We are combining a lot of the pages from our trip through the Bahamas under this section. We will include some planning for the trip, of the costs we had, repairs we did, and places we went. We hope this acts a primer to guide you in your planning of your trips there. The information below is a compilation from our trip this year, advise we were given that was correct, and what we experienced. You are at the end of the day still responsible for your boat, and the decisions you may or not make.

Charts, Planning. Plotters.

Planning for the trip begins long before you untie the lines. What kind of time line are you looking at? Are you going for a weekend or three months? I will over the course of this information use a couple of given knowns. That you are traveling from S. Florida. So what charts and plotters you have? Here is only my opinion, but it worked for us.

Charts:

This is one of a few areas that scrimping on does not make any sense. And yes, paper charts on top of any electronic plotter you have. There are more than a few times we referred back to the charts due to getting a better view of where we were trying to go. And not just any chart for the Bahamas, but “Explorer Chartbook”. We used the following 3 chartsbooks.

“Explorer Chartbook Near Bahamas” 8th Edition, Lewis ISBN 978-0-9828775-7-9

“Explorer Chartbook Far Bahamas” 6th Edition, Lewis ISBN 978-0-9828775-5-5

“Explorer Chartbook Exumas and Ragged Islands” 8th Edition, ISBN 978-0-9828775-6-2

These charts give waypoints, rum lines to follow, depth, and are very detail. And you will find most long term cruisers use them because they are standard. Here is a picture of one of the pages showing this.

Books:

Here are a couple of books we found useful on our trip.

“The Cruising Guide to Abaco Bahamas 2018” by Steve Dodge. ISBN 978-0-932265-98-2. $29.95. This book is a wealth of knowledge on the Abacos. It lists local businesses, charts with waypoints, and notes on the different areas

“Waterway Guide The Bahamas 2018” ISBN 978-0-9903955-6-0. $39.95. This book describes the locations, cruising information, and directions to many of the places you visit in the Bahamas.

Chartplotter:

We traveled this year with both a Raymarine E80 with the newest Navionics Platinum Plus chart, and a Garmin Bluechart G2 on a Ipad.

Remember these are just our experiences, and other may hold a different view, but hands down we trusted the Bluechart on my Ipad over the Navionics chartplotter. Two of our traveling partners on their boat used Navionics Sonar version, one on a Ipad, the other on a Chartplotter. For years i had said i wouldnt travel with a set of electonic charts on a tablet and yet when we left, we initially were looking at the Raymarine/Navionics. However, as we started watching both, the Garmin Charts mirrored the Explorer Chartbooks, waypoint for waypoint. The Coordinates, and rum lines were an exact match. (They started charging large amt of boat bucks for Garmin app, but still favor it over the Navionics). Buy a true waterproof case for the Ipad, money well spend in protecting it. The other two boats were busy most evening, inputting waypoints to match the Explorer Charts. In the states, they are equal, but farther afield, ie Foxtown, Navionics missed the boat so to speak, where we could see anchorages, tracks, and active captain overlays, the Raymarine left us with a little bit lacking.

Spares, Provisions, Oddball.

We covered some of the items in provisioning section of this site, but some items we didn’t think about or already have and actually used. I will attempt to break it down by a few sections below.

Spares:

We carried a wide range of hardware, electrical, plumbing, tools, and fittings but still found a few things lacking. One item that was a last minute purchase that was solely bought for the steering section was spare shaft keys of assorted sizes. This and quick connection clamps for cables we purchased incase a cable on the steering broke. And it did, but not on our boat. Helped a sailor in Wardrick Park on a 40 ft catamaran, and the keys helped our buddy boat twice with sheared prop key. Not the best quality keys but worked to get to where proper ones were. Lesson, buy better grade as spares but buy them none the less.

Normal spares include water pump impellers, pulleys and blocks, electrical connections, fan belts (used two!), oil and oil filters. Speaking of Oil, we typically use Rotella oil and having an older engine, we leak/burn around a quart per 20 hrs run time. We took around 4 gallons with us, but motorsailed more then expected, and did an oil change part way thru the trip. Locally here in the states we pay around $15-18 a gal. In the Abacos same oil was $83 a gallon. Off brand diesel oil was $59. And no didnt matter further south. Remember everything has to be boat freight into the islands, so plan accordingly. And this means even in the Keys. Amazon or free shipping if you have time prior to reaching here will save you dollars in the long run. Plan on at leave two oil changes just in case.

