All the
advice so far is pretty good, IMHO. I personally don't sail
in the Bahamas at night. The wife doesn't like it.
Leave in the evening and
head for the waypoint just south of Memory Rock.
I think the course is 090, but of course you and I can't make 090, more
like 120 or 140 depending on your speed and where you are in the Gulf
Stream. But thanks to
GPS we don't need to calculate that anymore.
Just keep the Course Over Ground at 090 or whatever the direct course
is and don't worry too much about your actual heading. You probably
won't be sailing as you'll likely be heading right into the prevailing
SE'lys.
Motor sailing, or motoring.
You should arrive late morning. Don't bother looking for Memory Rock.
I've never actually seen it or the light that's supposed to be on it.
But you'll know you've arrived when your depthsounder starts picking
up the bottom at maybe 600 feet and a mile or three later you start
seeing the bottom. Can be pretty scary the first time you see that
clear bottom coming up fast. You are on the banks and in maybe 10 to
20 feet of
water from then on. It's another 25 miles or so to Mangrove
Cay. You can
anchor in the lee of the cay and take a well deserved
rest. Be sure you don't anchor right on one of the routes shown in
the chart
books. Move a half mile off so that you won't get hit by
someone following their route by gps/autopilot in the middle of the
night. Use your anchor light. Two if you have them.
Next day you can take a leisurely sail to Great Sale Cay, about 25
miles, and stay there for a day. Then move on to Powell Cay where
there is another nice anchorage. Then next day zip down to Green
Turtle Cay and clear in.
You can anchor in front of the town and
dinghy in, then walk to
customs. Anyone will tell you where it is. Or you can go in to
Black Sound and either anchor or tie up and then walk in from there.
Don't anchor in White Sound to clear as it's too far to walk back
to town.
You will need everyones passport, ships papers (state
registration
or CG documentation) and cash. $300 if over 30 feet, $150 if 30
feet or under. It's an easy process and the agents are very nice.
There are no
coral heads on any of the routes I've used. There
are no
commercial fishing nets on the banks. Lobster 'pots' are
actually lobster 'condos' and have no floating markers.
You should have the Explorer Charts and the Dodge Cruising Guide
to
Abaco. the Dodge guide is packed with invaluable local info,
so you won't feel like a stranger when you arrive. It also has
some routes that Explorer doesn't have. Get them now
so you can study them and enter waypoints in your
GPS. Keep your
VHF on Ch 16 all the time, 24/7.
The only 'scary' part (to my wife, anyway) is crossing the Gulf
Stream at night. After that it's a piece of cake.
Oh. You asked about
anchoring at Memory Rock. I've done it
twice. Once we had a rough time coming over and the wife wanted
to take a break. We motored in about two miles from the edge of
the bank, in 10 feet of
water, moved a half mile south of the course
line, and anchored till the next day. Then we moved on to Great Sale
Cay. Another time, leaving the Abacos, we anchored about a mile
short of the edge of the bank, just south of Memory Rock, and had
a nice dinner and wash up before setting out for Fort Pierce.