Provisioning - We're gonna get wet
Ahhh....the bright sunshine and clear blue waters of the Bahamas, until it's not. We are currently anchored off of New Providence Island, home of Nassau. Today we have a bit of a northerly blowing through. The weather conditions aren't optimal. It is rainy and windy, and there are, again, waves rolling through the anchorage. Let's go shopping!
The Bahamas are beautiful, but access to grocery stores is limited to a few of the more prominent islands. I still remember the glee that Dave and I felt last year when we finally arrived in Georgetown to find a market that had significant offerings. That being said, Nassau, of course, has large stores where we can resupply. We mostly need fresh fruits and vegetables, but since it is "convenient" we will get more meat too. The reason for the quotation marks around the word convenient should be self-evident soon.
We have mentioned that our dinghy acts as our car. It is what allows us to get ashore to run errands. However, that does mean that we must leave our dinghy on shore while we go to do our shopping. In a lot of the places we've traveled, that isn't an issue, but as you get to larger population centers, theft becomes a concern. Imagine going into the mall only to find your car missing upon return. No one wants to experience that if they can help it. To avoid such events, we lock our dinghy to the dock, but what to do when there is not a dock available? That is just the situation we find ourselves in this morning. We want to reprovision, but there is nowhere to leave our dinghy. What to do? We have a few choices. We could move Away to Me to a different anchorage that is closer to the grocery, and where there is a safe spot to leave the dinghy. Or, one of us could take the other to shore where they would catch a cab to the grocery. Hhhmmm...what to do? I know...let's do a search on one of the Bahamas Cruisers Facebook groups. There lies a wealth of information. One person mentioned that there is a woman here who will drive to the grocery, do your shopping and deliver it to the beach near where we are anchored, for the same price as round trip cab fare. That sounds like a great plan.
We contacted Monique this morning, and the plan was in motion. Unfortunately, we woke up to a very rollie anchorage with the occasional squall moving through. This means lots of waves, wind, and rain...perfect. Getting onto the dinghy in such conditions requires good balance and quick reflexes. Both Dave and I have gone swimming when our reflexes weren't quite quick enough. Fortunately, that didn't happen today. We donned our rain jackets, did the dinghy dance and headed off to shore. Monique arrived just after us. Perfect. Unfortunately, she got caught in the rain and was soaked. We loaded our box of groceries into the dinghy, and both Dave and I hesitate as we look at the waves rolling into shore. Now we have to do a different type of dinghy dance. We have to push out far enough that we can drop the motor and power away from shore, all while trying to not get knocked broadside to the waves or pushed back onto the beach...sure...easy.
Fortunately, all mostly goes according to plan. Unfortunately, I slipped as I was trying to get into the dinghy and am now hanging off the side of the boat with one arm and one leg maintaining a death grip. Dave is trying to help haul me aboard, but he also has to keep motoring us into the waves. The one thing I was certain of was that I was NOT letting go. My plans to stay mostly dry were for naught, though. I finally got my entire body in the boat and we head back to Away to Me. We take a few waves on the bow, so our groceries were a little salty when we got them aboard, but no real harm was done, and we are well provisioned to head into the more isolated Exuma chain.
