to “go to the dock and it will be in the shack”. What dock? What shack? We had no clue where to go. I wasn’t even sure how to form a question in order to ask someone. “A dock with a shack” sounded ridiculously vague, but I gave it a shot. Shockingly the woman at the market knew just what I was talking about and escorted us to the dock. We picked up the package and was informed that there was no charge. The shipping had been paid. I called the Yanmar dealer once more so that I could pay for the part. She still didn’t have a total price for me yet and she would call me back to collect payment when she got it. That was two weeks ago and we still haven’t paid for the part.
Getting the medication and engine part was a random adventure. While we had the car, we also stopped at the hardware store and the market. The market had the best produce we’d seen in the Bahamas yet.
While at the marina, we also took the opportunity to complete some boat work. We fixed the generator, replaced the fuel line, replaced the mast boot, replaced transom shower, re-bed a sanction that had been leaking, and oiled all of the downstairs teak. There is a lot of teak on this boat!
The Emerald Bay Marina was pretty convenient. At $1.00 per foot per night, it was very inexpensive for the Bahamas. There was FREE laundry and wifi. The showers were hot and amazing. The boater’s lounge was very nice with comfy furniture and a pool table. And on Monday, the marina brought in food and drinks for “Happier Hour”. So when the forecast called for strong winds, we didn’t mind staying a few more nights—in fact it gave us a chance to watch a few more episodes of House of Cards. But after eight nights, we were ready to move on once the winds died down.
On March 25th we left the marina and set sail for Georgetown along with half of the other sailboats at the marina, including our new friends Will and Tori. We spent 3 nights in Georgetown. We provisioned, hiked, and enjoyed the gorgeous beaches while we waited for the right weather window to leave the Exumas.
Georgetown has everything you need. Great groceries, free water, fun tiki bar, fabulous beaches, volleyball courts, a water taxi, and Sunday pig roasts. It’s easy to see why cruisers love the many nice anchorages here. Georgetown is also known as “Chicken Harbor”. Many cruisers arrive here with plans to sail the Caribbean, but then turn back. Sometimes it’s because of a broken part or bad weather. For many it’s because the passages become long and require overnight sails. For others it’s because they have already found a convenient paradise in the Exumas. To be honest, we also seriously considered turning back and just cruising in the Bahamas. Cruising has its challenges. Some days it’s magical and we can’t believe this is our life now. Other days it can be incredibly frustrating and we question why we are even doing this. After much thought, we pulled up our anchor on March 28th and left Chicken Harbor behind as we continue heading Southeast.
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