Sunday, February 23, 2014 – At 12:35 we were tied up to the Highbourne Cay Marina’s fuel dock (147.7 gallons of diesel fuel at $5.50/gallon) and soon after that we took our place in slip number 6.
Click the link below to see our new location:
http://fms.ws/FiYlH/24.70972N/76.82217W
When we told the dock hand, “Big Chris” that we had just left Compass Cay, he told us that Tucker is his cousin. (Another example of what a small world it is.) Rick paid 50 cents a gallon for water to wash the boat down and $15 for 24 hours of internet. We enjoyed a dip in the designated swimming area (new since we were last there in 2012).
Although it is hard to see in the above picture, there are white floats roping off the swimming area in front of the restaurant (32 steps up from the beach – on the right) and the office and general store in the middle of the picture. Remember that you can click on any picture on the site to see a larger image of it.
Monday, February 24, 2014 – We left Highbourne Cay Marina about 9:00 headed for the east entrance to Nassau Harbor.
We were cleared by the Nassau Harbor Control to enter the water between Paradise Island and New Providence Island and proceeded to enter from the east. As soon as we went under the Paradise Island Bridge, we turned into the entrance for the Atlantis Marina.
Click the link below to see the location.
http://fms.ws/FjKFl/25.08184N/77.32370W
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Rick was registering at the marina office just before 1:00. Turns out that the WIFI that I thought was going to be free is now $21.95 for 24 hours, so we opted to do without. Mid-afternoon we walked through the Marina Village Shops and then took a cab over to the shopping center across from the Nassau Harbour Club where we stayed in March of 2012. Rick had visited a liquor store in the shopping center several times and was confident we would get good prices. The boat is docked in Slip number 10 which is the tenth slip in the basin from Nassau Harbor, which means we were just about as far away from the Atlantis Resort as you can be and still be in the marina. It also means that we were in a nice, quiet area which we enjoyed. The marina office provides complimentary golf cart pickup at your boat and they will take you to the front door or the resort if that is where you wish to go. We went to the resort and tried to eat at one of the many restaurants there. But, we found several of them closed on Monday and the ones that were open were full with folks having made reservations, so we each had a giant slice of pizza and hit the casino. A few hours and a few dollars later, we walked back to the boat and said goodnight.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 – When you stay at the Atlantis Resort, whether in a room or in a slip, you use your room/slip card key for everything purchased at the resort. Also, all of the amenities are available to you. Today, we took advantage of one of the largest water parks in the world, Aquaventure. We walked through the casino and through several of the other towers to get to the spa, then outside past the Mayan Temple slides and the Grotto Pool to find an area where we could enter the mile-long Current/Rapids River Ride at the western end of the water park (Number 1 on the map below – courtesy of the Atlantis Resort). We left our towels and shirts on a beach chair, grabbed a large inner tube and proceeded to float down the river. Almost immediately after we started our float, the river narrowed and we went down through a gradually descending, rapid filled tunnel. As our journey continued, we went through more rapids; found that the tube protected you when you hit the walls; worked our way out of a few eddy’s; enjoyed surfing on the waves created by the wave machine; and even went up and down a conveyor belt. We enjoyed it so much, we went around three times before we decided to stop for lunch. We walked past the Power Tower slides and around the Bath Colonnade Pool to get to Breakwater’s Bar and Grille; but it was closed. So we continued on around the pool to eat at Beach Bites. We both had the “Sun Dog” meal consisting of a good-sized, meaty hotdog with chips and a soft drink for $9.00 each. We sat at a table on the patio in front of the walk-up eatery and enjoyed seeing the Cove Beach. This brought back pleasant memories for us. We had flown to Nassau for a weekend with my parents back in the 1970’s and stayed at the round Holiday Inn which was torn down to build part of the Atlantis Resort Complex. The Cove Beach was the beach for the Holiday Inn at that time and we enjoyed swimming and exploring there all those years ago. After lunch we decided that we’d switch from the rapids river to the Lazy River Ride. Of course, it was at the far eastern end of Aquaventure. To save ourselves a few steps, we turned in our towels and got back in to the rapids (with our shirts on, this time) and traveled around one leg of the river to get back out where we had originally started. Then, we walked along a beautifully landscaped concrete path that skirted the beach until we found the Lazy River. This is Number 2 on the map. Here we again put ourselves into a couple of tubes and floated down the river. This one was not nearly as long as the first one, but was very pleasant. There was dappled sunlight through the large trees along the river and the vegetation was a delight to observe. The life guards along the route were pleasant to talk to as we floated along. After our third trip around, we decided it was 3:00 and time for an afternoon libation! We walked back along the beach path until we found the turn off to the Lagoon Bar and Grill (number 57 on the map.) This is a huge, round, concrete pavilion sitting on an island in the Paradise Lagoon. Inside, the ceiling is painted with all kinds of sea creatures. I thought of our friend Joy, as I enjoyed a very large frozen Pina Colada. While walking through this really nice water park, we saw turtles, stingrays, and sharks in small pools as well as huge tanks with larger fish. The last time we checked, they were charging over $100 per person for a day pass to this park, so we figure our time spent here today effectively made our slip charge half price and it was one of the reasons that we chose to stay here this time.
