Our first experience of Nassau consisted of a dash to the marina office, the showers and a meal in the marina restaurant as it started raining within hours of our arrival and didn’t stop with pretty consistent downpours for a couple of days. Most of the boats in the marina were large fancy motor (mega) yacht charters and the crews were constantly back and forth cleaning and prepping for their next guests. One of the only other sailboats was a group from the US, who were enjoying a month of sailing throughout the Bahamas. They helped us moor up when we arrived and we would see them throughout our time in the islands.
After the first 24 hours, rested and going a little stir crazy, we dug out the rain jackets and headed off to explore as not only were SV Serendipity (Bridget and Nicholas) in town, but so were Monica and Kai on SV Papaki and we hadn’t seen them since Curacao almost one year ago. Between rain showers we found the chandlery, a few supermarkets and some local bars, arranging to catch up with our friends the following day and hoping the rain would stop soon. The bar we found ourselves in during one of our rain stops was full of locals celebrating a birthday and they were very welcoming and in high spirits, buying us a beer and happy to chat. The food looked great, but having already eaten, we decided to head back to the boat in a brief respite from the rain but we would be back.
The storm passed over with a few strong gusts and a rather spectacular lightning show. It had left the sea state confused and lumpy outside the harbour so we knew we had a few more days to wait out before it settled again enough for us to move to our staging anchorage before we crossed the next bank and into the Exumas.
As Monica and Kai would be heading North and towards the US, we met for dinner one evening at a local bar and had a proper catch up, sharing stories and discussing future plans. It was a lovely evening and one of the last times we’ll see Monica and Kai on this side of the Atlantic as they are heading back to Norway, but we shall certainly make a plan to see them.
The inclement weather had kept us from exploring the town and sights of Nassau, but with the sun now out and the massive puddles slowly drying up, we put on our trainers and set off into the main town. As a cruise ship mecca, it's 100% geared towards cruise ship guests which means it was expensive and there were a lot of stalls all selling souvenirs of various levels of quality. We wandered through, but steered clear of the hard sell making our way towards the older part of town and the distillery.
As it was getting close to lunchtime we made our way towards the beach at the harbours entrance where there was a small anchorage and past the massive Margaritaville Hotel. Finding a spot for lunch in one the many beach front bars all swarming with cruise ship guests we enjoyed a few beers out of the heat and some much needed food.
Heading back we made our way to the distillery and managed to join the rum tour a few minutes after it had started, we didn’t miss too much of the tour but we had missed the critical free sample, luckily our tour guide was quick to ensure we got it at the other end as we wander through the shop and bar towards the exit.
The walk back took us past the Art Museum, Governors Building and through one of the older streets in the city, apparently haunted. In need of some refreshments we walked back towards the cruise ship terminal and into "Senor Frogs”, a hugely popular chain that is a cross between a bar, restaurant and live music venue. It was packed full of people, we managed to find a small gap at the bar and proceeded to watch as the compere dragged people up onto the stage and poured shots directly from the bottle into peoples mouths if they could “name that tune” correctly. It was hilarious, loud and reminiscent of the last Senor Frogs experience we’d had in Mexico some years ago. Realising we’d been waiting a long time for another beer and very aware that the prices for the ones we had so far were on the rather high side (3 times the local bars) we paid up and headed home to the sound of Grease Lightening being pumped out the speakers and the cackles of those who’d would likely have headaches in the morning.
With the swell outside subsiding quickly now the storm had passed we provisioned some fresh food and basics, said our goodbyes to Papaki and made our plans to head out the next day to the west side of New Providence to our anchorage, ahead of crossing the 55 NM to Highbourne Key. We left Nassau the next morning for a short 20 NM to Clifton Bay, there was zero wind and still a little residual swell but we were aiming to arrive with the rising tide as there was a shallow patch of reef to cross to get into the Bay. We left with a lot of other vessels, all taking advantage of the calm weather to make their delayed onward journeys out of Nassau.
Not long after lunch we dropped anchor in the Bay and watched as more and more vessels arrived throughout the afternoon. Many obviously planning on the same route across the bank as us and several arriving from Highbourne Key on their return trips. We didn’t go to shore, but enjoyed a quiet afternoon onboard, checking our depth (getting used to how shallow the Bahamas is will take some time) and discussing our route across the bank.
So far we’d motored or motor-sailed our way around the Bahamas, and our trip to Highbourne Key was to be no different, hoping we’d have a bit more of a sailable angle on the wind we set off at sunrise the next day, but it was soon clear this wouldn’t be a sailing day for us. Those heading in the opposite direction were having a cracking sail down wind in 10 knots, they all had their spinnakers flying.
55NM later we made our way around the reef and the mega yachts anchored to find a spot for a few days. Our friends on SY Serendipity had left Nassau the day before us, and as they had a much smaller draft had been able to do the shorter trip around the east end of New Providence. Anchored in around 3m of water with the wind pushing off shore we settled for our 1st evening in the Exumas. Tired from our trip we settled to watch a movie around 8.30pm unaware of the approaching weather. Around 9.30pm Ross noticed what he thought was torch light shining into the boat and got up to investigate, as it turned out we were surrounded by squalls and an even bigger lightning show 360 degrees all around us. I got the rain jackets and life jackets as we could feel the rain and wind as it was approaching, the atmosphere was charged and whilst spectacular it's impending arrival was nerve wracking.
We could see head torches bobbing about as we scanned across the anchorage, everyone was up and you could feel the tension. The wind went from a pleasant 15 knots from the east to around 45-50 knots in the space of a second, all the yachts heeled over and rotated a full 180 degrees to now being blown onto the lee shore. The wind dropped down into the mid-late twenties but you could see everyone now on watch and hoping that the swift change in direction hadn’t pulled our anchors pushing boats towards the beach now behind us.
The only boat which did move, and move rapidly, was the super yacht who was now drifting through the line of yachts, its anchor obviously having failed in the wind change and getting precariously close to the beach. Its was incredibly lucky that they didn’t hit any yachts as they drifted through and once they were under power they motored back out of the anchorage to reset their anchor quite some distance away from their original spot .
We continued to watch the incredible light show and rumbling thunder as it passed through and around us, the winds slowly dropping. Around 1am, the wind changed back once again to a steading easterly offshore breeze, we turned 180 degrees back and comfy our anchor was holding steady we decided we could go below back to our cabin. We never finished the movie!
The following day we dropped our dinghy “Mini Mist” off the deck and set her up so we could explore, heading to walk along the golden sands of the deserted beach and snorkel in the waters near the reef. It was still pretty churned up with sand and visibility wasn’t great, but it felt wonderful and was so nice to be in the water again.
On our return we popped by SV Serendipity and chatted about the hectic evening. They were closer to shore than us and so had been even closer to the beach when we’d shifted. Scary. They had also unfortunately lost their external fuel can from the dinghy in the waves and squall, it had ripped out the fuel cable and disappeared. Luckily the outboard itself has an internal fuel source, so they could still get about, but they definitely had less range as it was much much smaller. We stayed one more evening in this anchorage, before we moved further south to the national park in search of some great snorkelling.
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