|
Day 31 to 33, July 17th - July 19th
We were up early in order to pack everything up, break down the dingy and put the motor away as we won't be using it again being at Marinas from now on. As always, Paul was over to help Barry bring the dingy up, deflate it and pack it up into the dingy bag - thank God he was here, otherwise I would have to do it. I gave them some groceries and things that we wouldn't need because we are heading off to civilization AND restaurants. We have definitely saved money being on hook - Sampson Cay Marina was $1.90 a foot plus water and electricity; Atlantis is double that, Nassau Harbour Club is the same and Hurricane Hole is $3.00 a foot, so yeah, we've saved enough to have dinner at Atlantis now! We were all packed up and ready to go - Paul and Cathy came over to say our good-byes but we will definitely hook up with them back in Cape Coral when they get back around Thanksgiving…they've still got a while to play in Paradise. We let go of that "monster" ball at around 10:00 am and with East winds blowing we should have a pretty decent run to Nassau and Hurricane Hole Marina. We were in a fairly nice chop but no breeze was coming through to us on the bridge so it was hot enough up there for Barry to put on the bridge A/C…Salty of course, had his fan in his face and never ending ice cubes so he was ok. Once we veered north toward Highborne Cay we started to get those Easterly winds smacking dead on the side of the boat so we started rocking and having major spray - enough so that we had to close the smiles on the isen glass which didn't help the heat factor up there. The waves kicked up steadily on our way toward Nassau in 2-3-4's and the odd 5 footer thrown in which is not bad but obviously, we'd rather not be rocking and rolling like that - everything down below was well secured so that was a relief. What wasn't a relief was one of the engines shut down thus throwing the auto pilot off. It was still showing that it was revving but it was definitely shut down. When you shut the engines down in high waves, the boat really starts to rock "back and forth" making it appear like we are going to lay down sideways - not a good feeling. However, Barry got it back up and running and we were on our way with a big sigh of relief - until we saw the huge thunder clouds and wall of rain exactly where we were heading. Luckily, the storm must have been moving faster than we were and it headed west of us and we missed it entirely. We docked at Hurricane Hole without a hitch and were at the dock by 2:45 pm with the guys soaping good ole Salty Old Dog down to get the salt off while we stay at dock for a few days. Now one of the heads has decided not to work and Barry has already arranged for someone to look at that tomorrow morning at 9:00 am before we head off to Bimini - it's always something. We got all set up, put the stairs/ramp on (YAY), sent emails and got ready for "dinner" at Fathoms in Atlantis. It took us a good 15 minutes to find the restaurant once we got to the maze of the Atlantis complex - it is truly amazing! Shops, restaurants, casino and people everywhere! Here we go from one extreme to another with no one around for weeks and then boom - it's like 5 cruise ships all in one place! We sat at a table looking at huge aquariums full of tropical fish, stingrays (they look like they're smiling), sharks - it was awesome - and so was dinner. Bonus. Even better - we were sitting at the bar waiting to be seated and Barry was culling out the Bahamian money from the American and as luck (or un-luck) would have it, he dropped a $50 Bahamian bill. We sat at our table and were looking at the menu when the guy who was standing beside us at the bar came over, held out the $50 bill and said "I think you dropped this at the bar" - imagine - that never happens! Barry looked in his pocket, looked up at the guy in shock and said "yeah, I guess I did drop it - THANKS"! We were trying to get someone's attention to buy him a drink but by the time we got someone's attention, he was gone. We're still shaking our heads at that one. We had a great dinner and with an extra $50 bucks we were feeling pretty good about ourselves (till we got the check!).
