Bob is so happy!!

We took our time in the morning and said goodbye to Lumeah, they were heading North to the Abacos and we were going South to Cabbage Cay. We lifted anchor just before 11:00 am for a 2-hour motor to Cabbage Cay. Cabbage was great. We stayed three nights here. We did some kiting off the back of the boat, did some foil tow practice behind the dinghy, toured the mangroves by dinghy, and ate at Flo’s Conch Bar. It was a fantastic three days but we needed to keep moving as we had to get to New Providence Island to pick up Sharon and Bob was getting grumpy without her around.

It was pretty much a straight shot from Cabbage Cay to White Bay on New Providence Island, unfortunately, there was no wind so we motored all the way. Nikki reeled in our first fish, hopefully, the first of many to come, it was a barracuda so we let him go. The locals do eat barracudas but they tend to have a higher mercury count so it is not a recommended fish to eat plus it is very bony.

We needed to get South due to some bad weather coming and chose West Bay because it provided the best protection. The anchorage is close to a beautiful beach called Jaws Beach. No, there are no great white sharks here that we saw, but it is where they filmed Jaws. The beach was a great spot to get Zorro ashore for a walk and play, the poor guy still not used to boat life. This is a great spot, we played on the beach Nikki and Bob did a big walk around Clifton Heritage National Park. People have lived at Clifton for almost 1000 years. The first inhabitants of The Bahamas were the Lucayans. Lucayans survived only a couple decades after Columbus, victims of slavery and disease. In the middle 1780s Clifton was inhabited again, this time by Loyalist planters fleeing the new United States. Clifton was a working farm, but by the 1950s much of the forest land reverted to its natural coppice growth. In 2005 the land with its preserved plantation ruins and landscape was purchased for the first national heritage park of The Bahamas.

We went snorkeling in around the reefs of Goulding Cay and Nikki speared her first fish all in all a great time at West Bay.

Nassau was our first marina stop since we checked in on Bimini. We sailed for two and half hours and motored the rest of the way. Nassau is a busy port harbour with a ton of marinas, cruise ship ports, and container shipping. We had a spot at Nassau Yacht Haven which turned out to be a tricky docking experience. With 12-15 knots of wind and about 2-3 knots of current but we managed to get the boat docked without any problems thanks to the two deck hands and great crew. Then an enormous boat backed into the spot next to us, quite an impressive park job. Their tender is the same size as our boat!

The next day Bob rented a car and picked up Sharon. Since we had a car we made the most of it and explored a lot of Nassau. We went to Fort Fincastle, this Fort was constructed of cut limestone c. 1793 and strategically placed atop Bennet's Hill to protect historic Nassau town and its harbour. The Queen's Staircase, 102-ft., 65-step staircase carved by slaves from limestone in 1793 as shortcut to Fort Fincastle. The next day we went to The Pirate Museum, which is a very entertaining museum with lots of interesting facts about piracy in the Caribbean and explored downtown Nassau. We also checked out Fort Charlotte, built in 1788 by Lord Dunmore, the fort was named after the wife of King George III, Queen Saharia Charlotte. The middle bastion, Ft. Stanley and the western portion, Fort D'Arcy were added later. The fort has a moat, dungeons, underground passageways, and 42 cannons, which have never been fired in an act of aggression. This was my favourite fort as there was so much to see and the guides giving information were very interesting. Our final adventure in Nassau was to go to the Ardastra Garden and Wildlife Conservation Center, over 4 acres of gardens in the center of Nassau where we saw flamingos, parrots and so much more. It was fantastic. We did all this in the four days we were in Nassau it was a crazy jammed packed fun time.

It was great to have Sharon on board and it made Bob so happy to have her around again and ready for a sailing adventure. The big question was where do we go? We had some weather that was coming in so we did need to get moving. Next stop The Exumas, it is going to be a blast.