Post #61: The Pirates Republic

 Sunday, February 7, 2021

According to our cruising guide, from 1690 to 1717, Nassau was known as the Pirates Republic. “Some estimates place as many as 1000 pirates operating in the Bahamas by 1713.”The likes of “Calico Jack” Rackham and Blackbeard and other unsavory characters based their operations here.  In 1718, when Gov. Woodes Rogers was charged with rooting out piracy in the islands, many accepted pardons but a few holdouts refused to surrender.  A former pirate was commissioned to hunt down the renegade skalliwags. Finally, British control over Nassau was re-established when the defiant pirates were executed.  The official motto of the Bahamas became “Piracy expelled, commerce restored.” 

Although the city of Nassau boasts a harbor that is famously well-protected from wind and wave, it is not well protected from today’s “pirates.” Some cruisers avoid it due to reports of petty theft. Although I’d hoped to take advantage of the supermarkets there and re-provision the boat, as a group we’re not keen on mixing with crowds of tourists even at grocery stores as there have been cases of Covid reported there. In fact, at this point in time the Bahamian government requires that you take another Covid test if you spend more than 24 hours in Nassau (or Freeport on Grand Bahama). If your test is positive, you must quarantine at your  own expense for 14 days.

Needless to say, we chose an anchorage at Old Fort Bay on the northwest side of New Providence Island, “far from the madding crowd.”

And my, oh, my, it was beautiful.

 I jumped right off the back of the boat into 14 feet of aquamarine water so clear you could see the ripples on the sandy bottom.  A few strokes away was a coral reef harboring a ray, a couple of squid, yellow- and black-striped sergeant major fish, small grouper, and an annoying remora (who kept nibbling at my legs—yuck!). Usually they ride upside down on the backs of sharks, eating parasites off their skin. Maybe he thought I was some tasty new variety of shark?  Anyway, I found it really creepy so jumped onto Rebecca’s paddle board and she brought me back to Onward, my “safety.”

Unfortunately, Gary and Leslie’s (from Narragansett, RI) freezer went on the fritz. It was loaded with enough food to last them until they return to Florida in a few months. A few attempts were made to fix it and plenty of free advice was given and gratefully received. Fantasea shared their portable electric ice maker to bring down the temperature in the icebox. But thank goodness we were only a half hour car ride from Nassau for they were able to find a repair company to service them on Monday. The five other boats want to take advantage of the flat seas tomorrow and get to the Exumas. Gary and Leslie promise to keep in touch so we can join up together again in a few days. Although we’ve known each other only a few short weeks, it seems strange to be parting ways.

We enjoyed sundowners on the beach again and stayed well after dark.  In fact, we had all neglected to bring flashlights and it was a challenge to avoid each other’s dinghies and find our sailboats in the dark. Sometimes you’d think we were all about 17 years old!