"Cristal, Maybach, Diamonds on your Timepiece; Jet Planes, Islands, Tigers on a Gold Leash"

April 19, 2015

We are currently docked at Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma.  The highlight of the last week has been super yachts owned by the rich and famous.  It is not unusual to see large motor yachts at Emerald Bay and we have been docked near several over the years; we prefer "H" dock at the marina, because it is more private, but the face docks here are some of the prime docking spots for the very large ships .  But this year has been memorable for the size and ownership of the boats.

When we arrived, M/V "Meduse" was docked on the face dock behind us. At around 200', she is the smallest of three super yachts owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.

"Meduse" entering the Emerald Bay Basin
Photo Credit Emerald Bay Marina

Fully engaged in the 'race' to own the largest private yacht, Paul now owns the 414' yacht "Octopus". Reportedly, because it is difficult to find dockage for a boat that large, he recently built the 303' yacht "Tatoosh" to complement his fleet.

"Meduse" created quite a stir in the marina when they left their slip and took up a position head-to-wind to land a helicopter on their aft-deck.  There was a lot of speculation about Paul Allen arriving on the aircraft, but we later learned that it was a 'practice' exercise.

Sequence of Helicopter Landing on "Meduse"

"Meduse" docked behind us
Helicopter on her aftdeck

However, being Meduse's neighbor was not that great .  Generally we have found the big yacht crews (particularly the officers) to be quite friendly and personable.  They are often 'small' boat owners like us themselves and we often have quite a bit in common. But "Meduse" was an exception to that experience.  After they discharged their guests the day after we arrived, they were hardly seen and when they were, they had a 'superior air'.  Additionally, since the marina could not provide electrical power to their 'standards', they ran their generator the whole time they were here.

Keeping up the software theme, 150' M/V "Wabi-Sabi" was docked on the other face-dock near us.  It is a little unclear if he still owns her, but she was built for and owned by Larry Ellison, former CEO of Oracle.  Larry also has larger yachts these days - 150' is so small.

M/V "Wabi-Sabi"
Not at Emerald Bay

One of the distinctives of this yacht was the total absence of any markings (ie name, hailing port).  I struck up a conversation with one of the crew who was very nice, but when I asked what was the name of the ship, he responded "Sorry, I am not allowed to tell you".  Not to be denied, when they were departing, between radio traffic and our AIS system, I was able to identify them.

Finally to the title of this post. It is a line from the song "Royals" by 'Lorde', a 17-year-old  New Zealand pop/rock singer .  The song is a critical view of the lifestyles of the 'rich and famous'.  If you saw the Hunger Games movie  'Mocking Jay - Part I' and stuck around through the credits, you heard her sing "Yellow Flicker Beat", a haunting song that caught my ear.  I have grown to like her music a lot, although I have to 'travel through time' to get in touch with some of her more 'teenage' themes.  If you understand all the references in the line without Googling them - you get 'extra credit' towards being rich and famous (I didn't ).

We plan to stay here at least another week and finally get to experience the "Family Island Regatta" inGeorgetown.

Tom
Docked Emerald Bay Marina
Great Exuma