Junkanoo, New Year Parade in Nassau

We were racing and tacking up-wind to arrive to Nassau for New Year celebrations. We saw several boats motoring past. Because I was insisting on sailing we were quite late and end up motoring into the harbor well after sunset. Hundreds of boats were littering the channel and there were many party boats and pleasure yachts going up and down the busy harbor. Anchoring in this strange place was a challenge for two first-timers like us. We didn't know where anchoring was permitted, it was already dark and there was a brisk current sweeping the harbor. Finally we settled down, anchoring close to other boats in a place barely out of the channel. Music was blearing from the waterfront restaurants, creating celebratory noise, mixed up with typical sounds of the New Year parties that carried over the water. This is what we came for. This was the only city around and it ought to have some fireworks, bars and clubs and lots of happy tourists. Contact with other people was what we were really after. The problem was we didn't have a clue where we could land our dinghy. It was already dark when we arrived and we didn't know the place. The current sweeping the harbor was discouraging and we didn't want to deploy our human-powered dinghy and risk being overtaken by the current. Johannes made some magnificent meal after which I sunk on some cushions resting from a day of sailing. We end up staying on the boat, raising our glasses to the New Year, 2004 and watching fireworks from the water, munching on, hold on to your seats, a block of chocolate our friend Laurie from Toronto send to us.

In the morning we were able to spot a landing place for our dinghy and we went to see the Nassau for the first time. Browsing around the town, first day of the New Year, we discovered that last night there was something more happening in here. In fact, as we found out, there was the biggest carnival and the parade called Junkanoo this island had in 30 years. And we've missed it! Apparently wild celebrations took into late morning hours. Few fellas in fact were still sobering up, some sleeping right in there, on the streets, in the midst of trash. Watching original and exquisite ornaments loaded on the garbage trucks I was aghast.

We were right here in the harbor and we missed all this last night, incarnation of the very reason for our traveling. This thought was too depressing. Disappointment of this would hunt me for the rest of the day. The city was nearly deserted now, except for cleanup crews tending the streets littered with huge parade carts and breath-taking ornaments and countless of beer cans and plastic cups. We were so close last night, anchored literally few blocks away from the venue yet for some unexplained reason we were totally unaware of the big bang party few streets away.

No one has uttered a word about this parade to us and since we arrived to Nassau harbor late, way after dark, we didn't talk to anyone yet. I am unable to convene the distress of my culture hungry soul driven around the world in search of the very experiences we have just missed.

Okay, we are fine, really. The boat is all right, we are in one piece, and we are fed, watered and surprisingly shaved and clean. I am aware that few of my readers might even undergo risky new drug testing to pay for a few days in the Bahamas. Few of you wouldn't even care about the living conditions we have to endure every day, just to skip the winter. After all we are in the exotic place with more pleasantries of the Caribbean experience still ahead of us. Yet I am so upset we've missed the darn parade. Our own New Year celebrations were very humble indeed. We have anchored in the dark with no knowledge of the port or how to get ashore, and, oh, how boring of us, we welcomed 2004 right here on our sloop, going to bed after fireworks like a pair of retirees.

Nassau and it's port is nothing like we come to expect. Very unassuming and poorly developed except for the moneymakers: main street with tourist shops, cruise ship wharf and couple of lush hotels with the casino on the nearby island. I found the town itself a bit depressing, few tourist traps and hungry taxi drivers honking at you everywhere. Local Bahamians make their living off the hoards of white folk from the large cruise ships coming and going to and from at an amazing rate. If you do have the moment to sit down in the cruise ship terminal you'll be entertained by the sight of few young Bahamian entrepreneurs competing loudly to rent out the scooters and utterly amused while observing multitude of white-legged sheep dangling photo-cameras on their necks being led for a shaving to a nearby gift shops and duty-free and the straw market.

First day of New Year we felt somewhat homesick and we decided to cough up $10 each to talk to our families for a few precious minutes. One good thing about touristy places like this one is that there are plenty of Internet cafes and places to make a long distance phone calls. Once again we were thinking about our folks, friends and lives we've left behind. It all seemed so far away right now. The islands are waiting. Our plan is to re-supply our ship and hopefully soon find ourselves snorkeling on the reefs and spear fish and do the all the fun stuff we came here to do. I just still can't believe we missed the parade!

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