Ocean Spray Hotel Nassau

... many different names but the 70 settlers of William Sayle's Eleutheran Adventurers named her Eleutheria for the Greek word for freedom, elethros. Today the name has dropped the "i". Spanish Wells was once called Sigatoo when occupied by Lucayan Indians in pre-Columbian times. The Spanish slavers named the area Spanish Wells for the good water found. Some of today's ...

... We then flagged down the #19 and came back to the marina! This #19 was the "school bus" full of kids in uniform going home from school and one drop out who sat next to Dave. This time the music was Gangsta Rap and Dave's seat mate was singing to the Gangsta Rap. Singing something about murdering Honkies. You had to have been there! I love this Nassau. It's the Nassau of Charlie's Restaurant, McKenzie's at Potters ...

... Park Office figures out what moorings will be available that day and calls the boats that can come in. Some boats anchor over at Emerald Rock waiting for a mooring. That was going to be our plan however we were lucky and got a mooring right away, probably because we are a smaller boat with a shallow draft. The moorings closer to the island usually have the trawlers, catamarans and shallow draft smaller sailboats on them. Works for me! Life is GOoD!

... at low tide in the middle of the anchorage and all the boats are moored around the sandbar. At the bototm of mooring #9 is a burnt out hull of a fiberglass sailboat. A gentlemen once left his generator on while he went to dinner on a another boat and the result is sitting on the bottom of the channel. Glad we didn't get #9!!! Other residents here are a 5' nurse shark and "Bubba ...

... is going to give us his emails of the weather forecasts. Met a couple of women in the ladies room who had just arrived from the Exumas. They had all kinds of information to share. They talked so fast I felt I needed paper and pencil to write it all down. They obviously had a great time. In the laundry room I met another couple of ladies on other boats who had just come up from the Exumas ...

... it and we said our plan was to poke our nose into the channel and see if we liked the conditions, we would call and update them. We soon had a call from another boat in the Green Turtle anchorage asking us to let them know how it was. On VHF radio all conversations can be followed and listened in to, we do it too! As we progressed towards the Atlantic we found the wind on the nose made our sails slat annoyingly, there was a ...

... the room she had 30 seconds remaining on her phone card to chat... but no woman from the embassy on the other line. Bummer, huh? It sounds like something I would do. Overall it was a pretty uneventful day because I spent the majority of the afternoon reading for Islam in my bathing suit out on the deck. It was beautiful weather and I wanted to enjoy it while it lasted because we are heading farther North as each day passes. Today was also the deadline ...

... we went back on board to shower and have a free lunch before venturing into Nassau to do some shopping. Nassau reminds me of some African countries. Quite colonial, but run down. We went to a straw market, and had row upon row of souveniers etc, and all the vendors having the same item, and bargaining down cheaper than the next. We had to be back on board at 5, and set sail back to ...

We had breakfast..........you guess it...........Blue Lagoon. I don't know why we kept coming back here. We can go to Grand Pacific and be served also. They served the same food. There's buffet in Garden Cafe, Topsider's Grill, The Great Outdoor. Maybe because it is less crowded here. While eating our breakfast, the captain made an announcement that we won't be stopping in Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island because of ...

... the color is so different from the water off the east coast of Florida, especially considering it really wasn't all that far. Michelle and Melissa both commented on the water's beauty. I told them that they hadn't seen anything yet. Looking very much like Scuba Steve, I walked fin-footed to the water clad in my snorkeling gear. And damnit ...