We've received a few requests to provide an update to the route we actually took and perhaps a few lessons learned from our first trip to the
Bahamas.
Final Trip Route:
Dec 16th - 18th
- Lighthouse Point, FL to Great Harbour, Berry Islands
Great initial trip but had some big waves catch us once we rounded Great Issac. Averaged over 9 knots for about 4 hours. Total trip was 19 hours to Great Harbour. At one point we had 5
cruise ships behind us with a highlight of Oasis of the Seas less than .5 nm away as we headed toward The Berries.
Dec 19th - 22nd
- Great Harbour to Hoffman/Devil's Cay
- Devil's Cay to "The Albany Marina" Nassau
DO NOT
ANCHOR in between White Cay/Hoffman/Devil's... the surge is terrible and we drug anchor one night.
Dec 23rd - 27th
- "The Albany Marina" to Rose Island
- Rose Island to
Shroud Cay Exumas
-
Shroud Cay to Highborne Cay
- Highborne Cay to Rose Island
Would have skipped going to Rose the first time but wind wasn't with us to get down to Exumas. Shroud Cay and the Park was absolutely beautiful! We're very much looking forward to getting back to the park for an extended stay.
Dec 28th - Jan 2rd
- Rose Island to Royal Island, Eleuthera
- Royal Island to Romora Bay Club Marina
We really like the Royal Island anchorage and had great luck spear
fishing and turtle watching. Tasty lionfish! We called Jimmy's pilot
service to take us past devil's backbone. He was able to hook us up with 10 lbs of stone crab along with his signature home make bread & pie.
Jan 3rd - Jan 8th
- Romora Bay Club Marina to Hoffman/Devil's Cay Berries
- Hoffman/Devil's Cay to Anchorage just North of Flo's Conch Bar
- Anchorage N. Flo's to Anchorage off Chubb Cay
- Chubb Cay to Ft. Lauderdale
Loved our time north of Flo's conch bar... great anchorage but it's tight water to get to it. We met some great folks and had a bond fire on the beach our final night.
Great Bahama Banks were beautiful with nearly a full moon to show us the way home. 22 hours from Chubb to Lauderdale. There's nothing on Chubb worth even visiting IMO. No one was around or wanted to help... really only a stopping point if you have to stop. We'll continue on next time unless
weather makes us stop.
Let me know if anyone has any specific questions. We only had to run from the weather once which happened after New Years then we hid out in the Berries until the seas settled.
Albany marina was absolutely fantastic but we wouldn't recommend
Hurricane Hole to an enemy.
Thanks,
Gene