Sailing to Abacos in May - advice needed

[kristof]

I am thinking about sailing to Abacos in May for 4 to 6 weeks. My boat is rather slow so it would probably take 12 to 14 hours realistically. My major concern is the weather and the risk of thunderstorms. What is the best tactic for the crossing this time of the year in a small sailboat. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, Kristof

[SailsWithFists]

Why are you worried about thunderstorms? You have an ocean going sailboat.

Cross the gulfstream in settled weather with a southerly wind component. Most people do not go in late spring/early summer, but that is the only time I ever went to the Bahamas. It is much easier to find a good weather window; so much so, you might need to motor over a glassy sea. You will also find mostly deserted anchorages (compared to fall/winter sailing season.)

Have fun, stop worrying.

[boatman61]

12 to 14hrs.. Man thats daysailing.
Enjoy it dont stress it.. 4 to 6 weeks is shedule free.
Pick a weather window n go.

[puffcard]

Start before daybreak and will arrive before dark. Thunderstorms are more prevalent in Fla in the afternoon, you should be fine with an early start. Great time to visit the Abacos.

[JakeBottom]

I suggest you leave around dusk, enough light to get out of whatever pass you're leaving from, and make your crossing at night. Pick "good" weather and go for it. You should arrive after sunrise on the Little Bahama Bank (check your chart for good water to cross on to the Bank), head for Great Sale, anchor and spend a pleasant night, then proceed down the Sea of Abaco to Spanish Cay or Green Turtle to clear customs and get your fishing license.
I've made the crossing 26 times, and found this the very best way to enjoy the wonderful Abacos. Make sure you say hi to Babs at the Other Shore Club, Green Turtle for me.
As an aside, there are plenty of "good" anchorages between Great Sale and either Spanish Cay or Green Turtle . . . Allan's Pensacola being the best, as it is about half way to either cay for customs check-in.

[YachtBroker]

Easy, Leave out of Stuart, Boca or even Hillsboro at dusk.
Hit memory rock at day break or go into west end to clear.
I've hit Memory rock at 6am daybreak and we pressed on to beat a norther coming all the way to Green Turtle and got in a midnight that night. I had been in there before in the dark though. In May I'd anchor outside Mangrove Cay and have a rest.

It's not that hard and shouldn't be in May at all.

[AJ_n_Audrey]

I left last year on April 23rd. May would have been better. I left from Lake Worth going over to West End, but you might want to leave from a point a bit further south if you can do it to get the Stream to give you a push. From Port Everglades it's about 72NM to Memory Rock. Be very sure you have settled weather, winds from a southerly component, and a longish wave period for a comfortable ride. Fyi, my plan was to skip West End and go to Great Sale Cay and anchor, and then check in next day at Green Turtle, but the weather did not cooperate, so I went to my back-up destination - West End. Coming back, I went from about 7NM SE of Memory Rock (we anchored on the Bank the night before) to Fort Pierce, and in the middle of the Stream, SOG was occasionally 10 knots - we did 77NM in about 11 hours. Winds were 15-20 knots, and it was a very pleasant sail.

Enjoy! I wish I were going over in May. By the way, make sure you get Explorer Charts on your chartplotter - they are dead accurate for Sea of Abaco sailing.

[Aaarrgh]

My best advice is to make sure you have capable, pleasant crew, like... maybe... ME!

Aarrrgh!!

[Txcruiser]

My best advice, learned the hard way, is don't cross if there is ANY north component in the wind. South is good.

[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by JakeBottom

I suggest you leave around dusk, enough light to get out of whatever pass you're leaving from, and make your crossing at night. Pick "good" weather and go for it. You should arrive after sunrise on the Little Bahama Bank (check your chart for good water to cross on to the Bank), head for Great Sale, anchor and spend a pleasant night, then proceed down the Sea of Abaco to Spanish Cay or Green Turtle to clear customs and get your fishing license.
I've made the crossing 26 times, and found this the very best way to enjoy the wonderful Abacos. Make sure you say hi to Babs at the Other Shore Club, Green Turtle for me.
As an aside, there are plenty of "good" anchorages between Great Sale and either Spanish Cay or Green Turtle . . . Allan's Pensacola being the best, as it is about half way to either cay for customs check-in.

