Thoughts on Nassau

          We arrived in Nassau on Dec 4^th, and despite my previous feelings we are definitely glad to be here. Nassau gets a bad rap because of the crime, cruise ships, and general dirtiness that a big city inherently has (even if it is only big by Bahamas standards). And I’m definitely guilty of talking shit about it, mostly because I despise the environment that cruise ship visitors create. Maybe because I’ve been in Key West and seen how things are when a ship comes in. But such is the world we live in, and those people (cruise ship weiners) are keeping the economy here up, and making it possible for us to get things we desperately desire. Such as: FOOD, BOOZE and BOAT PARTS. When we sailed into Nassau Harbor and Meg was at the helm as I was preparing the anchor, I couldn’t help but “throw my hands in the air” and start a little jig on the foredeck, as commanded by the DJ on the floating disco that was passing us by. You can feel the human energy in the air as soon as you pass the harbor buoys.

Penny claims that if we loan her 20$ and drop her off at Atlantis, she'll return with the 20$ and enough extra for a bag of dogfood

           Dozens of these double decker floating disco’s are cruising through the harbor at any one time, and we gaze at each other as we pass port to port: Meg and I in our jackets cuz it’s 70 degrees, the cruise ship day trippers in their bikinis and board shorts, feeling warm from the beer and the dancing I guess. Once we are anchored we are told by another boat that we should be setting up a Bahamian mooring, because this is a “Bahamian mooring anchorage”. I ignore this load of shit and let the Manson do its thing. Besides, we were here first. So we go ahead and launch the war canoe and head into shore, immediately admonished for landing on private property. Which we promise not to do again. As soon as we climb the hill up to society we find we are standing on the edge of a 2 lane highway with bumper to bumper traffic, further crowded with scooters and motorcycles speeding in between the two lanes. So we frogger our way across, Penny in tow, and head straight for the grocery and liquor store.
          Although this seems crazy to do every day for a week as we try and check projects off the list, there are a surprising amount of rewarding experiences as we carefully explore Nassau. There are a number of good marine hardware stores, and we are finding the things we need at only slightly above back home prices. The people are mostly friendly, but not all friendly. Everyone expresses a genuine interest in our dogs. Especially Gimpy, who apparently is smaller than any dog most Bahamians have ever seen. She brings in a handful of offers and trades every day. Most are amazed she is 10 years old, and not a puppy, and nearly everyone who inquires about her wants to know how much Ted wants for her. Penny sparks a little interest, but she is about the same size as most Bahamian strays. Gracie makes Bahamians nervous, and rightly so. She apparently resembles a breed of stray the Bahamians call “crab dogs.” These dogs have been described to us as ferocious, to the point that you can keep kicking them off of you and they will still come back and latch onto your leg. They live in holes in the brush and lie in ambush, rushing out to steal groceries and such out of your hand, then run back through the briar bushes so you can’t possibly follow them. No one is sure how Bryan found a crab dog puppy in Minnesota, maybe a cruise ship stowaway or something. But the shoe fits.
          Ted and Shannon also showed me an excellent conch house under the East Bridge, which connects New Providence to Paradise Island. There are two long rows of wooden shacks under the bridge, with rusty tin roofs, nails sticking out everywhere, stank water in the street gutters, etc. but awesome food. The scene is very interesting as there are probably a hundred boats moored tightly between the two bridges, about half of them sunken. And there always seems to be tons of Bahamians in this area drinking beers and eating seafood, having a good time. The conch seems to be the least expensive seafood to buy. We are definitely the only honkies in the area, aside from a stray Asian off the cruise ships, and the people watching here is tremendous. I could have spent every lunch here for the week if money were permitting.  While eating conch the other day, a Bahamian driving by asked Bryan if he “bleached that dog that way”, regarding Gracie, to which he replied: “no, she came this way”. Hilarious.
          On the other hand, I watched and old guy off the cruise ship eat his conch salad at one of these shacks and drink his Kalik.  When he was done, he walks up to the guy slicing the conch and says: " I want that Kalik sign, its for my daughter, will you take it down for me"  The conch slicer is looking at him like "you want me to get on a stool and pull the nails out of the metal Kalik sign so you can give it to your daughter?"  After and awkward moment, the old guy says "yeah its for my daughter she's in Afghanistan"., he doesn't even offer to pay for it.  So the conch slicer gets a stool, goes to another booth to borrow a hammer, and starts taking the sign down.  Just then the owner of the shack (I guess) walks up and asks his employee why he is taking the sign down.  The old guy gets kinda pissed, and says " I want it for my daughter, she's in Afghanistan,...you know, keeping us all free, fighting terrorism."  In my head I say to the old guy: " Your in the Bahamas, not America, and just because your daughter joined the army doesn't entitle you to a free Kalik sign.  And just so we're clear, she's not keeping terrorism out of the Bahamas. The only people terrorizing Bahamians are cruise-shippers like you.  But I just keep my mouth shut and eat my conch.

          We have been taking the back roads through neighborhoods to avoid walking on the high traffic roads as we search out the cheapest grocery store, which also provides rich people watching fare. The houses are very close together, as you would imagine, so we pass by guys working out in their yard, moms braiding their children’s hair, kids walking home from school, old guys working on cars, old guys working on boats, I guess standard things any neighborhood would exhibit. Also we often have these pseudo-confrontations where a pack of 5-6 dogs will charge out from under a house when they see Penny, and Penny and I just freeze waiting for a ruckus, but the dogs always stop right at the street line and come no further out into the street. At times they are only 5 feet away from Penny, but the come no further. This has happened about six or seven times and always ends the same: I am relieved to not have had to break up a 6 dog pile-up, Penny always bows up and huffs and puffs as if to say “those fuckers better stay in their yard where its safe” and the dogs slowly step out into the street as we get farther away, barking the whole time like: “keep moving bitches”. Its only been stressful for a few moments, but luckily so far has always ended the same.  (upate: since posting this Gracie apparently met up with the wrong gang of crab dogs and suffered a bite to the back)

Nassau anchorage, notice floating disco in background

          High pride purchases here are the following: Franzia box wine (burgundy)-25 liters for less than 100 dollars. Flor de Cana rum- 11$ per liter. That’s pretty much it. Everything else is average quality and slightly above average pricing. We knew that getting into this.