We traveled from Chub Cay to Nassau leaving Chub Cay at 9:15am and only later did I realize that I forgot to take a picture of our anchorage site. :( We had enough wind to put out both the mail and head sail, but there wasn't enough wind for us to turn off the engine. So we motor-sailed all the way down to Nassau. We had calm waters on the way down, which was nice. The wind was around 10 knots and we traveled on average 5 knots, with our fasted speed at 6 knots. The sails were nice to give us shade on the deck from the sun and to help propel us along with the engine. We didn't see any marine life during our trip down even though we trawled a line with the same skirt as when we caught the barracuda. When we got close enough to Nassau we pulled out our line and notice our bait and hook were gone! The line was severed clean and through that the bait was attached to previously, but we didn't hear or feel a thing. Granted the engine was on the whole time and is super loud, we were able to get the barracuda last time. We were disappointed that we could have caught a good sized fish, but we didn't even know we didn't have a hook or bait on the line for who knows how long. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be I suppose. We could see a storm going through New Providence as we were approaching, but luckily by the time we arrived the storm was not on that side of the island. After visiting Chub Cay, we could see how big the New Providence island was comparatively. We were going to the Nassau Yacht Haven Marina, but as we were approaching the two bridges we noticed a group of boats anchored out. Then I noticed a familiar boat and realized it was our friends Paul and Malinda from Daydream and then we also saw the Hungarian people we met from Bimini (who had a Golden Hind 31' as well) anchored nearby as well. So we just decided to anchor in between them instead of going to the marina. We chatted with both families/ couples until pretty late and got some really tasty burgers from the Green Parrot Bar & Grill, which was were the free dinghy dock was located. We found another Bahamian beer called Sands ($4.50), which is brewed in Freeport. JR liked this beer better than the Kalik's we got in Bimini. We stuffed ourselves with the delicious big burgers and fries (eh, soggy) for $11 (Naked Burger) and $13.75 (The Works Burger). It was pretty late after we ate so we turned in for the night and hoped our anchor holding was good enough as we were told that this anchorage was really bad due to the flat stone bottom with thin patches of sand and sea grass scattered about along with trash at the water bottom. Dan, the Hungarian, decided to tie lines to large objects like a engine or transmission to keep him from drifting or dragging anchor. Paul was able to find a couple of sandy patches to dig into.
Revisiting Nassau
We walked all around downtown in the tourist district and straw market and then walked all the way back and explored the other side of our anchorage to do a price comparison on different kinds of alcohol. We were informed of $3 bottles of rum here in Nassau and we looked all over for it, but we were unsuccessful. :( The cheapest bottle of rum we could find was just under $7. After we did our research on the liquor stores, we decided to get some lunch and ended up eating chicken nuggets from Wendy's!? We were sweating up a storm and needed some air conditioning along with standard fare to re-energize us for the long walk back to the boat. We were surprised to see it along with KFC across the street, but we welcomed it and got a Frosty to help cool us completely before heading back out into the stifling heat. We walked to the nearest grocery store called Super Value and picked up a few fresh veggies as we had run out while crossing the Great Bahama Bank. They had some vegetables that were reasonably priced and others were super expensive. We quickly walked through several isles to do some price checks and then checked out. We noticed they had some good deals on their meats (pork, chicken, steak) and the pork look really fresh so we couldn't resist and bought a package for dinner. We hurried back to the boat to make sure the food was kept a cool as possible and JR went to the fuel dock to get a bag of ice (small size was more than 7 or 8 lbs for $4) to make sure the food didn't spoil before we cooked it. When we returned to the boat we could see a big storm that had been brewing all morning was about to hit us. We got the boat ready for the rain and then decided impromptu to catch rain water to refill our water tanks. We ended up catching approximately 12 gallons of water, which is awesome because they charge (40-60 cents we hear) for potable water in Nassau and we haven't refilled our tanks since we left Miami. We both felt so much cleaner with the fresh water shower instead of the salt water showers we have been taking. Next time, we are going to have a water maker and shower aboard our boat to help us be self sufficient and not so reliant upon the marinas, which I suppose we haven't been to one since Miami either so that is good and helps with our budget allowing us to spend on different things like going out to eat or buying groceries and other stuff. Dan and his son, Yamesh (?), came by our boat to chat and take pics of our boat to help with improving theirs. I cooked the center cut pork loin chops and they were delicious! :) We savored each bite and enjoyed watching the movie, The Italian Job while we ate. Ahhh, this is the life. Good food, good company, good scenery, and good entertainment. :)
The next day in Nassau, we hung out on the boat for the morning due to the heat and then headed out in search for cheap alcohol, new zincs for our bilge keels, and some fresh foods for dinner. We walked a while down East Bay St. and picked up the zincs from a big marine store called Harbourside Marine, then we walked much further down until we found the shopping plaza with a grocery store called City Market. We also found a liquor store, which had some cheap wine ($5-6) and Old Nassau Rum ($9) so we picked up 4 bottles of wine and one of rum to try. Then we went to the City Market and found they had better prices for their fresh fruits and veggies than Super Value so I picked up a variety of fresh fruits and veggies (romaine lettuce, celery, limes, bananas, and mint). We also picked up some chicken to barbecue on the grill for dinner. We attempted to catch water again with another passing rain storm, but today the rain wasn't as long or as strong and so we only got a gallon of water total. We even pulled out our water catcher this time and installed in at the bow to help increase our collection, but it didn't work because the rain wasn't heavy enough. We enjoyed cooling off with the rain so that was nice after such a hot day. Too bad there was no wind really today to help give us power and to help keep us cool. Hopefully, we will be comfortable enough to sleep well.
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