Slack Tide: Unexpected layover in Nassau

March 6 - 13, 2016

Our journey from the Berry Islands to Nassau started out being a great trip but the last hour was horrible and when we came into the Nassau Harbor we encountered 6-8 foot seas! We were happy to get to our marina at Paradise Island which had a beautiful pool. Ideally, we had planned to stay in Nassau one night and leave the next day for Exuma but the wind was blowing and all of the forecasts were for strong easterly winds and did not recommend traveling.

We made the most of our 8 days in Nassau and made some great friends and discovered there is much more to the island than the straw market and the cruise boat terminal. Randy went for a bike ride one morning and came back with five new Canadian friends. They were a group of five women that were celebrating a birthday and were staying at a resort near us. We had so much fun with them at the pool and beach. Josie has a son who is a NHL hockey player for the New Jersey Devils so now we have become New Jersey Devil fans! We went with them to a restaurant one night to watch the hockey game. We had a great time with them and are truly sorry that North Carolina and Canada are so far apart.

Other friends that we made were Ben, Grace Ann and Lee House from Tennessee. Unfortunately, we didn't meet them before our last couple of days at Paradise Island. Randy thoroughly enjoyed talking to Ben who is a senior yachtsmen and had lots of knowledge to share about the Exumas. They spend a great deal of time in Paradise Island and attend St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and invited us to go with them on Sunday. It was a great experience with a mixture of tourists and Bahamians. We had a wonderful afternoon with lunch and a tour of the beautiful western end of New Providence Island.