Scott here. OK, we had no plans to spend a lot of time in Nassau much less stay there. But, Thursday afternoon I noticed that Jazzy’s left back foot toenail was funky. Rita thought it might be infected as we could see a lot of redness.

We ducked it (we use Duck, Duck, Go instead of Google for searching so I like to say “Duck it” instead of “Google it” Yea, I’m weird!) and discovered that if it is infected, she should see a vet in 48 hours. We made the easy decision to take her to a vet ASAP. Closest vet is in Nassau. Time to plan.

I sent three marinas emails looking for a place to stay. Two of them are very close to a vet. One got back to me Friday morning as we were on the way and we waited until noon and confirmed with Nassau Yacht Haven for a slip.

Back to Thursday night. We made a a route plan and decided we need to leave at dawn for the 9 hour jaunt to Nassau. Unfortunately we are going to miss a lot of the northern part of the Exumas, but that means we will need to come back to see it another time.

The Jazzy update: She didn’t break anything other than her nail on her left paw. It is kind of like us having a fingernail getting ripped off. Lots of pain. We have antibiotics and a couple other medicines to help her get through the next week.

Here is the plan and the stats for our trip to Nassau.

Initial Plan
Date: January 2, 2024
Nebo Link: Click here
Spot Link: Click here
Crew: Captain Scott, 1st Mate Rita, & K9 Jazzy
Start at: 7:00 am ACTUAL 6:55 am
End at: 5:00 pm (9:36 hours travel time plus pulling anchor and docking) ACTUAL 3:45 pm
Total Time: 10:00 hours ACTUAL 8:56 hours
Distance: 86.4 miles ACTUAL
Avg. Speed: 9.8 mph
Max Speed: 12mph
I bumped up our normal speed as we had the chance to get Jazzy to the vet yet on Friday instead of Saturday morning.

Hazards for the day
Watch for shallow water

Oh my gosh what a beautiful day to travel on the water. It was almost like glass. If we had time we would have stopped in the middle of the Exuma Bank to jump off the boat.

In Nassau though, the current is so strong that as we came into a slip at Nassau Yacht Haven slightly hit a post with the current pushing me into it. No damage to anything. In fact I didn’t even know we bumped the post until Rita told me after. Then, as I was backing into the slip the current pushed me into the boat next to us in the same well. No damage there either as we plan for such things and had fenders on that side of the boat as well. The dock hand said we can go to the slip on the other side of the finger. Yep! The current pushed us into the dock that way and we no issues anymore! After we were in and secured we needed to move fenders as well as add more lines on the starboard side as Rita prepped us for the port side on the way. Once that was done we are tied up and good to go! We will hook up power and water when we get back from the vet.

Check in at the office and take Jazzy to the vet! We will explore part of the Bahamas over the next few days. Yes, we will be safe. We know about the travel warning. You can read it here.