Nassau

On the way to Nassau, Jim phoned. He and Andrew had a long discussion about Nassau and the best places to anchor. Andrew was going to go to Junkanoo Beach, but Jim said not to anchor there. When the wind comes up you end up too near the beach. Thank goodness we listened to Jim. As you will read below the weather changed dramatically and the boats that were in Junkanoo Beach were told to move. 

Nassau

We arrived on Thursday afternoon but were too lazy to go ashore to the shops. Knowing we were going to be boat bound for a few days, we knew we needed to get a few supplies so we planned to go in the morning. The weather was supposed to hit on Thursday afternoon, into Friday morning.

Laura's 2nd cabin

We woke up on Friday morning to high winds and big choppy waves. We didn't want to leave the boat with nobody on board, nor leave Laura on her own on the boat, just in case something happened, so Andrew offered to go ashore and do the shopping. In hindsight, I should have gone and done the shopping, although I probably wouldn't have been able to carry what Andrew brought back.

We weren't sure where to leave the dinghy so I went with him and dropped him on the beach. Then I had to get back to the boat through the huge waves with the dinghy bucking all over the place. 

I have never been so nervous to drive the dinghy! I struggled to get back to the boat through the waves. Our new dinghy is much lighter than the old one and it swerves around in the waves. I had to be careful not to let it get blown over from the front or tipped by the waves, but also go fast enough to get through the waves. Then I had to get myself back ONTO the boat. It took several tries, but I eventually launched myself up and onto the swim platform with the dinghy bucking below me, skinning my knees in the process! I tied it on well but still kept a beady eye on it to make sure it didn't float away.

When Andrew radioed to say he was on the beach he even said he was happy to see the dinghy still attached to the boat! Phew, me too!

I then had to get back into the dinghy to fetch Andrew.... you know me and getting into dinghies! Let's just say I have had a few mishaps in the past. I timed it so the dinghy was on an upsurge and just leapt in. The trip to the beach wasn't half as bad as the trip back. We both got completely soaked!

He did very well on the shopping trip and got enough food to last us a few days. Andrew took some pictures of the beach while he waited for me.

One morning, Andrew was sitting in the cockpit drinking his tea and scrolling through social media, keeping half an eye on the weather, when suddenly the wind started to pick up. He called me and I came up to sit with him in the cockpit. By the time I got there the wind had topped out at 45 knots and it was pouring with rain, lightening flashed overhead with the boom of thunder far too close. It stayed like that for more than an hour. We watched the other boats carefully, making sure nobody was moving. Eventually the storm passed and the sun came out again. 

While we were waiting for the right weather Andrew did some boat jobs and I worked on our social media channels. Links to them in the top right hand corner, if you are interested or haven't seen them yet.

Andrew has been wanting to strip the cockpit surround for ages and finally had time to do it. We are not sure what the previous owners, Paul and Maureen, used but he had to use a heat gun to get the top layer off, before sanding it.  It looks beautiful! Thanks to the extra solar panels and lots of sunshine, the heat gun didn't use too much battery power.

Happy chap

Our friends, Sarah and Trevor, had some time off between charters, and brought the boat they work on, Nauti Dog, over to where we were in Montague Bay. They invited us over for dinner one evening. It was wonderful to catch up with them. We worked out the last time we had seen Sarah and Trevor was in St Martin a year ago! I have missed having people around to visit or play canasta with, or just sit and have a good long chat! 

The breakfast chef

After nearly a week we had to go to the shops again for more food. We went to the SupaValue which Andrew said wasn’t as nice as Solomons. It was more like the shops we got used to in Grenada and the Grenadines with grubby floors and boxes to be unpacked blocking the isles, although there was plenty of choice.

We have noticed that a lot of places still have not fully recovered from previous hurricanes that destroyed houses and buildings. Although one can see a lot of new buildings, there are still some, like the one pictured above, that needs work.

Mission accomplished

We spent a few days boat bound because the waves were still quite big and we didn’t feel like getting wet on the dinghy ride home. But needs must when one runs out of wine, so Andrew and I hopped in the dinghy and braved the bumps. We went to Solomons at the shopping mall this time. Wow! What a beautiful supermarket. Nice clean new floors, good selection of fresh food and meat. It was amazing. We will definitely go there when we need to provision. It was a bit more expensive than the other shop on some items.

They don’t sell beer and wine in the supermarkets so we went to the bottle store. While we were there a chap buying what looked like half the store told us that we were Australian, right? Nope we said and told him where we hail from. He didn’t believe us and kept saying that we had to be Australian. Then the cherry on the cake, he says, "Well it’s the same continent, so same place!" He clearly didn’t concentrate in Geography class at school!

We saw Trevor and Sarah at the fuel dock on the way back to the boat and we stopped to say goodbye. They were prepping for another charter. I wonder when we will see them again.

I wrote the story below and posted it on our Facebook page, so if you have read it already, scroll past and read just below where we meet the chap who dragged into us. I am putting it here for historical purposes.

It’s not always smooth sailing/anchoring in the Bahamas!

We were expecting a big blow on Friday and Saturday which was predicted to start at around 10pm on Friday  night. 

We watched a lot of boats coming into the anchorage yesterday afternoon, and one in particular who anchored just in front of us.

