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Nassau- February 28-March 4
We awoke on the 28th to calmer seas but still good stong breeze, and after a quick consult over the radio with Michael and Cate, we decided it was time to head off.  We’d disassembled the Portabote the night before and stowed it and I’d repaired the top car on our mainsail (thanks to some spares that Martijn had on board) so after brewing our second cuppa, we pulled anchor and followed Renaissance out the cut and into the Tongue of the Ocean - heading for Nassau.  Although we were able to have our main and genny up, we also needed to run the engine for some much needed charging of the batteries.  The day was perfect, sunny, solid, steady breeze and beautiful seas all around us.  We did regular radio checks (on the hour) with Renaissance who was running under full sail.  All in all, it was a gorgeous day to be out, and a completely uneventful trip down to Nassau.  About 2nm out we crossed paths with Rotop who was under full sail and heading into the harbor.  Michael and Cate beat us to the anchorage by about 30 minutes, and we pulled up into the anchorage and were able to drop our hook alongside them.  Nassau harbor is crazy, full of boats - including some tremendous cruise ships, and tons of working boats, but thankfully the anchorage is set just beyond the main crowded area and was full of other cruisers who, like our little armada, had all made the trek to Nassau to get ahead of the impending front which would have trapped us in the Berries for close to another week.  Shortly after we dropped anchor Rotop joined us, and we all congregated on our boat for a simple pasta dinner and to formulate our plans for the upcoming days. First order of business was to plan a Sunday brunch for the gang the following morning!  As we’d all travelled the whole day (except for Martijn who had just done a little sail from his anchorage at the west end of Nassau that morning), we were all pretty tired and decided we’d regroup in the AM at about 10, and Michael volunteered to go ashore to get some more eggs and bacon for our breakfast extravaganza.
In the morning, we all met up on Three Sheets and while I cooked up some bacon and eggs to go along with the biscuits I’d already made and the home fries that Renaissance brought over, Michael made up some Bloody Marys.  We had a great, leisurely brunch, and made plans to go ashore and do some exploring in the area around the anchorage. Martijn had met up with another boat that he knew from St. Maartin from previous years and had made plans to visit with them in the afternoon, so when we were all done with brunch, Michael, Cate, Brian and I went ashore and wandered around.  We checked out the grocery store (getting a sense for what we could get there for provisioning and picking up a handful of items like more eggs and some fresh milk).  Cate and I then took their dinghy back to our respective boats - leaving the guys behind to find us some Kaliks.  When the guys got back, we had dinner on our respective boats, and then we all ventured over to Atlantis to check out the aquarium and to do some people watching.  Atlantis was interesting… and expensive!! so much so that Brian and I shared a drink for our walk around/people watching expedition.  I mean honestly!! who needs to pay $12 for a vodka tonic?!?  The aquarium was great - although I thought any better than Mystic, Boston or Monterey’s aquariums - but it was neat to have seen it nonetheless.
The next day we had a great day… doing laundry.  We had a lot to catch up on, and five loads later, we were all set.  We had a pretty low key evening, and Cate and I made a plan to go ashore together the next day to deal with some provisioning and then to do a little walking around in Nassau.  We’d charged the guys with a few other errands that needed to be done, including some stocking up on the inexpensive rum that was to be found in Nassau.  When we returned to the boats a couple of hours (and some heavy carrying of groceries) later, we found that the guys had taken care of that errand and gone back out into Nassau.  We decided that we’d head out as well and do some walking around Nassau and through the touristy area closer to the cruise ship landings.  Although Cate and I had a really nice time walking around, Nassau is not somewhere that I can envision returning to.  The area around the crusie ship docks was tacky/touristy juxtaposed with extremely expensive shops carrying things like Cartier, Rolex, Dooney and Bourke, and high end clothing.  The second we wandered out of the “tourist” area it was filthy (even the tourist area wasn’t that clean) and filled with closed shops and we even saw a really large rat scurrying down a fence before disappearing behind a building.  All in all, I really didn’t find much appeal in Nassau… oh, and I forgot to mention the boats and (my favorite) jetskis that started bombing through the anchorage at about 7AM and didn’t stop until about midnight.  We were anxious to leave and head to the Exumas, and though the next day (the 4th) was Cate’s birthday, we collectively decided that we’d head out of Nassau and make our way to the Exumas the next morning and head to Allen’s Cay.