Chad and Becca are here! Nassau, Highbourne Cay, Atlantis, Rose Island (April 2 - 8)

Chad and Becca arrived on Saturday evening, April 2.  We watched the UK/UConn game at the "Double D" restaurant that night (we almost made it!) and then set out for Highbourne Cay in the Exumas Sunday morning.  We spent that day and evening here snorkeling, sunning, eating fish, and playing some password.  It was nice to see our friends, Jewels and Jeff again.

Upcoming weather forecasts didn't look good for snorkeling, so we decided to take advantage of the southeast wind and sailed back to Nassau to visit the Atlantis resort the next day.  We were there for two nights and enjoyed 'snorkeling' the Mayan Ruins.  The kids spent the day at the water park the following day and treated us to some awesome ice cream cones that evening!

After two nights at Atlantis, we went back to the Nassau Harbor Club just down the block.  That day we took the bus downtown to shop at the straw market, and we walked to Arawak Cay for lunch at The Fish Fry (Twin Brother's). We enjoyed watching the UK vs Ohio State game that Chad brought with him on DVD, and we got in some more games of Password, Scrabble, and Boggle during their visit.

The next morning we set out for nearby Rose Island for some more snorkeling and "Island Time".  Chad and Becca ventured to the little island near the reef to snorkel and explore.  They brought back a conch!  Back to the marina that afternoon to relax and get ready to fly home early the next morning.  We're glad you came and we'll miss you!

Nassau (March 24 - April 9)

The Nassau Harbor Club became our next "home" for awhile.  The pool was quite refreshing after a day of tooling around the island.  We walked to some nearby places (Starbuck's, City Market, and Potter's Cay), and rode the bus (jitney) downtown and all-around.  We got to know some of the other sailors at the Marina, including Jeff and Jules on "Baka".  They are traveling with their two schipperke (pronounced skipper-key) dogs, Ted and Emily.  Jules treated us to some homemade pizza and gave us some dim-sum appetizers to share with Chad and Becca when they came. Getting to know a chef has it's advantages!  We also enjoyed spending some time with Lee and Susan on "Door Number Three".


The Nassau harbor is a bustling place for boaters on the water, and cars and people on the streets.  Potter's Cay is a place where there are many food "shacks" and markets for produce, fish, conch, and land-crabs.  We enjoyed sampling the Bahamian food at various resturaunts including Double D's.  A typical Bahamin meal consists of Conch, fish, ribs, chicken, or pork, served with Peas and Rice (Pigeon Peas), Macaroni and Cheese, and fresh coleslaw.


The workboats (right) are located near Potter's Cay in the Nassau Harbor.


 The tailor shop to the left is typical of many of the Bahama island's stores and shops.  At the market, rice is abundant, and evidently sold in large quantities.


To go downtown, we take the bus.  Walking down East Street, you see the cruise ships, cars, people, and the traffic cop. 


There are shops of all kinds downtown:  Tee-shirt/souveniers, luxurious diamond and emerald stores, clothing stores, and the "straw market" where local vendors come to sell their wares.

Chad and Becca joined us during Spring Break, April 2-8.  The Straw Market wasn't the first place we went with them, but it was a "must-do" activity before they left.

Past the Straw Market and downtown, we walked to Arawak Cay and ate at The Fish Fry restaurant.  On the way, we passed Junkanoo Beach (below), a popular beach for cruise ship visitors and local islanders.

And, last but not least, here's the current installment of "Potcake Says...".  Potcake is known for his words of wisdom, which he displays as he rides his wheel-cover vending bike around the island.  So popular, he has a regular feature in the local newspaper.

(To be continued...)

Getting to Nassau (March 15 - March 23)

From Great Harbour Cay, we hopped down the eastern coast of the Berry Islands chain, anchoring off of Frozen Cay in Little Harbour the first day, and then Bird Cay, the next.  We took a mooring ball at the Berry Island Club at Frazer's Hog Cay, where we spent some time in the breezy east wind.

The picture to the left is from our boat looking at the bottom in 15 feet of water at Bird Cay.

We enjoyed meeting Nevil, a Bahamian conch-catcher, at the Berry Island Club who had just brought in a boatload of conch.  His small work boat had a huge pile of conchs which he had scooped up using a pronged stick in just one hour.  We chatted with him and his niece for awhile and he treated us to some of his catch, including the "sinew" as the Bahamian's call it, or the "pistol", which he informed us was the American word for it.  It looked like a 10-inch string, and it tasted like a salty gummy bear.

The main road on Frazer's Hog Cay is shown to the left.  We found that this was a good spot for reading (Genghis Kahn was one of our favorites this trip), working crossword puzzles, playing scrabble, backgammon, and reading (napping?).

 We became familiar with listening to Chris Parker's weather-net each morning at 6:30AM on the SSB radio.  When the strong east wind calmed down, we spent one more day on nearby, peaceful Bird Cay before heading southeast to New Providence Island (Nassau).