{"id":22107,"date":"2026-05-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=22107"},"modified":"2026-05-07T23:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T23:14:58","slug":"back-to-palm-cay-marina-nassau-the-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/05\/07\/back-to-palm-cay-marina-nassau-the-bahamas\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Palm Cay Marina, New Providence Island, The Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Sunday, January 4, we woke up before dawn so we could get Kosmos ready to go to sea. The moon was so bright that it looked like a spotlight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a colorful dawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the last few days, we’d deliberated long and hard about whether we should go to Nassau to run our errands or if we should run them in the Exumas. The reality was that it would be hard to get what we needed in the Exumas anywhere other than Georgetown<\/a>, which would have been an 9-hour ride from Over Yonder Cay<\/a>. And while anchoring was free, the prices in Georgetown and the rest of the Exumas were notably higher than in Nassau — if you could even get what you were looking for. The Exumas were reliant on the supply ships<\/a>, and thus were notorious for being out of stock on just about everything in between supply runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nassau, we could count on getting everything we needed, and at better prices than the Exumas. Palm Cay Marina<\/a> was a high end suburb of Nassau that was a 10-hour ride from Over Yonder Cay, which we could do in one day. While it was expensive at $225 per night, we could rent a car from the marina<\/a> for $11 an hour (limit 2-hours per day). The marina was walking distance to a big grocery store<\/a>, which made it easy to stock up on frozen foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we could anchor for free near Atlantis <\/a>or on the north side of the island, those were longer rides from Over Yonder Cay, and we would have had to break the trip into two day-hops instead of a single day run. Those anchorages were known for being rolly and uncomfortable. We would have had to take a ride share to a rental a car agency to get a car so we could run our errands. The big grocery store was far away from those anchorages, and the long car ride + dinghy ride made transporting frozen food more challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, we decided that a good selection of groceries, especially produce and frozen food, was the most important thing of all, which was why we opted for Palm Cay Marina. It was a 10-hour ride and we only had 10.5 hours of daylight. We pulled up anchor at 0645, as soon as we felt like it was light enough for good visibility, and headed out to the ocean via the same narrow pass with the strong current that we’d come in through on Tuesday.<\/a> Since our auto-pilot didn’t perform well in strong currents, Eric hand steered through the pass. He estimated that there was at least 3-knots of current against us. All went smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking north at the shoreline from outside the pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The sun rose not long after we exited the pass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We ran at 1850 RPM to help ensure we made it to the pass back into the lagoon at high tide, which put our speed in the low 7s most of the time. It was a gorgeous day with mostly clear skies. The seas were calm — less than one foot of swell and about one foot of wind chop at longer intervals — but it was head seas, so it wasn’t quite ideal conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made it to the next pass at about noon. The pass was nice and wide, but the current was surprisingly strong. At 1900 RPM, we were only making 3.5 knots. Eric had to hand steer. The water was so turbulent that it looked like it was boiling. We suspected the current was stronger than normal due to the full moon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in the pass, two boats got dangerously close to us. A catamaran was on a collision course with us, so we changed course. Minutes later, this guy went flying across our bow. We passed a Nordhavn 72 (at a comfortably safe distance) called Sunday Morning. We thought it was funny that we passed it on a Sunday morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After we made it through the pass, Eric slowed us back down to 1800 RPM. We arrived at the channel marked by pylons that led into Palm Cay Marina<\/a> at about 1700. Since we’d successfully navigated the channel before, Eric was less anxious than he was last time. But the shallow, narrow channel still stressed him out, especially because it was low tide, and probably extra low due to the moon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last time we’d come in, the channel through the marina was clear and we docked near the entrance. This time, there were big catamarans along the channel, making it very narrow. And they put us in the back, so we had a longer trek in the narrow channel to our spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last time we were at Palm Cay, we’d noticed a large percentage of the slips in the marina were occupied by charter boats. Our slip was in the middle of a block controlled by a company that chartered catamarans. When we’d made the reservation, we hadn’t thought about the fact that today was the last day of the holiday week. The marina was probably a zoo with all the charterers returning their boats today. Four people helped us get into the slip and tie up, it looked like two from the marina and two from the charter company. The way the docks were configured, the slip would have been tough to get into, and especially to tie up, without help, so we were grateful for them. It was nearly low tide, and we were relieved that we weren\u2019t on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went to the restaurant at the marina, The Pink Octopus, for dinner. The sunset was gorgeous, with the sky passing through the full rainbow of colors at various points in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were excited to be in a restaurant with more variety of food choices<\/a>. Most of the Bahamian restaurants we’ve been to lately had more or less the same menu items, and we were ready for something different. Nassau has access to more variety of foods than the less populated islands did, hence the broader menu. While the meal was expensive and the portions small, the cost\/portions weren’t that different from Staniel, Black Point or Georgetown, but the quality was better, especially with the produce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In evening a small squall came through and it rained enough to help rinse some of the salt off the boat. We loved it when God washed the boat for us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, January 4, we woke up before dawn so we could get Kosmos ready to go to sea. The moon was so bright that it looked like a spotlight. It was a colorful dawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[402,52,16,9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahamas-caribbean","category-caribbean","category-cruising-guide","category-cruising-life","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22107"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22211,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22107\/revisions\/22211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}