Dinghies in Nassau

Wind but, mostly just foul weather, blew through Marsh Harbour. We were able to explore the town a little, but because of hurricane Dorian’s destruction, there wasn’t a lot to see. During better weather there probably would have been nice beaches to visit but it was much too cold for this so, there was just the town. The town is very spread out and although they had a decent grocery store and ice cream place, these were situationed along rough roads with frequent building projects between and lots of fast moving cars with busy people.

As a result of the limited things to see in Marsh Harbour, we decided to just head south to central Bahamas, and in particular Nassau. We were in Nassau before, and it is mostly a place for cruise ships to stop and people to visit and party. It isn’t the nicest place in the Bahamas for a cruising family to stay at for a long time, but we figured it was warmer, there were things in the town to see, and we could get boat projects and school work done easily while we waited for my Mom to join us in about 10 days time. We took two day trips to get to Nassau. The first was just to the bottom of the Abacos; more beautiful teal waters and shallow sand bars to avoid and a quiet anchorage. The next day, we headed out of the protection of the Abacos into deeper waters on a direct line to Nassau. We went through a small cut in the shallows along with eight other sailboats all heading for central Bahamas. It looked a like a small parade of sailboats. It rained as we headed south. We had our mainsail up at first, but there wasn’t enough wind, so we eventually took it down. Then, we noticed a batten had come loose in it so when the wind picked up again, directly from our stern, we put up just the genoa to help us along. We arrived in Nassau just before dark and anchored just east and north of Paradise Island and the main harbour.

In the morning however, it was super rolly! Turned out that anchorage was pretty much directly in the route for all the tour boats heading out in the morning and they would go with in 10 meters (or less) of our boat, causing us to roll around constantly. It was too bad, because otherwise, the scenery would have been peaceful. So, after doing some morning exercises, we moved the boat into the main harbour near the main popular beach. Despite the frequent sea-doos in this area, it was still less bouncy. Last time we were here in Nassau, we had stayed in an achorage up the channel from the cruise ship terminal, which only looks at an industrial area of town but is well protected from all wind directions. The anchorage near Nassau Harbour beach had little protection from the north, so we would have to move in a few days, but we enjoyed being close to the beach for now. Unfortunately, the dinghy ride to the dinghy dock was very long and rough. There is quite a bit of chop in the waters in the channel and under the bridges that connect Paradise Island to the main island. Our first day, when we were finally able to leave the boat, we made the long trip over to the dinghy dock, but by the time we got there the marina office, where you had to pay for dinghy dock use, was closed. So, we turned around and went right back to Seasura.

The reason it took so long to get going in our dinghy that day was because we helped somebody else with theirs. A couple was bringing their medium sized motor boat into the harbour when Kevin and Owen noticed that their dinghy was being dragged behind them, half sunk and flipped upside down. Another man was heading over to help them, so they go into our dinghy and went over to offer assistance. Turns out they had hit a big wave and it had broken the swim platform off the back of their boat. Their 1-day-old dinghy had been tied down on top of the swim platform and had fallen into the water. It was tied down so, while the swim platform sunk, the dinghy got dragged along. it stayed afloat while they were moving faster, but when they slowed to enter the harbour, it started to sink. Unfortunately, the dinghy sustained major damage to it’s pontoons on the way into the water and the two pontoons on either side of the stern were deflated and the remaining bow pontoon could barely hold up the large outboard. Their dinghy also had a large centre console which made it extra heavy. The weight of their new dinghy was probably too much for their swim platform, which is why it broke in the wave.

Anyway, it ended up taking us half an hour to tow the dinghy over to our boat where we could use our dinghy davits to flip it back over and lift it up out of the water. Their boat had a small crane that they could use to lift up their dinghy, but it would have been too hard to use it to flip it over and lift it when one end was so full of water. We tried to think of a way to pass it back to them, but it wouldn’t working for various reasons (one being that they weren’t confident to get back up their boat close to ours). Furthermore, the poor couple was having such troubles that day because they couldn’t get their crane working, and they also had their windlass break so they couldn’t anchor like they had planned. We therefore agreed to keep their dinghy on our davits while they found a place at a marina for the night and looked for somebody to fix their windlass and dinghy in the morning. However, after some discussion the next day, they decided to sell their dinghy in it’s current state for somebody else to fix because they were on a time line to head south. They found somebody right away, but that person wasn’t able to pick up the dinghy for another day, so, we had an extra dinghy hanging off our boat for one more night.

We actually spent most of the next morning in the water tying our fenders around the stern of the deflated dinghy so that it would float and could be towed away. Luckily, the weather was in fact warmer in Nassau, and the water was clean and refreshing to spend time in. Once the dinghy was reasonably floating off our boat, we headed to shore. This time, we made the long dinghy ride to shore successfully. We got some boat parts at the local boating store and then picked up some fresh milk, vegetables and fruit from the grocery store. Turns out there was actually a pretty decent grocery store near the dinghy dock. In the evening we invited the other man that had helped with the dinghy onto our boat for drinks. We were happy to have a new person to talk to! Each new cruising boat we meet is an opportunity to hear about another fascinating adventure and way to do this style of life we have temporarily chosen.

After two days the winds changed and started coming in from the north, so we moved the boat to the well-protected anchorage. It was not as pretty, but much closer to the dinghy dock. Luckily the broken dinghy survived the move and then the buyer came and got it. We wish them luck fixing it up. It was a really nice dinghy but will take some money to be useful again (unless they are just salvaging it for parts). It was pretty funny to see the very precariously floating dinghy being pulled away by another dinghy.

We spent the afternoon visiting Paradise Island, having lunch on shore and going to the beach. We made our way to the north side of Paradise Island and Cabbagge Beach. It was easiest to dinghy into Atlantis, the marina associated with the resort and waterpark on Paradise island, and then walk from there. The beach was well used and there was quite a bit of litter, but there was lots of sand and the water was cool but inviting. The water was too cold for Kevin, but the kids and I loved it. Simon and Norah got skim boards for Christmas and all four of the kids were trying them out. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon and we look forward to doing more of the same in the Exuma Islands next week.

Monday was a school day and we didn’t end up leaving the boat. Kevin worked on fixing the gray water sensor on the port side of the boat. Because the sensor was in the crew cabin, we had to move a lot of our storage stuff out of the way (which we have to do anyway to accomodate our guest later this week). We also had to take apart the little kids beds and stack them to gain access to the wiring leading to the sensor in the port bilge. The sensor was working but the wire running to it wasn’t so, Kevin had to run a new wire. There really was a lot of old useless wiring in this boat, but I guess that is what happens over 20 years!

Our next boat job was to do a more permantant solution and repair of our dinghy davits. Our dinghy is actually too big for our boat. As a results, it overlaps the sugar scoops (or stern steps) of Seasura and also forces the ropes holding the dinghy to go out on an angle too sharp for the sheaves. The sheaves of the davits have therefore degraded and need to be replace. Back in Carriacou we tied a rope between the two blocks/pulleys of the davits to pull them in towards each other and minimize the angle, but in Sint Maarten we got a aluminum pipe as a stronger replacement for the rope. We wanted to add hanging points to the aluminum pipe and put it it use before replacing the sheaves. It went pretty smoothly and I think Kevin is happy with the results, but it wasn’t easy to drill holes in the round aluminum pipe and ensure that they were all lined up. Today we will hang it and replace the sheaves.

That brings us up to date on our activities and we have more plans for school and boat jobs in the next few days before my Mom arrives. We are so excited to have somebody join us.