Position N 25° 04.537’.
W 77° 19.302’.
Nassau, Bahamas
View Larger Map
As we left Miami the wind was not as quiet as I had hoped and as we entered Government Cut I could feel the Atlantic swell on our bow. There was much chatter on the VHF radio as two Cruise ships were preparing to enter Miami; I could see them on both Radar and AIS. A quick plot ensured me that we would clear the channel into open Atlantic before they became an issue for us. Our course would be 121° M although the bearing of the North Rock where we would enter the Great Bahamas Bank was 91° M. The difference in our course is, of course, the Gulf Stream; I had looked at the Gulf Stream forecast prior to our departure and paid attention to the strength, which does vary slightly from time to time, and based my calculations accordingly. I would not be using the Navigation mode
on our autopilot as I did not want the pilot to be ‘fighting’ the current trying maintain the direct course bearing to North Rock, instead I engaged the auto mode to maintain the 121° M course I had calculated that would, with the current drift, set us right onto the Banks at North Rock, 44 NM ahead of us. It was a dark night and with no moon to aid us, the lumpy seas where unnerving to HT, she not being used to this life yet, and as many people do, worried when one cannot see anything! Over time one learns to trust in oneself and the boat, fatalistically hoping that there isn’t anything ‘big’ floating in the way of your course to inflict serious damage! As daylight came and vision was added to our senses HT became a little more comfortable. The conditions were not ideal but ‘Partners’ was comfortable plodding along rising and falling to the seas motion. Longer passages like this are delightful or boring, in rougher weather they are monotonous as movement around the boat is difficult and leisure activities hard to carry out. In
 |
| A Bahamas Blue Cocktail |
By 13:40 we were passing North Rock and on the Banks. Oh the waters! A blue that is so special the Admiral made up a cocktail drink and named it after them. Sampling Guests will be given the ingredients! We continued onto the Banks using the Northwest Passage towards Chub Cay in the Berry’s we intended to continue until dark then anchor for the night and proceed to Chub the next day. The winds were picking up and the shallow waters of the Great Bahamas Bank kicked up to a
miserable short heavy confused chop. When we did anchor the motion was unbearable, every loose item onboard banged everything that could fell to the deck, the loose gas tank in the dinghy up on the boat deck banged and bounced! After three hours of putting up with this we gave up, upped anchor and proceeded on our way. A sleepless night behind us our arrival in Chub couldn’t come soon enough...
By 08:30 we were off the Banks and into the Tongue of the Ocean and 5 – 10,000 ft deep water! Winds were still in the 25 knot range from the SE but the seas became uniformed and well spaced, quickly ‘Partners’ settled into her smooth comfortable motion.
At 12:00 we entered Chub Cay Marina, one of the most beautiful marinas I have ever seen, where we were met by a very polite dock boy in a dinghy who led us to our slip and helped us tie up and connect our power cords. Once tied up he left to get the clearance paperwork so we could complete them onboard before I had to go ashore to the marina office to check in. At the marina office, once the formalities there were taken care of the clerk ordered the transport to take me to the airport which
is where the customs and immigration office is situated. Chub Cay is under developed without any roads as we know them. The maximum speed we were able to travel was 15 mph lest complete destruction of the vans suspension system would have taken place! The driver and I looked both ways as we crossed the runway to the small airport office! Within five minutes the customs and immigration officer arrived. I found him surprisingly young and very polite also. After much official stamping of all the forms and our passports, we were in! The officer advised me that I could down the yellow quarantine flag and hoist the Bahamian Courtesy flag in its place. We were granted a 90 day stay which could have been longer had I requested it. (We plan to be through the Bahamian chain and in the Turks & Cacos islands by April.)
