We left Bimini at 7:30 am yesterday and arrived in Nassau at 6:30 am today.  We had to slow down early this morning as we didn’t want to arrive in the dark.  We had excellent wind and were motorsailing at 7 kts, sometimes up to 8 kts.  We slowed ourselves down to about 4 kts around midnight.  The distance we traveled  from our marina in Bimini to our anchorage in Nassau was 120 miles.  Other boats left 3 or 4 hours after us from Bimini and arrived several hours after us.  We were concerned that if we lost the wind, we couldn’t get here in daylight today.

Above is a shot of the sun rising over Atlantis, the large resort on Paradise Island.  We passed a lighthouse surrounded by rocks as we entered the harbor.  Boats coming to Nassau must call the Harbor Control to give information about the boat and immigration permit numbers.  Some cruisers come straight here from the States and go through immigration and customs in Nassau.   After we got in the harbor, we had to pass under two bridges which are listed as 69 feet at high tide.  It was low tide and we squeaked under with our 68 foot mast and instruments. 

We are anchored in Hurricane Harbor and will spend the night here.  We got fuel and also need to fill one of our propane tanks for the gas grill.  However, we couldn’t find someone who could fill our propane tank, so we’ll try again at another island.

The trip here was uneventful.  The only problem was that it was quite cold so we had to wear our winter coats, gloves, etc.   We made water while we were sailing and our tanks should be full.  The temperature today is 68 at noon, although the skies are cloudy.   The anchorages and marinas are full of boats, as this is a stopping point on the way to the Exumas and points south.  One boat in our group stopped long enough for fuel and headed on to Norman’s Cay.  Another had to go into a marina to fix their alternator. 

We are leaving tomorrow for Norman’s Cay at about 9 am.  It is about 45 miles from here and we’ll need to get there before dark.  We took the dinghy ashore with Bill and JoAnne from Ultra.  Our first stop was Starbucks.  There are several of them in Nassau, but we have heard these are the only ones in The Bahamas.  They make good frappucinos here but they cost $1.00 more than in the States.  We then stopped at a grocery store, Radio Shack and several marine stores.  The food prices weren’t too out of line with prices in the States, although we had heard they were going to be much more expensive. 

We’ll be asleep early tonight after being awake most of last night.  I got a few hours sleep during the night and Mark slept for 3 or 4 hours after we got to our anchorage.  The photo on the right is the sunset over Nassau Harbor from our boat.  Beautiful!  Click here for more photos of Nassau.