Nassau

Ken’s eye getting no better after seeing a nurse at Old Bight and being treated for conjunctivitis, we opted to go to Smith Bay to see the resident doctor of the Island. We met Mr Long, a teacher at Old Bight, who drove us to and from the clinic in Old Bight, going out of his way to leave school to take us back to our boat. Giving the medicine time to work, we hoped, we sailed up to Bennetts Harbour, anchored outside of the little settlement, went to shore and found Halvorson Resort and had lunch. A young couple w/2 young girls and their cook came from Colorado in November and took over the resort. They’re very enthusiastic with ambitious plans of making it a family resort, emphasizing children’s activities. We were impressed and loved the way they’ve embraced and been embraced by the local population.

We debated whether to leave the boat at Bennetts Harbour and hitchhike to Smith Bay. Luckily we motored down to Smith Bay, anchored outside, and that’s where the boat stayed for 3 nights while we made an emergency trip to Nassau to get treatment for Ken’s irisitis. After seeing the doctor, who did not have the equipment or prescriptions to treat Ken’s eye, we flew that afternoon, February 23rd, to Nassau and went to the emergency room at Princess Margaret. While we were talking to the doctor at Smith Bay, people in the waiting room were discussing our case. When we got ready to leave, one nurse had already made reservations with Sky Bahamas, a man offered to look after our dinghy, Nurse Saunders took us to our boat and would wait for us to take us to the airport. At the airport, the attendant telephoned Nassau to have a local Cat Island resident waiting for us to taxi us where we needed to go. He also suggested where we could stay.

And Maxwell was waiting for us at the airport, drove us into Princess Margaret, gave us his phone number to take us back the following morning. As any ER in any city, Princess Margaret was a zoo. We were herded in small groups from one waiting room to another and finally saw a doctor who referred us to the Bahamas Vision Center the next morning. He also suggested a motel, Orchard Gardens Motel, at a reasonable rate close to it.

Ken saw Dr Rodgers the next morning and was treated but he needed to see him the next day. I called Nurse Saunders and she assured me our boat was being well looked after. We called Maxwell to pick us up Friday morning for the afternoon flight back to Cat. He had been worried about us since we hadn’t called him Thursday morning.

Arriving back at Smith Bay, Nurse Saunders was waiting at the airport for us and dropped us off at our dinghy. We spent the night on a wildly roly-poly boat with the swells coming in from Exuma Sound, which was probably how it was the whole time we were gone. Waving goodbye to the lovely island, we headed towards the Exumas and to Nassau.