Harbour View Marina, Nassau
We left Meeks Patch at about 8 am Thursday and motored out to Current Cay about 8 miles away. The winds were very light and off our beam. We turned at Current Cay waypoint and headed for Nassau on a broad reach with light winds. Pulled out both sails and motor-sailed the rest of the way to Nassau under blue skies and 80 degree temps. It was an uneventful trip where the engine worked flawlessly and the autopilot never shut down. We radioed for permission to enter Nassau Harbor and were granted permission immediately. We proceeded to the anchorage near the dinghy dock and tried to find a place to anchor. It was either too deep, too shallow or too close to other boats. The current was flowing opposite to the wind, so the anchored boats were fetched up on the anchors backwards to the wind. Tough to get a proper set. Later in the evening, the current switched direction and I spent the night watching how close I got to a small boat anchored there. At times I was only 40-50 feet off their bow. Kept watch until the current changed direction and we moved back away from that boat. It turns out that they were lying to two anchors Bahamian style mooring. DUH! In the afternoon we took a walk along the bay front to the cruise lines area and checked out stores and the spring break doings. Nassau in that area is a little nicer than where we dinghy'd to. But in general I found it to be somewhat dirty, noisy, run-down and crowded - not quaint at all.
On Friday we moved to Harbour View Marina to the east of the bridges to Paradise Island. The marina is small and caters to mostly long term dockers who don't need anything but the most basic of amenities. They charged us $70/night INCLUDING electric and water. For Nassau that's a good deal and it's what we needed to wash down the boat and fill up with water (ah, a long shower!!). Fuel seems plentiful and we filled up with diesel at about $4.50/gallon. Candice comes in today on a flight from Miami. We'll reprovision at a store a few blocks from here (very complete stock and some prices rival south Florida stores. Produce looks very good and everything is well stocked. Tomorrow we're off to Highborne Cay in the Exumas. It's supposed to be quite windy preceding a trough passage both Sunday and Monday but we should be anchored before the worst of the squalls hit (fingers crossed) Sunday night. Our schedule from there is fluid, but our intent is to work toward Georgetown by the weekend when another front is scheduled to appear. We probably won't have internet connection available for a few days but we'll update soon.