Stars, Sails - the Parallax View

A family of astronomers at sea... coming soon to a galaxy near you...

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Trips to Nassau, Hummingbirds, Rain, Crown Prince Harry

10 March 2012 | Coral Harbour, New Providence, Bahamas
Heather / sunny and 86 F / 5 kts ESE
The Wardles' Dock is in a beautiful natural setting, with hummingbirds flying around and epiphytes in the trees:
look ma, i'm up in a tree!

Cassiopea andromeda, the "Upside-down jellyfish" live in large numbers in the waters under and around Wardle Dock. They are an invasive species from the Mediterranean, they like brackish canals and mangrove areas. They lie on the bottom most of the day and catch small water critters with their upward-pointing tentacles:
upside-down jellies

We even see them swimming free on occasion, usually at dawn or dusk:
cassiopea andromeda, free swimming

The dock area is very picturesque. This is just astern of where we are tied up:
hoist and steps near Wardle Dock

Derek and Grant and I took a walk over to the Sand Bar on Friday afternoon/evening to get a meal out and see the beaches of the south side of New Providence. They face out onto a bank rather than deep water. Here is the view from the deck of the restaurant at the beach side of the (sand) parking lot of the Coral Harbour Beach House and Villas, the property which hosts the restaurant:
Coral Harbour beach from parking area

Derek and Grant went right to the edge of the water, looking toward the Exumas -- our next goal:
looking toward the Exumas

Derek was especially happy with the restaurant... not only was the beer cold and the menu small but relevant (yummy burgers), but there was PGA golf on the flat screen TV...
beer AND golf! Nirvana...

This is what the front of the Beach House hotel section looks like, from just in front of the restaurant (which is much closer to the beach and has a large new wooden deck painted white):
Coral Harbour Beach House
From here, the maintenance issues do not show so much, but there are several areas which need attention on that property. I checked the price to check in for a night and it is way out of line with the appearance and maintenance of the place; maybe before the economy got soft, but not today.

Derek bought Nick lunch when they went into Nassau on errands -- thank you, Derek! Nick drove Derek to the airport on Sunday -- thank you, Nick!

On Monday, Jeff and Elizabeth (S/V Boundless) and I walked up to the nearest grocery store a bit after 1 pm. I asked the ladies in the store whether they had seen Prince Harry's motorcade when his majesty went to the nearby Bahamian Defence Force base to lay a wreath at a memorial. They responded that he had not driven past their store, but had taken a back road. We shopped for provisions, and started back walking south on Coral Harbour Road, with me hauling my groceries in a small dock cart lent by Robin and Liz on S/V Lafs. On the way back, a large number of motorcycles came toward us at a brisk clip, ridden by Bahamian police in their very British uniforms -- pith helmets and bright white jackets. After them came the motorcade. Elizabeth took pictures, and this spot is awaiting her sending the picture of Prince Harry on to me :-)
Here he is, courtesy Elizabeth Palmer:
Prince Harry coming from Coral Harbour BDF base

And in closeup:
Elizabeth thinks Harry's the guy in back on his Blackberry

When I got back, Grant said, "You take pictures of everything everywhere we go, and the Crown Prince of Great Britain drove past you and you didn't have your camera??!" Oh, well.

On Monday afternoon, Chris Clark and Anand Varma arrived to study the Bahama Woodstar making mating display dives and using its tail as a sound effect. They have set up a soft cage with a female inside and put the camera in the compartment directly below because Woodstars have iridescent throat patches that flash red only from straight-on -- from other angles they are pretty much brown. Plus, they want high-speed details of the tail morphology as the woodstar pulls out of his 10-gee dive (yes, really -- they have such small bodies that 10 g's won't rupture them the way it would us).
hummingbird caged and ready for mating displays

Carolyn invited her birding club to a casual reception for Chris and Anand, and they gave some of their powerpoint presentations using the projector and screen we gave Derek for his birthday -- knew that would come in handy :-)
reception for hummingbird studiers

On Tuesday, Jeff and Elizabeth and I took a bus (16A) into Nassau for shopping and assorted errands. Nick drove us to the bus stop (thanks, Nick!). Jeff suggested we first eat lunch at Imperial Take-Away, a good inexpensive authentic Bahamian food place directly across from the British Colonial Hilton.
ImperialTakeAway

Jeff, acting as tour guide, told us about the library that used to be the jail:
Library used to be the jail From their website: [the building] "was constructed as a jail in 1797. In 1879, it was converted to a library, reading room and museum. The small prison cells which once housed prisoners are now used to store books, charts, Arawak artifacts and a collection of historic prints, colonial documents and newspapers. It was the first building to be constructed in Parliament Square."

By the way, Parliament Square was still decorated for the Prince Harry visit, although the Prince had flown out Monday evening:
Parliament Square

After that Jeff led us up the Queen's Staircase to Fort Fincastle...
Queen's Staircase sign

The stairway and the passage to it were cut through the limestone of the hill the Fort stands upon:
The chasm of Queen's Staircase

It's cool and green down there. At the top there's a kind of straw market, stalls with ladies who sell stuff. Jeff was going to check on Miss Hazel, who has one of these stalls. In fact, he's friendly with several of the vendors there:
Vendors at Fort Fincastle

Miss Hazel is too hot in her stall after noon. Here's Elizabeth taking pictures of the stall so that we (or Jeff) can design an awning:
Miss Hazel's stall. Elizabeth photographing.

Fort Fincastle is pretty small, and these days they charge tourists to go look into it:
fort Fincastle

It did, however, command an excellent view of Nassau Harbour and the sea north of Paradise Island. There were whitecaps in the light-blue waters of the inner harbour, and huge rollers on the sea outside of P.I. Told you about that "weather" and "30 kts" thing:
heavy seas in Nassau

On Thursday, Nick drove Robin, Liz, Grant and me into Nassau to the Green Parrot for the cruisers' lunch, as moral support since the week before there had only been two boats attending. It was occasionally rainy, but also occasionally beautiful. Beauty is all over the place, even while casually driving on West Bay Street:
Nick driving past the western beaches
Comments
Vessel Name: Parallax
Vessel Make/Model: 37' Prout Snowgoose (1982)
Hailing Port: Pensacola
Crew: Derek, Heather and Grant
About:
Two astronomers, looking for variable stars and adventure. After cruising the Caribbean aboard S/V Paradox for 18 months in the early 90s, the crew swallowed the anchor and had a child, always planning their next Great Adventure: cruising under sail with Grant, showing him the world. [...]
Extra:
We knew that if we ever got a catamaran, we'd want a name to celebrate her twin-hulledness. Parallax is seeing the same thing from two slightly different points of view, which with our two eyes is what gives humans our depth perception. It's also a good metaphor for one of the benefits of marriage. [...]

S/V Parallax

Who: Derek, Heather and Grant
Port: Pensacola