We came north just under 11 nautical miles to the Marina at Emerald Bay. Last year we came here and paid $1/foot for the non-service dock where you don’t get electric. This year, because we joined the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club, we are paying $0.75/foot and staying at the full service dock. We even got our own rug on the dock. You do pay extra for the electric; both water and electricity are metered.

This marina is part of a Sandals Resort. The facilities are luxurious and the laundry is free. They also have free WiFi and it’s the best bandwidth I’ve found so far in the Bahamas. We did all of our laundry, filled our tanks with water, shopped at the supermarket just up the road, and even gave Fuzzy a bath. I paid a bill on-line and downloaded some more charts to the i-Pad. We thought we had to spend three nights here to get the reduced rate and were going to take the time to clip Fuzzy, but when I checked in I was told there was no minimum stay for the lower rate. The wind direction tomorrow is favorable to sail south and east to Long Island, so we will probably do that. Fuzzy will just have to wait for his haircut. We are charging up his clippers, though.

The only disadvantage to this marina is its entrance. It can get really difficult to get in and out if the wind builds too much from the northeast. Since the prevailing wind here is from the east, getting in and out of this place can be a challenge. There is also a lot of surge in the marina, so even though it’s very well protected your boat moves around a lot at the dock. Since these are floating docks and you don’t need to allow for the tide everyone ties their boats as tight as they can to minimize the motion. Bud and I figured if it weren’t for the difficult entrance this place would be packed. As it is, it’s mostly empty. There is still almost always a wait at the laundry.