I was posted to Nassau, Bahamas during 1984 and 1985, and found it a fascinating experience.  My apartment was across the road from Cable Beach and each evening after work, when the water was cooling down, I used to run alongside a large Eagle ray that would cruise up the beach and back at the same pace as me, turning when I turned and maintaining the same pace - what a life!

Occasionally I used to fly out to one of the out-islands with the mail on a Friday evening.  I will never forget my first trip to Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera: the car was parked at the airport as promised with the keys in the ignition, and the hotel room had no lock - after all why would you need a lock in paradise?   The locals were friendly, the sea clear, the conch (local shellfish) fresh, and the scenery reminiscent of Winslow Homer’s paintings of Nassau and Bermuda - visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts or the New York Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art to see some of his work.

One weekend I spent an afternoon wandering around Spanish Wells, having crossed onto the island from the main island of Eleuthera by boat, and was followed the entire time by four armed men in a pickup truck.  At the time there were strong rumours that the US Drug Enforcement Agency was sending spies out to various out islands, and I imagine an unexpected visitor complete with camera wandering aimlessly must have appeared highly suspicious to the locals!

Nassau also had its problems - one was usually escorted between car and bar/restaurant by an armed guard such was the drug violence problem.  Colombian planes were parked on beaches, having been stolen or hi-jacked and then dumped where the cargo could be off loaded into fast boats.

Alas my favourite bar is no more - ‘Le Shack’ was just that, an open air, thatched roof bar overlooking Paradise Island, adjoining Providence Island, the home of Nassau, serving cold Becks and Pauli Girl, steaks and burgers, and playing the best r&b on the island.

My claim to fame in Nassau: linesman in the televised 1985 Bahamas FA Cup Final (soccer).

You can take the man out of the islands but you cannot take the island out of the man.

Bahamian calypso

Seven hundred islands in the sun...