We are now in the northern Abacos waiting for a weather window to head to the Chesapeake.  It looks like there should be a good one, so we are going to leave later today, either that or wait a week, neither of us is very good at waiting.  There will be good forecasts all the way up so if something nasty is in the offing we can just head ashore and hide out for awhile.

We had a lovely time in Nassau, we found a good spot to anchor, and a marina where we could leave or dinghy for $5.00 a day with a security guard on vigilante watch. As we came in to the harbour, approaching from the east there were some gorgeous mansions along the water.  The marina was pretty swanky as well but once we started walking to the grocery store things deteriorated. There were bars on windows of the businesses and you had to be buzzed in, someone inside would push a button and unlock the door with a loud buzz.  At the telecommunications store there was a security's            guard that stood at the door to let you in and out, they must be raking it in! We had no problems,
everyone was very kind to us and once we were wandering around looking for the grocery store and this possibly dodgy looking guy was eyeing us, when I kind of turned around to peer up the street he says"the grocery store is up there". 

After the obligatory visit to the marine store we headed downtown to where the cruise ships docked.
We jumped on a bus $1.50 each and got off where all the bigger fancier buildings started.  

We walked past the governor's home and gardens, being instructed to stay between the yellow line and the curb, but you could gawk as long as you wanted.

We also cruised into the colonial hotel, rebuilt  fairly recently by a wealthy Canadian!  It is Nassau's answer to the Raffles hotel in Singapore.  They had pictures of women playing tennis in the forecourt, cirica 1950 and a shot of a gaff rigged schooner anchored right outside the hotel.

  As we wandered back to the marina, the seediness returned and the buildings needed a coat of paint and the bars returned.  

We did not get to the casino's or have a chance to walk across the beautiful bridges on which we observed many people walking and running across near the end of the day.  

We sailed up to the Abacos, a 24 hour sail.  We had a wicked cross current for the first 60 miles and it made us said hard on the wind, yech.   Then we had to reduce sail even more because we did not want to get to the pass before we had decent sun to see if there were rocks.  It was no problem getting in and we are happy about leaving in anything but a heavy sea.