Today we left Royal Island and sailed 39 miles to Nassau, from harbor to harbor. It was a great day to sail and we maintained 7 kts or more the entire trip. We think some of this was due to the fact that
Seas the Day’s bottom is squeaky clean. There is no question that barnacles and bottom growth slow a boat down.
We anchored on the Nassau side of the harbor. Last time we were here in January, we anchored on the Paradise Island side, but we realized two things. First, almost everything we want to do is on the Nassau side, as the Paradise Island side is basically resorts. Secondly, the busy tourist traffic on various charter boats entering and leaving the harbor cuts closer to the Paradise Island side of the channel. At least we don’t encounter any cruise ships as they cannot get under the two bridges.
In the photo at the left, the Paradise Island side of the harbor is shown. The pink building left of center is the huge Atlantis Resort and Casino. There is a marina associated with the resort and if you stay at the marina, you get to use the amenities of the resort. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there. The next harbor photo to the right shows the Nassau side looking back at several marinas. We are amongst the few boats anchored near them.
Soon after arriving, we dropped the dinghy and took Daisy for a walk. We didn’t go far and there was the first Starbucks we have seen since.....the last time we were in Nassau. While we won’t go here more than once as the prices are even higher than in the States, we felt we deserved a reward for getting this far. A better reason is that maybe we were just craving a frappuccino.
We also stopped at a book store and I found a book that was highly recommended as a history of the early Bahamas. The title is
Wind From the Carolinas. I thought it was especially appropriate as the wind carried us from the Carolinas to The Bahamas. This, however, is the story of a family who traveled from South Carolina to The Bahamas after the American Revolution.
There is a large grocery store here so we stopped to pick up some lettuce for a salad tonight. I had forgotten how BIG this grocery store was. I only remember that last January as we looked at the food on the shelves we were pleasantly surprised that the prices weren’t ridiculously high. It was all I could do not to fill a cart with items we haven’t seen for almost five months.
Nassau is not a very safe place to be and for the first time since we were here last, we locked up the dinghy when we went ashore. We were told by a Bahamian that Nassau has the highest crime rate of any island in the world. Maybe it was the second highest. You would think that with all of the tourists here, and in particular all of the people who get off cruise ships, security would be heavy. However, tourists are warned to stay off the streets at night. We were lulled into a feeling of safety on all of the small settlements we have visited in The Bahamas. Over the past few months, we have multiple examples of the honesty of the citizens we have met here. They were to a person friendly and helpful. Although we never hitchhiked, we knew many people who did. As Rose, our friend from Rock Sound, told us everyone can’t have a car so we always pick up people who don’t. The children were unbelievably polite and friendly, as if someone had taught them to be nice to cruisers.
We’ll be here a few days and then start our several day sail back to Florida. We have to be in South Carolina by June 15, for insurance purposes. Boat insurance insists that you are north of their hurricane box latitude by a certain date. Usually it is June 1, but we talked them into a few more weeks as we can’t make it there by June 1. We also negotiated a more southern latitude, as we wanted to go to Charleston, not to the Chesapeake. For that privilege, we paid a few extra hundred dollars. Actually, our insurance is in effect wherever we are, except for “named storms” after June 15. For that, we have to be at least in South Carolina.