Andrew and I had just got into bed at around 9:45 when we heard the wind pick up and it started to rain. Then we heard the sound of a foghorn hooting over and over. We couldn’t see anything out the cabin port lights, so Andrew went up to see what was going on. 

A boat was dragging and heading straight for us. By the time I got up there the boat was on our bow. Andrew was yelling for me to get fenders as he was trying to push the boat off, which probably weighs more than 10 tonnes. I started our engine and we were both yelling at the guy to start his engine. He seemed very confused so maybe he had been in a deep sleep. 

He scraped along our boat at least twice, pulling on the skeg of the paddle board, which thankfully didn't break, a stanchion, which did, and the tie downs of the water jerry cans. I managed to get the solar panel down before he got to it. That would have been a disaster as he would have taken it right off!

Once he was behind us he seemed to stop, and not drag any further, but he was still too close to us. Two chaps in a dinghy came to help us and I asked them to make sure he didn’t come forward and hit us.

They came back to us and said we have to up anchor and move because he can’t get his anchor up as it was below us. Well, the last thing we wanted to do was move with the wind howling and pitch dark. We had been anchored there for a week and we knew we were well set.

Andrew started pulling up the anchor and got the snubber stuck which caused the windlass to short. He rushed down below to sort it out and got it working again. Imagine having to pull up the anchor by hand, in the dark and wind. No way!

We had about 25 meters of anchor chain out and he had pulled up three or four meters when he saw the other anchor hooked on our chain.

We yelled for the guys in the dinghy to come and help Andrew get if off our chain. They didn’t seem to understand what we were asking and kept saying they had to help the other guy with his anchor! It felt like five minutes of waiting but was probably less than one. The adrenaline was pumping big time, by this stage! 

Thank goodness they had come to help as Andrew would not have been able to get the anchor off by himself. And if he did he would have dropped it and it would have gone right under our boat again. This is not what we wanted at all.

The guys in the dinghy took the anchor and went back to the other boat which had drifted further behind us. They helped him set his anchor and then came past us to make sure we were okay.

Apart from the shock, we were fine! It took a while for the adrenaline rush to subside.

Needless to say the wind continued to blow all night and we didn’t have the best sleep ever. Andrew kept expecting the anchor alarm to go off, but our Rocna held steady. 

The following day, the wind died down and the sun came out.

A day after the above incident the chap came over in his dinghy to see if we were ok. His name is Jim. He wanted to take us out for supper but we said that wasn't necessary. There wasn't much damage and Andrew could fix whatever had broken.

Thanks Jim! A true gentleman!

The following day, Jim came past with two bottles of red wine, six Guinness for Andrew and a cool drink for Laura. He also gave us two packets of M&Ms saying that it was Easter Sunday, so he couldn't resist. We had a bit of a chat and he seems like a very nice guy, with lots of sailing experience. Apparently the boat is new to him but he was unsure of how he could have dragged.

Matt asked me what we are looking forward to at the next stop, and it was quite a difficult question to answer. I thought I would post my slightly edited answer here. 

I am still looking for that perfect place where I can SUP on crystal clear calm water and find a place with good snorkelling. The water has been clean and clear in most places but we have not seen brilliant fish life yet. The islands are all very similar. More so than the islands down south. 

We have seen the pigs, the cave and the sunken plane. We are still have quite a few places to get to including the Abacos, Marsh Harbour, Spanish Wells and Hope Town. 

We are quite keen to start heading to Florida and getting into the ICW. It's almost like the last few days of a holiday. You want to make the most of it, but you know it is going to end soon.

Believe it or not it is actually quite stressful. The weather changes all the time with the wind changing direction on a heartbeat. The squall out of nowhere the other day is an example. Dad is watching the weather all the time and it isn't always predicted correctly. And then it is shallow!! And that is stressful when you are sailing in 4 - 6 meters of water and it just never gets deep. 

It is really beautiful and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to visit here but it's not without its worries. I am sure going up the ICW will have its stresses too.

Yesterday dad was trying to remember how tall the mast is because we were going to go under the bridge to anchor at Junkanoo beach. After Jim's called we changed our minds and anchored in Montague Bay. So we didn't need to know the height of the mast just yet, but again, stress. We will need to know the height for the bridges in the ICW.

Food is another stress factor to deal with. We knew shops are scarce but we didn't expect it to be so bad.  The last place with a good shop was George Town and that was ages ago. We bought some meat in Staniel Cay but it was very expensive! I suppose you either have remote, quiet bays where there are no supermarkets or you have the busy bay with a big, well stocked supermarket. 

Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful. The water is lovely and warm. Lots of swimming - apart from when the nurse sharks are around. The climate is cooler than further south, which is actually nice, except when we are showering in the wind.

So back to your question: what am I looking forward to? It's very hard to be specific, so I am enjoying each place, the blue water, turtles when we see them, and just being present each day. There are 700 islands... we are probably going to see about 10 of them.😁

The poor boy asked a simple question and the reply was an essay!

Fancy houses on the shore

Weather once again was playing havoc on our sailing plans. We waited for more than a week to move to Eleuthera. But finally, on Tuesday 2 April, we upped anchor and headed out. I was very pleased to be on the move again. 

Nassau in the distance

Real desert island

We had a beautiful sail, with good wind and flat seas. It took 8 hours to get to Meeks Patch Island. There weren’t too many boats in the anchorage but the following day they came flooding in.