If you want to sail to the Exuma islands in the Bahamas, there aren’t very many chartering companies offering bareboat charters to do so. In fact we could find only two: Moorings operating on the north side of New Providence, on Paradise Island, and Navtours (member of Dream Yacht Charter) located on the southeast side of the island, operating out of Palm Cay Marina. We chose the latter, and this is a post about our experiences.
Tag: Bahamas
Day 6: Sailing Back to Nassau
We thought we had anchored in the perfect location to get a peaceful night, but boy were we wrong! The boat bounced all over the place and we ended up having the most restless night of the whole trip. Ok, part of the restlessness was probably due to everything nearing its end, but still, it wasn’t a very good night! We got up slightly more tired than we were used to, and started preparing ourselves and the boat for the last leg of our trip: sailing back to Nassau.
Day 5: Sailing Back North to Ship Channel Cay
Wind in the hair and smiles on our faces we set sails again, heading back north toward our final destination before returning to Nassau: Ship Channel Cay.
Day 4: The Sandbar
In the Bahamas the difference between high and low tide is about a meter of water. There are plenty of shallow places with sandy bottoms, and when the tide goes out, a few of these are exposed as “popup beaches” in the middle of the sea. They seem like absolutely magical places, so we set out to look for one!
Day 3: Sailing, Rowing and a Wonderful Encounter
Adjusting to the Bahamian time zone (Finland is +7 hours) was quite funny. When it got dark (after about six o’clock) we got tired and went to sleep. When the sun rose again, about twelve hours later, we got up. I never get this much sleep at home, so it was actually quite refreshing!
Day 2: Chilling with Iguanas
Charlotte felt better! It was the absolutely best morning gift after an excruciating yesterday of seasickness. The morning sun was shining and Charlotte was sunshining. The perfect day to just relax and take a look around at our amazing surroundings.
Day 1: From Nassau to the Exuma Islands
Provisioning done (lots of jugs of water, plenty of dry food, toast, cheese, coffee, weird sweets and obviously some sparkling wine for New Year’s). Water and fuel tanks filled, batteries charged. A general idea of where we were headed and which lines to pull to get the sails up. “Ready, captain?”, asked the charter company staff member as he handed me the last remaining docking line. And off we went!
41 Days to the Exuma Islands
Our smaller adventure inside the bigger adventure is getting closer.
We’re Going Sailing!
It’s getting dark and cold over here, and after having agonized for a couple of months about should we or shouldn’t we, we finally decided that life is too short for that, so we did!
If It All Goes Wrong
The sailing part of sailing isn’t what worries me. What worries me is that we’ve bought a new (and crazily expensive by our standards) yacht, created a lot of expectations, but when time eventually comes, we won’t really like it at all, to be out on the water and sail as a family.