Time to move on again as we are still making our way back to Florida. We left Conception Island sooner than we would have liked to take advantage of the ultra calm weather to motor our way to the NW side of Long Island - to Stella Maris Marina. We knew the entry into the marina would be a little tight, even with our 5 foot draft, but please note that the entrance to this marina is not for the faint hearted sailor (with a 5+ foot draft).

All was going swimmingly well until we made our way along the north coast of Long Island, where our chart noted that we should have between 7-10 feet of water as we were rounding the tip to head to the west side approximately 1.5+ miles off shore. The sun was overhead (albeit amid cloudy periods) so I stood on the bow as lookout as we continued to watch our depth reader. It was largely sandy but with the odd patches of coral, rocks or sea grass. We could see that the water was getting shallower ahead - it changed colour - although our chart noted we should have 7 feet of water...but then our depth reader kept moving lower: 5ft, 4.5ft, 4ft, less than 4ft (we ground when our depth reader reads 3.2ft). I could see ahead that we may be about to ground on a very large sand bar but John couldnt hear me over the engine and, before I could run back to the cockpit, our bow took a rather large dip as we grounded ! Luckily, John had us in neutral by this point so it wasnt a terribly hard grounding - its just that we were in the middle of nowehere at this point and it was pretty clear that the sand bar was significantly large such that we would need to head north to get into deeper water and change course again to head straight for the marina's channel. After some rather hard reversing, John managed to get us off the sand bar...thank goodness.....

The issue with crusing the Bahamas now is that it is the quiet season. That is very good in some ways but it also means a number of businesses are running with few staff. We had made a reservation with Stella Maris Marina 2 days prior but we were awaiting a call back with advice from the dockmaster on the tide and entry in through the channel - we would certainly ground at low tide (5ft depth). We called the marina several times as we got back into cell range and then we also tried them on Channel 16 - but no one was answering. Finally, we got through to the Stella Maris Resort (on the opposite side of the island but part of the same company that runs the marina) and the lady answering the phone gave us up to date information on the tide in the area but couldnt give us any information to enter the channel or where we should dock - she also informed us (incorrectly) that the marina channel was well marked with red and green markers to lead us in. Apparently, the VHF at the marina was currently not working. She finally tracked down the one person who is working at the marina right now (Zhivago) and I then managed to reach him on the phone just as we reached the marina's channel at 3PM (to our luck, the tide was coming in with high tide at 5PM).

The channel into the marina is basically a long line of white sticks (literally) every 50 yards or so sticking out of the sand - some with white markers on top, others were broken - to be taken on the port side upon entering the marina. John slowed us way down and we crawled our way in to the end of the markers, with our depth meter getting to as low a reading as 3.2ft (so basically 5ft of water). I think we may have helped dredge the channel slightly but luckily didnt ground. After clearing the channel you then need to motor slowly in between 2 rocky shelves (which is a little hard to see until you reach them) and then Zhivago met us at the fuel dock to help us tie up. Once in the marina, we had "plenty" of depth under our boat (1.5-2.5 feet). Although relatively easy to dock, there are only 16 slips here and a rather small area to manouvre your boat.....

The best part about Stella Maris Marina is that they do call customs for you - and the customs officer showed up right away (at which point we forked over our $300 exhorbitant cruising fee). Zhivago then called the shuttle to take us over to resort facilities. As a guest of the marina, you have full run of all of the facilities at the Resort, which has free wifi (the marina's wifi isnt working), 3 lovely pools (including one beautiful pool right by the beach and one "natural" pool right on the beach), several bars (pool and games included) and a good restaurant. For those wishing to get away from it all, you can throw yourself in the hammocks on the beach - all in all a very pretty resort and made our arduous and painful entry into the marina finally worth it.

Tomorrow, we will move onto the Exumas (making our exit from the marina at high tide - 6AM) and make our way north through the Exuma Bank.