Nassau, 'Its a Bahamian Ting'

Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas and the most heavily populated island, with 250,000 people. New Providence is 20 x 7 miles and next to it is Paradise island, the home of the Atlantis Resort.

At the base of the bridges that cross over to Atlantis are many stalls all selling Conch salad and conch fritters. This is a real Bahamian traditional food. The empty shells are lying under the table ready for removal. The raw, white flesh of the Conch is diced up and mixed with green peppers, lemon, onions and orange juice. Really tasty!

Florida Pompano

We crossed from Andros Island to New Providence (the island that Nassau is on) and anchored in West Bay. On the way from West Bay to Nassau, Rob caught this 80cm Pompano, gave him a good fight. It had blue lips when it was landed, great eating fish.

Snorkling

Today we took some of the cruisers to a near by reef for snorkling and fishing. It was a bit rough so I did not get in but Rob says it was very beautiful down there. Lots of smallish fish were speared so tonight is a fish braai on the beach.

Boat Fish Party

Last night we invited all the cruisers in the bay to a party on our boat, we had 20 people and John, a local chap, cooked all the fish he and others had caught that day. We had a blast and ended the evening with a play put on by Mimi and Richard (seasoned actors). A comedy about a couple who keep forgetting everything, a wonderful performance.

Yoga on the beach

This is our Yoga spot, a pink and yellow rickety structure on the beach, 1 level up. Its just perfect, Debby and I have had great classes with Jennifer from yacht 'Gitana del Mar' Thats her in the photo with Debby and I. What a venue!

Andros Island

On Sunday we crossed a windy rough sea to Andros Island. A large island where all the vegetables and Citrus are grown for the Bahamas. We are anchored in Morgans Bluff and calm protected bay, wonderful. There are about 10 other yachts here and we had a communal supper on the beach last night. Everyone including the locals are so friendly.

Today started with a yoga class on the beach, given but Jennifer who is a yoga teacher from one of the yachts. Then we walked for an hour into the main town and got a lift back in a car full of Conch shells. The chap just saw us walking and stopped and insisted we get in..its too hot to walk man!

Rob borrowed a hull scraper and cleaned the hulls and I did my two laps of swimming around the boat. We are all nicely tired.

rescue of boat

We anchored at Berry island club, near Chub cay and the wind blew all night, 22 knots. There was no protection from the wind so the men stayed up till 3am to check that the anchor did not drag. It didn't! When the sun rose we noticed a rubber duck washed up on the shore and the motor on the water line. Rob got onto the radio and asked who owned the boat, its name was on it. They collected the very worried captain who had lost his tender boat during the strong winds. Amazingly they put it together and Rob flushed the engine and it started working again. The Captain was close to tears so happy to have his tender back in one piece.