Emerald Bay and Georgetown

Emerald Bay

We motor sailed the short distance to the Marina at Emerald Bay, for a dollar a night slip.  Heard some good things about it.  We entered the harbor, went to the gas dock and fueled up.  The marina was beautiful, the best shower facilities we have seen, a clubhouse to watch the super bowl, and FREE laundry.  The marina was purchased by the Sandals resort a year ago and is just getting going again.  They laid out a green carpet where we got off the boat.  Everything is first rate.   The super bowl party was really nice, about 50 cruisers, roughly divided between the Packers and the Steelers. 

The marina gave us a ride in a golf cart to the market and back, so we were able to stock up.   We also did some body surfing at the Sandals resort even though we were not allowed in without a $180 payment per person per day (no kids allowed).  They don’t own the beach!

Pierre and I went lobstering and Pierre managed to get a big one.  I am still lobsterless.  We celebrated Michelle’s 39^th birthday with a get together of the crews of Falco and Rafale and some blueberry and cream cheese pie. 

Georgetown



We left for Georgetown on Tuesday, just a short sail of 8 miles.  The seas were fairly large, and it was not a pleasant trip.  We came into the harbor and wow, I have never seen so many anchored boats in one place.  There were 275 boats in the harbor, but still we managed to find a good spot on the south end off sand dollar beach.  I really wanted to get our cruising permit extended, so we went there only to find that the officer had stepped out for a minute and would not be back for the day.  Cruising permits for the Bahamas are strange, depending seemingly on things like the officer you get, the height of the tide, the phase of the moon, and other less definable factors you can get from 30 days to 180 days.  After that you need to arrange for an extension, extensions are as well defined as the first permit.  The next day when the officer was back we asked for another 90 days, just to be sure, and we were given 120 days (Falco was only given 116 days, just a few hours later).

The market and the hardware store here are still very small by American standards, but huge compared to everything but Nassau.  The prices are considerably less than the other Exuma Islands we have stopped at.   There is a bridge for the dinghys to go under to get into Lake Victoria, where the stores are.

 

Dinghy entrance to Lake Victoria

I laughed at the sign we saw near the immigration office, rules from my childhood, with the exception of “No car washing”, my rule was quite the opposite.

We went to volleyball beach and there were kids!  Their numbers are growing and the girls are really enjoying the company.  The boys against the girls game of volleyball was fun for all.  We relocated to a mooring ball just off volleyball beach, where all the kids hang out.  It is right in the middle of a lot of traffic which is not the best thing for us, but the kids are having a great time.  The cruisers net is somewhat like a retirement community, with activities going on all the time.  Another boat with kids has started a “kids net” and is working to arrange activities for all of the kids, about 50 as of this writing.  So far they have done volleyball, hiking, basket weaving, using gps to find treasure, football, and there are more activities to come.   We are going to spend a couple of weeks here before we head out for more discovery. 

Volleyball Beach