5 March 2024
Depart: Chub Cay, Bahamas anchorage 8:00
Arrive: Nassau, Rose Island anchorage 2:00 ; Rose Island Beach anchorage 6:10
Distance: 45 nm
Conditions: calm seas; some rain along the way
Following the old saying, "Early to bed ... early to rise", we were up early enough to see the sunrise this morning. We went to be much earlier than usual, and Clark had to get up early enough to here the "Chris Parker" weather report.
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| Coming up soon ... |
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| Here it comes ... |
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| Our neighbor last night |
We lost cell service and found no radio stations for today's 6-hour trip over open water. Fortunately, Clark had a stash of CDs on the boat that we could listen to. I did some "dancing" on the upper helm for exercise.
We did encounter some rain for a brief period of time. It did not come down strong enough or long enough for us to decamp to the lower helm.
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| Bahamas Flag blowing in the wind Gold Looper flag below |
Our Raymarine depth finder sometimes shows --- instead of a reading. When that happens, we usually find rebooting the system will bring it back. Today it lost its reading for a totally different reason, the water depth on the chart showed numbers around 2500 feet deep. The depth finder gave up trying to find bottom at that depth! We could see the depths by reading the chart.
As we neared Paradise Island / Nassau, we experienced swells coming in from the northeast. It was a slow and easy lifting of the boat and thus of no concern.
We visited Nassau and snuck into Atlantis to check out the sights there in 2016. We felt no compunction to return. When I saw the number of cruise ships in port at Nassau, that strongly confirmed that we did not want to be there. I could see at least 5 ships of varying sizes equaling thousands of visitors.
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| At least 2 Carnival Cruise ships in there plus many more |
Clark pointed out Atlantis to me. It has a distinguishable architecture.
As we approached Nassau, the sun was shining brightly over the city. As we passed through the area, the clouds started to roll in.
However, as the sky contained a lot of cloud cover, Clark thought it best we stop at Rose Island even though it was only 1:15. He said he needs us to have a clear view of the water on this stretch to have visual siting of rock hazards along the way. Heavy cloud cover would preclude good visibility looking down into the water.
Pictures taken while passing from Nassau to Rose Island anchorage ...
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| "Sol Mates" sailing cruise |
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| Bahamasfreight.com |
Clark said that if we stopped, we could work on fixing the malodorous master stateroom toilet. I said, "I'd rather brave the weather!" We dropped anchor on the south side of Rose Island about 2:00. After three hours of vicious rocking, whereby we could not work on the toilet, Clark suggested we might try moving to the north side / Rose Island Beach anchorage.
We picked up anchor at 5:00 and dropped it again at 6:10. On the trip around the island, Clark had me stand on the bow to look into the water and watch for rocks. Even at low RPM, we were moving around 6 or 7 knots. Had I seen anything I probably did not have enough time to do anything other than yell and brace for impact. With the direction of the sun most of the bottom was cloudy with only a few feet in front of the boat visible to see down into the water.
We picked a spot and were settled in before sunset, and Clark snapped a picture of the sky.
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| Sunset over Nassau, Bahamas |
Clark sorted thought our selection of DVDs on board and decided we should watch the movie "27 Dresses" for entertainment tonight.
6 March 2024
no boat travel
Our view today was of the surrounding islands including Sandy Cay shown below, which people say resembles "Gilligan's Island".
Today started out okay as I read my novel and did some crossword puzzles. It rapidly went downhill. We hoped we had gotten over the hump on the bug infestation, but alas that turned out to be a figment of our imaginations! I had removed all the food from the cupboard and held to one side until I thought it safe to put it back.
I had cleaned the cupboard well and restocked it. When I came back later to check the status, I found it full of bugs. One of the items I put back in the cupboard, a box of pasta, turned out to be the origin of the problem. By returning that box to the cupboard, I brought all the bugs back into that space. Now, knowing the source of the problem, I dumped the entire contents of that box overboard and wrapped the box in multiple layers of plastic until it can be disposed of. As I watched the pasta sink in the water, I could see a layer of black floating on top - all the bugs! An entire colony!
Clark read on line that the weevils hate vinegar, so he suggested I wipe down the pantry with white vinegar to repel them. I had taken everything out yet again to kill bugs, so it was no hardship to wash it yet again - this time with the vinegar. The author of the internet article also said to discard any shelf-lining material that might contain weevil eggs, so that too went in the garbage. Since there are no garbage cans in an anchorage (other than on the boat), I had hoped to keep garbage at a minimum - not a maximum! Since the last cleaning, we have seen a couple of bugs, but we are hoping we have it under control now. Only time will tell!
After that event it was time for lunch. Funny thing ... I had no appetite. I choked down some food but my heart wasn't into it!
When we were done with lunch, Clark said it was time to address the toilet problem. Could this day get any better!? He said he would need my help, and I asked if he had any gas masks on board. Sadly, no! He took off the decorative "skirt" at the base of the toilet and could see evidence of previous leaks at the base.
Ah - a "smoking gun"! He was concerned that finding the problem would be hard to do. By visual inspection, he determined that the toilet was not sitting on the rubber ring properly allowing foul fluid to escape. Over time it became worse and worse until it started producing puddles on the floor.
We had a problem a few months back where the toilet needed to have the seal replaced. Apparently when he replaced the seal, the toilet was not set properly. My job was to watch while Clark repositioned the bowl. I could tell when it was done properly because everything fell into line as it should.
While he had the toilet apart, I took Clorox wipes and cleaned everything as best as I could. Then he put everything back together except the decorative trim to watch it for a few flushes to make sure nothing more seeped out. The odor is gone for now. Hopefully it will stay that way!
When done with this job, Clark said, "Just another day in paradise!"
The rest of the day was uneventful, and we read to pass the time. Having basically skipped lunch, I had a good appetite for dinner. We started watching a movie, "Must Love Dogs", as we ate. After dinner, and before the movie ended, Clark became concerned with our data-plan situation with Bahamas Tel. We stopped the movie - he called them to get that issue settled while I did the dishes. Then it was back to watch the conclusion of the movie before calling it a night.
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