In this gallery you will see the entrance to Emerald Bay, interior pictures of the lounge, Kevin at the top of the mast in an attempt to change our anchor light bulb, cracking open coconuts collected from the nearby palm trees at the golf course, and the pool area at the adjacent resort Grand Isle.

We’ve been to our fair share of marinas and have seen many in the Bahamas, but Emerald Bay Marina is a luxury unique of its own for cruising boats. Since leaving the marina at Highbourne Cay, we’ve been anchoring along the Exuma islands chain. Emerald Bay, situated along the Exuma Sound (exposure to the Atlantic Ocean), not only has a reputation for fine docking, but also is the source of many stories from traveling cruisers we’ve met out here.

Emerald Bay was on my list because it looked so nice on the Internet. As we made our way south, I asked many people about Emerald Bay. One woman in particular said, “Oh no, we never go there.”

“Why?” I asked. “It looks so nice.”

She went on to say that boats broach –when your mast hits the water– upon entering the cut of the marina and the surge makes it difficult to leave. Well, I really wanted to go there as did the boats Magic and Veritas that we were traveling with. We persisted. We persevered. We’ve been here twice now.

The key is entering and exiting the marina on light and variable wind days.

The amenities we enjoy here include floating docks, dosckside free garbage removal, free wifi, free private showers with hot water, free laundry, complimentary coffee and tea, free dvd rentals, three lounges, big screen tv with satellite, pool table, and lending library. The key word here is free.

By Jennifer

Fish log — First remora we caught with a pole dangling over the side of the boat. We had a few remoras living under our boat back in Norman’s Cay faithfully eating all of our dinner scraps, so we consider them more like pets than edible fish. We turned him loose and he did not come near the hook for the rest of the evening.

We left Farmer’s Cay and arrived at Cave Cay, a small anchorage with a marina providing fuel, to position ourselves for our passage to Emerald Bay the following day. We choose this spot because “Cave Cut,” the opening to Exuma Sound, is uncomplicated.

At sunset, the Bahamian tradition is to blow the conch horn signaling the end of another blissful day.

By Jennifer

One of the amazing things about the Bahamas is exploring the caves. This one here at Farmer’s Cay is hidden along an overgrown path. A group of us from the anchorage decided to hike there and once inside a few people, including Zach, decided to snorkel in the “pond” in the cave. I opted out of the snorkeling weary of what might be lurking in the under water cave…