May 24, 2006 – A Visit to Atlantis

We left Warderick Wells with Side by Side on a cloudy morning after a drizzly night, and motorsailed for six hours north to Alan’s Cays. Anchoring was tricky in the strong current between islands, and Cliff had to set and reset a stern anchor before he was satisfied with our location. This island is home for many iguanas, so we didn’t go ashore, but it was interesting to watch tourboats from Nassau bringing boatloads of tourists to see those ugly creatures, take photos, then jump in their boats and zoom out again.

We are not seeing the beautiful blue skies and turquoise waters on this leg of our trip, because the weather has continuously been gray and cloudy. The cooler temperature is definitely more comfortable for traveling, but the scenery is certainly not as photogenic. I guess it makes it easier to leave all these beautiful islands behind us.

After a last evening playing cards with our friends on Side by Side, we said goodbye and left Alan’s Cay to make our way to Nassau. Gray skies, no wind, motored all the way.

This would be Skylark’s first visit to Nassau. We had been warned that anchoring out was difficult in strong currents and poor holding in Nassau harbour, so we splurged and went into Hurricane Hole Marina on Paradise Island, just a short walk from the spectacular Atlantis Resort and Casino. This huge resort, built on an underwater theme, is a combination of tacky, garish, and spectacular. The grounds feature lakes, pools, streams and waterfalls stocked with tropical fish including huge eagle rays, colorful reef fish, and nasty predators, with underwater tunnels to walk through and feel part of the scene. In one window an enormous Nassau Grouper stayed almost immobile and posed for photos. I looked right down his mouth and wondered how Jonah felt when he was swallowed by a huge fish like that! The underground Dig area features windows looking at scenes of the lost city of Atlantis.

For the young-at-heart there are some amazing waterslides, as well as beautiful swimming pools and the white sand of Paradise Island Beach

The resort’s buildings feature ceiling mosaics, fantastic glass sculptures exploding from fountains, artwork and carvings on a massive scale, as well as the huge, smoke-filled, gaudy casino.

All of this is surrounded by a marina village with shops and huge yachts lining the maze of canals. We inquired about small yacht space, but they had no vacancy (they said) that day. Our spot at Hurricane Hole was just as conveniently located, but if we had been spending more time it would have been fun to stay one night and take advantage of all the resort’s facilities.

We had noticed a classy, smaller powerboat (a “Z – Boat”) anchored near us in both our last anchorages, and they were docked next to us in Hurricane Hole, so we finally got to meet the couple on it. We hit it off right away with Cathy and Peter on “Bee Weems” and spent as much time as possible comparing notes and visiting with them. They are from Seattle, but live in Annapolis now where they have a business called Weems and Plath, manufacturers of fine nautical instruments, kind of the Lee Valley for boaters. We look forward to calling on them when we get to Annapolis.