Chubb Cay to Nassau

[Jim Jackson]

Wow! What a great sail! Gentle rollers with a nice breeze just off our port bow. We left Chubb Cay around 11:00 a.m. and headed for New Providence and Nassau Harbor. The day was perfect with sunshine and warm temperatures all the way to Nassau. Cleared in with Nassau Harbor control and proceeded by the big cruise ships to Nassau Yacht Haven arriving at 5:00 p.m. just as they were closing for the night. It's a nice marina if a little run down and funky compared to the ultra nice marina at Chubb Cay. The folks at Yacht Haven were very accommodating and it was nice to be right in the heart of the town on Bay Street. It was a short walk to everything, grocery stores, Starbucks, restaurants, etc. We spent 6 days here waiting for a weather window to the Exumas. During that time, we visited Paradise Island and Atlantis, what an interesting place. We even had dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Since Marlene is a food channel addict, it was a real treat for her to eat at Bobby's restaurant. The food was delicious, and the service was truly world class. We also visited a fish market in Montague park and bought some nice lobsters and a couple of snapper filets that we cooked up on the grill. Nassau is not cheap... some of the restaurants are quite expensive. You really have to hunt for the good values. The weather was a bit of a downer, it was cold and windy for many of the days we were there. Not what we expected for the end of February and the beginning of March. All the natives said it was the coldest winter in a long time. They were all wearing sweaters and we had light jackets on in the evenings and early mornings. There were people in the marina who had chartered boats for a week and they never even left the marina! Now that would be a real drag. For us it was just a layover on the thorny path to windward.
I will add some pics of the Nassau experience in the next day or so.