We've been having the dickens of a time getting wi-fi connections here in Nassau, so please excuse our tardiness in updating the blog. We arrived in Nassau last Saturday after an overnight sail from Bimini. A lot of conversation took place on the VHF in the morning concerning whether we (Wind Dancer) would accompany our friends on their three boats on their planned route or whether we would head north, going around Bimini and then down to Nassau (a longer route by approx. 40 miles but with deeper water for the entire trip). Our draft of 6 ft was deeper than that of the other boats and there was cause for concern since we were slated to go over an area of very shallow water. One boater (whom we did not know) got on the radio and said "Don't even think about it. No boat with a six foot draft EVER goes that way!" Well, we decided to trust our friends and go with them but, yes, it did get shallow (but gorgeous!). It was between eight and nine feet deep for a substantial portion of the trip (the lowest we saw on our depth finder was 7.8 feet, so we were okay). But what was funny was that after all the VHF discussion in the morning before leaving Bimini, when we four boats finally left harbor, four other boats (whose occupants we did not know) came racing to catch up with us and then stayed right behind us all the way to Nassau. Al and I figured that they, having heard the VHF traffic, decided to follow hard on the heels of Wind Dancer. If we could make it, so could they! In any case, all of us managed to stay fairly close together for the entire overnight trip and arrived in Nassau harbor Saturday morning like 8 little ducks, all in a row.
While in Nassau, we took one day out to simply be tourists and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We walked over the bridge to Paradise Island and toured the really impressive Atlantis aquarium there. The battery on the camera chose that day to require a charge before it would continue, so we didn't take as many pictures as we would have liked. Sorry about that! It really is worth seeing. (Pictures will be posted next time; in our haste to get to the Texaco station tonight to take advantage of their internet access, where we are now, we completely forgot to bring the USB cord to download the pictures. Sorry about that!)
As far as our time in Nassau goes, we have spent it doing what seems like a jillion things getting us and Wind Dancer prepared for the next part of the journey, which is heading for the relatively uninhabited Exuma cays where we'll be anchored out the vast majority of the time, using our dinghy to get to shore, and, in general, having to be more self-sufficient than has been necessary so far. But it's the part of the trip we've looked the most forward to and we can hardly wait to get going. We're leaving for Allan's Cay tomorrow morning (having stayed at the Nassau Harbour Club Marina while here, where Peter, the dock master, took great care of us). Among other things, Allan's Cay is known for having a substantial population of prehistoric iguanas who apparently come out to see what you're all about when you dinghy in to shore. They have been led to expect handouts from cruisers and we understand that they absolutely love grapes, apples and, of all things, weiners. Unfortunately, they often can't tell the difference between the weiner and your finger...and they bite! We had initially decided that there would be no feeding of the iguanas by Wind Dancer but have since been told that a grape-on-a-stick is enough to make an iguana happy and that sounds doable. We'll see.
We sail tomorrow w/o Manatee; Rod & Eveline left a couple of days ago and are headed for Grenada. But, as much as we will miss them, we have met many people here at the marina who are headed for the Exumas and we'll no doubt be running into many of them as time goes by. We may even run into Rod & Eveline next year in the Virgin Islands. Sounds good to us!
Sue celebrated her 65th birthday here on Monday and has decided that 80 degree weather makes for a much better celebration than does the typical February Houston weather!
Well, that's all the news that's fit for reporting. Heaven knows when we'll have internet access again but we'll keep you posted as often as we can. Thanks once again for following us!
Fair Winds from the Crew of Wind Dancer
Sue, Al, Sophie & Chelsea
No comments:
Post a Comment