Help! The Bahamas are hard!

[bmadean]

Blue and Green come home clean. Black and Brown run aground. Sail on and next time Paper Charts are always on board your boat.

[Paul Annapolis]

I will chip in my two cents as did Gord May and Andreas..and I assume others. This is what Gord wrote :
"The Bahamas really aren’t that difficult.
We cruised the Bahamas with paper charts & guidebook, compass, speed/distance, wristwatch & pocket calculator, and EYEBALLS. Our depth sounder failed, on our first crossing to Cat Cay.
We replaced the sounder, and acquired a very basic hand-held GPS*, a couple of years later.
* No maps, Lat/Lon, waypoints & routes, CMG, bearing and distance."

You sail a Hunter 41. You apparently are over relying on high tech electronics rather than good old fashioned seamanship. Lest I be accused of finger-wagging or being a technological pessimist or a nattering nabob of negativism or whatever...let's all just consider that the Bahamas were discovered and sailed around and eventually charted by thousands of persons over many, many centuries from the Arawaks to the Spanish and British--NONE OF WHOM had a Hunter 410 or any kind of electronics (think of a lead line...)--and they still managed to cross wide expanses of ocean. Nor did they have computers, the internet or Cruisers Forum. Even their "spyglasses" were less helpful than today's binocular (not binoculars or worse--a pair of binoculars...just a binocular), which I hope that all sailors have onboard and use regularly. Yes it is great to have electronics, but to those who eschew charts as do many, don't purchase or use them, as do many--or don't know how to use them, as do many, I hesitate to ask...but...do you have up-to-date charts on board that you know how to read and plot with? They might get worn, soggy or even blown away if careless, but you have already expressed your concerns about the real and often ignored shortcomings of chartplotters. Let's take a step back, take our eyes off the chartplotters...and actually look what's ahead, above us and below us, which one can really do in the Bahamas but not everywhere as the author alluded to about cruising south, where one cannot often see the bottom in the shallows. Thank you.

[jalmberg]

Maine without charts would certainly be more dangerous. But obviously you need to snag some charts somehow. We used Navionics in the Bahamas and they seemed okay, but we also had explorer charts, paper and electronic. I would put AquaMap on my phone and buy the Explorer charts for it. If the paper charts are available where you are, definitely worth having too. You can always plot your position the old fashioned way. As many people have said, you need to pilot by eye, but without charts you’re not going far. Good luck.

[GinoDelG]

We’ve done the Abacos twice and we’re going again this season. We’ve found the best electronic charts to be the Navionics sonar charts on the iphone or ipad. These are crowd sourced and tend to be very accurate and up to date, for some reason even better than the Navionics charts on our Raymarine chart plotter. Use the charts on your phone and head to Green Turtle. You can get your second test there. Stop there before you go to Treasure because to get to Treasure you’ll have to go through the Whale and you’ll want to have some good local knowledge to do that. The Whale has a thing called the Rage when the ocean swell is big and from the wrong direction and it can be deadly. Much of the time its easy but some of the time its definitely not. By the way, Treasure has a very tricky entrance and you’ll want good charts for that. Marsh Harbor is much easier. Both are still recovering from the hurricane.

[Amapola]

I know you are stressed but a little preparation would have save you. You really should not proceed without Explorer charts both paper and on your chartplotter. Having a good weather window to cross is important but equally important is having a good weather window to proceed. I'd stay where you are until you get your Covid test, proper charts, a good weather window, and a plan your destinations.

Winter cold fronts are common this time of year and it gets cold in the northern Bahamas. Most people who travel to the Bahamas this time of year head to the Exumas. The further south you go, the better the weather in the winter months.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by JebLostInSpace

There is wifi here (which I'm using to post to the forum), but my SIMRAD box won't stay connected to it long enough to complete the download

Download a download manager.

There are several (small) utilities that you can download for free that break up the file into small chunks that are downloaded separately.

It constantly retries, and checks the file integrity until you get the whole thing without errors.

Back in the day of dial up modems it was the ONLY way to get a file over the phone.

They are still out there, and very useful in a situation where you need a large file over a shaky network connection.

[rmcnabb]

Originally Posted by Stewie12

This is a perfect example of relying on electronics and not on paper charts.

Thank you.

[Scarlettn]

We sailed from Pensacola, Fl to the Bahamas via Bimini to West End, then Great Sale and down through the Abacos. We did this in 2010 and the entire journey is captured in our blog.
If you remember, the BP oil spill... well we couldn't get home across the blob so we tucked into St Petersburg. We have lived here ever since!

