The Nassau Shopping Cart 500

June 28 - July 4, 2007

Thursday, June 28, 2007 - West Middle Anchorage, Shroud Cay, Exumas
By Tom

I got the weather this morning from the weather dude on the single side band. Today is supposed to be pretty squally, but with plenty of wind. After we talked about it, we both agreed to head out despite the storms.

We left the Big Majors under full main and just a hankercheif sized portion of the head sail. We only had 32 miles to cover today, so I wasn't too worried that we were only making 4.5 to 5 knots. Normally we would have run our spinnaker for the point of sail we were on, but with lots of squalls in the area, we didn't want to get caught in a sudden wind storm with it raised and then tear something up in a sudden wind shift.

After the first 3 hours, a large squall over ran us and brought 25 knots of wind right off the stern. We literally took off and over the next 3 hours we averaged 8.5 knots under main sail alone! Our top sustained speed was 9.8 for about two minutes, but the boat never felt out of sorts.

We dropped the main and switched to 50 percent of the head sail as we covered the last 2 miles into the anchorage and then lowered the anchor in excellent protection behind the middle anchorage off of the west side of Shroud Cay by 3 pm.

After putting the boat to bed, we played with the weasels and read books until dinner time. We had planned to grill fish, but around dinner time the rain started and trapped below we resorted to baking pizzas in the oven inside. We're planning on taking a day down tomorrow as there are supposed to be lots of squalls in the neighborhood

Friday, June 29, 2007 - West Middle Anchorage, Shroud Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We slept in this morning and didn't get up until after 9 am. We had the last of my bread from two days ago in the form of minature grilled cheesies for breakfast and then we attended the morning running of the weasels.

It rained off and on all day and the wind blew no less than 15 knots. During a lull in the storms, we went for a snorkel around the anchorage to look for under water life forms. We found several, but as we are in the northern edge of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, no hunting is permitted and we left the sea creatures as we found them.

Back on the boat, we showered off the salt water and made cocktails. Around 6 I fired up the grill and cooked one potato, two chicken wings, four shrimp and two pieces of garlic bread. I'm pretty sure that we covered all of the food groups with our dinner selection and somehow I am sure we are now healthier.

After dinner we watched the movie Stay with Ewan McGregor and it wasn't very good. We went to bed by 9 pm. We may or may not move on tomorrow depending on what the weather brings. See you then

Saturday, June 30, 2007 - West Middle Anchorage, Shroud Cay, Exumas
By Tom

We awoke to the sound of rain falling on the coachroof and that pretty much determined that we weren't traveling anywhere today. I rousted the crew and made blue-berry waffles for breakfast.

After eating, we cleaned up the mess and while Amy straightened the salon area, I worked in the cockpit on a few odds and ends. The rain stayed with us off and on until noon when it finally cleared off for good.

Later, Amy went for a swim while I launched our kayak and paddled around the anchorage and up into some mangroves. At anything but absolute low tide you can paddle all the way over to the ocean side of the island and then drift back with the current. It was pretty cool and I saw lots of wild life.

On the way back to the boat, I met a couple also anchored here from Key West on a 36 foot sport fishing boat. They are here on vacation for a couple of weeks and are working their way towards Georgetown. They seemed pretty excited that they were actually anchored out with real cruising boats and the wife let it slip that this was only the second time they had ever anchored their boat.

Keep in mind, this is a boat they have owned for at least 5 years. It must be nice to go from marina to marina, but damn it's got to be expensive to do that down here.

Back on board, Amy and I read books until 6 pm when I made dinner on the grill. It looks like tomorrow we'll have the weather we need to sail up to Nassau to resupply. Stay tuned.

Sunday, July 01, 2007 - Nassau Yacht Haven, Nassau, New Providence
By Tom

We were up and under way by 6:30 am under full sail heading for Nassau. The wind was behind the beam and kind of weak, so we weren't making great time, but at least we were sailing.

Nassau Yacht Haven was the destination for today and in we tied up to their docks around 4 pm after covering 44 miles along the way. We stay in the marina here in Nassau as in our opinion it is not safe to anchor out in the harbour. Or to venture out after dark for that matter.

Once checked in, we packed our shower supplies and headed in to the air conditioned and unlimited hot water goodness of the Yacht club facilities. Thirty minutes later, we met at the bar at the Poop Deck Lounge which overlooks the marina. We had a couple of beers before returning to the boat and eating Doritoes and potato wedges that we got from the Convenience Store across the street for dinner.

We were both exhausted and ready for bed, but not before I plugged out boat into shore power, which of course allowed us to turn on our air conditioners. The temperature plummeted to a frosty 72 by bed time and the entire crew slept like the dead.

Monday, July 02, 2007 - Nassau Yacht Haven, Nassau, New Providence
By Tom

Today was a mondo busy day. We were up and showered by 8 am and then off to start our re-provisioning.

First up was a recon of the four (yes four) different marine hardware stores within two blocks of the marina. We moved from store to store comparing the available wares as well as prices. 90 minutes later, we established which stores we would by what parts from and then proceeded to collect our parts.

By noon we had all of our purchases back on board. Highlights from the list included some hose, deck cleaner, new crocs for Amy, fishing spares, oil filters, fuel filters and a new garden hose.

