The Friendly Side of Nassau

So where did we leave off? Oh right. Here:

We continued to watch as the funnel cloud tried to stretch for the sea. After several minutes, it lost steam and disappeared into the clouds above.

“There’s another one to the left!” I pointed out to sea.

I kept my eyes on the second funnel until it too slowed down and broke up without ever reaching the water’s surface. As the dark clouds faded into the distance, I returned my somewhat seasick self to my berth.

When I came back up a couple hours later, the rooftops of Baha Mar (we at first thought it was Atlantis) were just coming into view. I noticed the swells were a bit bigger than earlier, and they seemed to be growing. The approach to Nassau is kind of interesting –  you’re in 1000 feet of water and a mile later, you’re in 30 feet, so the waves can stack up, particularly with a north wind like that day, and I read that the harbor entrance can be nasty in a strong northerly. We weren’t planning to enter the harbor, but we were headed behind Salt Cay, which meant turning east and taking the waves broadside. As the swells were starting to reach 6 feet, we really didn’t want to take them on the beam and cause the boat to rock wildly. As we approached our turning point, Paul noticed waves breaking in the distance, which set off alarm bells in his head. I verified on the charts that the waves were breaking over rocks (in other words,  not on their own and not in a place we would be sailing through), but the cockpit was nonetheless thick with intense concentration. Dave and I watched silently as Paul steered through the waves. They rolled in about every 8-10 seconds, giving him time to make some progress east in between them, before turning south momentarily to take the waves on the stern. We zigzagged to calmer waters behind Salt Cay before anyone spoke.

“Good job,” Dave said.

“Well, that was mildly terrifying,” said Paul, turning to me. “Some day it’s gonna be your turn to steer through this shit!”

Our anchorage that night turned out to be quite rolly, so everyone was tired and cranky the next morning, but it was time to make some decisions. We knew that two fronts carrying 30-40 knot winds were forecast for the next week, so we would likely be sitting in one place for a while. Our options were to head to the Exumas so that Paul’s parents could see their beauty (with the risk of getting stuck somewhere expensive or not interesting enough to keep us entertained for a full week) or to stay in Nassau which we knew could keep us entertained (with the risk of being irritated by “the big city”). Nassau won the vote, so we looked for a spot to enjoy one more night at anchor before heading to a marina.

We headed to Rose Island, knowing nothing about it. It’s barely noted on our charts, so we were surprised to see a restaurant there. Though the restaurant was only open for a private tour boat, we discovered a pretty awesome artificial reef in front of it. I was excited to finally get to show both Dave and Naomi some clear water snorkeling with a big variety of coral and fish! I was surrounded by a school of ballyhoo and Paul persuaded a large green sea turtle to come say hello to the rest of us! Luckily we finished up just as the tour boats started to arrive. Off to Nassau we went!

You may have heard that the US issued another “warning” about Nassau due to issues with pickpocketing, theft, etc. However, don’t let that deter you! Sure, you need to be cautious in any city, but once you get 100 yards away from the cruise ships, you’ll start to find the same friendliness and helpfulness that you would find on any of the smaller Bahamian Islands. We ended up spending 11 days in Nassau!

One of our favorite experiences was the public bus. At $1.25 per person, it was a lot cheaper than the $35 taxi and a lot cooler than walking in the sun. You never knew what you were going to get – with the sometimes wild driving and blasting music, Naomi described it as “like riding Magic Mountain!” — she loved it!

I’m not sure what it is (though I suspect Dave’s mustache), but it always seems like more people talk to us when Paul’s parents are around. One guy started to give us a “tour” of the neighborhoods the bus passed through, and when he got off the bus before us, he yelled, “Driver, give them the full tour!” and the driver did indeed happily continue the tour, showing us 300-year-old cotton trees, old parliament houses, and various schools. On another ride, we chatted with guys selling fruit out of a bucket, and I ended up trying some jujube fruits. They didn’t recognize “Tennessee,” but when we said “Nashville” they started strumming their air guitars.

Whenever a bus pulls up, some passenger will usually yell out the window to find out where you are going and confirm the correct bus. As people board, they say, “Good afternoon” before taking a seat. If the bus is crowded, the aisles have fold down seats, so no space is wasted, and it’s amusing when someone in the back reaches their stop, so everyone in the aisle seats has to stand up, fold their seats, step off the bus, and rearrange to let that person out. Sometimes you lack sufficient head room or foot space. Sometimes the person in the seat next to you might be mixing himself a cocktail. If there is traffic at a corner, cutting through parking lots to avoid the intersection is totally acceptable and running red lights is not uncommon. The bus is not for the faint of heart!

