I did that
route a month ago, very nice route.
Leaving
Nassau head east towards
ATHOL ISLAND waypoint, turn north and go through the narrows staying east of the marker, then pass these series of waypoints (25 04.770, 77 17.305 / 25 05.200, 77 17.348 / 25 05.663, 77 15.553) before turning to
HANOVER SOUND. Once past
HANOVER SOUND you are clear of Nassau and it's a straight run to Spanish Wells area.
You have two choices now. If the
weather will be turning bad, I'd
head to Royal Island. Read my blog post about the ruins on the island here (
http://sailquest.ca/index.php/115-to...island-bahamas). If the
weather is mild then choose either Royal, or Meeks Patch where you can hang out with the swimming pigs.
To head to Royal go to
SW REEF and then
ROYAL ISLAND.
To head to Meeks go to
CURRENT ROCK and
MEEKS PATCH.
At Meeks Patch we position according to the
wind. If South through North West, we anchor at 25 30.917, 076 46.760. During North to Easts we run around the north end, then down the west side of the island to anchor at 25 30.328, 076 46.501. But there's only a 3 mile fetch on the east side so unless it's really blowing the first anchorage should do.
Once you are done at those two places head to
SPANISH WELLS. You can now head into the channel and visit the town. Great marina there called Yacht Haven, and they can rent you a golf cart to tour the island. Up until 5 years ago blacks were not allowed to stay on the island overnight and had to leave each evening. If you cross the bridge to Russel Island you will see a marked difference in the properties.
Heading out from Spanish Wells it's visual piloting. You should have a good up-to-date
chartplotter to go here, or ask for a local pilot (failing that, good eyes and flat
water...). Head out the east side of the harbour following the poles. Make a left to head north west towards Gun Point. Turn North East towards the marker pole at the next headland. Pass that marker and continue straight by 0.200 Nm where you turn towards
RIDLEY HEAD. Passed there you are back in deep
water and can go straight to
LITTLE HARBOUR ABACO.
Finally it's
TOM CURRY PT to get through the cut. Watch for rages here, last time we wanted to leave the rage was over 10 feet and it was one scary ride!
There is a marked channel in to Little Harbour where you can drop anchor, or pick up a
mooring ball for $25 for the night (pay at Pete's Pub). I measured a minimum of 1.5 meters going through that channel, so unless you are at high tide you may scrape at 5'2". Once you are inside it's over 3 meters in the middle. It was
very buggy when we were there in early June.
The other option is the
anchorages just west of Tom Curry's Point (though open to the east winds and seas) or better yet along the west side of Lynyard Cay where there are several nice beaches. From
TOM CURRY PT head towards
LYNYARD CAY for 1 Nm, before turning 073 M and go to the beach. We anchored at 26 21.376, 76 59.107, but we are a cat and can go as close to the beach as we want. In fact we actually went up on the beach and spent a low tide
cleaning the
hull here. But the water drops quickly and just 150 meters from the beach it's over 5 meters deep.
I have all the named waypoints listed above in a file that I can send you (it's in Raymarine's GPX format, as well as a text CSV, and
Google Earth's KMZ formats). I haven't been able to attach the file so
email "Captain" at my domain name "SailQuest.ca" and ask for the Explorer
Charts Waypoints.
Disclaimer: All information provided is as accurate as possible, but any errors are possible including, but not limited to missed numbers, reversed numbers, and extra numbers in co-ordinates, etc. You are solely responsible for your vessel and crew.