This past
winter I asked for
advice for a
Bahamas saill I was making with my teenage son. First of all I want to thank all those who provided
advice, it was valuable. Second of all, I noticed that most folks don't follow up on their trip after asking for advice-so thought I would.
The plan was to leave in January after my son's first semester exams. Well, I got a terrific
weather windo the week prior, so I called a buddy and he and I sailed
Water Music from Folly Beach, SC down to my friend's house in Stuart
Florida to pre position the
boat. Had an absolutely fantasitic trip down. Rented a car and drove back to James Island.
As soon as my son finished his last exam, we hopped in the rental car and drove down to Stuart.
We waited a couple of days for
weather to blow through and headed out the St. Lucie Inlet
motor sailing in calm winds and 4-5ft swell at 3pm. I fixed dinner a couple of hours later and then we saw a SpaceX launch just after sunset.
Gulf Stream was big, 8-10ft leftover seas, but it was abeam and manageble. Made it safely onto the banks and cleared in on Grand Cay. Rosies wasn't open yet, so I dinghied up to the governement office to clear in.
After we cleared, we spent a few hours at Double Breased, then headed to Hawksbill off Foxtown for the night.
We then sailed to Manjack and spent a couple of days. From there we went to Donnies Marina on GTC and rented a cart. We stayed a couple of days and I changed
oil, filters, etc. etc.
Afther GTC, we went
offshore through Whale Cut and went all the way to Little Harbour where we anchored for the night. Next morning around 3 or 4, we headed out of Little Harbour and crossed the NE Providence channel-slick as glass-to Egg Island.
We loved Egg and spent several hours snorkeling and shooting
fish before heading to Royal Island Harbor for the evening. We then went to Spanish Wells for a few days, during which we made a couple of day trips back to Egg.
We then sailed to
Current Cut and anchored on the West side for the evening. Next morning we went through the cut and to Hatchet Bay. We stayed the day at Hatchet Bay and I had an eventful time with Emmit securing a replacement SUP paddle that got
lost on the sail (story for another time!). My son was ready to
head for the
Exumas, so we weighed
anchor at 7pm and sailed down to Davis Channel and across the Exuma Sound making Highbourne at 6am.
Highbourne was beautiful and we enjoyed spearfishing and
fishing. We had a big blow come up, so we stayed in the marina for two days. The island was gorgeous and we road bikes all over it. We then departed Highborne for Norman's.
Spent a few days at Normans, then headed to Warderick Wells. Stayed there a day and headed to Pipe Cay and enjoyed the solitude. From Pipe Cay we secured a
mooring ball at Staniel. Lots of fun snorkeling the grotto, exploring the island. We took the
tender to the Sound entrance, climbed the hill and enjoyed the breathtaking view of the ocean.
After a few days at Staniel, we sailed back to Highbourne, anchored for a few hours, then left in the middle of the night to cross back to Eleuthera before big weather that was forcasted. Got caught in a squall about 5 am for a couple of hours, but made it safely back to Davis Channel. Caught a couple of barracudas. Then my son caught a beautiful Cero Mackerel. We continued on to Hatchet Bay where we spent the night. Woke up the next day and explored the caves and Sweetings Pond. Next day we made way back to Spanish Wells where we secured dockage and my wife flew in to spend a week with us.
She didn't want to stay on the
boat, so we rented a house that week and had a great time on the island and made day trips to Meeks Patch and Egg Island on several days. After my wife left, we went and anchored at Meeks a couple of days. Then we sailed for the Berry's.....
We made it to White Cay, Devils Cay and anchored off of Saddle Back. This area was simply stunning and by far our favorite part of the trip. We snorked the outer
reefs which were expansive, full of
fish and spectacular. We also explored many of the beaches and the the blue hole on Hoffman's (I jumped off the cliff on my 54th birthday!). We spent several days there, but my son had some
school work due, so we had to sail outside to Great Harbor Marina. We spend a couple of days there, then headed for
Bimini.
We motored across the banks and I caught a huge snapper on a
diving plug. Made it to
Bimini around midnight and anchored in front, just off the beach. We then went to
Bluewater Marina and had a great four or five days going on day trips to the Sapona and to Gun Cay every day, shooting fish and lobster. It was then early March and we set sail for Stuart
Florida. We stayed a couple of days there, then I put my son on a plane and took about a week and a half sailing by myself back to Folly Beach.
Had a great time on the way back visiting St. Augustine and Fernandino. All and all the trip of a lifetime. I posted a bunch of posts from our trip on IG @watermusiccharters if anyone is interested in pics.
I'm sailing back in December and my wife and son are flying in to spend their two weeks of
Christmas vacation in Spanish Wells, one week in a house, one week on the boat.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed advice.
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