Deep Draft- Bahamas?

[Group9]

Originally Posted by chrisjs

GG:
Others may choose to comment (they usually do!!) but when we were in the Bahamas 2 years ago, there certainly did not seem to many boats with kids aboard. I would say the average age was in the early 40s and many (like us) in their 50/60s. Just did not see many kids at all and we were there for 4 months and travelled around quite a lot. Once you get away from the Nassau Disney land environment there is not much for kids to do - barely any internet. Most places are just basic restaurants and bars!! Mind you the scenery and underwater sealife is amazing. Just not many kids, though that is a plus to many of us!!

Yeah, look at the average people in RVs you see passing you on the highway, and that's mostly what the people in boats in the Bahamas look like. I'm in my 50's and I felt like I was a kid. It's common sense. Most people can't afford to cruise until they retire.

We kind of gravitated toward the few cruisers our age or younger. But, my kids, 10 and 12 at the time, came to visit for a few weeks, while we were in Georgetown, and they found other kids to play with. Kids have a homing sense like that.

If your kids stay inside all of the time, with their noses in video games, they may not like the Bahamas. If they like to do a lot of outside stuff, they will.

Like anyplace else, the Bahamas can be what you want it to be. My brother has a cabin in Alaska. You talk about isolated. His two boys, 15, now, do everything but go hunt bears with sticks up there and want to move up there. And, their home is outside of Orlando, so they could get Disneyworld, etc. instead if they wanted.

[gettinthere]

We saw a fair amount of kid boats in the Abacos this winter.

Anything over 6' will be very limiting for access to good harbors.

White Sound 8' hi tide
Black Sound 7' hi tide
Treasure Cay 7' hi tide
Hopetown 8' hi tide
Little Harbor 6' hi tide

So you get a 2 hour window twice in 24 hours to get in or out of these places if you are 5 to 7'. At 8', forget many of the best harbors in the Abacos.

[Sandero]

I've done a delivery through the Bahamas stopping along the way. I liked them but much prefer the Windward and the Leeward Islands which are volcanic, with beautiful mountains and anchorages and draft is rarely a problem. As far as children living aboard, I met many and one of them as a darling little girl who came aboard to play with my kittens and do coloring... I became friends with her incredible parents and she became a world class wooden boat skipper 20 yrs later. Ran into her dad in Newport on the boat I helped him deliver from NC. My sense from cruising in the islands for KIDS.. skip the Bahamas and do the windwards and the leewards... more of interest to the youngsters and more of them living aboard... English Harbor, Philipsburg.... are prime examples.

Draft as you know limits you. I'd try to stay below 6' which constrains your wanderings much less. 5' would be great and under 4' you can pretty much go anywhere anytime.

Fuel in paradise is not so easy to come by. When I was in Surinam I had to bunker fuel from a 55 gallon drum left on a commercial pier in Parimaribo. No fuel dock!

It's all fun til someone loses an eye.

[Tingum]

I have been here 38 years, PM me with any specifics.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by jeremiason

Galaxy Girl...

We installed a Interphase Forward Looking Sonar and poked our way around some really skinny water down in San Blas Panama and here on the West Coast of Florida.

If you have the money it is well worth the investment!

Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl

What does it do?

A typical depth finder uses SONAR and bounces signals off the sea bottom; the transducer also "catches" those returns and computes distance to dirt (aka depth). The typical shape of the signal transmission is a cone, below the boat. So in general, a depth finder will tell you the depth where you are (so you can match that to where you think you are, on chart) -- or sometimes it will tell you the depth of whatever you just hit

A forward-looking SONAR still does the cone thing (or sometimes a "squashed" or "elongated" cone), but the cone can be aimed sorta out forward the front of the boat, ideally ahead of the boat... so you can know the depth of what you are ABOUT to hit

There are side-scanning units, too, and most of the various "aimable" types kinda sorta can be pointed in any direction relative to the hull.

-Chris

[GalaxyGirl]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

A typical depth finder uses SONAR and bounces signals off the sea bottom; the transducer also "catches" those returns and computes distance to dirt (aka depth). The typical shape of the signal transmission is a cone, below the boat. So in general, a depth finder will tell you the depth where you are (so you can match that to where you think you are, on chart) -- or sometimes it will tell you the depth of whatever you just hit

A forward-looking SONAR still does the cone thing (or sometimes a "squashed" or "elongated" cone), but the cone can be aimed sorta out forward the front of the boat, ideally ahead of the boat... so you can know the depth of what you are ABOUT to hit

There are side-scanning units, too, and most of the various "aimable" types kinda sorta can be pointed in any direction relative to the hull.

-Chris

Nice description Chris.
Sounds like a very useful device. I'll be sure to get one.