March 13-16 Chub Caye and Nassau

We are situated in a slip in Nassau. Brad, of the "no worries, mon--I can fix your generator, mon" type, is here on the boat. I'm drafting a new blog and eavesdropping...

Chub Caye, impossibly rolly at first, turned out to be a nice anchorage once we got the scoop from S/V Bright Hope from Elkhorn Nebraska, who hailed us on the VHF radio. For you sailors: basically what we did was attach the snubber to port, then ran a line from the port stern cleat to about 50 feet down the anchor chain. This bridle kept us pointed into the swell and settled the boat down quite a bit.

Anchorage at Chub Caye. Not completely disconnected yet, we were excited to see a cell tower in the background.









We awoke Saturday to a bit of stormy weather, a welcomed but brief respite from the sun and salt. Chub Caye is a high end sport fishing resort and yacht club. Recession is evident here as there were not many boats nor people.

Another view of Chub Caye and a shack overlooking the harbour.

We dinghied into "town" as the rum supply is low, but there is not much town and precious little rum. However, with an abundant supply of SIM cards, there is a thriving market for prepaid phone cards. "Just go to the end of the green building and knock on the door, mon".

We felt like criminals and addicts, skulking around and trying to score at the local crack house. Ian made the bold first move...






We explored a few surrounding islands in the afternoon. Many of the beaches here are covered in washed up conch shells…those that have been killed for food and those that died of natural conch causes. The murdered ones have a tell tale hammer hole in the top of them.

Like that shrimp scene from Forrest Gump, conch is served in any way one can think to cook it. I learn that I will have to monitor shell collecting as I can not stop picking them up. Every nook and cranny on this boat is already full and I am only a week into this adventure.

Remote island exploration and the
conch cemetery.

Fabulous starfish were abundant. You have to put them back in the water fast...if they leak out all their water, they float. Who knew?

We weigh anchor Sunday morning around 0800 to make the trip over to Nassau. Winds are brisk, 15-20 knots from the southeast, and well, we’re going southeast. We pounded into the wind and waves for 8 hours. At one point, we are in 7000 feet of water…we feel very small! It was a rough day but we are glad to arrive in Nassau harbour well before dark.

View of Nassau Harbour and a shot of Atlantis property.

Nassau is a busy shipping harbour. We have to call on the radio for permission to enter.

"Enjoy your stay, mon".

Later, same day. Disappointing news on the generator. First, we need a new injector tip, which is conveniently being FedExed from Fort Lauderdale. We are thankful that the plane only makes one stop, in Nassau, so our chances of receiving it are good. The failed compression test is another matter and Brad is coming back tomorrow to pull the head. Boat = bring out another thousand. This is all very frustrating because it's not as if we just put the boat in the water and decided one day to go cruising.

We decided to get off the boat,walk about and go to the market to see what they have, maybe score some vegetables or whatnot. My new foreign food exchange relative comparison model is based on ramen noodles. Angeleconomics. They are 4/dollar here. I think I last saw them in Dallas for 8 or 10/dollar. We are not yet reduced to ramens…tonight I’m making spaghetti and red leaf salad with fresh pear and blue cheese. I bet Craig eats so much salad he is too full for spaghetti!

The walk to the store...a sea of red lights, not what we have in mind!