Arrival into Nassau harbour

Wednesday 1 Jan, Bahamas day 2: Sail from Chub Cay to Nassau.

We wake to clear sky, low humidity and a very pleasant temperature. We seem to finally be away from that gloomy weather which seemed to hover over Florida. Maybe it’s like that because Florida is the other side of the Gulf Stream with all that moist air hitting the cooler continent? Who knows, but we are glad it’s over for us.

After breakfast it’s back to the usual wind forecasting and passage planning. We didn’t want to rush away today but if we depart tomorrow the wind will be against us. By contrast, today will be a pleasant downwind sail to Nassau. Oana is not keen to leave so soon but also not keen on going upwind tomorrow. So departure it is. In any case we would need to leave the Chub Cay Marina. Just briefly we debate staying another night in the resort, but at $285 a night it’s just not worth it. Especially when you can anchor outside so easily.

At 11am we check out and depart by 12:30pm after posting the last two blogs. We don’t know when we will have internet again.
The wind is very light, 6-9kts from our aft quarter. But we decide to have a peaceful sail rather than motor, even if it’s only with 4-6kt boat speed. We are in no hurry to get to Nassau so an evening arrival will be fine.
So there goes our afternoon. Tootling slowly on a flat sea under main and genoa. This is how relaxing sailing should be! We have the fishing line out, but no takers today. Maybe the fish all had a New Year’s resolution not to bite on lures in 2020? Ha! We’ll see how long they keep that one up.

As the sun dips into the sea the towers of Nassau’s Atlantis theme hotel appear on the horizon. Also appearing are massive cruise liners, 6 of them (yes 6!) all departing Nassau in a steady stream. What must the town be like when 6 tourist packed cruise liners are in dock? (a quick bit of math: about 20,000 tourists!) I guess we will find out in the morning, when the next batch of waterborne hotels will surely arrive.

All the pilots and information warn of a very busy harbour, lots of road noise, sirens and constant wake from other boats. Somehow I imagine the New York harbour (except not so glamorous). But as we enter, it’s really very tranquil. Barely a breath of wind, no noticeable road noise and hardly any boat movements. Odd. It’s almost spookily quiet. Are they all still reviving from New Year’s Eve parties or does the town go to sleep after the cruise liners depart?

Quite a few yachts anchored where we want to go, but still lots of space. However, the depths are all over the place and don’t seem to relate to the chart. Where it clearly says 3.5m, we touch bottom at 2.4! Maybe they are using this yacht anchorage to dump dredging soil. There is one lone yacht anchored 1/2 mile away in a deeper section next to the cruise liner quays. Probably not allowed to anchor there, but we go join him. In the morning I’ll go scout with the dinghy and mobile depth sounder to find a better place nearer to the dinghy dock.

Our evening is quiet, both inside the boat and surrounding. Oana deep into her book me looking at the pilot book. The wind is coming in strong on Saturday and we’ll need to decide if we stay here, maybe in the expensive Atlantis Marina, or try to get to the first Exumas Cay – Allen Cay. But what the hell, why decide today what you can put off till tomorrow 🙂