May 20, 2012
This post is intended to share some of the some things we learned about what works well and what doesn't while cruising the Northern Bahamas.
Most of our blog posts have been intentionally low on technical sailing/boating issues as we wanted it be readable by sailors and non-sailors alike. This post, however, is targeted specifically to cruisers. I will mention many things without a lot of elaboration, so if you are a non-cruiser, you might want to skip this post.
Charts
We used Navionics charts on our Raymarine chart plotter and found them excellent. A nice feature is that they show the 'Explorer Charts' rhumb lines.
I (Tom) also had the Navionics iPhone Application. It is a great value (About $35 for US, Canada, and Bahamas). I was surprised how much I used it. I could use it as a chart plotter when away from the helm; I used it somewhat for anchor watches (just make sure your position has been updated); and I can not tell you how many times I was talking to someone away from the boat about a place or a channel and I was just able to whip out my phone and we could look at it.
We carried the Explorer Chart Book - Near Bahamas - 5th Edition and liked it very much. It has great detail, a rich set of waypoints, and suggested rhumb lines.
Warning - Physical features on the charts were very accurate; the Explorer charts even note areas with 'shifting sands'. Aids to navigation (buoys. markers, etc) are notoriously unreliable in the Bahamas and the charts sometimes show non-existent or changed aids to navigation.
Guide Books
We carried two and had reviewed several others.
By far, our favorite was Cruising Guide to Abaco Bahamas 2012 by Steve Dodge. It had very up to date information. One feature that I especially liked was that for many entrance channels he had a series of photographs from decreasing distances that made it very easy to locate features.
We also carried A Cruising Guide to the Northern Bahamas by Stephen Pavlidis. This guide has a tremendous amount of information (reminds me a bit of Don Street's Guides), but we found it fairly dated and hard to use.
Weather Information
From early in my investigation of cruising in the Abacos I was concerned about the availability (or lack thereof) of weather information on VHF radio. This turned out to be a very real concern. Within the so called 'Hub of Abaco' (Marsh Harbour, Hope Town, etc), you can get weather from the Cruiser's Net on VHF 68, but it can not be reliably received in the northern or southern parts of the area. Internet availability is also very limited in these areas, so you can't get weather that way either.
We subscribed to Chris Parker's weather by email before leaving the States and found it very helpful, but of course we needed internet availability to use it in the Bahamas.
If you are SSB equipped, you can listen to Chris Parker in the morning, however, we are not equipped with permanent SSB equipment on Barefoot. I am a licensed amateur radio operator and brought a very good portable SSB radio and an antenna. I had planned to try to listen to Chris and receive weather fax information over the radio - both were very unreliable.
We ended up getting set up Ocens satellite phone email at Green Turtle Cay and found that it worked very well to receive Chris's weather and GRIB files from SailDocs.com. After using these sources for a season, I really feel that it is the way to go. The transmission times are short, the sat phone can be used virtually anywhere, and you are not tied to getting information on someone else's schedule.
Satellite Phone
We got an Iridium 9555 phone before we left the states for emergency communication. We were very happy with it for email; we were disappointed with the voice quality. I will be installing a permanent antenna for the sat phone on our arch before next winter and hope that that will improve the quality. With the built-in antenna on the phone above decks, or the small 'hockey-puck' external antenna on a side-deck or cabin top, voice communication is difficult with significant delays and dropped content.
Internet
In the States we have Verizon iPhones with unlimited data plans and a Verizon MiFi hotspot device that generally provide pretty good internet access on the boat. International data and voice roaming are very expensive and Verizon has limited coverage in the Abacos, so we suspended our service on these devices.
Two companies offer extended area wifi service in the Abacos: Out Island Internet and Bahamas WiMax. We found that generally service was poor on both. We first subscribed to WiMax and then later added OII to see if it was any better. Sometimes one is available where the other isn't, and the service is sometimes better on one than the other, but in general they both suck. Also it typically is NOT the wifi signal that is the constraint, but rather band-width or reliability within their support infrastructure. Both are better than nothing, but have low expectations as to the internet you will get through them.
Marinas often have wifi, but we rarely dock, so we can't opine on that access.
Money Issues
The Bahamian dollar is at par with the US dollar and the two currencies are used interchangeably.
There are very few ATMs in the Northern Bahamas. Marsh Harbour has several and we understand that Treasure Cay also has one. Most of the out-islands have a bank, but it is typically only open once a week.
Credit cards are widely accepted, but typically there is a foreign currency transaction fee and many establishments 'upcharge' credit sales. A typical upcharge was 5%.
Bottom line - bring lots of cash!
Provisioning
First everything is more expensive - bring as much as you can.
Selection in the out-island stores varies but is generally very limited. Produce and other perishables typically arrive once a week on the supply boat. Shopping out island is typically more like buying what they have, as opposed to shopping from a list.
Meats outside of Marsh Harbour are almost always frozen. It is difficult to get a great hamburger in a restaurant in the Bahamas - you need fresh ground meat (IMHO). Seafood is typically excellent, but also typically fried in Bahamian cuisine.
Marsh Harbour has several large supermarkets (Maxwells most notably) that are excellent - you can get just about anything you are willing to pay for.
Customs
Clearing Bahamian customs in West End was painless. They gave us a 90 day cruising permit as requested ($300).
Clearing US customs coming back into the States was great with the Small Vessel Reporting System (formerly Local Boater Option). It is a bit of a pain to get registered, but clearing in was one quick phone call.
Water/WaterMaker
We have a Spectra watermaker and used it extensively in the Bahamas. Supply water quality is typically excellent outside of inner harbours - we used the same prefilters for the entire time we were there.
Water is available at most marinas at 20-50 cents a gallon; some marinas charge a daily fee. We only used dock water at West End and Marsh Harbour and the quality was fair to good.
You certainly do not need a watermaker to cruise the northern Bahamas, but it sure is convenient.
Crusing Area
We found that you can roughly divide the Northern Bahamas into the areas north and south of the 'Whale' - the area of the Sea of Abaco, where all but shoal-draft vessels must poke out into the Atlantic to continue south.
North of the Whale is generally less developed and offers more opportunities to see typical Bahamian life. South of the Whale is much more developed and focused on tourism; described by one person as Americanized. Which you will prefer is really a matter of style.
The northern section offers several uninhabited or lightly inhabited islands that you can have largely to yourself - our favorite was probably Manjack Key. There are several opportunities to see typical non-tourist oriented African-Bahamian towns (West End Settlement, Foxtown, Coopers Town). You will find friendly people and good food and drink if you look. New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay is a Loyalist town with some good stores and restaurants, that retains an authentic feel.
South of the Whale you will generally find Loyalist towns that are heavily oriented to tourism. Beach bars and restaurants abound. That said, they are typically very quaint and attractive (HopeTown very notably).
Warning - Probably the most opinionated section of this blog follows:
We found that if you reached out to them, the African-Bahamians were typically warm and friendly. We also found that the English-Bahamians were often a bit cool and reserved. My experience is that you can break down this coolness, but that it takes more time than you typically have.
The Northern Bahamas have a wide range of experiences available and what you will like depends on your style.
Tom
Coconut Grove Sailing Club\
Coconut Grove (Miami), FL
http://g.co/maps/whz9b
Crusing Area
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