New Providence Island, home to the capitol city of Nassau, is a stark change from quiet, rural Andros Island. New Providence occupies only 80 sq. miles, but more than 70% of Bahamians call it home. In addition to serving as government seat of the Bahamas, Nassau is home to over 400 banks and trust companies and has a bustling tourist industry, catering to cruise ships and their thousands of passengers. While anchored in Nassau’s harbour, we watched 4-5 cruise ships dock every day, each carrying 3000-5000 passengers, sending about 15,000 people into Nassau every day.
Nassau was founded in 1670 by they British and has a long history involving the Spanish, French and Americans, but perhaps the most interesting residents were Pirates. In the early 1700’s Nassau became the home base of over 1000 pirates and their leader, Thomas Barrow, declared himself the Governor of New Providence. In 1718, King George I of Great Britain finally put an end to the pirate rule by pardoning “reformed” pirates and threatened execution to any pirate who did not comply.
Nassau and the Bahamas played a major role during the American Revolution and the American Civil war, serving as a port for blockade runners and offered resettlement for Loyalists and slaves. Nassau enjoyed prosperity during the Prohibition era as a smuggling center for booze and by the 1920’s Nassau was a well-established vacation destination for wealthy Americans. Several well-known movies have been filmed in the area, including James Bond’s Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, Casino Royale (2006) and For Your Eyes Only. Sean Connery fell in love with the Bahamas while filming here and made Lyford Cay his home until his death in 2020.
Nassau was a welcome opportunity for us to fill-up and restock supplies. We spent one day in the historic core, filled with beautiful old buildings and rich history, but it was teaming with thousands of cruise ship tourists and souvenir shops, expensive bars and restaurants vying for their tourist dollars. One day was more than enough and we were happy to move on to the “suburbs” where we could shop in well-stocked stores for groceries, hardware and sporting goods. While I love the small islands and their little shops, it was good to go to modern stores to get everything we needed, including a Starbucks latte.
Nassau’s international airport has direct flights to many US and Canadian cities, making it a convenient spot to pick-up guests, and we had guests coming in! Cathy and Fabian, our friends from Newfoundland, the people who “adopted” us during Hurricane Larry in 2021, experienced North Atlantic sailors, were coming to spend some time aboard Meshuggana. With our new crew onboard, we left Nassau harbour, pointed the bow south and set sail for the jewel of the Bahamas – the Exumas.
The Exumas consist of over 365 islands, or cays, and has long been a favorite destination of cruising boats. The water is warmer, bluer and clearer than the northern areas, or at least that’s how it felt to us. Many rich & famous people own property in the Exumas, including David Copperfield, Aga Khan, Nick Cage, Johnny Depp, Eddie Murphy and Faith Hill & Tim McGraw, so there has to be some truth to it.
Thunderball Grotto
A large area of the Exumas are in the protected Exuma National Land and Sea Park, part of the Bahamas National Trust. The park is open to the public and offers mooring fields for cruising boats, some by reservation, some first come-first served, for $40 per night and includes the $10 per day for park access. Fishing, removal of any natural materials and waste dumping is strictly prohibited and strictly enforced. We spent several days in Warderick Wells, exploring the park, both on land and sea and were amazed at the magical beauty. We watched the mighty Atlantic waves crash the walls of rocky cliffs on one side of the cay, and on the other we marveled at the surreal shades of serene, blue water. We took the dinghy inland up a crystal blue river, only to realize it was low tide and required quite a bit of portaging, but the exercise was good!
The Exumas are well known for non-aquatic wildlife as well, especially the famous swimming pigs of Staniel Cay and the Bahamian Rock Iguanas of Allen’s Cay (how could we not go to Allen’s Cay?). While these animals are supposed to be wild, they have become accustomed to constant tourist traffic and humans luring them with food, so now they come running as soon as a boat arrives. We did not feed these lovely creatures, but we did enjoy visiting with them.
For the last few weeks we’ve enjoyed warm temperatures and sunshine, but we’ve also endured nearly constant strong winds. Yes, sailors need and love wind, but when its consistently blowing more than 20 knots and gusting up to 30 knots, it’s not a lot of fun. Add huge ocean swells and strong currents often going in the opposite direction, it can be dangerous.
We’ve had a couple close calls during this leg of the adventure, the first in Shroud Cay. With the forecast calling for big winds, we tucked into the bay at Shroud Cay to pick-up a mooring ball. Most of the balls were already occupied, but we found one fairly close to shore that likely was available because the lanyard that is normally attached to the ring was missing. In Ontario many mooring balls don’t have lanyards, so we picked it up and attached our own lines including a safety line to the ball. It was a bouncy night, but we felt safe, secured to a ball, and slept well. I awoke early the next day, with my inner voice twanging…. something was telling me to get up. I went upstairs, checked that the dinghy and kayak were still attached to Meshuggana, relieved they were still there, I turned around and saw that we were just a few feet away from our neighbors – both our mooring lines had ripped and we were drifting towards the rocks! I sent an alarm through the boat and Allen, Cathy and Fabian came running and together we got the engine going, ripped lines pulled-in and anchor safely dropped before we hit a reef or another boat…another few minutes of drifting could have caused catastrophic damage.
animals pose no threat to humans
Another close call came a few days later in Lee Stocking Cay, where we had ducked in after a few hours of miserable sailing conditions enroute to George Town. The anchorage was shallow, but we had at least a foot below the keel at low tide and we were in the company of two other monohull sailboats. The current running around the boat was strong, but the anchor was holding well so we settled-in for the night. A couple hours after sunset, in full dark of night, the boat heeled significantly to one side and stayed that way. Assuming the tide had gone out and we were grounded, we checked the depth sounder – we still had 3 feet of water under the keel, but the anchor chain was slack. The next thought was terrifying – did the anchor chain wrap around the keel as we turned with currents? For the next two hours Allen sat on anchor watch and the rest of us listened for tell-tale sounds of metal on metal (chain on keel). By 11pm Allen determined that the chain was not wrapped around the keel, but the currents were so strong that they held us abeam to the wind and applied no force on the anchor chain. We were safe, but were happy to get out of there at first light.
Our Exumas adventures culminated with our arrival in George Town, the largest city in the Exumas. George Town is a wildly popular destination for cruising boats, some spend their entire cruising season here. It’s easy to see why, with a moderately protected harbour and excellent holding, easy access to groceries, hardware, restaurants, even an airport, and this season there are about 350 cruisers anchored in the George Town area. There is a strong sense of community amongst the cruisers, with daily get-togethers and various activities for all. After some rough cruising, it’s good to be back in good company with cruising friends, old and new.
