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Published: March 23rd 2011
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Atlantis
Seen from the bridge this seems the symbol of modern Nassau. It used to be that we came regularly to Nassau. It was the place the kids flew into for Christmas and spring break from school, or the place we chose to do check-in formalities with the Bahamian government. While it is a big and dusty city, by Bahamian standards, we always found fun things to do like dinghying the canal into Paradise Island to try our luck at the casinos, or meandering down to Potter Cay for fresh local vegetables and conch salad. High church holidays like Christmas, All Saints and Easter have been celebrated here with GREAT pomp and circumstance. Sea planes landed in the harbor in those days so you had to watch where you anchored.
These days we mostly by-pass Nassau for the quieter out islands. We like checking-in in small places like Morgan’s Bluff in Andros. While we have never had a mishap, there are reports of dinghy theft and other aggressions that we know will not take place in the family islands outside Nassau. We come to these islands for the beauty of the people and the water and for the natural world that surrounds you when you cruise the smaller remote islands. Who needs
Victoria
The Queen's statue, a symbol of Old Nassau, has a prominant spot in in front of the pink government building. a casino?
We passed through Nassau in January stopping only over night and missed seeing our friends Nick & Carolyn Wardle who gather weather reports from cruisers throughout the Bahamas which they forward on the Nassau Met Office. They also transmit the Met Office’s 3 day forecast back to the boaters tuning in on HF radio. Each Thursday during the cruising season they host a yachtsmen’s luncheon at a restaurant (it used to be called Crocodile’s and is now the Green Parrot— I THINK we met at a place called Sugar Reef before it burned and we started meeting at Crocodiles, but don’t hold me to that!!) These restaurants all provided a dinghy dock for cruisers to use. We felt a little guilty about driving right through.
As the time approached to return North we digested the weather forecasts from days in advance and it looked like going to Nassau made sense. We could sit comfortably at anchor for a squally cold front passage and have two routes to choose from to head to Georgia – via the Berrys if the wind is more East than North and via the Banks if it is too much of a
Mailboats
The mailboats dock and load at Potters Cay. the est entrance to the harbor is to the right. beat for comfort to head out the Providence Channels.
We had a lovely sail from Sampson Cay into Nassau. We always make a dogleg between the Yellow and White Banks to avoid coral heads that might be too shallow for our draft. In sunny settled weather these heads are easy to see and steer around but in cloudy or windy conditions not so much, so we go just a bit further and relax.
No one was anchored on the Paradise Island side so we have a perfect spot to anchor in 9 to 13 feet depending on the tide and wind direction. Not so much current here as other spots and we are on only one hook. A short dinghy ride across the busy harbor (watch the WAKES) brings us to the Green Parrot and a nice spot to tie up the dinghy. The only access is through the restaurant. We arrived early enough to meander the length of Bay Street, first towards Potters Cay and East Bay. Potters Cay is about midway through the harbor and buzzing with activity as all the “mailboats” load here to provision the out islands. There are colorful market stalls for produce
Conch Shells
The meat was probably harvested and frozen with the shells kept for sale. and shellfish and lots of places to eat fish and conch. We shared a wonderful conch salad that was made right in front of us so we could see how fresh the ingredients were and verify that sour orange was used to dress it and not lime juice.
We continued on past the marine stores, the Poop Deck (an old nautical term for the stern of a ship, where they did, actually, poop…) at Nassau Yacht Haven, the Pink House (where John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men), the City Market and the Nassau Harbor Club that seemed to be closed. It was time to head to the Green Parrot for lunch and to see who is in town. Other than Nick and Carolyn these were all new faces, some are just arriving and others, like us, are heading back.
After lunch we continued on Bay Street to the downtown area. Only one cruise ship was in town but it was still bustling with activity. Horse drawn carriages were aggravating cars just as they do in other large cities and the straw market ladies were stitching bags that look exactly like they did in the 1950’s. Some things
Potters Produce
You can find lots of fresh produce at Potters Cay. We got "sugar bananas" the tiny sweet Bahamian bananas. Yum. never change! Still, there is a huge new building under construction to house the straw market. It will seem odd for this raggle taggle bunch to be housed in such an imposing marble-trimmed structure. A few years ago there was a huge straw market fire. This year another huge fire destroyed many of the nicer shops on Bay Street but not the market.
We considered walking over the bridge to explore on Paradise Island but decided to call it a day. Since the construction of Atlantis the old access canal and dinghy tie-ups are gone. There is no appropriate spot to tie up on that side so you need to park on the Nassau side and walk over the bridge. Perhaps we’ll go tomorrow if the front is not too squally. I think that squally part is to be ahead of the front and the front is due in the morning…
It is mid afternoon the next day and we have had neither squally weather nor high winds – just another sunny Bahama day! So after the radio and weather nets we headed across the bridge to Paradise Island. We had not visited the Marina Village built around
Scotch Bonnets
Considered among the hottest peppers, and very popular here. A nice dose went in our conch salad. the Atlantis Marina. This is a lovely, colorful and completely fake shopping area. I say fake only because it is sanitized and Americanized till it resembles only an advertisement for the Bahamas and not the real thing. At least half of the stores are American, including Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s. There was little authentic Bahamian merchandize offered, though the Run Cake samples were tasty and I found the Andros Red Bay baskets fairly priced.
Views from the top of the bridges crossing the harbor were wonderful and we were glad the wind had not yet piped up. We hope this is not a sign that they system is delayed… just that it is not as strong as originally forecast. Time will tell.
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lora
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Nassau harbor
THANKS so much for the pictures!!! Hungrily looked at all of them! Brought back a lot of memories. Glad Nick and Carolyn are still doing their thing. Good to also see a picture of the two of you - looking great!