Nassau

After spending over a week in the Berry Islands, we moved on to Nassau where we picked up my good friend, Ashley, who is to be joining us as crew indefinitely (until she runs out of cash).  We anchored out in Old Fort Bay, by Lyford Cay Marina, and dinghied to the marina to pick her up.  Looking at the prices to stay at the marina with tight security, as well as the megayachts there, we thought for sure that we wouldn't be able to get away with docking our dinghy there.  It turns out that the people at the ultra posh marina were actually quite affable. I went in and spoke with the dock master and was told that we could dock our dinghy there for $1/ft for a couple of hours.  Since we needed to reprovision, I figured that this was a great deal.  

When we finally went into marina preparing to our pay our whole $9, the lady at the office giggled and said that since our boat was so small that we didn't have to worry about paying our fees.  I guess we're chump change compared to the money they see coming in.  Haha.  When we told her that we were planning to walk to the market 2 miles away, she gave us a sideways glance and the number to a taxi in case we changed our minds, as it was a very long walk.  Halfway through our walk, we realized that we were lost, we stopped in a real estate office to ask if we could use their phone to call the taxi.  The young receptionist there was so sweet and helped us call the taxi.  When we heard that the cab ride was going to be $20, our frugal asses decided that perhaps we would walk after all.  With sympathy in her eyes, she said she'd give us a ride since the market was really really far away.  She said that she's spent the  past couple of years travelling Asia and understands what it's like to be on a low budget.  We were dumbfounded.  The people here are so nice and it's so refreshing to see that there are still places where people will just help you out for nothing in return.  Again, another example of the altruistic nature of human beings reinforcing my belief that there is still hope for mankind.  Teaching me that lesson over and over again that I must be nice to people and continue this cycle of giving and paying it forward.  

Provisioning in the Fresh Market at Lyford proved to be absolutely exorbitant, and I can't figure how the Bahamians could afford to live there.  A head of cabbage cost $7! And an orange was $3!  Frank, Ashley, and I were just walking around the market, picking up random pieces of fruit and vegetable going, "Holy Shit!  $8 for a bulb of fennel?!"  We were completely flabbergasted.  We bought the cheapest of the produce, which included a couple heads of cabbage, some carrots, and celery.  Meat was quite expensive as well, so we opted out of that, rationalizing that we would be catching loads of fish.   

In the end, our provisioning trip ended up costing about 4 times what we would've paid for anything in the states.  Good news though was that on Ashley's first day aboard, she caught on the hand-line a 25 lb Mutton Snapper.  It was crazy when she caught it because a Barracuda was chasing it as quickly as she was trying to reel it in.  Nice!

Ashley is here!!

Mutton Snapper!!

Water Spout that luckily dissipated