The morning of day 3 found the good ship Majesty of the Seas docked in Nassau, capital of the Bahamas. I haven't done a whole lot of international travel, so I was looking forward to this leg. First stop was, of course, the Pirates of Nassau Museum. (I was bummed because the museum was only open for a few hours in the morning, which conflicted with a pub quiz officiated by John Hodgman and Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant; oh well, if you think I was going to miss a pirate museum, you don't know me that well.) The museum was pretty good! It was very well-researched, and with a specific focus on the role of New Providence during the Golden Age of Piracy, it didn't feel generic or tourist-trappy. And thanks to te museum and Woodes Rogers, I now know that the official motto of the Bahamas was "piracy expelled, commerce restored" until 1973.
After the museum, I wandered around hitting up as many historical sites as I could. Fort Charlotte and Fort Fincastle are forts, and I'm approaching the point of diminishing fort tour returns. If you have to pick one, check out Fort Fincastle because you can also see the Queen's Staircase, which is really striking. I also visited the John Watling's Rum Distillery and the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, which are both in beautifully restored old manor houses. Then I walked down to the Fish Fry for conch salad and headed back to the boat. Nassau reminded me a bit of New Orleans, although I realize it has a British background while New Orleans received more of an influence of French planters; still, there were plenty of colorful houses, intermittent decrepitude, and most everything worth seeing was outside of the right-off-the-boat tourist trap area.
The evening's entertainment was night two of comedy: Jonah Ray officiated and introduced Rhea Butcher, Nadia Kamil, Jasper Redd, Nick Thune, and Eugene Mirman. I think I may have been exhausted by this point, because it took me a little while to get a good laugh going. But about halfway through Jasper Redd's set, things started clicking and got just as good as the first night. I had never heard Mr. Thune's comedy before, but he's got a great Steven Wright-esque non sequitur style, and Mr. Mirman's letter to the local government that issued him a bogus parking ticket was great. All in all, a great cap to the entertainment.
Post-comedy, I took it much easier than the previous night, especially since I had to get off the boat between 8:00 and 8:30 the next morning. Another beer, another walk around the boat, another deep stare into the endless black abyss of the midnight ocean, cookies and milk delivered by room service, and I hit the bunk.
I am informed that the debauchery continued without me, because next morning at the breakfast buffet there were quite a few haggard-looking Boat Partiers who just didn't go to sleep at all. Because I was looking at a twenty-hour Greyhound ride back to New Orleans, it's probably best that I abstained.
I don't know that I have any final thoughts about the cruise, other than that it was completely worth it. I met some cool folks, stuffed myself to the gills, laughed frequently and heartily, and visited a new country. If they do another one on a different route, I'll take strenuous steps to set sail again.
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