We arrived yesterday in Nassau, the big city of the Bahamas. I'll confess right away that I'm tempted not to like this place. The economy here is built completely, it seems, on separating cruise ship passengers from their money. Several thousand arrive each morning on 3 enormous ships. They crowd the sidewalks, their t-shirts and sundresses stretched by healthy American bellies. Attractive and determined young women, many not quite as thin as they imagine, hang out of their bikinis, even when it's 60 F and the locals are wearing long pants and jackets. Some shriek and laugh unnaturally, carrying huge plastic cups filled with neon liquid, or wearing knots of balloons on their heads. It must be easy work for the booze and trinket sellers.
But at 5 o'clock, the business day is over. The passengers dutifully queue up to re-board their ships. The shopkeepers sweep the sidewalk. Tranquility and sanity arrive. A quiet dinner out can be had.
The Bahamians of Nassau are gracious, generous, forgiving. Some are beautiful. They earn their profits. I have been frustrated by friends who, after a walk down Bourbon Street, condemn my beloved New Orleans as "Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississippi." I have not spent much time here, so I will reserve judgement on Nassau.
Getting here took much longer than we had hoped. Stuck by high wind, we spent four days at the marina in Alice Town, Bimini. It's a one-day kind of place.
Finally, we had one day of tolerable weather. So, after spending half a day repairing the solar cover on the genoa, we made a quick sail south 9 miles to Gun Cay. La Peregrina's knucklehead captain managed to run the poor girl hard aground on the way. Fortunately, it was low tide. I threw out the anchor and we settled down with sandwiches and waited for the tide to rise. Two hours later, we were sailing again, and we arrived in a rising wind at Gun Cay before sunset.
The wind blew like stink that night, and all day the next day and night. The anemometer showed winds above 30 for hours and hours. The rigging howled and rattled and squeaked. And it was cold. Gun Cay at this spot is only 30 feet wide and 2 feet high. At high tide, the waves crashed on the west side of the island, and water poured down the east side. But we were 100 yards to leeward, in 8 feet of water, with our 44 pound Rocna anchor and 120 feet of chain out, and we felt secure. We listened to music, played cards, prepared and consumed a feast, and checked the weather forecast obsessively.
We awoke at 5:00 a.m. after our second night at Gun Cay. The wind was down to 18 knots from the west. It was 80 miles east across the Great Bahama Bank to the Berry Islands. So we raised anchor and eased out the genoa in the dark.
It was a glorious sail. The wind was behind us, the water was an amazing light turquoise, and the featureless Bahama Bank slid effortlessly beneath us. The sun set shortly after we passed the Northwest Channel Light. It was a new moon, and it was pitch dark. We relied totally on the chart plotter to guide us to 7 feet of water off Frazer's Hog Cay, where we set the anchor and collapsed into our bunks about 9:00 o'clock.
The wind turned out of the north overnight, and the next day's sail to Nassau, 35 miles to the SouthEast, was fast. 7.8 kts at one point! Great fun.
Very early tomorrow morning, Cousin Cindy boards an airplane and leaves us. We never got her to the Exumas, as we had hoped. But we had a great time. She taught us most of the words to American Pie. And we taught her how to survive on a boat without a microwave.
With another weather problem forecast for Sunday, Maribeth and I are hoping to make an early start for Allan's Cay tomorrow. It's about 36 miles to the SouthEast, and the winds are forecast to be 15 kts from the North. We must cross the Yellow Bank, an area of shallow coral heads, so it may be a tedious crossing. We'll let you know how it goes.
Somehow it has gotten to be the middle of February already. We are excited that Molly is joining us in about a month. Otherwise, we have no scheduled visitors. When are you coming?
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