Hanging out in New Providence

There are definitely good and bad things about hanging out in Nassau. There is an amazing grocery store and a Starbucks across from the marina where we are staying. Hugh laughs at me as I wander up and down the aisles in the grocery store … you don’t see a lot of the brands at home, or anywhere else in the Bahamas. Plus it’s lovely and cool in there, I could spend hours looking, and buying a few things. A great place to stock up before heading out to the desolate islands of the Exumas!  

The bad things about being here are the noise, crowds and frustration of trying to get around town to see the historical and other attractions of New Providence Island.  We are quite far from the “downtown” of Nassau, so getting there requires either an expensive taxi, or a local bus ride, which we have discovered, is an adventure.

Alyssa arrived on Monday, after numerous delays to her flight from Tampa to Nassau, just in time to enjoy a lovely meal at Latitudes, the new restaurant in the marina. When we were here last year they were in the process of building it, so we were happy to see it was finished and busy!

L-R Hugh Alyssa and Karen at Latitudes

Our lives on the boat are mostly dictated by weather, and we had been hoping to sail down to the Exumas with Alyssa for a few days and bring her back to Nassau, as we couldn’t find any flights from Staniel Cay to get her back. But, the wind gods were not on our side, and we were worried about getting her back for her flight on Sunday, with a big front and high winds coming in Friday night. So the decision was made to stay on the dock Tuesday, go out for a couple of nights and anchor, then be back for Friday nights’ blow.

Tuesday was “Explore Nassau Day” and after “tour guide” Hugh did some research about what to see and do, we boarded a local bus that was headed downtown, giving us a cheap tour of some local neighborhoods.  Our first stop was The Water Tower, which was built in 1928 to supply water to the town.

Nassau Water Tower and Fort Fincastle

Beside the water tower is Fort Fincastle, a small fort built in 1793 to protect the entrance to the harbour. There was also a little market with local vendors selling tourist wares. It was a busy place, with busloads of cruise ship passengers coming and going. There were 4 cruise ships in the harbour that day! (a bad thing).

Cruise ships docked in Nassau Harbour

Also in the area was The Queens Staircase, which was carved out of solid limestone by slaves in 1793 to honour Queen Victoria. It is also known as The 66 Steps. It was quite beautiful, with a small waterfall and trees growing in the gorge.

Alyssa and Hugh on Queen's Staircase

We found the John Watling's distillery, and had a tour of the rum factory and a small sample. Established in 1789, it still makes very light to very dark rums.

John Watling's Rum Distillery

Our own tour continued down through several lovely areas of government buildings, The National Art Gallery, and an old hotel, Graycliff. We eventually made our way back to the downtown area and found a bus to take us back to the boat. A busy but interesting day!

Alyssa and a pirate!

On the Wednesday we decided to sail down to West Bay, an anchorage at the west end of New Providence Island, with good protection and holding. We had a lovely sail down, and found a good spot to sit for a couple of days. It was so nice to be off the dock, with the peace of sitting at anchor.

West Bay Sunset

Thursday we went exploring on shore, only to find out that lovely park we were walking in was private and in order to walk or sit there you had to pay an entrance fee of $11 each! So back to the boat we went, and decided to try to find some snorkeling sites we had read about. They are quite busy with tour boats during the day, so we waited until they were gone later in the afternoon, but were quite disappointed with the state of the coral, dull and broken, and few fish. The next area we found was one we had heard about called the Sir Nicholas Nuttall Coral Reef Sculpture Garden, with this huge concrete “man” crouched in the water. We were the only ones there, and I took my GoPro to take pics, but somehow it didn’t work, so no actual pictures to show you, (sorry!) just a copy of one I found.

Sculpture Garden

Friday we left bright and early, in windy conditions (as predicted) and even went through some squalls and fog. We made it back to the dock, and were glad to be there, as the winds really blew that night and Saturday.

We spent the last couple of days with Alyssa exploring more of Nassau, including going to a “fish market”, with locals selling their catch and actually filleting it for you, visiting the Nassau Yacht Club, and taking another local bus to Compass Point for lunch on a very windy, squally day.

Montague Beach Fish Market

Karen and Alyssa at Compass Point

We said goodbye to Alyssa yesterday, and we are now waiting for a good weather window (tomorrow?) to sail up to Eleuthera and visit our friends Sue and Randy who have rented a cottage there for two weeks. It will be really nice to get to another island!

From there we are hoping to go to the Exumas for a few weeks, then start the journey back to Florida.

Hopefully the weather gods will be with us … one day at a time!