I thought I would write a post about some of our experiences in the
Bahamas this season and last. We have gotten a lot of good information from Cruisers Forum, so here is a little information back.
We are mostly interested in
diving and snorkeling and while it is nice to hang out with other sailors, we try to go places that are out of the way of where people normally go. We have of course been to New Providence, Abacos,
Exumas, etc. but there is already plenty of information available about those places. This post is about the less visited places.
Our
boat has a four foot
draft, which is nice in the
Bahamas, but most of the places we went, you could go with deeper
draft. Below is some information about some of the places we went. Just ask if you have any questions. It seems that many factors influence
water clarity, so when I write below that the
water is clear at a particular place, it is what we saw when we were there.
Little Inagua
To the east of the southern tip, there is a reef that you can get behind to
anchor (using the gap near the eastern end of the reef). Inside, there is good protection and nice snorkeling on shallow patches of reef. In easterly winds, you can
anchor off the west side of the southern tip. From the anchorage, you can swim out to the wall, which starts at a fairly shallow
depth (I don't exactly remember how deep). Little Inagua had amazingly clear water, the clearest we have seen in the Bahamas. A dolphin came by and said hello while
diving on the west side. There are lots of large
fish since I don't think a lot of
fishing is going on there. The snorkeling off the southern point is impressive. We saw one other
boat while there.
We never managed to get far ashore. We walked on the beach, but did not reach the
interior. No people live on the island. If you are coming from the east, the closet place to check in to the Bahamas is Matthew Town in Great Inagua where you can also buy BTC sim cards for
internet.
Mayaguana
At Mayaguana, you can anchor at Abraham's Bay. You can check in there and they also have a BTC store. About 280 people live on the island. We did a nice long hike on the road leading east out of town. The wall outside the reef is the best wall dive I have done in the Bahamas. The wall starts at around 80' and goes straight down. The place I dove had many tunnels leading down from the sandy area above the wall and out to the wall at around 100'.
The snorkeling there was also really good with lots of large
fish. We saw a couple of other
boats.
Hogsty Reef
This is one of the few atolls in the Atlantic. When we were there, it was quite windy. We entered the atoll from the west and went all the way to the eastern side (on the inside). The snorkeling was not all that great and the anchorage was rolly. But this was probably due to all the
wind. We saw no other
boats there. I would only go again in calm
weather.
Bight of Acklins
We spent some time in the Bight of Acklins, and here we used our
shallow draft to anchor in 5 feet, etc. The visibility was not very good. We saw no other boats there. I dove a number of blue holes in the bight. They are not really that beautiful, being fairly small and brown, but they are interesting and has large fish and lobster in them. The
current was always sucking water into the holes I found, so it is not a place I would recommend going unless you are very serious about your diving.
Andros
We spent a total of around four weeks in Andros from Fresh Creek to Congo Town. I had hoped to find some good wall diving, but the places I tried was too deep. At around 100' the bottom starts sloping down at a significant angle with some
coral but mostly sand. The wall starts at around 170', and I saw the top of it, but without trimix it doesn't really make sense to dive the wall. From our
depth sounder, it seemed that this was the profile everywhere in the region we visited.
At Fresh Creek, you can tie up to the
government dock at the part just before the bridge (watch out for the tidal current). This will leave room for the bigger ships that use the
ramp. The harbor master will come around and say hello and take you to the office to pay. It is not very expensive at all. As everywhere in the Bahamas, people are extremely friendly in Fresh Creek. There is a decent store (I think it is called Adderly's Grocery) and you can rent a car there. I would recommend doing that and at least going out to see the Blue Hole National Park north of town.
There are good places to anchor in the bights. We enjoyed staying at Gibson Cay, Middle Bight,
fishing in the
current and going ashore on Gibson Cay over to the blue hole on the island. You can swim there and sometimes see lots of lobster (apparently they come out of their holes in cloudy weather). But as is the case with many blue holes in the Bahamas, it really is brown.
