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