We stayed in Nassau until Monday, as we wanted to check and see if we could get brushes from a local shop in Nassau. Dean called about 4 electric motor repair/rebuild businesses - but they all said the same thing "You won't find those in the Bahamas". So we decided to give up and moved from Nassau proper around to West Bay, - still on New Providence Island. West Bay is much calmer, without the chop and bounce from constant boat traffic that you get in Nassau.
We also wanted to make water, and even though you can see the bottom in when you get around 8' deep in Nassau harbor, we did pull up an old tire on our chain, and you just know the chance of the water there being a bit icky is high.
We were lucky, the watermaker worked and we ran it for about 3 hours.
Next day was calm, so we headed out for a snorkel on the north end of Goulding Cay to explore the reef. At one time, this was one of the most beautiful reefs in the world - or so says some information on the internet. Snorkeling it, we can believe it. The reef structure is phenomenal. Unfortunately, most the reef is dead, and not many fish. It was like snorkeling through a ghost town. Kinda cool, but sad at the same time.
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| The white on the coral is dead coral. You can see the interesting shapes still |
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| Lots of vertical coral formations - but mostly dead |
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| Saw a couple of parrot fish, and a few others, but not many fish |
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| Formations were very cool |
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| Some formations tall - this one at least 10' from floor to top |
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| Did see some signs of coral making a comeback, so hopefully that will continue. |
Next day we took a walk, the only public access point is a small public beach called Jaws Beach, which also has a nice dumpster - so we got rid of our trash. Walked the road, and we were going to walk back through Clifton Heritage National Park on the trail - but it was $16.50 per person, so we opted out, and just walked back on the road again. Back at the beach, we walked the beach to explore an old sailboat washed up on shore.
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| At the SW corner of the island there is a large ship loading/offloading dock |
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| West Bay anchorage as seen from beach |
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| The sailboat "Moriah" from Oriental, NC. Has been hard ashore for a while, and mostly gutted inside. |
Pretty boring the rest of the week. Winds picked up so had a couple of boat days. Kris did taxes and made brownies. Dean cleaned the boat bottom, and added some seal to a lower thru hull.
We did laundry - and made water again - but only after having to repair the motor brush again.
Our friends on Breathe arrived last night - and we will hang out here out West Bay today, and then will buddy boat with them for a bit over to Andros Island - were we plan on renting a car and touring the island - which will be fun. We understand that Andros also offers free good water - so don't have to worry about the watermaker for a while.
That coral does look like it was beautiful at one time. Similar to the south side of Rum Cay. Wonder what the story is on that sailboat from Oriental.....in case no one shows you, the water hose bib at Morgan's bluff is at the very back of the bar. We carried many 5 gallon jugs from there. Be sure to walk over to "Morgan's Cave". A easy little walk from the anchorage. And play dominoes with the locals in the bar if you can stand the noise! Have fun on your car tour.
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