Today we came back about 12 miles to the Marina at Emerald Bay. They have floating docks, metered water at the boat, showers, FREE laundry, FREE WiFi and all this at the "non-service dock" (no electric) for $1/foot. I just checked out the bathrooms and the laundry that are in the two story solid yellow building in the photo. Very nice. This place is run by Sandals Resorts and the bathrooms are resort quality.

We motor sailed here; actually, we motored here with the mainsail up more or less for show. The wind was close to on the stern and not much more than boat speed. I guess we were getting a little push from the sail. In any case, by time we got out of Conch Cut leaving Elizabeth Harbour we had only another 7 or so miles to go.

We planned our stay here for a period of time with no strong easterly winds. The entry to this marina is cut between two reefs and runs southeast off Exuma Sound. When there's a good blow from any easterly direction I guess the swell gets so bad that the entry becomes impassable. Even today, after a day of moderate winds yesterday and downright light winds today (and today's wind was more south than east) there were pretty big rollers coming in the cut. Once inside you're totally protected and the whole marina is 14 or more feet deep.

It was a real shock to get out dock lines and actually have to come alongside and dock. We did stop at the dock at Staniel Cay on the first of March for water, but the last time we were actually docked was in Nassau almost 6 weeks ago. Today we had to dock twice. First we pulled into the fuel dock and took on 23 gallons of fuel (we really burn through the fuel, that's about a gallon a day), and then we came in to our slip.

We hadn't been here long when a woman walked up and asked us if we were from Wilson, or just the boat. When we told her we were, she said she and her husband were from the Niagara-on-the-Lake Sailing Club at Smuggler's Cove on the Ontario side of the Niagara River. Their boat is right behind ours. We didn't realize it because they never changed the homeport and it just says Midland (for Midland, Ontario). We didn't even notice the Canadian flag, so it could have been Midland, Texas, for all we knew. Anyway, they are Martha and Bob on the D.W. Crow, in case any TYCers know them.

So now I'm going to post all the entries and all the photos since I last had Internet. Sorry for the down time.