New Member from Miami planing to sail bahamas

[Flacor]

Hello everyone, planing to spend 2 months in bahamas get to turks and caicos and return to miami.

Any particular path sugested for January/February?

Thank you

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Flacor.

[Don C L]

Welcome aboard Flacor. Sorry can't help you there, but you might also start a new thread specifically about sailing to the Bahamas this time of year. There are quite a few folks here who can help you out.

[laika]

Hi, it may or may not take patience to find a good wx window to make the crossing in Jan/Feb, and the T&Cs is a long way to go with a lot of cool islands to visit between. Two months to make it there and back may stretch it pretty thin. Start watching the wx trends as winter approaches and be ready to jump on a good window when you're time comes. Get the explorer charts and don't fixate on a schedule. A strategy to make some good SEing as wx permits might be a good bet, but much depends on the wx cards your dealt. Luckily, it'll be predominantly downwind on the return home, so less risk in getting stuck coming back then in getting stuck trying to get there.

[Flacor]

Thank you Laika and Don will take your advice planning to extend the trip to 3 months. Will have a flexible schedule, safety and comfort will be first thing while sailing with my wife and 3 kids

[skipmac]

Hi Flaco,

There are a few options for the trip to the T&C. Which you pick will depend to some degree on your draft and personal preferences.

Probably the most common is:

1. Miami to Bimini or Cat Cay.
2. Bimini/Cat Cay across the Great Bahama Banks. Which route across the banks will depend on your draft. Where you stop once across the banks depends on your route and preference. You could stop at Chub Cay in the Berry Islands (kind of expensive last time I stopped there), north Andros (not much in the way of facilities) or continue on to Nassau (also not cheap and you're in the big city). NOTE: if you stop in Nassau be aware that there is a strong current between the main island and Paradise Island so anchoring can be tricky. Some places there's nothing but rock bottom and no holding unless your anchor catches under a ledge which will dislodge when the tide changes.
3. Next stop northern Exumas. Then work your way down the Exuma chain to Georgetown. Georgetown has good facilities, groceries, flights to the states and a large cruising community.
4. Long Island. If you want to break the trip up the first night you can anchor off the beach on the west side of the northern tip of the island IF the winds are normal easterly trades. In a norther that will be exposes and not comfortable and possibly unsafe.
5. Clarence Town. Last stop with any kind of resources until the T&C.
6. Crooked Island group. Anchor off the NW point and dinghy to the small settlement but an open roadstead OR anchor in Atwood Harbor that is calm and protected in all but north winds but not close to anything.
7. From there on to the T&C but an option to stop off at Mayaguana.

The other route would be to go farther east. Through Current Cut, down the west coast of Eleuthera, Cat Island, San Salvador or Rum Cay area (good diving), etc.

[Flacor]

Thank you for the advice, my vessel is 6 feet draft. Reviewing Charts to take special attention and avoid shallow waters.

More oriented to do the first option through the banks. Two months should be ok weather permitted to get T & C and back to Miami? What do you think?

Any suggestion in which sim card cell?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Flacor

More oriented to do the first option through the banks. Two months should be ok weather permitted to get T & C and back to Miami? What do you think?

Two comments. First as you say, weather permitting. Some winters a front can roll through every few days bringing strong winds and keeping you port for days. Or the fronts could be weaker and less frequent. Just go with the flow and don't get too locked into a schedule. Second, how much time do you want to spend sailing vs time spent hanging out, beaching, relaxing and doing nothing. Or most important, how much time does the family want to spend doing either.

Originally Posted by Flacor

Any suggestion in which sim card cell?

Last trips I made were brief and I just used my US phone and paid roaming. For a longer trip go to the BTC (Bahamas Telephone Company) office in Alice Town Bimini and get a SIM from them. Note BTC works on a GSM network which is used in the US by ATT and T-Mobile and one of their phones should work. Make sure it is unlocked. If you are on Verizon or Sprint BUT have a global or quad band phone it should take a GSM SIM card.