We are currently sitting on a mooring ball in beautiful Warderick Wells in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, but the Bahamas has the lock down on Wi-Fi so we are back-logged with blogs!  A little late, but here’s what we did in Nassau!

Monday, February 10, 2014 – Monday, February 17, 2014

I have to admit that Nassau is not one of my favorite places.  I wasn’t impressed with it when we stopped there as part of our cruise-ship cruise in 2008, and I didn’t love it again this time.  I’m sure it had to do with the fridge debacle and the fact that we needed to do some provisioning since we had to eat all of our frozen stuff.  It felt like a utility stop, and I probably didn’t give it a fair chance…  Anyway, it wasn’t a total bust, so here ya go!

Our sail over was gorgeous.  The weather was calm and JR caught a mahi-mahi.  That tough fish broke loose however before he could get it on the boat, so one of the things we picked up in Nassau was an overpriced gaff.

We had to ask permission to enter Nassau Harbor.  The channel can be very busy with all of the cruise ships and touristy boats.  We didn’t have a problem and it was really fun seeing the same lighthouse we gawked at entering the harbor in 2008.

The first night we anchored in front of the infamous Atlantis Hotel and Casino.  The sunset was beautiful, with cruise ships also docked off in the distance.  Leo had a great view.

Once we made it to a marina, I insisted that we eat out.  “The Poop Deck” was the obvious choice.  It was actually fancier than the name implies and we had a yummy dinner and I had a couple of excellent martinis.  Our friends, Kristen and Fabio, gave us an AmEx giftcard for our Bon Voyage and we promised to use it for a splurge.  Kristen was pleased that it went toward martinis :)

One of the highlights of our trip to Nassau was Atlantis.  We toyed with the idea of getting a slip at their marina because you get to use their facilities as part of your dockage fee.  We saw our buddies from Eco Adventurer pulling out of the marina as we were pulling in and they were heading to Atlantis.  Turns out you get quite a few “wrist bands” to enter the water park at Atlantis when you take a dock there.  They invited us to tag along with them for a day.  The water park was crazy big and the aquarium was top notch!  We also walked through the casino and hotel.  Very Vegas-like and it was super nice of them to invite us along (and pick us up ‘cause our dink was still on deck).

 

 

After a couple of nights at Atlantis, Eco rejoined the poor folk at Nassau Harbor Club Marina.  They stopped by one night and we had some coconut rum and chatted.  Did I mention they have 2 beautiful kids?  And guess who had emergency watercolors on board in case little people ever showed up?  This crew!

The fridge kept us in Nassau for a few more days than we had planned.  The bright side is that my principal from Hollywood Elementary was vacationing in Nassau and would be flying in Sunday!  Sometimes the stars just align (see what I did there?).  Barbara and her husband, Jim, also have a sailboat and have sailed the Chesapeake Bay pretty extensively.  I saw cruiser sparkles in Jim’s eyes a few times while visiting Journey.  We spent a nice, warm afternoon on Journey and then went out to dinner at the Green Parrot.  It was great to catch up on school stuff as well as show them our crazy little cruising life!  They fit right in :)