west end bahamas, mooring or anchor

[guateman9]

hi going there first week of august, on my 32 ft willard trawler and need a good place to anchor or mooring, any ideas, and if anchoring would you mind giving me the coordinates, i checked the dockage and 5 usd a foot so around 175 a night since i have a dive platform lol
thanks for your help

and yes, i know it is hurrican season, i live in ft pierce, thanks

[Lowcountry]

The anchorage on the North side is terrible. You must have a shallow draft to even get into it, and once there the holding is very bad. I would only use it in the most settled of weather. The anchorage just south of the entry to West End is better, but it should only be used when winds are from the East. The simple answer is that there is no good anchorage at West End. You should either take a slip or continue on to Mangrove Cay.

[Catmandu]

If you arrive after hours (5 pm) you can anchor in the turning basin overnight. Good holding good protection. Expect to clear in the next morning then on to mangrove or great sale cay.

[model 10]

I got in and out of the N anchorage with 5' and no problem but I wouldn't leave my boat there alone. Ther was a story here not long ago where somebody did go ashore and lost their boat.

[boatpoker]

Just a few miles east of West End is a canal system that does not show up on my Explorer charts (shows on GoogleMaps) but is a large anchorage with room for around 20 boats. This is a mostly undeveloped canal with only a couple of houses. We anchored in there about 4 months ago. Really easy entry and well protected, around 10' deep if I remember.

[model 10]

I think they are called the Lucayan canals. From my exploring there would be many places to tie up or anchor.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Guy

I think they are called the Lucayan canals. From my exploring there would be many places to tie up or anchor.

Not quite, the Grand Lucayan Canal system is about 25miles east of there.
There are three other canal systems charted (including Xanada and Ocean Reef) but again they are well east of that uncharted canal. Why it is uncharted I can't say since it's been there for years.

My charts are on the boat in Florida or I could give lat/longs.

[sailorboy1]

When I was at West End last Feb every evening the cruisers gathered on the beach at high tide/sundown to watch them try to pull a boat of the reef that had used that anchorage! The guy who owned the boat finally just abandoned it to the salvage guys.,

Just saying

[smj]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

Just a few miles east of West End is a canal system that does not show up on my Explorer charts (shows on GoogleMaps) but is a large anchorage with room for around 20 boats. This is a mostly undeveloped canal with only a couple of houses. We anchored in there about 4 months ago. Really easy entry and well protected, around 10' deep if I remember.

Great information, thanks.

[guateman9]

thanks everyone, will probably just keep going, awesome site,

[bvander]

Why west end?
From Ft Pierce fighting GS, better to enter banks up North and then head East and anchor Spanish or Allens then on to GTC next day.