Nassau - busy, busy
18 April 2018
Over 70 per cent of the population of the Bahamas live in Nassau on New Providence island. So there are a lot of shops, services, bars, restaurants and so on … and Paradise Island which dominates Nassau harbour.
This island, linked by two road bridges to New Providence, is holiday home to the rich and famous: Oprah Winfrey to name one. It also has the resort/hotel/casino/entertainment centre that is Atlantis. A day pass for a non-resident is US$160 and children of 12 are classified as adults.
So what have we been doing here?
We are at Nassau Harbour Club marina and our aims were to get our two scuba dive tanks tested and approved so them we can get them filled, get a couple of bushes made (one for the autopilot connection to the steering quadrant and the other for the rope and turbine connection to the towed generator), fill our cooking gas tanks, fill up with diesel and stock up on provisions … and do some sight-seeing.
All have been successfully achieved … so far …
Our sight-seeing took us to the historic part of Nassau with 18th century forts, colonial administration buildings, the cruise ship area and its inevitable souvenir shops.
There are some lovely old buildings but then on our way back east to our marina we passed through a large area of closed down commercial and retail premises. It was clear that building shops close to the cruise ship terminal and edge of town shopping malls have killed what was once the retail heart of the city – sad, but we are told that the government is trying to work with the building owners and developers to re-enliven this part of the city. Don’t hold your breath.
There is so much money swishing around this country but it is not clear how far this is trickling down to the average Bahamian citizen and how much is being repatriated by foreign owners. Not sure the Bahamians are getting a fair deal.
Our jobs are completed and next we head for Abacos which will be our jump off for Bermuda.