Making Our Way to Nassau
Once we got our weather window, we left Bimini and started making our way to Nassau. You travel through an area known as "The Great Bahama Banks." This area is wide and shallow with coral heads scattered everywhere. Crossing the bank is the reason for waiting out the high winds and seas, otherwise known as "noreasterlies." While riding up a nice, tall wave isn't concerning, when you come crashing down the other side, you want enough water under you that you're not hitting a coral head or the sandy bottom. The water is a light turquoise and in shallow areas changes to a light green. You want to stay out of the green. Once we made it out of the banks, we were crossing the tongue of the ocean, which is a nice deep, dark blue color, and dropped anchor at Chub Cay. You pronounce Cay "key," but because I read the word before I heard the correct pronunciation, I will likely forever pronounce it "kay." Heavy sigh.
We spent a few days at the Chub Cay anchorage. The anchorage is lined with beautiful pink, yellow, and blue houses. There is a marina there, but it was closed due to reconstruction after the hurricane. The beach that is there along the anchorage is privately owned and we were not allowed to come ashore, however, we did take the Brinky to the exposed side of the island and played at the beach there. We combed the beach for interesting shells and other treasures. Steve found a beautiful, little butterfly shell with pinks and yellows swirling through each side. He gave it to MJ and her sweet, little tender heart burst, I swear! For the rest of the day she kept thanking him for her gift. She was very excited to write him a Thank You note with a picture of the two of them and her beautiful shell. Precious.
We did a lot of swimming around the boat and came upon a very large sea snail that was consuming a very large sea star. Gross! That was science for the day. Saylor was given the duty of "diving" on the anchor, which she happily accepted. There was also a little, shallow cut through the island where Saylor and I jumped in and were able to swim with some sting rays. Daddy and MJ stayed close by on the Brinky. After climbing back into the Brinky, we found that there were also some small nurse and reef sharks swimming in the area. Happy that they didn't nibble our toes! The girls spent nearly an entire day building forts and playing. Oh, the giggles and good times that were had that day. They were not happy when bedtime came and I needed the sheets back to make beds.
The morning we were to leave, Saylor and I were up before the sun and discovered the tube we had been pulling behind the Brinky had come loose during the night and was now floating along the beach. We kept an eye on it and once it started making its way to open water, I decide to wake up Steve to see if he would be interested in a rescue mission. It took him a little while to wake up, but was up for the task and was able to get the tube back to the boat safely.
We decided since everyone was up, we'd pull up anchor and make the rest of the trip to Nassau. We listened to tunes, did some dancing and singing, watched dolphins play in our wake and had a fun day at sea. Oh, I nearly forgot... WHAT?!? So the girls were being a little unpleasant and were getting anxious to arrive, so I decided the three of us should take a little nap. While we were resting down below, Daddy was busy. He quietly came down and requested my help. I came up expecting to be pulling in a sail only to find a huge Mahi Mahi laying on my deck!! I couldn't believe, one, how quiet and calm he was because this fish was HUGE. Had it been me reeling that thing in, I'd been hollering and screaming for someone to get the camera for Pete's sake! I'm not sure how I could forget that, as it was quite the fish. Not sure what to do with this large fish, Steve got busy cleaning and cutting fillets. It was a little messy andprobably not so much by the books, but he managed to get it into pieces we could store with very little wasted.
Our first night in Nassau was spent in a nice little anchorage called Clifton Bay where "Jaws Beach" is located. The beach got its name due to the fact part of one of the Jaws movies was filmed there. The wind was going to be changing and we made the decision that being tied to a dock would be easier for our visitors to board the boat. Steve decided to treat us with a sturdy stay tied up to not just any dock, but the dock at the Atlantis Marina. We're still building our trust with the anchor and after several restless nights, I was all in for a good night's sleep.
As we entered Nassau Harbor, we passed by the several cruise ships at dock, including the Disney ship, with our own little princess dancing and saying hello to boats passing by. Captain lost his favorite hat minutes after his photo was taken. We were unsuccessful in our attempt to retrieve the hat. Darn! Any recon buddies out there, if you're able, hook the guy up. We had one more day until Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Donna would arrive!