My apologies - I am on my phone rather than my computer.

You will jump over an enormous number of great places to explore if you go to Green Turtle key first. Instead keep on going to Grand key at the top of the Northwestern Bahamas.

You will find the check-in dead simple and they are very less formal than many other places. As a result you and your crew can go ashore and explore after you've checked in which is a dead simple also. At the end of the main road when you turn right after coming up from Rosie's, keep going until you run out of road. On the left you will see the federal building and customs and immigration are on the center door. When you come back stop at the ice cream place where you will get a great big waffle cone with two large scoops for $3 or something smaller if you like. Then when you go back to Rosie's stop into the bar, where are you will get three beers for $4. Or perhaps you would prefer 9 for $10. Two Bahamian beers that you will not encounter other way places in the Bahamas where might be eclipse and Bush that's Bush hyphen beer.

Rather than trying to Anchor in the Anchorage and harbor which is both shallow and narrow you can park your boat near the barge wreck on the island outside. When you go in stick to the right sure and you will see Rosie's quite clearly on the right.

After that, go exploring with all the islands in between there and green turtle key. Paragraph however, do you will find a Spanish is a private key and therefore does not welcome visitors other than to buy fuel or check in...

[AJ_n_Audrey]

Originally Posted by Txcruiser

My best advice, learned the hard way, is don't cross if there is ANY north component in the wind. South is good.

+1 Also +1 about learning it the hard way.

[kristof]

Thank you for all the advice. My boat is seaworthy but I do not have much experience ocean going. I am leaning toward leaving at dusk to arrive next morning. Should I consider AIS purchase. Radar is kind of out of my range and I hate the look of it especially on a small sailboat. I only sailed once at night on Baltic sea and after that experience (pretty shitty weather) I swore to never lay my foot again on a boat going to the sea Well that was 20 years ago so I guess I forgot how bad it was

[sailorboy1]

If you choose the correct weather for the crossing the only "ocean going" part of the trip is that you can't see land. I don't have AIS and use my Mark II eyeballs and I don't think I ever turned on the radar going to, being in, coming back from the Bahamas.

[SailsWithFists]

You don't need AIS, or Radar, or anything fancy. My first trip to the Bahamas over two decades ago I did not have anything: No compass, no GPS, no Charts, no electronics, no electricity, no head, no plumbing. Just a stripped down boat with good sails and a finicky outboard that died while I was in the Bahamas. I had a complete blast, and sailed everywhere, and that was in the early summer when winds are much lighter.

[Bean Counter]

It is about 50 miles from Lake Worth to Abacos. Lake Worth is an easy exit if you leave at first light - say 5.00am, at 5 knots vmg hopefully on an outgoing tide, you will be across the gulf stream to either West End to take a slip at the marina by 4pm, or keep sailing to Mangrove Cay (ok in settled weather) which is 80 miles - so at 5 knots you would arrive after 16 hours at 9.00pm - you will probably still have light for an hour after sunset - which is 8pm in May. Everything there after can be achieved in daylight hours from port to port.

If you have a solid engine and enough fuel you can just motor across on a no wind day. If you want to sail, pick W to SSE at 10 - 15 knots that is going to hang around for a couple of days. Once you get to top of Great Sale a day later you will want the wind to shift more SW to North so you can sail south east for the rest of the Abacos chain. If you don't like thunderstorms you will have to sit and wait till none are forecast and you have the right wind direction.

If you have a Garmin plotter, or Gamin charts on Ipad we found these are reliable for the crossing of the banks and finding the anchor spot at Mangrove Cay in fading light.