Nassau Pictures-Part 1

We made it into Nassau after a great sail over from Berry Islands Club.  We feel like at least intermediate cruisers now that we have successfully negotiated a major international harbor.  We plan to be here through Christmas.  It is our present to ourselves.  We are looking forward to the Junkanoo parade on boxing day.  The largest one is here at Nassau.  We hope to see another one at one of the smaller islands on New Year's.  No clue where we'll be then but should be fun.  Junkanoo has been featured in several movies, most notably one of the James Bond movies.  It is sort of a cross between Mardi Gras and Rio.  Nassau has been a bit of an eye opener for us.  We thought Bimini was so depressed economically since there were no cruise ships but it seems that even here the economy is poor.  There is obviously plenty of money over on Paradise Island (formerly known as Hog Island, I assume the PR people of the developers changed that) but it hasn't crossed the bridge to the rest of New Providence.  We saw quite a few closed stores and all the buildings were in some phase of decay.  Right around the cruise ship docks were all the fancy stores but the buildings were crumbling.  We walked all over the government area.  For a national capital it was unimpressive.  The tourist books tout this city as a great place to "dine, shop and invest."  But in the paper it talks about all the failed resorts so why invest in more.  I don't know what the answer is but I do feel for the people.  All the ones we have met and meet on the streets are quite friendly and genuine.  We wish a prosperous time for them in the future.

The Atlantis Arch can be seen for a long way out.

These huge concrete jacks form the breakwater for Nassau Harbor.  These same type

of jacks were common on Okinawa.

This bridge deck must allow for a lot of visibility.  Makes us jealous. 

Only 4 cruise ships to avoid on the trip in but there was plenty else to avoid.  You

have to respect the rule of tonnage and avoid the big boys.

Not sure what the use of this tower is or was but it looked interesting.

Lighthouse at the west entrance to the harbor.

Just one of the many huge private yachts.

A container ship passing us.  He was headed out as we were going in.