We just can’t seem to leave Nassau. NOT the most beautiful
place in the world, by any stretch. There’s poverty, slums, high prices,
blatantly distasteful tourism, and of course, blatantly distasteful tourists.
We don’t find Nassau to be anywhere close to our ideal fantasy of an island
paradise. And yet, every time we plan to leave, some unforeseen impediment
arises and we have to change our plans. It’s as though someone has attached a
five-mile length of line to our boat, and tethered us to the city.
Nassau was about a forty-mile sail from Chub Cay, and we
needed to get there by January 2nd to pick up my son from the
airport. Dewey was spending Christmas with his Aunt Star and her family in
Miami, and the plan was for him to join us on the boat for a few days before
his return to Baltimore. We arrived in the area in plenty of time, and spent a
few days anchored at Rose Island, a mostly uninhabited little place about five
miles from Nassau. I had been reading up on the city, looking for things to do
with Dewey, and the guide books kept referring to the Junkanoo Festival as a
particular Bahamian tradition, not to be missed. It happens twice a year, on
Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), and on New Year’s Day. Dewey would arrive
too late, but it seemed a shame for us to miss it. “Let’s go!” I urged Rick. We
reserved a slip at a marina and arrived on New Year’s Eve.
Junkanoo is basically a parade, with elaborate costumes,
floats, dancers and cowbells. The whole town was set up with temporary
bleachers that lined the main street, to provide seating for the locals and
tourists. What the guide books didn’t make clear is that Junkanoo happens in
the wee hours of the morning; yes, it’s technically on New Year’s Day, but it
begins right after midnight (New Year’s Eve), and goes until dawn. Most days on
the boat, I can’t stay awake past ten-o-clock. This could be a real problem. We
decided to take a long nap starting at eight, giving us a good stretch of sleep
before getting up around one and then walking in to town for Junkanoo. Of
course that’s not what happened…
We slept through the whole thing.
Discarded costumes after Junkanoo |
Everyone we encountered the next day, marina personnel,
grocery store clerks, waiters and waitresses – everyone asked us, “Did you see Junkanoo? How did you like it?” We
were honest at first, but it was so embarrassing to admit that we had snoozed
through the biggest celebration of the year that after awhile we just started
responding with, “Oh yes, it was wonderful!”
Dewey’s visit was short, too short really, but we made the
absolute most of it. Unfortunately, the weather took a distinct turn for the
worse as soon as he arrived; cloudy, windy, rainy and cool. Not the best beach
or sailing weather to say the least. We decided instead to make his trip a cultural
experience that would include museums and local cuisine. Walking everywhere, ducking
under overhangs to dodge the intermittent rain, we went to the very informative
Pompey Slavery Museum, and then to the impressive sixty-five steps of the
Queen’s Staircase which lead up to Fort Fincastle, an eighteenth century fort
built in the shape of a ship. By the time we visited Fort Charlotte, another,
bigger fort built around the same time, the wind was whipping around enough to
almost knock us down, and the rain was starting up again too. Luckily, we managed
to hail a cab for the trip back to the marina.
The Queen's Staircase |
Foodwise, we got a good sampling of island treats. Nassau is
filled with crowded chain stores and restaurants (can you say “Burger King”?)
that cater to the cruise ship clientele, but just off the main drag are a few
unique and local eateries that we found much more inviting. Sadly empty, the
food at a place called Bahama Cookin’ was marvelous – the conch salad and
chicken barbeque were superb, and believe it or not, the best mac and cheese
I’ve ever tasted. We had dinner at the local cruisers’ hangout, the Poop Deck,
where Dewey had his first taste of Caribbean spiny lobster, along with conch
fritters. The next night we got take-out from a fantastic Jamaican place and
had dinner on the boat. All in all, a very good visit.
Spiny lobsters are really more like crayfish - no claws! |
A few days after Dewey returned home, I took my own flight
back to Baltimore for a set of scheduled doctors’ appointments. My neck and
shoulder issues remain a problem, but what we thought would be a, “Keep doing
your exercises and I’ll see you again in May,” kind of visit, turned instead
into a steroid injection and a, “You need at least a month of hands-on physical
therapy,” sort of thing. Kind of put a wrench in our plan to sail off to the
Exumas as soon as I got back. I did come back briefly to see Rick, and also to
pick up items from the boat that I would need for a more extended stay in the States.
After I took off for Baltimore once again, Rick moved the
boat out to Rose Island where he basically stayed by himself and worked on his
book/sabbatical project. I’m sure that he missed me, but without my distracting
presence he managed to get a great deal of work done, so not all bad. I spent
the month hanging out at home and seeing my physical therapist a couple times a week. It was painful
to be away from Rick for so long, and not so pleasant being in cold winter
weather unexpectedly. And the physical therapy was painful too, by the way. But
I got to spend time with my friends, check in on Dewey, and see lots and lots
of movies – all things that I had been missing. One real upside of this
tripus-interruptus is that I was able to buy some small fans in Baltimore that,
once back on the boat, would hopefully help to combat those nasty no-see-ums.
Turtles at Rose Island! |
So where are we now? I have returned to the boat, shoulder
much improved, and we are back at – where else - Rose Island. We were here two
weeks ago, waiting for a good weather window to FINALLY get down to the Exumas when our almost-brand-new dinghy
motor conked out, thwarting our plan once again. It took until a couple of days
ago to get it fixed (in Nassau of course), and now so much time has passed that
we will need to shorten our Exumas visit to just a few of the northern islands.
In the meantime, life on the boat is pretty idyllic. We had
spent most of the time at Rose Island on the southern side where there is a
well protected cove with passable scenery. But we’ve since discovered the
northern shore, which is kind of a mini-paradise with a beautiful half-mile crescent
beach, pure white sand, trees for shade, gorgeous azure water and nearby coral
reefs for snorkeling. This is the
Bahamas I had been picturing in my dreams. There’s no wind right now, but there
will be soon. After being in the area for almost nine weeks, our plan is to go back to Nassau on Friday to provision the boat
and prepare for a Sunday sail to the northern Exumas. But if something else
happens to thwart that plan, well, there’s always Rose Island. I could stay
here all winter – and of course if the gods decide to pull again on our tether, we might just be
doing exactly that.