Seasura visits Atlantis

My mom arrived! We are so excited to have another person join us on a part of our journey. To make her welcome to our boat even more exciting, Kevin and I decided to treat the kids, and ourselves, to a few days at the Atlantis Marina. We dinghied into the marina back in June when we first passed through Nassau. It is full of yachts and the resort is manicured. It also has a large waterpark including aquariums, dolphin pools, waterslides and other wimming and kiddie pools. The waterpark is as expensive as a day in an amusement park, but luckily when you stay at the marina, you get full access to all these features for the whole family included in the cost of the marina fee. It is a real deal for a family like ours. We kept this treat to ourselves until it was time to move the boat. Once the kids were done their school work for the day, we told them the plan and headed over. Happily, it was an easy boat move. We had originally planned to arrive the day my mom did, but we moved it up a day (giving her less time there unfortunately) because the weather was predicted to get worse through the weekend.

Once we moved into the marina, we wasted little time getting ourselves lunch and then getting in our swim wear for the waterpark. Unfortuantely, we didn’t want to have to leave our stuff alone or leave anyone out of the slides, so we didn’t take our phones or cameras with us to share photos. But we did have a good time! They have a really cool rapid river that you can ride with an intertube. The ride lasts more than 15 minutes and starts with waves that push you along, and ends with four sections of rapids. It is a lot of fun, and the bonus was that all of us could ride it. Norah didn’t have as many options as the rest of us when it came to waterslides. After the rapid river, we split up, big kids and little kids. We all had a good time. We finished our day with dinner at a burger diner.

The next day we were picking up my mom but not until 5pm so, we wanted to spend more time at the waterpark. However, first Kevin and I got a run in around the marina and resort grounds. It truly is a different world around the resort than on the rest of the island. The gardens and grounds are neat and tidy and well maintained versus the littered beach outside the resort and the streets of town. The outer loop around the resort ran past the waterpark as well as the beach. Our time at the waterpark was much the same as the day before. More rapids and more slides. Owen, of course, was game to do all the crazy ones involving large drops and dark tunnels. Simon got a chance to do some of the bigger ones on our second day. He was a little anxious at first (especially about the one that took you through a tunnel through the shark tank), but really enjoyed them in the end. Norah and I found some great smaller slides for her to do.

Despite all the fun, we were even more excited about picking up Nanna. We left the waterpark with plenty of time to get her from the airport. The drive there ended up taking more than 30 minutes (who knew the island was so big). We had another interesting cab driver though that kept up a conversation with Kevin the whole time.

We were so excited to see my Mom come through the sliding doors at the airport. She was held up a little with customs because we asked her to bring down some stuff with her for the boat, and they wanted to know all the specifics and charge her duty on it, even though it was stuff for a boat-in-transit and duty isn’t charged on those items. Such a hassle for some books, flags and egg cartons! But they figured it all out and we finally got her! My mom was last in Nassau on her honeymoon in December 1974. She was eager to compare the current Nassau to the one she had in her head and photographs. The taxi drivers back from the airport took us on a route that went directly through downtown and past Nassau Habour Beach/Junkanoo Beach, as well as the British Colonial Hotel where my mom previously stayed. It was night-time by then, but I think she could easily see how much things had changed in 49 years. We got to the marina and introduced her to Seasura. The kids spent a good 45 minutes showing her around the ‘small’ space and then another 45 minutes or more telling her about the waterpark. I am sure she felt overwelmed with all their sharing. After dinner, we took her for ice cream on shore and a walk around the resort grounds.

The next morning we wanted to get one more morning in at the waterpark before leaving the marina at 11am. It was a tall order, but despite this we managed with just a one hour delayed check out. The girls walked around the resort grounds one more time in the daylight to show Nanna the whole place and get her some coffee. We are not coffee drinkers, but my mom, like most people, is so we needed to supply the boat. Then, the seven of us headed to the waterpark. We took my mom on the rapid river to start and then getting off at one of the sets of waterslides we took her down our favourite while Kevin and Norah rode the rest of the rapid river. We were so happy to fit in that last hour at the waterpark and to show it to my mom. We had a rapid turn around, after filling the boat with water and emptying all the garbages, and left the marina to the anchorage again. Our plan is to leave Nassau on Wednesday (turns out it will be Thursday) because strong winds were blowing in Sunday afternoon. My mom’s first night at anchorage would be a windy one!

We spent the rest of the day mostly hanging around the boat and finishing up the dinghy davit job. We had to adjust the location of the aluminum pole compared to the dinghy so that the dinghy hung further out over the port sugar scoop to protect the starboard scoop from the dinghy engine. Unfortunately, the new sheaves that we bought were just a little too big for the slot they are to go into in the davit so, they will have to be modified. Nothing every goes as smoothly as we expect with our boat jobs. The following day was a school day and we had little chance to do much else. However, we did go to shore for groceries. This marked my mom’s first time in the dinghy. Luckily the channel through the bridges and over to the dinghy dock was smoother than it has been the whole time we were here. I think Nanna found it fun. And I agree, most of the time it is. That being said, you do have to expect to get wet.

Groceries at the near grocery store are nice and variable, but pricey. So, the following day we went to shore and walked farther to the Super Value for provisions. Our plan is to be in the Exuma islands for the next two or more weeks, where there will be few grocery stores. We had, of course, provisioned in West Palm Beach, but already some of our staple foods were running low.

Finally, on Tuesday we took a break from school and went to town for the day. We walked from the closer dinghy dock to downtown and the straw market, and then on to Arawak Market for a lunch of jerk chicken. It wasn’t quite what we were hoping for, so we are still in search of the quintessential caribbean jerk chicken meal. But Simon did have tasty fried conch. After lunch, we walked up the hill behind Nassau to Fort Charlotte. This was one of the place my mom visited with my dad in the 1970’s. At the time, it was free and there was little information posted about it. This time we had to pay an admission fee. Kevin bartered it down from $50USD to $30USD for the seven of us to do a self-guided tour. We have been through many forts on this trip and those that are self-guided tend to be free. There were numerous signs telling about the fort’s history and the history of Nassau. The island exchanged hands several time in it’s history before the British held it at the time that the fort was built. The Bahamas are perfectly positioned as an entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and therefore Spain, France and Britain wanted to lay claim to this island. As it turns out, after the fort was build, high on a hill overlooking the harbour entrance, there was no more fighting over New Providence. So, no bullets were ever fired at Fort Charlotte. Some people have since said that it was poorly built and wouldn’t have survived an attack, but others say it was situated so well and threatening enough to dissuade any attacks. Either way, it remains as part of Nassau’s history.

After the fort, we walked back through downtown, passed our current dinghy dock, passed the usually dinghy dock and onto the boat shops and grocery store once more for a few last items we had forgotten. By the time we completed our walk, we had covered 17km! Too bad the roads are so rough and congested that our scooters couldn’t be used. The kids did amazing, only grumbling a little, but this was dispelled with a little ice cream. The long walk didn’t seem to slow them down when we got back to the boat. They were still causing a ruckus until they went to bed.

Our plan is to move onto Allan’s Cay at the top of the Exumas tomorrow. We had planned to go today, but we didn’t get our fuel and boat ready in time to arrive well before dark. Allan’s Cay has reefs we will have to navigate and we want to do this in the light. Luckily, we have had 20 plus knot winds the last few days with gusts and it is supposed to settle to perfect sailing conditions for the next few days. I am eager to get moving because Nassau is noisy and we have been here for a while. Owen was just saying to me this morning that after too many days in one place, he starts to get grumpy and ready to move on. I guess we all have restless legs and wandering souls now.