Nassau, Visas and back South to Oyster Cay

24:47.75N 76:49.81W

19th March 2015

7292 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            We have them at last, our passports now contain sparkly new American Visas and so we are all legal to go to the States and meet up with Gemma, Duncan and Lily at Easter J J J. After several months of planning, scouring the internet at every stop, taking conflicting advice from all and sundry and generally getting the run around the trip to the embassy was amazingly easy and stress free. We got up stupidly early just in case the dinghy had been stolen or the bus broke down or there was a natural disaster or two and finally arrived at the embassy over an hour before our interview time.

Sunrise in the anchorage

I was particularly uncomfortable in the heat as for the first time in months I was wearing big boy clothes, shirt, long trousers, shoes, and even socks which finished of my spring ensemble and made me look quite the gent if I say so myself. The system was actually very efficient and so after we had breakfast (at a Macdonalds around the corner, sorry Sue) which was horrible we presented ourselves to the nice lady at the gate. There was a long bench leading up to the first checkpoint and you had to find the person who had an interview nearest to your own interview time and then sit beside them and wait. Spot on 0845 we were called in for the security checks which were no more onerous than you would get at an airport and then you were led through to the waiting room inside. Window one checked that you had all of the correct documentation, window two took your finger prints and then 30 minutes later we were called through for our interview. After explaining why we wanted a visa and why we hadn’t got one in London we chatted about crossing the Atlantic in a small boat for a while and then he said he would try to get the visas processed for  us expeditiously and we should be able to pick them up the following day, the whole interview took less than 10 minutes. As I said it was convoluted but very efficient, the next day we arrived at 1500 and were standing back outside the embassy by 1520 with passports in hand, the whole process was rather pleasant and very friendly without a hint of the officious attitude we have come to expect from some of the immigration services in the islands, well done American Embassy in the Bahamas.

Temporary traffic lights courtesy of Nassau tourist police.

            Another highlight of our stay in Nassau was that we finally managed to get our last two Butane gas cylinders filled and so we have now a full complement of five cylinders of various makes which should get us safely back to the UK. After several failed attempts over a number of days to get the cylinders filled due to the gas men not having the right fittings, the nice to us, but rather fierce to the gas men, lady in Browns   (a great chandlers in Nassau that we found by sheer luck) called them repeatedly and told them to get there act together.

Browns Boat Basin, I promised to give them a plug and here it is

They eventually turned up in a big gas tanker and filled our cylinders at the side of a busy road leading down town, all I can say is that the Bahamian Elf and Safety inspectors must have been having the day off so after the second pedestrian wandered by with a cigarette in his mouth I beat a hasty retreat and watched from a safe distance. Having said that, given the size of the truck the other side of Nassau probably wouldn’t have been far enough not to have ended up with singed eyebrows, anyway $30 for two cylinders and I am still alive to tell the tale so all’s well that ends well. Speaking of Elf and Safety, check out the picture below, now that’s the way to insure that people read a public information poster I say.

Have you got the message always Protect Ya Tings!

            While not standing in queues for Visas or gas we spent our three days in Nassau sightseeing and getting a feel for the place. Two huge bridges cross the inlet and lead to Paradise Island, home of stars including Mick Jagger, Nicholas Cage and even Charlie Chaplin in years gone by.

Paradise Island, the archway is a suite of rooms, yours for $25k per night

It has several big hotels with adjoining Casinos, swimming pools, manicured lawns plus lots of brand new shops catering to the cruise liners who fill the dock over the river and I hated it. The whole place is just an extension of the cruise ship terminal and they are all so stereotypical that I am surprised the passengers even realise which island they are on.

One of our neighbours, who needs a dinghy when you have one of those on the back deck.

What I did like was the fisherman’s dock under the bridges; here you can find a fish market selling straight from the boats and the road leading to it is lined with small shack restaurants that serve amazingly fresh fish at absolutely ridiculously low prices. We ate there two days running for under $15 for the both of us and loved sitting out the back of the shacks on the small verandas over the water watching the fisherman getting on with their business.

That by the way is my happy face, cruise liners in the background

            After three nights at anchor in Nassau we headed back south again in order to meet up with Mike, Kate and Right Turn in Exuma Park. The first days trip started in a dead calm and so with the main engine chugging along and Norma playing her Ukulele on deck I took the opportunity to get the water maker going and fill our fresh water tanks. I also serviced the macerator pumps as we will be sailing in coastal waters again soon and we will need to use the holding tanks on the Intra Coastal waterway. As always just when you are halfway through a horrible job the call comes to get on deck NOW!! I dually arrived on deck to find a very large water spout forming on our Port side about a mile away. Watching the very dark clouds and the swirling water being dragged up from the sea we began a game of cat and mouse with the thing for the next 30 minutes or so. Luckily it never got closer that a half mile away before dissipating but frankly that was close enough.

A big black cloud in a clear sky and a water spout forms

The strange thing was that here about a mile away there was no wind at all.

That was the only excitement for the 34 mile trip down to Oyster bay, we managed to sail for about two hours during the day before the wind died again and by three in the afternoon we had dropped anchor in 3 meters of crystal clear water. As there were a lot of rocks under us I decided to go for a swim with the snorkelling gear and make sure the anchor was dug in. Following our 30 meters of chain along the bottom I soon found the anchor buried up to its shackle in a patch of sand and so all was well for the night. But, and this is a big but, when I turned around to swim back to the boat I saw a large shark on my left hand side. I have no idea what model or make it was, but it was big and I am sure it had even bigger teeth. As I saw it I only had one option, and so very calmly I assessed the situation, took a deep breath, and then squealing like a six year old girl who has just found a spider in her bed, swam back to the boat faster than any Olympic swimming coach could even dream of being possible. In my calm but assured blind panic I swam up the wrong side of Spectra (the side without the boarding ladder) and was faced with two options. One; trying to get up four feet of fibre glass with no good hand holds, cross a wooden rail and then get over a double safety rail, OR, Two; swim around the boat and climb the perfectly sound, purpose built, hand made, teak with rather nice brass fittings, sturdy wooden boarding ladder. I had by now convinced myself that I was in shark infested waters and was expecting a nip on the ankle at any minute and so as I saw it the choice was a no brainer. I came out of the water like a prize dolphin at the safari park, put one hand on the wooden rail the other on the  top safety line and literally vaulted on deck in a shower of spray. As I lay there gasping for breath the last thing I expected was to find was Norma laughing so hard that she was barely able to stand. She had watched the whole episode from the bowsprit and apparently the shark had spotted me stopped and then shot off in the other direction as soon as I squealed. What’s more it had been last seen swimming away at its top speed, which according to Norma was about half as fast as I had managed getting back to the boat. There was not a word of thanks or even a simple sign of gratitude in recognition of the fact that I had obviously rushed back to the boat in order to protect her.

            So you decide, funny or heroic I know what I think, Until next time Spectra out…………… PS: I checked a poster at the Exuma Park Rangers Station and I am now pretty sure it was a nurse shark.

PS: we are still looking for some extra crew to come back across the Atlantic at the beginning of June.

Three legs of about 2 weeks each,  each leg should take 7 to 10 days so allow 2 weeks to include changeovers and shore time. The legs are:

Norfolk Virginia to Bermuda,

Bermuda to the Azores,

Azores to Cork

….anyone interested in all or part? Please drop us a line.

Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com

No attachment or pics please as this is a very low bandwidth satellite link and costs a small fortune per minute for downloads and they block up my weather reports.

If you want to send normal email pics attachment etc.

Paul {DOT} russell732 {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} co {DOT} uk and I will pick it up when I am on WiFi