Great Exuma - Emerald Bay Marina

Beautiful Bahamian Smile
at Georgetown Primary School
'Lunch Window'

April 20, 2014


We have been docked at Emerald Bay Marina  http://www.marinaemeraldbay.com/ on Great Exuma for the last two weeks.  Before coming here, we had been anchored out for about 6 weeks so we were due/over-due for some boat cleaning and maintenance.

Emerald Bay is a very nice marina just north of Georgetown.  It is convenient to the airport (not important to us) and a great base to explore Exuma.  Airport Car Rental delivers rental cars to the marina, so it is very easy to get a car for a day or two to do provisioning and explore the island.

The marina can have quite a problem with surge when there is a NE swell.  Last year when we were here, the surge was very bad; we blew out a large/expensive fender bouncing around and had to replace it at Bahamian prices.  The channel can also become impassable if there is a large swell running and in fact we got 'trapped' here for a few days last year.  But this year there was no significant surge so we had a smooth visit.

Emerald Bay is very nice, but quite isolated without a car.  The nearby Grand Isle Resort offers about the only walkable resources, with a nice restaurant and a pool which is also available with a 'day-pass'.  Emerald Bay is associated with the nearby Sandal's Resort, but you have to pay a rather large fee to use those 'all-inclusive' facilities.

Grand Isle Pool

A rare photo of us at the Grand Isle pool!
Photo Credit: Ashley Berry

Emerald Bay is frequently used by large mega-yachts to pick up and discharge guests.  We like to stay on 'H' dock because it is a little quieter, but it also is used by large yachts. Actually it is quite entertaining to watch them dock and clean.  If you crew on a mega-yacht you spend a LOT of time cleaning!  Some of our neighbors included the 130' M/V Never Say Never and the 180' M/V Step One.  Step One left early one morning when the dock staff was not yet on duty, and I helped them  take in their lines; their lines are about as thick as my forearm!  While the guest and lower-level crew can be a little snooty, we find that the officers are often nice.  For the most part they are just regular guys with a nice gig.

Our 'body guards' - M/V Never Say Never and M/V Cacique
Can you find us?

We 'complained' that our body guards were not big enough -
So they replaced Never Say Never with 180' M/V Step One

Priority one when we arrived was boat cleaning and maintenance.  After 6 weeks at anchor, the last two of which we were beaching the dinghy at Cat Island, the boat was DIRTY.  Also we were due for quite a bit of routine maintenance including changing engine fluids and filters, cleaning/replacing water maker filters, bottom cleaning and zinc replacement, and a host of other little jobs.  It is not impossible to perform these tasks at anchor, but it is a whole lot more convenient at dock.

We revisited some favorite places on Exuma. We attended Sunday and Good Friday services at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church in Stuart Manor and Easter services at Ebenezer Baptist in nearby Farmer's Hill.

While in Georgetown getting provisions we often stop at the Driftwood Café for coffee or a quick lunch.  Located next to the Primary School, they offer lunches to the students through a hole in the fence between the properties.  It is typical throughout the Bahamas for a local restaurant to provide lunches for the students but often it is from some type of lunch wagon; we find the hole-in-the-fence cafeteria unique.

Ordering lunch

Big Bahamian smile!

We also visited Santana's Grill Pit on Little Exuma.  The owner De (Denise) Rolle offers, in our opinion, the best fried fish in THE BAHAMAS - not just Exuma.  The onion sauce she uses is just out of this world!  She cooks her Peas and Rice outdoors over a wood fire which adds a delicious smoky flavor you just don't get with rice cooked indoors.  On our first visit she was off island getting supplies for an Easter Monday (a holiday in the Bahamas) egg hunt sponsored by her church, but on our second visit we were able to have a nice chat. 

We also got to spend some time with her delightful 3-year old grand daughter, Safari.  Safari came over to sit with us while she ate her lunch and ended up sitting on Joyce's lap to better reach her lunch on the counter.   When she found out that we did not have any children/grand-children she 'offered' us her 2-year cousin 'Shaddy'.  I guess he offers too much 'cute' competition'.

Plans have us leaving here on Monday or Tuesday and traveling north to Little Farmers Cay and then Black Point on Great Guana.  Emerald Bay is our southern-most point for the year, and now we start to head back towards the States.

Tom
Docked at Emerald Bay Marina.
Great Exuma, Bahamas

Cat Island!