When we did take a taxi, the experience was good as well . Our first driver told us we had to eat crab’n’rice (though we still haven’t found anyone selling it) and that she prays for all the visitors to have a great experience in Nassau. Another guy who worked for the water taxi gave us a ride in his car so we didn’t have to wait in the rain. Our last taxi driver mostly said “okay” in response to everything, except to deliver a couple of zingers to Dave. After a few drinks, he had the guts to tell her how he really felt about one of the Bahamas famous drinks, Sky Juice (gin, coconut water, coconut rum, condensed milk, or something similar).

“I don’t like Sky Juice,” he admitted.

“Oh, so you LOVE Sky Juice!” she retorted.

We explored a lot in the downtown Nassau area. When it comes to eating out, “Island Time” is alive and well! You never know how long it might take, but we enjoyed the variety that Nassau offer – including East Villa Chinese, which actually has exceptional service, really good food, and sometimes a piano man.

We checked out the National Art Gallery, which had a pretty cheap entrance fee, some cool exhibits, and a beautiful building.

Next was Waitling’s Distillery – amusing free tour, OK rum, really tasty pina
coladas and daquaris. For lunch we hit up Fish Fry, a famous area of restaurants serving Bahamian food.

We enjoyed Ardastra Gardens and Zoo – the “marching” flamingo show is kind of a joke, but the flamingos wandering freely around the zoo was totally cool!

We checked out the Atlantis shops and casino. It was neat to see and Dave and Naomi both got lucky in just 10 minutes of slots!

We drank decent beer at Pirate Republic Brewery. I believe this is the only craft beer in the Bahamas.

We watched the Patriots earn their way to the Super Bowl in an Irish Bar that was full of New Englanders (Dave and Naomi included), which made it a lot of fun – and even Paul enjoyed the football game, something he does once only every year or two!

We watched the lunar eclipse – or I did, most of it, before I got sleepy like everyone else.

We explored the beautiful Graycliff Hotel.

We tried to explore the Cable Beach area, but we discovered it’s pretty lame since the resorts block the beach view, and even though all beaches are legally “public” below the high water mark, this doesn’t stop Sandals from asking you to leave when you are trying to walk along the water. We did enjoy the fresh fruit daiquiris at the Daiquiri Shack, as well as Sabarro pizza (don’t judge – it brought back very fond childhood mall food court memories for both Paul and me). We explored the Baha Mar resort, which seemed pretty nice, and it seemed the casino luck (or lack thereof) was still with us from Atlantis.

We stayed at the Nassau Harbour Club marina. Though it was the cheapest we found in the city, it was still the most expensive marina we’ve ever been in. Since water, electric, and laundry all cost extra, the internet barely worked, and the pool and bathrooms were usually dirty, not to mention out of toilet paper, I’m not really sure what we were paying for – other than, of course, convenience to land and protection  from the wind (and peace of mind). And for that, it was worth it but barely. Up your game Nassau Harbour Club or cut your prices by about 75%. Our handheld knot meter didn’t measure more than 20, but it sure felt like it was blowing harder, and when the winds came from the east, it smacked waves onto the boat at weird angles, tugging on our dock lines and making weird noises. With reports from the Exumas of boats experiencing 35 knots, we were glad we stayed to enjoy Nassau for Dave and Naomi’s final few days.

We were wrapping up breakfast when Paul’s phone rang with the news that Dave and Naomi’s flight was leaving an hour early, so their departure was pretty rushed. Four people on a little boat for 2.5 weeks and we all survived! Amazingly, I don’t think we ever had a moment where the boat felt too crowded. (Thanks for being great guests!)  The day wasn’t even over before we had made plans for our next guest to arrive!

We had cleaning and shopping to do – Nassau had the last full size supermarket we would see until… well, probably until we return to Nassau in a few months!

We did however decide to escape the boat for a day. We used Paul’s hotel points from work to book a night at the Hilton British Colonial Hotel. His status level got us into the executive lounge for free tea, snacks, and happy hour. After drinks, we were hungry and headed to Imperial Diner for take-out. Paul ordered the fritter dog – essentially a corn dog but instead of corn batter it uses conch fritter batter – and he declared it a “national treasure.” I ordered the whole fried snapper and declared it was “amazing.” Our dinner was the two of us sitting in our hotel room repeatedly exclaiming “This is so good!!” and taking pictures of our food. Rediculous.

The next day was Paul taking advantage of the king size bed and TV while I took advantage of the clean swimming pool and hammocks. Then it was back to boat life and preparing to depart the marina!