One of the more stressful parts of cruising is making sailing plans in the midst of weather uncertainty. We have a slip reservation in Ft. Pierce, FL for the month of March and knew we wanted to cross over from the Bahamas around that time. We couldn’t determine just which day, though, because the forecast was so uncertain. The forecast has firmed up enough that we now have a weather window to cross over from Great Harbour Cay in three days. While we were mulling over different possibilities we just kept sailing north toward Great Harbour. Yesterday we had a brisk sail from Highbourne Cay to New Providence Island (the island on which Nassau is located.) We had thought we would stay another night at Highbourne but the cell service was so weak—in spite of being anchored so close to the cell tower—that we would frequently lose service altogether. The service was necessary for us to check weather forecasts so we sailed to West Bay, New Providence Island. We anchored here once before during our first year of cruising. It can be rolly in West Bay and other cruisers have written reviews on Active Captain saying they had difficulty getting their anchor to set. It was indeed rolly five years ago but we did not have any trouble getting the anchor to set. When we arrived yesterday we followed the track to where we successfully anchored five years ago. Yesterday we made four or five attempts but couldn’t get it to set. We tried another nearby location and it still wouldn’t set. Then we went across the harbor to a less desirable, more exposed location and it finally set. Phew! And, we have excellent cell service here.
Map of the park. We landed the dinghy on Jaws Beach at the top of the map. The main entrance—where we should have paid admission—is at the bottom. We decided it wasn’t worth the walk to the main entrance so we never made it to Flipper Beach.
Breeze On is in the middle of the photo. The property on the point of land to the left of Breeze On is the infamous Peter Nygard’s compound. He is a Canadian clothing mogul who is embroiled in a Jeffrey Epstein-esque scandal. The compound is really something. Lots of huge sculptures that are lit up at night. You can’t tell from this photo that the harbor is quite choppy so we decided it wasn’t worth the long, wet dinghy ride to get photos of the property.
Looking at this boat in the distance as we were struggling to get the anchor to set did not inspire confidence.
This morning we dinghied to Clifton State Park and anchored the dinghy on Jaws Beach. Apparently one of the Jaws movies was filmed on the beach. We walked on the trails with the intention of going to Flipper Beach where the Flipper movie was filmed but before we got that far we were stopped by a very pleasant park employee who told us we needed to pay an admission to use the park. He couldn’t take our money and we didn’t want to hike to the “entrance” to pay for admission, so we turned around and went back to Breeze On. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the brief walk on shore.
Map of the park. We landed the dinghy on Jaws Beach at the top of the map. The main entrance—where we should have paid admission—is at the bottom. We decided it wasn’t worth the walk to the main entrance so we never made it to Flipper Beach.
Breeze On is in the middle of the photo. The property on the point of land to the left of Breeze On is the infamous Peter Nygard’s compound. He is a Canadian clothing mogul who is embroiled in a Jeffrey Epstein-esque scandal. The compound is really something. Lots of huge sculptures that are lit up at night. You can’t tell from this photo that the harbor is quite choppy so we decided it wasn’t worth the long, wet dinghy ride to get photos of the property.
Looking at this boat in the distance as we were struggling to get the anchor to set did not inspire confidence.
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