Greeting From Nassau

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Greetings from Nassau

Today we were still hanging out in Marathon waiting for the right winds to take us on our journey. Cameron dinghied in and went to the Hurricane Lounge to watch the Texans on Sunday afternoon football. Around 5:30 we heard a strange trumpeting noise outside. It was coming from the boat next to ours. Sandy was standing on the bow of her boat blowing into a large conch shell. She was toasting the sunset with music and libation (a local custom called sundowners).

In the course of having some work done on our engine we discovered that we had some water in the fuel tank. We hired a man named Roberto to get the water out. He was very talkative and shared that he was from Cuba. He escaped to the US 12 years ago on a raft. The Coast Guard caught him just as he and his grandmother were about to make it to shore. They took him to Guantanamo. We have all seen these scenes on TV so it was interesting to meet someone who actually did it.

We finally left Marathon and headed for the Florida Bay. It was a gorgeous day for sailing. Cameron was steering and after an hour I offered to take the helm. He said “I can’t think of another thing I’d rather be doing”. That sounded good to me so he steered most of the day. This was our first day of sailing in 7 feet of water and being able to see the bottom. It is wonderful that the waters are so clean but it is also disconcerting because it makes the bottom seem very close. We really do not want to have to use our Towboat US Insurance again. Just before sunset we anchored in Sunset Cove across from Key Largo. We sat out and listened to live music from Snooks (a restaurant on shore).

November 29th was our big day. We made the crossing to the Bahamas. We checked in with customs in Bimini and hoisted the Bahamian flag. A native fisherman pulled in shortly after we did and he sold us a dozen of the largest stone crabs we had ever seen for $25. They could not have tasted better. What a welcome to the Bahamas.

Our next stop was Chub Cay. Here we met Simon and Ann from the UK on their Lagoon 50. They have only had the boat for 2 weeks and are sailing it to the Turks and Caicos. Simon and Ann are funding a research project there to “Save the Turtles”. The project is being done through Exeter College and they have not selected the scientists yet. Sounds like a great job for some lucky people. The Lagoon will be the accommodations for the researchers and it is one gorgeous boat.

Nassau was our next destination. It was a good opportunity to get water and groceries - both of these are expensive in the Bahamas. At night we went to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. They have an amazing aquarium that is free. Of course they do hope that you will leave a few dollars in the Casino.
Next we head for the Exumas.

More to follow.

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