Once the pieces and parts were stowed away, we grabbed our grocery list and walked the 5 blocks to the big grocery store where we proceeded to fill up 3 shopping carts full of stuff.

As an aside, to anyone who does a major provisioning in Nassau, be forewarned, the prices are not reasonable on almost anything at all. We were kind of wondering if there is another grocery where the locals do their shopping because I can't really see how they could afford the prices that are being charged here.

Before we started shopping, we checked with the manager to see if they would be able to call us a cab when we were done as we knew we'd have way too many groceries to walk back to the boat. They said one of their girls would drive us back, so we gave no thought at all to how much stuff we got.

The problem was, that once we checked out, our designated driver turned out to be a sixteen year old young girl who neither had a car or a drivers license. Hmmmmm.

It turns out by "driver" they meant she would push one of the carts down the side of the main road dodging traffic all the way for the six blocks back to the marina. I'm not ashamed to say I let her drive the lead cart and I just sort of followed in her wake with cart number two.

The main road through Nassau is a one direction, two lane highway that has more potholes than there are fish in the Bahamian seas. Couple that with the very unique "contact" style of driving the Bahamians employ and you can begin to understand what our push back to the boat was like. Our young guide kept up a brutal pace and I had to struggle to keep up.

Twice we got one of the carts stuck in a hole that required all three of us together to pull it back out, but the little girl in the lead showed no fear. I was sure she was gonna get creamed about twelve times, but we made it back to the marina with only a couple of broken eggs (victims of traffic evasion) and one lost wheel from my shopping cart.

For my racing fans out there, in the last turn leading in to our marina, our guide was confused by which way to turn and I used the opportunity to bump draft by her and cross the finish line first, thus claiming victory in the first annual Grand Prix du Nassau for Team Weasel.

I'd like to thank my sponsors......

Anyhow, our designated driver helped drive the carts all the way out to our boat at the very end of the dock where she and Amy handed the groceries down to me on the boat. We tipped her ten bucks and she gathered the carts up for the trek back to her store.

It took us an hour to store all of our purchases and then we headed to the liquor store for a case of rum, a case of whiskey, a case of wine and some miscellaneous others. We loaded our dry bags with all the purchases and then humped them back the three blocks to the boat.

Once everything was properly stored it was 6 pm and we were both so tired we decided to walk four blocks down to Domino's Pizza and order dinner. While dinner was being cooked, we walked next door for a beer at the Outback Steak House. Twenty five minutes or so later, we finished our drinks, collected our pizza and trudged back to the boat and enjoyed our first store bought pizza in over a year.

Once the pizza was done it was 8 pm and we were both exhausted. We were so tired I forgot to put the weasels in their cage and so around 3 am they climbed into bed with us and displaced me from my side. I finished sleeping in the salon wedged around the curve of the u shaped settee. Mila felt bad for me and took up a perch on my stomach sometime around 5 am.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007 - Allens Cay, Allens Cay, Exumas
By Tom

By accomplishing all of our Nassau shopping related tasks yesterday, we were able to slip our lines early this morning, head for the fuel dock and then turn our nose back south. We had a little trouble getting fuel as the first place we went to had no gas, only diesel, but eventually we got it squared away.

For the record, we took 42 gallons of fuel at a the bargain basement price of $4.85 a gallon.

We cleared the harbour and pointed the boat towards Allen's Cay in the top of the Exuma chain some 32 miles to the south. It was flat calm today and we motored the whole way. Normally we would have sat and waited for the wind to come up, but at $80 a day for marina space, we opted to use the motors.

We arrived off of Allen's and dropped the hook by 3 pm. We then spent the balance of the daylight in the water trying to stay cool. The ferrets both protested as they had become accustomed to the cool air conditioner during our brief stay in Nassau. They are definately comfort driven animals.

It was still above 90 degrees at 7 pm, so I cooked dinner in the cockpit on our little propane camp stove. We had potato wedges on the grill and Caribbean cracked conch. It was ok, but not great.

After dinner we hid under fans trying to stay cool and just read books until bed time.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007 - Allens Cay, Allens Cay, Exumas
By Tom

It was a hot and muggy night last night and I woke up around 4 am. The thermometer in the main cabin still read 79 degrees at 6 am, but a light breeze showed up this morning with the sun and it helped to cool things down.

We launched the dinghy around 9 am and shortly there after, we were out on ocean side diving a couple of reefs we've been at in years past. I didn't see one fish to shoot in the two hours we swam around and returned to the dinghy having never fired a shot. Amy faired no better, but fortunately we have some Nassau grouper in the fridge for dinner tonight, so we aren't going to starve.

The breeze strengthened as evening approached and by 5 pm it was pretty comfortable. I cooked up said Grouper in the form of fingers while Amy made a large garden salad. We sat down to eat by 6, but shortly after a thunderstorm moved through the area that drove us inside for the night.

The rain and lightning stopped long enough for us to watch fireworks somewhere to the south of us. It looked like maybe they were at Highbourne Cay, but it was tough to tell at our distance. We were too far away to here any of the loud "Boom" like qualities of the display, but it felt festive none the less.

Tomorrow we plan on heading down to Norman's where we will do some diving and wait for the wind to come back to the north east so we can sail back south.

More to follow, end of line.