Shallow Water Cruising in Bahamas?

[Lihuedooley77]

Dave

Our experience was several years ago sailing the Abacos...

It was quite interesting at first, sailing along, and seeing the sea stars resting on the bottom....but we acclimated to that .

No GPS, we had bow watches when approaching anchorages or harbors, we used paper charts, coastal navigation, and cruising guides.

Narry a problem.

sailing into to Hope Town, we did not enter the harbor, we anchored bahamian moor undersail outside. And dinked ashore to walk around town, stopped at a cool dock side open air bar for Klick Beers and Conch Fritters, and picked up Key Lime Pie later to take back to the boat.

It was here we saw the only grounding during the entire trip . A single hander on his own pristine 33 foot sailing vessel had run aground outside of the harbor entrance. We dinked over to see if he needed any assistance.

Nope, he was having a beer and lunch, and would wait a while for high tide to float off the sandy bottom. Sure enough, we were partying a couple of hours later, shooting pool and having lunch and beers, and we spotted him slowly motoring to slip in the harbor. NO worries.

Guana Cay, I believe was our first stop, and we did some leg stretching and then had some Guana Grabbers while cooling down in the swimming pool.

Wont get into the whole fun trip , but we had a great time snorkeling, sailing and partying down, singing Jimmy Buffet songs, and exploring the Cays.

Never had a grounding, but paid close attention to our charts, the cruising guides, coastal nav, and posted bow watches when necessary. All without GPS or chart plotters.

As to the other areas of the Bahamas, the cruisers here have relayed great local knowledge.

We have sailed the Abacos, BVI, French West Indies, and the Windwards and Grenadines. For us the BVI has become a special favorite, and we just keep on returning .

We do continue to hear great reports on sailing the Bahamas.....looks super.

Have a grand and fun adventure.

[R2boat]

Suggestion....get Explorer Charts and go....after you get there, intentionally run aground and get it behind you, everyone else has....you will learn quickly to read the water...enjoy