Today was a terrible day. But, boy were we lucky for it.

Our visit to Emerald Bay started with a harrowing run through Steventon and then a marina inlet. Inlets can always be treacherous but this was certainly the worst I had ever seen. Twelve foot waves, breaking on the rocks of an inlet so narrow that only one boat can take it at a time. But, we made it unscathed. That was just the first lucky part of this lucky trip.

We spent several days the Marina at Emerald Bay, a great marina at the northern end of Great Exuma Island. It is part of the Sandals Resort with fancy restaurants (and equally fancy prices). We rented a car and drove all over the island to stock up on groceries and boat parts (yeah)! The marina is pretty far from the cruising grounds here. So, we knew we would need to leave sooner rather than later.

After the super rough entrance we had to the marina a few days earlier, we were careful to choose a very calm day to depart. We checked the inlet, checked out of the marina, prepared the lines for casting off and started the engines. Only, we didn't. The port engine started but the starboard engine just went "click."

We've owned boats where an engine that does not start is a daily occurrence, or even a many-times-per-day occurrence. So, we were not too concerned. It was pretty straight forward to determine that we had a dead starting battery. In fact, both engines' starting batteries were dead. But, the previous owner had left the jumper switch in the "on" position, allowing the house battery to serve as an emergency starting battery. The only reason this didn't work today for the starboard engine was that I broke that switch on the starboard side a few days ago. (Actually, I didn't know what that switch did. I had just left it as I got it. I know now!!!)

Fortunately, I had been carrying jumper cables from boat to boat to boat for many years. I had never used them before but they came in handy today. With a quick jump from the house battery, the starboard engine started right up.

With the engine running now, we completed the trip we had planned for today to a fabulous anchorage. It was just outside of Georgetown, where we figured we could find a new starting battery, or rent a car to find one.

But, we got even luckier. There is a marine parts store just on the other side of the small island where we are anchored. We took our dinghy and motored over there to buy a new battery. This might be the only marine parts store in all of the Bahamas with a dinghy dock! And, they had several of the exact type of starting battery that we needed.

After a few hours installing the two starting batteries (not quite a perfect replacement) and fixing one other wiring problem discovered while making the swap, both engines started immediately, without needing the house battery to jump them. Success!

As a reward, the anchorage is even more fabulous than we had thought it would be. The sunset was incredible and the water is calm and well protected.

We got lucky entering the Marina at Emerald Bay and we got lucky leaving the marina.

I guess we could have been even luckier if we hadn't had the problems in the first place ....