Our dinner at Café Matisse that night was very nice. The Café is downtown in an old house. We arrived about 20 minutes early, but they seated us very quickly at a table for two on the upstairs veranda overlooking a courtyard filled with lighted trees and about 20 tables of diners. We felt that we had a great location as there were only 6 to 8 tables on the veranda. I ordered pumpkin ravioli and Rick had spicy lobster over linguine Alfredo. After dinner we went back to the casino for a short time, but we didn’t stay long because the smoke bothered us much more than it had the night before.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014 – The seas were pretty calm as we headed for Chub Cay about 35 miles away on the south end of the Berry Island chain. We arrived at the Chub Cay Club fuel dock just before noon and put approximately 161 gallons of diesel fuel in the boat at a rate of $6.80/gallon.
We are now at Latitude:25.41002 and Longitude:-77.90466 Click the link below to see this location. http://fms.ws/FktMj/25.41002N/77.90466W
The dockage rate was $4.35/foot plus $30/day electric and 40 cents per gallon of water. Even though their “high season” started on February 18, they had just started a construction project on the building by the pool and the pool bar was not open. No problem, we took our trusty Tervis tumblers with us as evidenced in this picture of Rick in the infinity pool overlooking the picture perfect beach.
Chub Cay Club’s marina provides free WIFI as part of their amenities and after checking several weather sites late in the afternoon, we decided to stay here two nights anticipating a seven-hour ride from here to Bimini. We ate dinner at the Harbour House Restaurant after having a drink at Harry’s Bar. (I thought of Gail on ATA Marie as I enjoyed my vodka and cranberry juice.) Rick had Bahamian Paella. Instead of Spanish or yellow rice, they use Bahamian Peas and Rice as the foundation. I had coconut encrusted fried grouper pieces. It was all delicious.
BD783 – Thursday, February 27, 2014 – We spent the morning on the boat and I did some research into the history of Chub Cay. Through the 1950’s to 70’s, this Island Paradise was home to the Crown Colony Club, where Hemingway and many others plied their fishing boats across the waves. It was the perfect get-away-from-it-all destination for the rich and famous, home to fishing tournaments and boating rendezvous. In the early 1990’s, investors with visions of mega-wealth flocked to the Bahamas with their eyes on white sand beaches and azure water resort possibilities. They began buying up what the Bahamian Government would allow them to take – Chub Cay was one of those. Chub Cay was badly hit by hurricane Andrew in 1992, but little evidence of the devastation remains. It is now privately owned and home to the Chub Cay Club fishing resort and marina which opened in 2006. In 2009, the Cay went into receivership. There are nice floating docks here and although the pool facility is a little run down, it is still usable. We went to the pool just after 1:00. Unfortunately, the rain came about 5 minutes later, so we returned to the boat. That gave Rick the opportunity to go “next door” to talk with the owner of the S/V Blue Pearl. He and his wife and grown son are on a several month trip from Canada. He wanted to get information about the Exumas from Rick, which, of course, he was glad to share. Around 3:30 we went back to the pool. It was still very windy but we enjoyed ourselves for about an hour before coming back to the boat. While I was prepping dinner, Rick said he was going for a walk. He saw someone with fish to be cleaned and followed him around the marina to the “fish cleaning house.” When he went in the house, he found quite a set up. There was a table along the wall and a bucket to leave what you didn’t want from the fish. There was a drain in the middle of the room and lots of water spigots. It sounded to me like a really nice set up. Then the fellow told Rick that they didn’t have a freezer on their boat and offered him a nice portion of the mahi mahi that he had just cleaned. We gratefully accepted!
BD784 – Friday, February 28, 2014 – We had planned to leave the Chub Cay Club at 7 am, but nature had other plans. It started raining around 3 in the morning and continued for several hours. At 7, the wind was blowing and it was overcast and Rick was mopping down the boat. I had just put on a cup of coffee when the power went out in the marina, but it was only out for about 15 minutes. When the power was restored, we were able to check the weather prediction and have decided to play it safe and stay here for a few more days. It is supposed to rain here all day.
