Sailing a monohull in the Bahamas

[Blueghost55]

We are sailing a Swan 55 with a draft of 250cm. Will it work in the Bahamas?

[Sailmonkey]

Yes, but you’ll need to pay attention to depth and tide. You’ll also be anchoring further out than the rest of the crowd and some areas will be inaccessible.

Take a look at a chart and see if you can get to the areas you’d like to visit.

[s/v Moondancer]

We took 240 cm through Nassau to Georgetown but crossing the Banks is no fun and if you go hard aground at high springs it will be difficult to get towed off.

As Sailmonkey writes you need to pay close attention. We entered difficult areas at half-tide-rising so that we had a foot of rise you get ourselves off.

After one trip to the Bahamas we never risked it again, we just kept going to the Caribbean.

[mglonnro]

We saw M5 sailing in the Exumas. With their keel up they appear to have a 12.5 ft draft.

When looking at the charts, it's amazing how Navionics (sometimes) shows a much scarier picture than the Explorer Chartbook (which, I assume, is the more reliable).

Attached a pic of "Pig Beach" from both providers. In the Navionics version there seems to be an inpenetrable wall of 1s that doesn't show on the other one.

[Navicula]

8 feet will limit you....but you should still go and visit.....its amazing and you propably have a go fast dinghy that you can travel long distances which will get you into skinny areas......we met alot of people with 7 foot draft and they are not having a problem enjoying themselfs......go for it....