West End to Nassau

In my last post I discussed the two options we were considering for entering Nassau Harbour. In the end, we chose an entirely different option. We are now at Palm Cay Marina on the SE side of the island. Nassau Harbor is on the north side of the island. We had been to Palm Cay before and liked it. They offer a courtesy car that we could borrow to pick the motor up and indicated they could help get the motor into the dinghy. 

Also, we had a new development. On Tuesday evening George took a hard fall when stepping from the boat to the dock at West End. He scraped up one leg but thought he was okay otherwise. Overnight, however, his arm was hurting and he thought it might be broken. We thought it might be easier to arrange to get an X-ray if we were in a marina as opposed to anchored in Nassau Harbour. There are several marinas in Nassau Harbour but none have great reputations. 

We left West End at sunrise and set a course for Palm Cay. The winds were very light—at times the seas were like glass. We were moving faster than anticipated thanks to a favorable current (it is very difficult to figure out the currents in the Bahamas.) At one point we raised the sails and poked along at 3-4 knots in 6 knots of wind just to slow down so we wouldn’t arrive at the marina before they opened in the morning. We picked up a passenger along the way. In an area with no land in sight a cute little bird landed on the boat. It was a curious little thing—hopping all over the place. We had to close the companionway to keep it from getting into the cabin. We didn’t want to keep it closed after George went to bed, though, because it was already quite warm in the cabin. So we started waving the bird off to get it to go away. We thought we had succeeded until, just after sunrise this morning, George saw it hop out of the dinghy and fly away. It must have stayed there all night hiding from us. Smart little bird. 

We pulled into the Palm Cay at around 9 am yesterday morning. George had radioed ahead and told them we needed diesel. When we arrived, however, there was a small fishing boat getting fuel and a large, unoccupied catamaran in the middle of the dock and taking up half of the fairway.  No room for us. So—with difficulty—we tied up ahead of the catamaran and waited 30 minutes for the fishing boat and another motor boat to get fuel. All the while George had to push on a piling—with his good arm—to keep the shrouds away from a roof overhanging the dock. When it was finally out turn another small fishing boat zipped around ahead of us to get fuel and I had to maneuver around the catamaran and parallel park between it and the fishing boat. After that I had to maneuver around the catamaran once again and pull into our too-small slip from a narrow fairway. By the time I was done with all of that difficult docking I was shaking. 

After we got settled we went to the office to inquire about a clinic that could do an X-ray and also about getting a car or taxi to get us there. The courtesy car has a two hour limit and we had no idea how long it would take. In the end, staff from the marina gave us a ride to and from the clinic. Things were looking up. Better yet, the clinic was quite efficient and, best of all, the doctor said it was a soft tissue injury and not a broken bone. He said he didn’t think an X-ray was necessary but he wrote an order for one in case George decided he wanted one. George decided not to bother. Since Wednesday morning George had been wearing an ace bandage and splint that we had in our first aid kit. He was happy to take it off in this warm Bahamian weather. 

Today we will take the courtesy car into town on our quest to pick up a new outboard. 

Sunrise over West End, Grand Bahama 

Calm as glass. 

We decided to take advantage of the calm conditions to dry a few clothes. 

Our passenger. 

Squall at sunrise Thursday morning.

Fuel dock with the large catamaran. The photo was taken from the same spot the fishing boat occupied. I had to get in between them. I have never liked to parallel park.