After anchoring we went inside the breakers to a small commercial fishing harbor of the main harbor. We were immediately greeting by Jim, aka ‘Local Knowledge’. Jim gave us the rundown of what to do in the immediate area as well as a description of all the boat dwellers in the inner harbor. For the most part these boats had some type of issue (waiting for boat parts, lost their cruising partner, or simple just didn’t want to leave the comforts of a snug harbor). There was a bar/restaurant at the end of the inner harbor where we enjoyed an evening of liming with the locals and playing pool.
Mija and Chula enjoyed the beach! They were finally able to run free and get full of sand. Ah, the beginning of battling sand on and in the boat! We spend several days comfortably sitting out some strong southerly wind. We had planned to leave on Tuesday but as the weather often does…the forecast advanced so the north winds were going to be coming in strong by midnight on Monday. We quickly stocked up on water, chatted with our neighbors (Windswept Dreams) and we both weighed anchor and headed across the Tongue of the Ocean to Nassau which has good protection from all winds. At one point the winds clocked up to 34 knots but we had perfect wind direction so were snuggled in nicely by Monday night.
About the water on Andros! There was a ship called Titus that would come into the harbor every day and load 4 million gallons of water for the Nassau area. Andros just happens to have a large supply of fresh water so it is one of those rare instances where you can get fresh water without paying for it in the Bahamas.
As luck would have it, we dropped our hook east of the bridges in Nassau and haven’t slipped or moved yet! We have heard that the holding isn’t that good in the Nassau harbor due to currents/tides but so far…so good! Windswept Dreams (Ann and Ed) took a slip at a marina right next to our anchorage and as it turns out we were anchored right next to friends they had met last year (Wayne and Beth) on Gypsy Moon. The next night we had homemade banana dessert on Windswept and played our first game of Mexican Train (dominoes)!
We have been exploring island and having a good time. One day we dinghied over to the Atlantis Resort to check out how the other half lives! The dinghy dock is at the back end of the channel so we had a chance to pass all the mega-yachts at their marina. You can see that some of them even dwarf Atlantis!It was decided that we all wanted to explore the rest of the island so Boto, Windswept Dreams and Gypsy Moon rented a van for $59.00 and off we went. Vicky tried to negotiate with some of the scooter vendors but after watching how crazy the drivers are on New Providence we decided it would be best to have some metal armor around us. We took off to the northwest making our way to the southwest part of the island. It is a beautiful area with a lot of hotels and some very nice residences. The beaches were beautiful. It was interesting to actually see how much construction was started but never finished. I bit like Mexico.
We went to the Clifton National Park where you could find old plantation ruins and steps that used to lead to the shore where deliveries were made to the islands in the early days and then later on this is where the slave ships arrived.
Onward to enjoy a true Bahamian lunch of Cracked Conch, beans and rice, macaroni and coleslaw...and of course a Kalik. After lunch we drove to the east end of the island and back home. After sitting in much traffic we can’t really say we miss driving all that much. It is much quicker to get from one end of town to the other in our dinghy!
Monday we will be heading to the Exumas! We will make our way to Allan’s Cay and then down the chain in a leisurely fashion.
More to follow!
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