Calabash Bay to Marina at Emerald Bay

A few hours after we swam with the dolphin a line of squalls came through. The wind shifted to the north and the surge increased, making the anchorage very rolly. It remained rolly all night and we had a miserable night’s sleep. At one point I had the thought that the dolphin wasn’t worth all of the rolliness. (It was.)

We got up at 6 am and had the anchor up by 7 am. One advantage of staying the extra day was that we had a nice, fast sail across Exuma Sound.  We decided to pull into the Marina at Emerald Bay, just north of Georgetown instead of anchoring at Georgetown. A cold front was forecast to come through today and we might be stuck on the boat of we were at anchor. Also, Doug and Laura need to get to the airport on Wednesday and it will be much easier to do that from the marina, given the forecast for the next few days. 

The wind started out in the teens yesterday morning but increased as the day went on. By the time we were near the marina it was over 20 knots and the size of the waves increased. I made it through the channel and into the marina just as another boat was heading our way and turning around in the turning basin. As they were turning, I passed them on the way to our dock. The people on board the other boat started yelling at us. I couldn’t understand them but Doug and Laura said they were telling me to get out of their way, they needed to get by us.  So, I turned away and did my own 360 in the turning basin. They pulled into a fairway and I started to proceed on. Then, they pulled out of the fairway and headed toward me again. Not wanting to deal with them, I turned another 360. They finally pulled up to the fuel dock and I was able to get by them. If they had let me go by the first time I would have passed the fuel dock and been out of their way. My guess is they thought I was going to try to cut in front of them and take their spot at the fuel dock. Doug and Laura said they were very aggressive in their yelling and gesturing. 

As we approached our fairway I slowed and started to turn. At that point the wind caught the boat and started pushing us quite rapidly toward a large catamaran on the T-head of the dock before ours. I gunned the boat in reverse and tried again. Once again I was too close, so I gunned it in reverse a second time and went farther back and maneuvered to get as far from the catamaran as possible. By this time everyone on the catamaran was on deck and looking quite concerned (so I was told). I finally was able to get past them and aim for our slip. I had to go at a higher speed and steeper angle than was comfortable but I didn’t want to take the chance of getting pushed toward the catamaran again. Once the bow got near the slip I leaned on the bow thruster to turn into the slip and just hoped that we would clear the end of the finger pier. We did. Phew. I was relieved I hadn’t hit anything but feeling shaky. Later on, George apologized to the people on the catamaran. I have to confess that I didn’t appreciate the fact that he felt he needed to apologize for my driving. 

This morning Laura and I took a long walk around the marina and golf course while George and Doug stayed behind to run the water maker. When Laura and I turned around to head back we saw very dark clouds on the horizon. The front was coming.  It has just started to rain by the time we reached the boat. 

Entrance to Marina at Emerald Bay