1. Exuma Guide by Stephan Pavlidis used by many. I found Explorer
Charts of Exumas (and other
parts of Bahamas) were all I needed.
2. Diesel and gas available only at Highbourne Cay and Staniel Cay. None at
Compass as far as I know. Further southeast: In the past, there has been gas & at Cave Cay, but don't count on it; cash only. Next reliable fuel stops are Emerald Bay (on Exuma Sound side of Great Exuma, about 15-20NM north of Georgetown) and Georgetown itself.
3. From Highbourne to Staniel is only about 40NM as the crow flies & somewhat longer if you allow for sailing around shoals on the SW (shallow bank) side of the Cays. Nassau to Highbourne is about 30-35NM as crow flies, and its a pretty straight run. With a range of 450NM, you should have no fuel problems due to range. An occasional issue is that fuel supplies get topped off at Highbourne and Staniel about once a week by the fuel barge (and sometimes the barge skips a week), so if a marina is out of diesel, you may have to wait for the next
delivery. But it always seemed to me that they ran out of gas more often than diesel.
4. Highbourne Cay, Compass Cay and Staniel Cay offer
reverse osmosis water. It may be 40 or 50 cents a gallon.
5. IMHO, Highbourne Cay has the most developed (i.e., like what you'd find in the U.S.) marina; it even has a relatively sophisticated (by Exumas standards) restaurant ("Xuma") with a nice view from the top of a bluff. IMHO, Compass is the best sop in the
Bahamas and not to be missed: docks are very good, water is very good, no fuel, some beer but no other provisions, swim with nurse sharks, most picturesque white-sand crescent beach in the
Bahamas; BUT ... not for the very budget-conscious. (Landing fee just to visit the Cay if not staying at marina). Staniel is the only marina in a settlement, so it has a bunch of local Bahamians hanging around the docks looking for
boat cleaning, selling conch, offering to guide, etc. The Staniel Cay Yacht Club is not exactly the
New York Yacht Club, but it has a reliable bar and restaurant (burgers, conch dishes, even green salad sometimes); also a liquor store the size of a large closet with beer, wine and spirits docks are older; there are a couple of grocery stores--NOT supermarkets, but better than nothing--, a
laundry service (you walk there and drop off, as I recall) and an
airport, if crew transfers are in the plan.
6. I'm not up to date on the latest
phone economics. Last time I was in Exumas was August 2017. It used to be that Batelco charged a few hundred dollars for a non-Bahamian to get a local Bahamian SIM; therefore, whether to get a local SIM depended very much on how much you need to use your
phone. Cellular data used to be fabulously expensive ($20/megabyte), so, except for fairly compact and desperately needed
weather (GRIB) files, I never used cellular for data. Even wi-fi in the out islands used to cost $10 for 100 megabtes, not unlimited data. I expect the
price has come down in the last couple of years. There is no wi-fi between Highbourne and Compass Cay (Exuma Park used to offer some at Warderick Wells, but maybe not now, and it seldom worked anyway, so don't count on it.)
7. In a slow
boat, the velocity vector of the
Gulf Stream really makes a huge difference. Advantages of positioning the boat in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale are not only that you fight less with the
Gulf Stream, but you can move the boat south the weekend before your departure, drive home to Start, and then use less of your 4 weeks in the crossing. If you will start from Stuart, then it is probably shorter, and certainly requires a shorter first leg, to go from Stuart to West End (of Grand Bahama) where you can clear in, then across to Northwest Channel. (Check that Old Bahama Bay marina in West End has reopened since
Hurricane Dorian.) Whether West End of Bimini, the Northwest Channel is your best
route, and Chub Cay is a good stop. The alternative, if you go by way of West End, is to skirt north of the Berry Islands and then south along the Berry Islands to Nassau; again, their are numerous good
anchorages in the Berry Islands, but you will be on the weather side, so if the seas kick up, it can harder to get through a cut and into a calm anchorage. For purposes of getting to Highbourne, going west of Nassau works about as well as going east, although it means you miss
anchoring off Rose Island; the west route isn't really any longer and avoids the close piloting required to get through the cays and rocks north of the east end of Nassau Harbour; I believe Lyford Cay Club's marina (but not the Club facilities) may be open to the public, and it's a very good marina, within 2 or 3 miles of the
airport and a Solomon's fresh Market (a real, U.S-style supermarket). I agree that on the way home, with Gulf Stream behind you, you can make straight for Lake Worth Inlet or Stuart, depending on where in Bahamas you depart from.
8. Once you get past the Solomon's Fresh Market in Nassau, there is nothing that an American would call a grocery store. So take all the provisions (and medications, sunscreen & other
health & beauty aids) you need. Also, when things break in the Bahamas, the challenge is getting
parts. You can usually find somebody, even in
remote spots like Black Point, who can fix what's broken IF you give him the parts. So carry plenty of spares. And don't forget that you will need to do a few
oil changes on your
engine while you are there, so take all the filters and
oil you will need. You are probably going to cover 750-1,000 NM. Translate that into
engine hours and allow an
oil change every 100-200 hours, depending on manufacturer's recommendation.
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