January 6, 2020 - January 9, 2020
By Monday morning the wind had died down considerably and all of the sailboats on our dock were getting ready to head out. We said our good byes to Adrian and Sam as we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. Our original plan was to wait until noon to leave, but we had all of our preparations done and left the marina at 10:00 am. The sea was calm with gentle rollers until we got past Port Lucaya where we were no longer in the lee of Grand Bahama. The wind picked up and the boat motion increased significantly and continued for the remainder of the trip. By the way, this was not what the weather maps predicted. I had taken dramamine which helped me avoid sea sickness. During daylight hours Bob and I did two hour shifts at the helm and at night we changed to three hour shifts hoping to allow the off person time to sleep. Unfortunately, with the rocking of the boat sleep was elusive. I was even thrown off the cockpit seats onto the floor twice resulting in painful bruising to my left side and upper arm. We passed through Nassau Harbour at 9:00 am and headed to Palm Cay Marina on the east side of New Providence Island. I stood on the bow and helped scan the water for coral heads guiding Bob around them. The water was twenty five feet deep at this point and the coral was probably far enough below us to make hitting it impossible, but better safe than sorry. I could see all the way to the bottom through the clear turquoise water - beautiful! Once we got settled in our slip we showered and walked to the restaurant for lunch. In our crazed and exhausted state (24 hours of bouncing around in the boat with little or no sleep) we ordered drinks, hamburgers, and ice cream for a total of $92.00 w/o tip. It was delicious and the alcohol definitely helped with our much needed nap. This marina has a residential section connected to it, a restaurant, a cafe, an outdoor bar, two swimming pools, and a beach. Even with all of these facilities it is still laid back and casual.
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| Villas line the beautiful beach |
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| The porch of the restaurant overlooks the pool and beach providing a magnificent view. |
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| the pool is not heated, but the water is a comfortable temperature. |
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| The outside bar and lap pool are popular. |
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| I placed the black line around the prop to make it easier to get below the boat. I am quite buoyant. You can see why the props movement was hindered by the sea grass. |
We borrowed the marina car to drive to the BTC store to figure out what the problem was with the phone we had just reactivated. Driving on the left is quite and experience.
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| We needed to start happy hour right away after that ride. Crazy, it just goes against all of your instincts. |
Thursday started out as another beautiful day in paradise except for the strong winds. Until this front moves through the area and the sea state settles down we will be in Palm Cay Marina. In the morning we completed some chores on the boat, took some photos, and stopped into the Pink Octopus for lunch. Bob had read a review that they had outstanding pizza and of course that’s what we ordered. It was very good as was their green salad. After lunch we had to once again visit the BTC office to get our phone straightened out as we still could not make or receive calls. After a lot of back and forth between the store clerk and a tech specialist the problem was finally solved. After our trip to BTC clouds moved in cooling the air down so my idea of laying on the beach for a couple of hours was nixed. Maybe tomorrow.
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| Evidence of the high winds are seen in the motion of the fronds of the palm tree. |
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| The rock jetties protect the swimming beach from the strong waves created by the high winds. |
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