Nassau

 After a 02:00 departure from Rodriguez Key in Florida, we had a very uneventful crossing of the gulf stream and the Straits of Florida.  We entered the Bahamas just south of Bimini, watching the depth sounder go from all 0000's (meaning it's over 1000 feet deep) to 600 to 6 in less than a mile. Our first stop was an overnight anchorage on the Great Bahama Bank.  We dropped the anchor in 8 feet and watched it hit bottom and dig in.  It was so clear.  We sat back and enjoyed the view, see photo above.  It was a 360 degree view.  Not a tree, not a rock, not another boat, no Starbucks. Except for the sound of our boat on the water, it was silent.  It was a strange thing to be that alone. I wasn't sure if I was intimidated or if I liked it.  I want to go back and spend about a week just sitting there and see how it feels. 

 As we entered The Bahamas, we hoisted our yellow 'Q' flag for the first time ever.  The Q stands for quarantine, meaning we weren't allowed to leave the boat until we'd cleared in with Customs and Immigration. We spent 2 nights at anchor at Fraziers Hog Key and then made our way south to Nassau.  We cleared in and paid our $300 for our cruising permit. Down came the Q flag and up went the Bahamian courtesy flag. Then we went for a walk.
We were both reminded of Korea as we went down the street.  The smell of diesel in the air. The sidewalk that changes with every new property, up and down and in and out, and where the owner wanted more land, there isn't sidewalk at all and you walk on the street.The fact that if you need to park and you can get 3 wheels on the curb, you're good to go.  It's great.

 Nassau is on the island of New Providence, but no one calls it that, it's just Nassau and across the harbor is Paradise Island, where the huge Atlantis Resort is.  We walked across the bridge to check it out this morning and got a great view of the harbor with the cruise ship docks in the background.  Atlantis was beautiful, but for two people who spent years in Las Vegas and have checked out all those mega casinos and resorts, it just wasn't very interesting. We had more fun watching the MailBoat loading and unloading that we could see from the bridge.

For some reason, Steve really liked this sign.