Maybe it might help you follow the islands and give you places of interest...

http://svlulabelle.blogspot.com/2010/03/?m=0

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by smj

Anyone should be able to use a chart plotter to navigate, yet people still end up on reefs and aground on the side of the ICW. Maybe putting to much faith in the little boat symbol on the chart plotter?
Using paper charts takes some basic skills which I think many lack nowadays. I also believe people are a little more cautious when using paper vs. a chart plotter.
Either way the best navigational tool you have are your eyeballs looking at your surroundings which really holds true in the Bahamas.

I've had this happen several times where for whatever reason the chartplotter either would not a load a chart, or load only a coarse no detail chart.

Copyright, bad memory chip or file, expired, bad download, ...

Chart owner wanted more money, expired subscription,...

Either way seeing a big green square where the channel is, is pretty useless.

Being able to pull out a paper chart even if it's an old one, at least shows marker numbers, and what the channel is supposed to look like.

[timb7734]

Last time we went to Abacos from Peanut Island to Mangrove, through Indian Cay pass at night. This was before Dorian and we used paper and electronic charts, but there was never any depth issue in the channel. Anchored at Mangrove in sort of a blow, not really any protection there. The next day off to Spanish to check in. Personally I wouldn’t be without both nav aids and the Skipper Bobs guides, but so equipped there is nothing to fear except fear itself.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I keep forgetting that a Goggle Map satellite image is useful to use with a chart

Overlays are very handy and help confirm land mass charted positions.

[Normanskier]

Originally Posted by JebLostInSpace

Hi all,

I made the crossing from West Palm Beach to West End, Bahamas a couple of days ago. I had a nice, uneventful crossing, and cleared customs without issue.

Now I'm still sitting here in West End, 2 days later, feeling at a total loss for how to proceed. One problem is the current requirement to get a second Covid test on Tuesday. I had hoped to make it to Treasure Cay for that, but at this point I've waited too long to make it with the current weather forecast. So I'm pretty much stuck here, or running down to Port Lucayan until I get the test sorted.

Another problem is my chartplotter does not have the good Explorer charts loaded on it. Somehow that bit of preparation completely escaped me, and the "chart" that is loaded on my plotter is essentially worthless (currently shows me on land, and has no detail whatsoever on any of the banks). I do have navionics on my phone, but navigating that way feels a lot sketchier. I've since bought the chart download I need, but I haven't been able to keep my plotter connected to the internet long enough to download it...

So I guess my question is: how the heck do people continue from West End? I've seen a couple boats here heading south for the Berries, but that's another overnight sail, which I'd much rather avoid. I thought initially that I would go around to the north, through Indian Rocks passage, but I'm quite nervous about the shallow water with my 5.5 ft draft, especially without the help of my chartplotter.

This has unexpectedly been the most anxiety/stress-inducing part of my cruise so far. For some reason it seems worse than the gales of new england, the fog in Maine, the sprint down the Jersey coast, steep head seas in the chesapeake, or all the shallow water I've cleared in the ICW. Am I just being stupid and it's not as hard as it seems?

I used Navionics in the exumas. Absolutely terrific. Use the map mode from Navionics. I think it identifies as Sonar. It is corrected by users. Good luck.

[Lionshooter]

I have a little to add. It's old news but pertinent.
I ran charters in the Abacos from 1980-1987. I had paper charts, a compass, and eyesight. The latter is THE most important thing to know about the Bahamas. Colour of the water. The second most important thing is to never be in a hurry. That's when mistakes are made. It's Island Time. Don't worry, be happy. There is always tomorrow.
Do you have paper charts? If not, go back to FL and buy some. Screw electronics. I've sailed 3 oceans, all of the Caribbean to Venezuela, and the Med with a compass, sextant, and charts. Yeah, I'm old.
You can do this. West End past Indian Rocks, Great Sale, Green Turtle Cay, or where ever. Watch the water. Pastel lime green is a red light.
Happy sailing. Cheers.

[JanetGroene]

In general the northern Bahamas are different from the southern Bahamas in many ways, especially in winter. They are better sailed south to north. Start in Miami and let the Gulf Stream help you get to Bimini. Take your time getting to Nassau for re-provision, then on to the Exumas. Catch the Abacos on your way back to the U.S. Just IMHO

[MicHughV]

these folks are (or were) already at West End, Abaco's....