The plight of the people is sad, here, and many of them seem weary when you meet their eyes. The tourist economy took a nosedive, and that hurt the Bahamians. Our American discretionary spending put food on their tables, and our belt-tightening caused them to need smaller trousers. Crime seems to be a problem. We are warned repeatedly to take defensive measures for our protection (go in pairs or more, no "bling" showing, spread money out into several pockets, carry no more cash than needed, back on the boat before dark, etc.). The island has a bridge over to Paradise Island, where the tourists go. It is a tale of two cities, have and have not. On New Providence, the stores have bars over all glass and buzzers to control permanently locked doors. The stores vary widely, some are cardboard, plywood, and blue tarps, others are clean, neat, air conditioned, and well stocked. We heard lots of police sirens in the night and on Sunday night (Monday morning 1:30 AM) we heard a high speed, WILD police pursuit chase from our boat in the harbor, including screeching tires and zig zagging all around the near part of the island before they went over the crest of a knoll and off into the distance. Fifteen minutes later we heard fire engines, too. The firemen on this island don't sleep all night. We've seen two buildings they have extinguished, and by this, I say they are quite good at it.
We haven't been to a grocery yet. The food vendors under the bridge to Paradise Island on Potter's Cay look about like pictures of Haiti on TV. Produce there was no more expensive than Publix in Miami. I did wash my purchases thoroughly! Many cruisers soak veggies in hydrogen peroxide and vinegar when they get them back to the boat. I may start doing that. I was grateful that we have had our hepatitis A vaccines, and recommend it for all cruisers. We are going to buy some Flagyl in a pharmacy tomorrow, too!
On Paradise Island, well, it looks like Paradise compared to New Providence. Paradise is where the Americans go to play when they disgorge from the cruise ships.
Local "buses" operated by individuals cannot afford to pay the bridge toll to go to New Providence, so workers going to Paradise over the bridge find they either walk 1/2 mile or they stand by the entrance ramp to the bridge and wait to be picked up by people willing to share the ride for a share of the $1 toll. Chefs in toks and white double-breasted suits stand next to concierges, next to maintenance men,, hotel maids, and landscapers, all waiting in slug lines like commuters in northern Virginia. There seems to be no fear of these strangers, and great tolerance of all motorists as cars stop dead to pick up these passengers.
Weather permitting, we might leave and go to George Town. Some wind coming to the upper and central Bahamas at the end of the week and the further south of that we get, the better. We can anchor in Elizabeth Harbor off George Town and have good cruiser support services. Up to 600 boats can and have anchored there. This year, the numbers are WAY WAY down (only 225 there now). Failing that, we are looking at our options, including tying up somewhere as we have quite a rolling anchorage for 1/2 the time (the wind against the tide is uncomfortable, so half the time the boat is doing a chaotic sashay dance, the other half of the time it is tranquil). Winds are going to be briefly 28 knts here, maybe less in this 1/3 mile wide harbor.
Elise worked on getting the Sailmail (radio email) going for 4 hours last night. No dice. We need technical expertise from other cruisers that we don't have ourselves. Two boats over (boat name withheld) is an electrical engineer who "reverse engineers things and reads technical manuals for fun." Just our guy, if he doesn't leave on the tide this morning! I think we might need to "follow that boat." He asked me what technical and mechanical problems we were having on our boat and he actually said, "Oh goody!" with a gleam in his eye. He also said his solar array makes more water than they can use. He better keep that tidbit quiet in George Town! I asked if they want a friend in SeaSpan, which doesn't have a water maker.
While in Nassau, take a walk up to Fort Fincastle - beautiful view! And don't miss out on the Exumas on the way down to Georgetown!
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