We spent only one day in Chub but did take a walk to the beautiful beach. As I mentioned before, the island is underdeveloped although plans are underway to build many homes around the marina and island, mostly, I imagine, to be sold to wealth foreigners’. The marina is in receivership and the bank and the residents/property owners who have either built or bought land around the island currently split the costs of the marina equally. Apparently the owners cannot agree on a price with the bank to
buy the complex as they would like to own it and run it all themselves. The whole development is at a standstill and has been in a stalemate for 3 years now...sad because the potential is enormous. We paid $4+ ($2.50 low season) per foot and .65c per kilowatt for electricity, water was .40c per gallon (fortunately we have a water maker and did not take water), so, although a fabulous marina, it was expensive. Incidentally, we may as well not have bothered with the electricity as the generator supplied power kept going off when the generator stopped, we were only there one day and it must have stopped three times!
On Sunday
24th February we headed towards Nassau cruising in the deep water of
the Tongue of the Ocean. With just a 33 nm run we arrived at the west entrance
to Nassau harbour at 15:00 having had a smooth comfortable passage. A call to
Nassau Harbour Control quickly granted us permission to enter and seek an
anchorage. Immediately Nassau shows the signs of being a busy place, boats are
passing everywhere in the big protected harbour. Large 1,000 ft long cruise
ships, four at a time occupy the cruise ship terminal constantly; they do the
cruise ship shuffle
during the night as after a 24 hour stay four leave and four more take their place. Smaller boats too fly all over the place some with a complete disregard for wake and at night many do not have navigation lights! Music can be heard in the evenings as the town comes to life and the bars and night clubs get ‘cranked up’. We anchored in the east anchorage and were soon visited by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the equivalent to the US Coast Guard; very politely they requested to board and to do an inspection, similar to the Coast Guard inspection, fire extinguishers, flares, life jackets etc. They were very professional, polite and efficiently conducted their business, they advised me that we were anchored a little too far out into the main channel but need not worry about moving until the morning, with that they were on their way. When morning came we upped anchor and moved to the west anchorage right opposite Atlantis on Paradise Island. Also nearby on New Providence Island is the legendary Green Parrot bar and restaurant known amongst cruisers as a friendly and welcoming establishment. They allow free garbage disposal and provide free Wi-Fi, two majorly important items to us cruisers.
 |
| Size matters...just look at this one! |
 |
| Oh the water! |
After exploring Nassau, doing a little provisioning and sightseeing it was time to press on. We left Nassau on March 1st and crossed the Yellow Bank to arrive in Allens Cay, a must for Lavinia as her family name is Allen. Allens Cay is uninhabited and famous for the iguanas that populate two of the islands in the collection. We anchored with eleven other boats in the protected area between Allens Cay and Leaf Cay. The water was spectacular and there was no need to dive on ones anchor or travel out in the dinghy to use the lookey bucket, the water is so clear it is as if not there! We were contacted by one of the sailing boats in the anchorage and it was agreed all crews should meet on one of the beaches for a bonfire and rubbish burning session which, of course, included libations! We met
16 other cruisers who turned out for the
event andit really was amazing...just think, here we are in, literally the middle of nowhere, without communication save by radio and yet us humans can congregate and make merry...while burning garbage! This is our life now, in some ways primitive and self sufficient but in others exciting, adventurous and full of the spontaneous and unknown...I wonder what the next stop will have in store. We are off to Warderick Wells tomorrow and hope that we can radio ahead to the park warden to reserve a mooring ball as anchoring is not permitted in the marine park which abounds there...
From a techno standpoint ‘Partners’ is performing well, we are making beautiful RO water at will and therefore are taking long cool showers, a luxury for most of the Sailing boaters who rarely posses a Watermaker. We have even washed the boat off with fresh water although do it very early so as not to be seen by anyone else in the anchorage; don’t want to rub in, too much, the copious amounts of water we have... The new bimini top we had made in Sarasota has four forward straps that tension the front and are anchored to the pilot house roof. In the strong winds we have had for the past three days (up to 43 mph gusts, wow!) they make a terrible racket reverberating and vibrating, so we have decided, as a priority, to have some stainless stanchions made to replace the straps thus illuminating the problem. Meanwhile I have folded the bimini up and put on the boot!
As a footnote we are severely challenged with getting an internet connection in these Out Islands and it could be feast or famine with my blog entries.
No comments:
Post a Comment