The next challenge facing us was going through the drawbridge and tying up to the dock in the lagoon at the Blue Pearl Marina.  We thought we would only have three feet on either side of us when going through the bridge.  We had our fenders off of both sides of the boat and I had one in my hand for an emergency.  The other challenge was that the wind was gusting and blowing boats around. 

Around 10:15a we called the bridge pilot and let them know that we wanted to enter the bridge.  Then, we pulled up our anchor and got in line.  There were super yachts in front and in back of us.  Other boats were trying to cut into the line from the sides.  The wind was blowing and the boat captains were trying to maintain control of their boats in the tight quarters.  We were in line for approximately 20 minutes and then the bridge finally opened.  The first boat started going ahead and everyone followed, closer than we felt comfortable.  In fact, Steve said that a superyacht immediately behind us was so close that he could have easily thrown them a rope. 

As we proceeded through the bridge, we found approximately 10 feet of water on either side.  So, we were nervous about this part for no reason, luckily.  As soon as we went through, we saw a lot of people to our right having drinks and waving.  The bridge opening is entertainment and this restaurant/bar had a prime location to watch everything.  We will feel much calmer when it is time for us to depart the lagoon.

I scurried around the boat moving our fenders to the starboard side so that we were ready to tie up to the dock.  While I was doing that, Steve was winding through the channel through the lagoon.  We passed probably 100 superyachts and I don’t know how many other smaller boats.  We are guessing that there are 1000 boats in this part of the lagoon alone.  The Blue Pearl marina is at the back end of the lagoon, which was fine by us.  We were hoping that it would be calm during the high winds.  We found our way to the marina and staff were there waving to us to let us know where to go.  They helped us tie up and we were finally able to relax.  We hooked our boat up to the electricity and water, and like magic our boat is a floating apartment.