April 5, 2014

 

We have been anchored here in Cat Island for almost 2 weeks – it is probably our favorite island in the Bahamas!  When you arrive here, it is a Bahamian island like you imagined them – remote, undeveloped, friendly people, and beautiful beaches.   

 

Cat Island offers no all-weather protection except for the small marina at Hawksnest, so if you want to stay for any length of time, you must be prepared to weather moderate cold fronts by moving around to maximize protection and be prepared to move elsewhere if a strong front approaches.   We have weathered two moderate fronts in our stay.   Moving down to Old Bight offers protection from the south; moving up north behind Bonefish point offers some protection from west waves,  but you are exposed to the winds from southwest to west.  We have done some ‘rocking and rolling’ while we have been here – uncomfortable, but not dangerous if you anchor well and keep a good watch.   You don't want to be here, however, in a strong front - it could down-right dangerous!  But that is what keeps the number of cruisers down.

 

Most people don’t think of Cat island for its beaches, but they have some of the most beautiful beaches we have seen in the Bahamas.  Beautiful white sand off barrier coral reefs and a stone’s throw from deep water.  Oh and virtually deserted!

 

Old Bight Beach
 

Atlantic Beach at Shanna's Cove at the north end of the island

 

 

Red-dirt trail to beach at Shanna's Cove
We were somewhat unprepared for the 1.5+ mile rocky (not shown here) hike to the beach

 

Atlantic beach on the 'North Side' - actually the east side
Notice how close the blue (deep) water lies
Cat Islanders have a unique way to express directions - for example you go 'Up South'  to travel to the southern end of the island!

 

While Bahamians in general are very friendly, Cat Islanders are exceptionally so.   They get relatively few visitors and appreciate those that come.  Even casual encounters  often include a big smile and a ‘Enjoy your stay!'  Pictured below is a batch of rice and beans that I made during our stay.  The green beans were a gift of Alfred from the Alnor Bakery in Old Bight and the ‘bottled tomatoes’ were a gift of Elsie Mae of New Bight.  Bottled tomatoes are an example of using what resources you have – you probably can’t tell from the pictures, but the tomatoes are canned in Kalik beer bottles (The Beer of the Bahamas).

 

 

 

 

 

All around Cat Island you see abandoned small stone buildings.  One explanation is an old Cat Island custom, that when the last of a generation dies, the house is abandoned and another built.  We don’t think that this custom is practiced anymore, but from the sometimes very close abandoned buildings, you imagine that it was in times past.  A simpler explanation is that ‘progress’ has come slowly to the Island.  Almost everyone over forty talks about growing up in a 2-3 room house (that is not the count of bedrooms, but rooms!), grinding grits and corn flour from locally grown corn, tending kerosene refrigerators, and baking in wood-fired stone ovens.  Electricity came to the island in 1993!

 

 

 

 

Our hangout here is always the ‘Sunshine Takeaway’ (new name), a shack at the regatta park run by Cordell (‘CorDee’) King and her daughter Cedell (‘CeeDee’) Hunter and a cast of regulars.  They serve up delicious native dishes - mornings you will often find CeeDee cleaning locally caught fish to be prepared for lunch/dinner.   But beyond the food, they serve up great hospitality.  Often when it is slow, they and a ‘cast of regulars’ gather around the table and have lively conversations, play games (well-known games like backgammon or ‘Ludu’, a local ‘monoply-like game), and just enjoy life!

 

On weekends and some other nights, they feature ‘Rake and Scrape’ music.  One of the regulars, Pompey ‘Bohog’ Johnson is considered one of the ‘fathers’ of this music form which features accordion, drum and ‘saw’.  CeeDee plays the drum and Crystal (another regular) plays the saw.  Believe it or not, they have traveled to play at a music festival in Paris, France, and have appeared on the Today Show!

 

I have somewhat of a ‘tradition’ of sharing some of my culinary specialties with the crew at the take-away.  Last year my Chili drew rave reviews and this year they really enjoyed my Chicken Roti, a West Indian curry dish.  Lest you think they only flatter me, my Rice & Beans featured above drew decidedly low reviews.  I initially was not going to share this dish, since it is 'in-progress' dish for me and one of their standards, but CorDee encouraged me.  I knew it was not good when CorDee started with “What kind of rice did you use?” with a disapproving tone. 

 

Sadly, tomorrow we are leaving and heading to Exuma.  A stronger front is headed this way, which is probably good, because it is ‘forcing’ us to leave.

 

Tom

Anchored New Bight, Cat Island