Tuesday 31 Dec: We settle into Chub Cay Resort. Happy New Year!
At midnight we are slipping along beautifully and silently on a beam reach on the perfectly flat water of the Great Bahama Bank. The moonless sky is full of stars. To keep the boat flat in the varying wind, I use the remote control to furl and unfurl the main, rather than easing the sheet and using the winch, which would wake Oana up.
I must say, I’m pretty pleased with the new remote control system. It definitely adds something to the … umm, well to the control of the boat :). It means I can fully control the sails by myself while Oana sleeps. Better than the usual exercise of peering over the bimini while trying to press the pedestal buttons with my toes! (if you know the size of my toes, you’ll see the funny side of this ).
Interestingly, there are several yachts anchored here and there on the Bank, in the middle of nowhere – like we did last year. Sensibly they all leave their AIS on, as well as an anchor light. I guess they made the Gulf Stream crossing same as us, but decided to sleep for the night. No such rest for the wicked on Cloudy Bay – we have a New Year’s Eve venue to get to!
Just before dawn we leave the bank via the Northwest Channel and back into deep water. Two more hours to Chub Cay. It’s still nice sailing, but the motion picks up a bit in this deeper water.
We radio ahead to the Marina hoping to be able to sail straight in, but they say we have to wait 2 hours. Can they really be that busy? So we anchor outside and I get some sleep. Because we had been sailing over the shallow bank all night I stayed up for the duration – I likely wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway.
At 11am we motor into the Chub Cay Marina & Resort. A very nice looking marina but probably only 25% full. We wonder why we had to wait outside!?
The walk to the club house is through very nicely manicured grounds. It’s all very neat and tidy, all very American. After check-in and filling lots of forms, we get taken on a golf cart to the small airport for customs & immigration clearance, which almost goes bad when they ask for “cash only” for the entry fee of U$300. We had thought we were in the Bahamas, not the third world! Luckily, Oana had just put more cash in the wallet and we had just enough. Otherwise we would have wasted yet another hour of our precious time in the resort. There are several private aircraft parked there at the airport. No doubt owners of the fancy houses and boats we see. I guess the Marina price tag of $285 a night is nothing to such clientele! Well, I’m glad we don’t need a jet plane, just think of all that extra maintenance!
Back at Cloudy we quickly get changed and head off to the pool, where we chill and chat to others. Looks like most people here are either on their boat, rented a holiday house or own a home here. All are on their holidays. The resort at first seemed quiet but the pool area is reasonably busy and the setting with its private white sand beach is very pleasant. We feel very civilized and I think the dark cloud that’s been hanging over Oana for the last few days maybe lifting just a little. Hopefully.
After our chill by the pool we walk on the beach then we find a hot tub. Well, a “warm” tub to be more precise. But after the chilly swimming pool it’s very welcome. Also in the tub is a couple who have just come from the Exumas, where we plan to go next. So we get quite a bit of useful information from them on places to see and where exactly we will be able to take our 8ft draft – which is tricky to navigate in the shallow Bahamian waters.
There is a special New Year’s Eve dinner at the resort but it was sold out when we booked the berth, plus likely out of our budget range. And, Oana’s food on the boat is always better anyway :). Feels nice to be tied up to a dock for once as we sit and eat in the cockpit just after sundown.
At 8:30pm we set out to the party, all dressed up and ready to go. But there is no party yet! All the guests are still eating and just a handful are outside by the band, where it looks like the party will take place. And the band …. well, let’s just say it looks more like they are having a rest and sound like practicing rather than actual playing. Eventually, people start coming outside but it’s a very quiet mood for New Year’s Eve. And the band not having more intermezzo than performance doesn’t help the situation.
The fireworks start at 10pm and they put on a surprisingly good show albeit rather uncoordinated. Three times we think the display is over only for it to start again a minute later. And there is no grande finale, it just kind of teeters out. And that’s it, resort party is over! Tables get cleared away and people disperse.
The “after party” is at the Nauti Rooster, the pub in the little village. Which earlier on has been described to us as “a storage area” by the people whom we chatted by the pool. We go there on a golf cart. Interesting place. If you can imagine a bar in a large storage room, that would describe it. The walls are covered in scribbling of boat names and various nautical bits and pieces and at ground level there are pool and games tables, where people play chess and dominoes. Quite the contrast to the immaculate resort club house we just came from.
The Nauti Rooster soon fills up and people from the resort are quickly merry and dancing, as you would do on holiday at New Year. But not us, we are content to watch the goings on, like a TV show! Rather entertaining, especially as some of them had a few drinks too many and are dropping to the floor as they try to dance.
The New Year count down is coordinated care of a large TV screen showing Times Square. And that’s it, we are in a new decade. Oooh, this will be the 7th decade I’ve lived in, is that possible?? And I solemnly wonder what the next decade will bring.
Just after midnight, as the music goes even further downhill, we leave the partying folk and are in bed by 1am.
