Leaving Nassau

Our week in Nassau is ending and the long road back beginning. We had a very fun week with our good sailing friends Al and Trish Del Negro who flew in from Annapolis to get an early taste of summer after the brutal winter. We enjoyed some very low-key but excellent local cooking as we visited and enjoyed the summer-like weather.

When we arrived in Nassau over a month ago the weather was still in a winter pattern with frequent cold fronts and northerly winds taking the temperature down every few days. While we were down in the Exumas the pattern changed to a mostly eastern but dry trade winds. Now the wind has moved around to the south, increased the humidity and brought with it frequent rain showers which is typical of the summer pattern.

The good thing about this pattern is that it will make it easier to cross the gulf-stream when the time comes but increases the likelihood of short but severe squalls in a period of otherwise light wind.

So we wrap our week in Nassau by taking advantage of the shopping and provisioning with fresh fruit and produce to keep us for the next week or so. We also accomplished several boat chores, got our one dinghy engine fixed and bought a new Yamaha 15 hp 2-stroke engine. That happened really fast. The chandlery we used for the repair was really good. I walked down there Monday morning to inquire about the repair, they sent a guy with a truck up here with me to pick it up, I went back later in the day and it was repaired. First thing the next morning they delivered it. What great service!! Couldn’t even get that from a contractor at Herrington Harbour Marina!

So we’re ready to head out first thing in the morning and our plan is to go to Spanish Wells on the island of Eleuthera. Actually it is on a different island just off Eleuthera but it is all part of the Eleuthera Islands. The Bahamas has territories that are like states. There is Andros, New Providence, the Exumas, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama and Abacos. There are probably a few more but each has their own territorial administration. So tomorrow we are heading to Eleuthera for 2 nights.

We have pretty much laid out our plan for the next few weeks. One of the things we wanted to do was avoid having a schedule. But so far we have been unable to do that. Our first time constraint was to get south before it got cold. We were late there. Because of that and spending a time a few places doing repairs we short-changed many of the places we wanted to visit so we could make it to Marathon for the slip reservation we had. Then it became a slalom of going to the places we wanted to visit and getting to the Bahamas. Now we are here and now we have a new litany of things to do. We need to go to our storage area in Jacksonville to get records to file our taxes. We need to visit family in FL, NC and Chicago but we need to make it back to the Chesapeake by about the 7^th of June for medical appointments and where we need to have work done before heading north to New England. Hopefully we will soon be able to take our time.

So the next few months will be busy with lots of travel and getting our punch list of repairs accomplished so in the Fall we can head south and keep on going. We have found that most of the places where we have been would be so easy to just stay there. Warm weather, friendly people, beautiful scenery and always something to do (or nothing at all) make it easy to want to stay.