The Great Bahamas trip: Part 4 / Nassau

Two Years Before the Mast – Nassau,  By: Nat Manning

On Wednesday, February 4, 2009 Elise II arrived in Nassau around five o’clock in the morning. As the Skipper tided up the boat and secured all the equipment from the overnight passage, I (Gilligan) spent most of the day in the bunk sleeping, much to the chagrin of the Skipper. After sufficient rest, and thinking that the Skipper must have completed all of the hard work, I roused and readied myself for a very important mission.

A couple of years ago, while cruising aboard my trusty ship Snap One with my dear sweet Mom, we had stopped in Nassau for reprovisioning enroute to the Exumas. While there, my dear Mother was possessed by a voodoo demon and drawn into the clutches of a place known by locals and cruisers as “The Poop Deck”. She was wickedly seduced into the consumption of conch fritters and a dangerous island rum fruit drink called a “Yellow Bird”.

Mom quickly descended into a pit of decadence, consumed by conch fritters and yellow birds. She required constant supervision and disappeared everytime I turned my back, only to be found at the Poop Deck, eating and drinking herself into a stupor. She often created a scene as she was being drug out of the place and back to the boat. It was almost as if she had been abducted by a cult. She was only cured through several months of sea therapy in the out islands.

Anyway, upon hearing that I was returning to Nassau, she made me promise to go to the Poop Deck and have an order of conch fritters and a yellow bird for her. So, I prepared myself and set out to the Poop Deck to fulfill my obligation and have an order of conch fritters and a yellow bird in honor of my Mother, which I did.

The Bahamas produce a beer known as Kalik, which looks and tastes a lot like good quality beers found in America. It needs to be warned though that it is stronger than American beer and if not respected accordingly, will cause impaired faculties and abnormal behavior such as singing loudly and dancing alone with no music.

I have to admit that several times while in Nassau, I fell victim to the ill effects of Kalik Beer. After exhaustive research, I determined that the two best places in Nassau to imbibe the cold bubbly amber foamy fluid is The Poop Deck and The Green Parrot. The Poop Deck is actually shown on some nautical charts. The Green Parrot is next to BASRA (Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association) and both places have dinghy docks. It is a good idea to go ahead and enroll in an alcohol program before you leave so that you can check right in upon your return. Three more classes and I’ll be finished.

It’s a place some people hate, with all the hustle bustle of a busy large seaport. It has all the trash, crime, dirt, and chaos that you will find in every big city. I can’t wait to get back there again. In many ways, New Providence Island really hasn’t changed all that much from the days that Edward Teach (Blackbeard), Jack Rackam, Mary Reed, and Anne Bonnie, as well as many other pirates anchored and docked roamed, drank and partied in the exactly same places that sailors do today. I feel priviledged to walk the same streets and sidewalks. To spit off the same seawalls as so many sailors before me. On Sunday, the 8th of February, we left Nassau and part of my heart after a much too short 4 days. As the island slowly sinks into the ocean astern, I look forward to someday returning.

Filed Under: Travels

Tags: Bahamas • Nat • travel