Bahamas 2021
We enjoyed three different trips to the Bahamas during the opening months on 2021. The first thing to note is the very impressive system developed and implemented for visitors to the Bahamas during the Covid 19 epidemic. The system is called a Bahamas Health Visa and the application is on-line. Fill in your personal info, upload a copy of your passport and then get a Covid test 3-5 days before your departure. Upload the lab report with your test results and fill in you travel plans…flights, dates and location you are staying in the Bahamas and pay $60 for health insurance. Next day you get a Travel Visa that you present at the airport, at customs on arrival, at your hotel, etc. You then get a daily email to check on your health, after 5 days on island you are required to get a rapid test with the results automatically uploaded to the government.
Our first visit was to our favorite, Harbour Island, where we joined Graham and Beatriz for a few day staying at the Coral Sands hotel. A snorkel tour to the Devil’s Backbone with Jeff Fox was a highlight of this trip. Not that the great meals, good drinks and beach walks were not wonderful.
Our second visit was to Long Island where we rented a house, Osprey Nest, with Wes and Alexis and Graham and Beatriz. Over the course of a week we drove from one end of the island to the other, about 80 miles visiting various resorts and enjoying a lunches out.
The caretakers of our rented house were Charles and Theresa who where also our caterers, auto mechanics, shoppers and captains of our tour boat. Good time had by all at a new place for us in the Bahamas.
Trip number three was our delayed sailing trip in the Exumas from 2020. We chartered a 45′ sailing catamaran with four guest cabins from the Moorings in Palm Cay, Nassau. For this two week trip, our plan was to have three couples for our guests the first week and cruise down to Georgetown and then drop them off and pick up three new couples for the cruised back up thru the Exumas to Palm Cay.
Arriving the night before departure Wes and Alexis stayed with us at the Breezes which Doug and Melanie stayed in town and Jess and Sam stayed at the airport. Amazingly, provisioning started at 8:30, we were on the boat at 10am and off the dock by 11 am headed for Highborne Cay. While we had great sailors aboard, we did not have the wind in our favor as they clock a full circle the first week. Hopping down thru the islands our friends got to know each other and explore the beauty of the Exuma islands.
Peter and Diane served as the advance team in Georgetown and did great preparations for our arrival. The boat was fueled, reprovisioned, laundry washed and dried and the boat cleaned all in a few hours. Here Tony and Julie, and Kristi and Gigi joined us the for the return trip. After a wonderful lunch for all 14 of us on Stocking Island, we were off again and stopped first at Larry’s Island…..so named for our cab driver in Nassau. While we made a number of the same stops at our favorite places…Thunderball Cay, the aquarium, blowhole, etc. we took much more of an outside route on the way north.
Marcia and I could not help but laugh when we removed the trash from the boat returning to Palm Cay. After the first week, the recycles were primarily wine and beer bottles. After the second week, it was mostly soft drink cans. Either way, great friends together for a couple of great weeks.