We anchored right off Congo Town, South Andros for several nights. To get there, we went inside the reef just south of Driggs Hill Settlement. If it isn't blowing too hard, you are somewhat protected by the reef. It is cool that you can
dinghy ashore and walk to the
airport. My impression is that they don't have
customs and immigration in Congo Town
airport, but they do at Fresh Creek.
The nicest anchorage we found was behind Long Rock off North Andros, south of Fresh Creek. Coming from the east, you can go in behind the reef around 0.2-0.25 nm north of Long Rock and go behind the island for a nice anchorage in easterly winds. The snorkeling there is great and the diving too.
The US military has a number of privately run
navy bases on Andros. The biggest one is just south of Fresh Creek. The activity at these bases seems to vary a lot (they probably have deadlines for their work). At some times we saw no activity and at other times, they were really busy. Within a couple of weeks at North Andros we saw a submarine and dozens of helicopters, some with big nets for scooping up used torpedoes that they are testing. We also got pinged by a submarine for several hours. You don't need to worry about their exercises: as far as I understand, they do not announce anything, they just cease firing while a sailboat is in the way.
In our four weeks at Andros we saw no other sailboats apart from the permanently moored
trimaran at Fresh Creek. If you go to Fresh Creek, pop by the
trimaran and say hello to the lady living on it during the
winter. She is really friendly. We saw a few large
motor yachts at Andros that were there for the diving and fishing I presume.
Green Cay
Green Cay is an island between Andros and Exuma. There is a good anchorage west of the island. Depending on the
wind, you could probably anchor on any side of the island.
Again, the wall starts at around 170', so it is too deep for wall diving, but the snorkeling on the reef in the south end of the west side of the island is really good. We didn't spend much time on the shallow reef, but there is one that is around 25' deep which is great. We did see a black tip shark or a reef shark on the deeper reef and later on the shallow reef we saw a really antsy shark which I think was a lemon shark. So we aborted the snorkel on the shallow reef. Apart from nurse sharks, we haven't seen many sharks outside Green Cay and the Ragged Islands (one angry looking one at
Long Island is all I remember).
A cool thing about Green Cay is that there are lots of fish, including several species that we have not seen in other places. We saw one other sailboat there and quite a number of fishing boats. We recognized one large local fishing boat that we also saw in Andros.
Ragged Islands / Jumentos
Going from George Town to the Ragged Islands, you may wish to pass through Hog Cay Cut. We did it a few times, and if you get the tides right it should be OK with a 5 foot draft or a little more. One time we passed near high water and the shallowest we saw was 6'4" but the bottom looks hard, so I wouldn't push it too much. If needed, you can anchor for the night on the south side of the cut (if it is not too windy).
We only went to Water Cay and Flamingo Cay in the Ragged Islands. The diving and snorkeling at Water Cay is some of the best we have found in the Bahamas so we stayed there for six nights. The water is really clear and blue. We anchored at the south end of Water Cay (north end is the normal place to anchor). Within
dinghy distance (2 nm) we found the following places to dive and snorkel: three different blue holes on the bank side (from 50' to 150' deep), lots of great shallow
reefs, and a wall on the ocean side starting at 70' and going straight down (ESE of the south tip of Water Cay).
The only downsides to diving this area is the tides and the sharks. If you anchor at the south end of Water Cay, there is some tide at the anchorage and you can determine when it is slack tide which is a good time to dive anywhere in the area. We saw lots and lots of sharks around Water Cay. One day I saw ten different individuals. I only saw nurse sharks and reef sharks. The reef sharks are a little curious which is unnerving, especially when snorkeling. While diving, the reef sharks were less curious and quickly left. Interestingly, the whole area is full of queen triggerfish and yellowtail snapper. Many more than we have seen elsewhere.
Flamingo Cay has good snorkeling too along with nice beaches and some hiking trails. We only saw a few monohulls in the Ragged Islands but quite a number of catamarans. So it is not as far off the beaten path as some of the other places, but with the diving at Water Cay, it is one of our favorites.
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