Day 32, Monday, July 18th We sit here at Hurricane Hole looking at the huge 100' plus yachts and don't even seem to notice the magnitude of wealth surrounding us…we don't even seem be amazed at the size of these "ships" anymore. There is a huge yacht behind us "Sis W" (must be a story behind that name) and it's acting as a breakwater for us, it's so big - doesn't even move and we had some pretty good wave action in the Harbour today. This is a busy spot and Nassau Harbour has a lot of traffic both pleasure and working vessels, ferries and cruise ships. Salty doesn't like to go down on the swim platform as much when we are docked - I guess he'd rather have the great expanse of aqua water with no obstructions to look at instead of a wooden dock - it's a dog's life, indeed. He does seem to think these stairs are a piece of cake now and sneaks off by himself to explore yet another dock. That was ok at Sampson where there weren't very many people and they all knew him, but there are too many people and the odd dog around here for him to be trying to make this dock his own. Barry decided to change out the fuel filters again because of that freak engine shut down, just in case and better safe than sorry - we still have the run to Bimini and ultimately to Miami and we don't want that happening again. The guy who was supposed to fix the head never did show up and that was just as well as he would have probably charged us an arm and a leg to just flip a switch. That's right, apparently there is a switch in the cupboard where I keep all my toiletries that is "Run or Sleep" and maybe in the rocking and rolling when we are under way, something must have fallen against it and it was switched to "sleep". Barry figured that out after he got the manual out, read a little bit and presto - it was fixed - needless to say, if that ever happens again, we'll check the switch! We did the usual stuff today now that we are back to a Marina, went to dinner at a local Bahamian restaurant then went back to the boat. The people in the next boat to us told me that docking at the Marinas in Bimini Islands was real tricky because of the wind and current being really bad. Great, something to look forward to. Also, Barry said it would be a rough and long ride (8 hours) but it should mellow out a bit once we hit the Great Bahama Bank. Something else to look forward to….just try to have a good night's sleep.
Day 33, Tuesday, July 19th We were up bright and early packing up and getting ready to be at the fuel dock when it opened and for some bizarre reason, we were actually on time and waiting for the guy to arrive at 7:00 am. He was 15 minutes late (that Bahamian time thing again) and VERY slow! We fueled up with 302 gallons to the tune of $906.80 and were out in a SURPRISINGLY calm Nassau Harbour and on our way out into the Northeast Providence Channel at 8:00 am. We started out on our Northwesterly track in about 2-3' rolling waves but that quickly changed to rougher water, especially when the "Sea ray Convention" battalion of 15 boats passed us all in a row, thus kicking up the waters to 4 footers. The Caribe Sun tanker moved over and let us passes it - waving us on but following it would have been safe knowing that it would only be in deep waters. Everything calmed down after awhile and with following seas, it was a really good run in the realm of things. At one point I looked over and saw a runabout beside the Northwest Providence Channel marker in the middle of nowhere. "What is that guy doing out here in that little boat so far from land"! Barry told me it was a boat from one of the large yachts up ahead and it turned out it belonged to Gloria's Sun that had been docked behind us at Sampson. This is a long and HOT run and we were all glad to finally see South Bimini Island around 3:00 pm. We need to go up and around the South Island to the North Island in order to get to the entrance to the Bimini Big Game & Resort Marina. That means we go from the Great Bahama Bank into the Florida Straights which is typically rough but our luck was holding out today and it too was surprisingly calm. Getting to the entrance where you pass between South and North Bimini Islands is a trick in itself. We had to pass by the North Island and go down to where the water is a decent depth, turn in toward the Island then track back closer to shore to avoid shoals, coral heads and shallow water. The Charts and Cruising Guides are very good in explaining all of these jigs and jags but Barry still has to make sure everything is going the way it should and all the navigation techniques are followed so we get in there safely and with props intact. This couldn't have been a more perfect docking! The wind and current cooperated and we brought that big baby in like clockwork - I love it when a plan comes together. We were in the slip at Big Game Resort and Marina and set up by 4:00 pm which is exactly when Barry said we would be here - quite a nice Marina too, except for the sports bar food. It's not busy at all in here now so Salty was able to be off leash and have the run of the dock - one of his favorite things.
|
.
