Nassau, New Providence - updated
Lynn & Mike ..around the world
Mike Drinkrow & Lynn v/d Hoven
Thu 18 Jun 2009 00:39
25:04.54N 077:18.51W Nassau, New
Providence
On our last evening in Allan's Cay we met Steve, Sam and Laura on Kipona. Steve has managed to blend his job in IT with cruising, using the marvels of
satellite for daily communication. Sam his girlfriend is also a seasoned sailor, having circumnavigated with her parents, including stay in Hout Bay.
Laura, who has worked for many years on "explorer" ships was visiting them from Ft Lauderdale for a few days. Rather than them also sail all the way
back to Nassau, we offered to give Laura a lift. It all worked out well, as Willy was taking his flight to London at a similar time, and so the 4 of us
headed to Nassau.
On our last evening in Allan's Cay we met Steve, Sam and Laura on Kipona. Steve has managed to blend his job in IT with cruising, using the marvels of
satellite for daily communication. Sam his girlfriend is also a seasoned sailor, having circumnavigated with her parents, including stay in Hout Bay.
Laura, who has worked for many years on "explorer" ships was visiting them from Ft Lauderdale for a few days. Rather than them also sail all the way
back to Nassau, we offered to give Laura a lift. It all worked out well, as Willy was taking his flight to London at a similar time, and so the 4 of us
headed to Nassau.
We were sad to see Willy go, but hope that he had a great time with us. Pam at FBYC was kind enough to send a letter of introduction to the Nassau Yacht
Club, where we were able to use their facilities. Unfortunately they have no guest slips on their marina, but they do have a wonderful swimming pool. We
anchored a short dingy ride away.
Nassau is the capital city of the Bahamas' with over 200 000 people on the island. The area was infamous during early 1700's as a den for pirates, with
over 2000 living on the island at one time, with Blackbeard (Edward Teach) making it a regular stop. Many of the pirates were men who had fled from
the navy, exchanging one life of misery & danger, for another .... but now softened by the spoils of shared treasure and easy access to rum & women.
Not a hard swap me thinks ....aaaarrrrgh!
Downtown Nassau today, is a real "tourist trap" catering for the cruise ships - seems there are 4 giant ships in a day! Like all the other cruise
ship destinations we have visited, duty free liquor, jewellery and T-shirts are everywhere. In fact it would be hard to remember if you were in St
Thomas, Sint Maarten, St Kitts or St Lucia ...and most of the souvenirs come from China anyway!
The original Bahamian architecture of the wooden homes with large verandas can still be seen in old buildings and more recent homes. There is also
quite liberal use of colour with many of the buildings painted white and pink. Across a narrow stretch of water from Nassau,
and connected by two towering bridges is Paradise Island. This island, is well known for the massive Atlantis resort (also painted a version of pink),
built by Sol Kerzner.... a sort of Sun City by the Sea! Along the shores of the island are the most magnificent homes and boutique hotels, with their
own private docks.
All of a sudden Mike and I are alone on Indigo .. for the first time since we left Puerto Rico at the end of March. It has been wonderful to have so
many visitors, but also look forward to some quiet "normality" ..or our version thereof. There are very adequate stores here, and we have been
re-provisioning the boat, getting a few marine spares, doing the laundry and cleaning - all that boring day to day stuff. Our next stop is the Abacos
islands, via the north end of Eleuthera.