Nassau
Our last blog ended in a rocky-rolly anchorage in Highbourne Cay. We were trying to decide if we could go deeper into the anchorage for more protection, or just brave the run to Nassau. Our friends on Will 'n Joy and Red Rover had already left but we were still evaluating the wind and wave conditions, trying to figure out what to do. Then Will reached out to say that the conditions were “surprisingly comfortable” so we decided to go. He later changed his mind on the conditions, but it was too late. The first 16 nautical miles were in a beam sea. Cam picked up the speed for more comfort, but the first mate was not comfortable. It was another day with Gravol, sea bands, and sitting on the floor watching the horizon for Heather. It was hard to move around the boat due to the rocking and the salt from the spray on the railings. Once we turned at the Yellow Bank, we were taking the waves at a slightly different angle and it was a little more comfortable.
Cam had tried a couple of days earlier to get a reservation at Atlantis Marina but they were fully booked. He felt badly for Heather's discomfort on the water and wanted to keep his First Mate happy so he called Atlantis again when we were almost there and managed to get in on a cancellation for Sunday through Wednesday. A vacation! As we approached the harbour we discovered that our VHF radio was now only receiving intermittently. We managed to get permission to enter the harbour with some help from Will who relayed the Harbor Control messages back to us via text. Getting to Nassau Harbor Club for fuel was a little harder and we switched to the handheld radio. I'm sure that we were annoying everyone with our repeated calls. When you don't get a response, it's hard to know if you are being heard at all. While we fuelled, Heather ran over to the grocery store for some fruits and vegetables. The pricing was much better than in Staniel Cay and we were all set for a long stay at Atlantis.
Finally, we were docking in Atlantis. It was amazing! Parts of it felt like Las Vegas. The inside was a bit like a cruise ship, and the outside shops were like a cruise port stop. We tidied up
the boat, talked to someone about cleaning our carpets (yes, we took on water again!), and had a snack. Then we went out to explore the grounds and had dinner at Sip Sip. We each had one Mojito and it was the strongest drink ever! We were both quite tipsy after only one drink. Exhausted, we walked back to the boat and went to bed early.
It had been raining a bit on Sunday evening, and it rained in earnest overnight and most of Monday. We moved the boat to a new slip first thing and then Heather took two loads of laundry to do at the Marina office. We waited for the carpet cleaners who were waiting for the rain to stop so we finally rebooked them to Tuesday. We left the boat around 2:00 PM and explored the indoor attactions at Atlantis. We enjoyed The Dig which is an indoor aquarium. Our only complaint was that the fish displays were not labelled so we didn't always know what we were looking at. Interestingly, they had one tank that was all Bahamian Spiny Lobsters and they were very interesting to watch, especially after we had seen them in their natural habitat. Then we found The Lazy River and water slides and made a plan to check them out the next day. To wrap it up, we watched people swimming with the dolphins at Dolphin Cay in the rain. I guess they were going to get wet anyway and the dolphins didn't mind!
We had hoped to get reservations for fine dining but it was impossible. We needed to book them about two weeks in advance. I suppose that the people staying at the resort know when they are coming well in advance and book their reservations. The concierge said we could try to drop in and eat at the bar. We decided instead to head to Poseidon’s, which is a buffet, and ate at 5:00 PM. That's early for us but we were hungry and the food was pretty good. We enjoyed walking past all the boats. You had to go by all the opulent mega yachts to get to the little boats, like ours. We could see a fancy dining table in one yacht being setup for a meal. Wow! After returning to the boat we watched My Octopus Teacher, which George and Martha had recommended. It was very interesting and educational!
On Tuesday, the rain stopped and the carpet cleaner showed up. We got them oriented and then left them to do their work. We were heading to The Lazy River when they caught up to us to say the breaker had tripped, so we went back to investigate. We decided that we needed to stay close by, so we went to the pool near our boat and checked in on them until they were finished. They even cleaned our bath mat! Later we went to Aquaventure and found our friends from Nice Aft. Nice Aft started their Loop from the same marina as us and we met them in the North Channel. They were travelling with two other Looper boats called CRAB Shack and High Life. For the next two days we hung out with all of them by the pools and enjoyed almost all of the slides plus the River Rapids. The Rapids and most of the slides required tube floats and you could do single or double tubes. We sure had fun!
We decided to stay two days longer as Cam’s parents' cruise ship was coming to Nassau on Friday and we did not see a break in the weather that would allow us to continue our journey north. It would be better to connect at Atlantis, instead of us switching to another marina since Atlantis has so much more to offer. We were glad that the weather had given us an unexpected opportunity to connect. After their cruise ship docked they were able to grab a taxi to Atlantis, and then get a golf cart ride which took them right to our boat, all while we were still trying to find out if they had gotten off the ship! We just looked up toward the dock and they were there, getting off a golf cart! We decided to keep our visit simple so we took them to the pool that was closest to us. We had made a lunch to share and Cam bought some conch fritters poolside so they could experience that treat. After a nice visit, we went with them in a taxi back to their ship. We were hoping to see Cam’s brother and family who were on the same cruise ship, but they had been on a prepaid excursion, and unfortunately we didn't connect. While we were on the tourist side of the island we went to the souvenir shops and bought a shirt for Cam and a frame for our AGLCA photo. There was a water taxi right by the cruise ship terminal, so we hopped on that for a quick ride back to Atlantis.
Since it was our last night in Atlantis, we had a quick snack back at our boat and went to do the River Rapids and a slide one last time. After dinner we went back to the market area for Carnival. There was a parade with a lot of people wearing incredibly colourful and ornate costumes. They were led by a group of musicians playing brass instruments and everyone was dancing! It was such fun and a great end to our time in Atlantis!
Click on the photos below to view the images in slideshow mode. Coming up next, we go to our final Bahamian destinations.
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