Atlantis, Paradise Island, Nassau & The Mega Yachts!

December 18 – 21, 2008

Atlantis Resort and Marina – Paradise Island, Nassau

Approach from the Sea.

We’ll let the pictures do the talking in this post.

The next morning we pulled up the anchor, and started to motor into Atlantis. Ironically, our guests Sorin and Adriana were getting a time share tour of the property. Sorin told the salesman that his friend was suppose to be coming in today with his Yacht. As the salesman was showing Sorin the view of the harbour, he could see our boat coming in. Sorin was yelling at us from the rocks, as we waved to each other, I could hear Sorin say, Amazing, unbelievable, and yes, I am still amazed myself that I sailed here from PCYC in Mississauga, near Toronto.

Sorin & Adriana Welcome us at the breakers.

The salesmen asked if it was a large boat. Sorin proudly said yes, it’s pretty big. Later we both found out that our boat was about the size of some of the dinghies of the mega yachts docked here. Most of the boats in this marina were over 100 feet, some close to 200 feet. A small boat is anything less than 100 feet. A 70 foot power yacht truly looks small in this harbour. And yes I was not kidding, the largest boat, had a dinghy that was almost the size of our boat with three, 300 HP motors on it. Some even have helicopters instead of dinghies, one had two helicopters.

La Grand Bleu at Cape Canaveral, also seen in Nassau.

Notice the 40 to 50 foot power boat next to it, and the mast of the sailboat on its decks.

Rear view of La Grand Bleu.

The funny thing is these are small boats compared to one private yacht we saw, that could not even fit into Atlantis, it had to dock in the cruise ship terminal. it must have been over 300 feet, it had a 50 foot Oyster sail boat on its decks with a 75 foot mast. He uses his yacht to travel around the world and enter Oyster Yacht regattas. His dinghy was a 50 foot power cruiser, at PCYC this would be one of the largest yachts. The boat was called La Grand Bleu, owned by a Russian Billionaire, who also owns the Chelsea foot ball team. I only know this because he made the local Nassau papers.

Ironically, we also same this same boat in Cape Canaveral, he was also docked there by the cruise ship terminals. When I got home and reviewed my photos, I found the pics posted above.

A letter from the Captain of the m/y “Man of Steel” – Pictured Below.

Dear Ed,

The owner of “Man of Steel” is a North American businessman who is prominent in the steel industry (Hence the name) and this is his second yacht from the Heesen Shipyard in Holland. When you saw “Man of Steel” she was only 3 weeks old as we had left the shipyard in Holland on the 30th of Novemeber 2008. We sailed directly to Nassau with a brief fuel stop in Madeira. It made for a good shakedown cruise as we encountered somewhat adverse conditions crossing the Bay of Biscay with seas over 20 feet and wind gusting up to 60 knots. Turns out “Man of Steel” is an extremely good sea boat and took it all in her stride. Our voyage average speed was 12.5 knots which is her cruising speed, (max speed is 15 knots), we carry 23,000 gallons or about 90,000 liters of fuel. This gives us a range of 4,000 NM or 7,500 KM at cruising speed.

The boat is purely for private use and is therefore not available for charter. It currently does not have a website. However, the yacht will be featured in most yachting magazines over the next few months starting with an article in Boat International in March or April. This magazine will have pictures of the interior and full specifications of the yacht.

Thank you for your interest in the yacht and you are welcome to post any of this on your blog.

Captain Pieter Ferreira

m/y Man of Steel

Man of Steel, evening view.

Man of Steel, close to a $100,000 just to filler up.

Man of Steel's Bow, it's not a cruise ship but a private yacht. Notice the small people on the walk way.

Man of Steel's Dinghy is almost the size of our boat with 3 x 300 HP motors, thats 900 HP!

Man of Steel boasts a very professional crew.

Motor yacht, "Time for Us"

Man of Steel is 165 feet, stern view in the evening.

Notice the black power yacht in the corner called, "Shadow"

Average size of yachts are 100 feet.

Can be surreal place to be for yacht lovers.

A little stroll in the marina.

Packing them in for the Christmas holidays.,

And just one more pic.

The marina is part of the Atlantis Resort, our boat was considered a room in the marina. We quickly realized the resort is enormous, however we enjoyed the golf cart service provided only for marina guests, so we could get a ride around the marina. The dock pedestal, not only provides you with power and water, but also 150 channel cable TV and a hotel phone so you can order room service to your boat. When you walk around the resort you can charge things to your room, in our case our boat. Our room number was “Black Diamond” it’s funny when ever we pulled out our room card, people thought we were millionaires, on some fancy boat called the Black Diamond. When Sorin checked out of the hotel, to check into our boat. The front desk clerk said, I see you are getting a room upgrade to a fancy yacht named Black Diamond. Sorin’s said, “No only the name is fancy”.

Our approach of Atlantis by sea.

View of harbour from Sorin's hotel balcony.

Ed & Sorin enjoying their welcome pina coladas in Purple and Green Radonic Rodgers cups!

Sorin and Adriana spent 3 nights at the Hotel, and 2 nights aboard Black Diamond!

The kids were excited to see a pool with a kids sprinkler area and a hot tub directly behind our boat. The hotel grounds are beautiful with every area artistically designed to resemble the underwater lost city of Atlantis.

Alex enjoying the sprinklers.

Lazy River ride around the resort, with Sorin, Ed, Thomas and Alexander.

Takes 45 minutes to complete, around a large part of the grounds.

It takes you through some rapids, and the power tower, which is like a roller coaster ride in this tube.

The high speed drop, apparently you are going as fast as a dolphin can swim!

Sorin, Adriana and Captain Ed!

Alexander in the children's sprinkler park.

Thomas having a blast!

Thomas & Alexander love the kid's area.

Thomas on the left, and Ed on the right making a big splash, Thomas won the race!

The boys posing in front of Atlantis.

There are many aquariums on the grounds containing tropical sea creatures. The kids thought it was really cool to walk through a glass tunnel under the shark tank. We saw many large fish, sea turtles, sea rays, sharks plus enormous manta rays.

 

The Shark Tank! One jumped out and apparently died soon after! Urban Legend?

Dozens of aquariums to explore.

 

The water park was the highlight of our stay here. We spent four full days at the pools and the water slides. One of Thomas’ favourites was the slide where you go down sitting on a tube, at the end you slowly glide through a glass tube in the inside of the shark tank.

We all enjoyed the lazy river ride, that takes you through a long river, and rapids through the entire resort. This ride takes almost an hour to complete.

Sorin's a Senior Designer at Radonic Rodgers, he does not just build sand castle, he sculpts!

You won't find this at Marine Land.

Would you like to go swimming with this guy? Some do!

Street band in the Marina Village.

Night life in the Marina Village.

Roxane and Ed, yes it's Christmas in the Bahamas.

Out for the evening without the kids, baby sitting on board the boat provided.

We went out for dinner with Sorin and Adriana a couple of times. The marina will provide baby sitting on your boat at a cost. The resort also has an amazing kids club, Thomas and Alexander loved going to the kids club, and it gave us a little break for a couple of nights.

Kids favorite meal is chicken nuggets.