Provisions:

We planned and stocked very heavy, both because we knew some of the costs we were to expect there, but also because we like certain brands. Can Corn is a prime example. In Florida, Aldi’s brand was $.49 a can, same can in Green Turtle $2.49. So what did we tend to buy when we did go into towns. Fresh vegetables and fruits. Occasionally meat, chicken or bacon. Or occasional sausage. Bread and milk. If you must have real milk, not the shelve box or powder, be prepared to spend around $5-7 dollars a half gallon. Cheezes were a mixed lot, and a favorite there is a hard salimi.

Here is a link to one of the Bahamas Grocery prices. Nassau Grocery

Beer-Wine-Rum:

Here is the quandary many a cruiser faces. Do i take Rum/Wine/Beer with me? And how much? And where to store it? From past experiences in the Bahamas, Rum is cheap, soda expensive and beer, bring a hundred dollars to the store. So what did we do? We don’t typically drink a lot of beer, unless at a bar. We did take a fair amount of wine with us. Same as the name brand rums. The Bahamas brand of rum is called Ricardo. Very inexpensive around $9.50 or so a bottle. And isn’t that bad overall. As far as soda, i drink a lot of cola. So we created our own soda dispenser on the boat. The savings over buying cola down there as well as space saved taking cans or bottles worked hands down. 5stars. Text me if you want directions and prices.

Oddball:

Here are a few other things we really didn’t think of, and maybe it was just us. Sunglasses. Minimum of two pairs per person. And speaking sunglasses, get the best polarized lens you can afford, and then buy the better pair past that. There truly is a big difference when you are navigating around shallows and unmarked coral heads. I bought the plain Jane cheap polarized sunglasses and most of the way through i tried my friends pair, and wow! It does make a difference. Next plan how you are securing your spare diesel and gasoline cans. When the boat is rolling in moderate to heavy seas you don’t want to see your fuel cans sliding around the deck.

Locations.

So where did we stop? So one long listing… Key West-Marathon-Rodriquez Key-No Name Harbor, Miami-West End Bahamas-Mangrove Key-Great Sail Cay-Foxtown-Green Turtle-Marsh Harbor-Lynyard Cay-Royal Harbor Island-Spanish Wells- Highbourne Cay-Shroad-Wardrick-Big Majors/Staniel Cay-Black Point-Georgetown-Little Farmers-Great Guana Cay-Staniel Cay-Pipe Cay-Black Point-Staniel Cay/Big Majors-OBriens Cay-Wardrick-Highbourne Cay-No Name Harbor, Miami-Rodriquez Key-Marathon-Key West. Whew! That was just with the big boat. We took the dinghy to many more, hiking, snorkeling, beaching.

Fuel

Still working on the mileage and fuel usage totals here, and the numbers might change a bit, but a couple of notes to add. We initially started out of St Pete with 1 ea of water, diesel and gasoline 5 gallon jugs. In Key West we increased water to 3 Jugs and both fuels to 2 each. This proved helpful both for water when water maker failed, and for extra fuel for dinghy in areas where refueling was not available. Typical costs we saw in the Bahamas was Diesel at $4.89 and Gasoline at $4.39.

Diesel purchased after Key West. – 81.6 gallons

Gasoline purchased after Key West – 21.6 gallons

Miles Total this trip – 1215 miles

Repairs

We experienced a few repairs that weren’t foreseen prior to the trip, as well as some wear/tear issues. Will list each, causes and costs where known.

Watermaker – We had a catastrophe failure of the water-maker membrane in the Northern Bahamas early in the trip. The PPM went from 275 to over 4000 in less than three hours. This water-maker was only 4 months old, flushed after each use, and resulted in having a new membrane flown into Marsh Harbor. This was a delay of 5 days on an overnight delivery request, with costs just under $700 when all was said and done. Not happy over this one, and still have a few choice words for vendor.

Drive shaft U-Joint – In Spanish Wells while checking everything over found front U Joint v sloppy and failing. Took two days in Spanish Wells to locate one. On the larger Irwins, they used a short shaft between the transmission and prop shaft. This particularly U Joint is from a 1980’s GMC 1 Ton Pickup. Try finding that in the islands. But thanks to a very helpful auto repair shop, fixed for under $100.

AIS – We knew going into this our AIS would transmit our location but our chartplotter (Raymarine E80) would not show it. Not happy but at least showing us. Until we replace Chartplotter later this summer, living with limitations.

VHF – Very unhappy with both mobile units, and ultimately failure on both handhelds, that limited our communication between boats. Currently believe its a cable issues at the mast head on both mobile units, so will need to address these over the summer. Buy the best handheld portable you can afford.

Main Boom Sheet Bail – During a very rough crossing from Little Harbor to Spanish Wells we had one of the bales that hold the Main Boom Sheet fail during a overly strong gust. Post failure can detect crevices corrosion. If not for Boom preventor, might have had major rigging damage. Will be changing the entire layout of the boom bales this summer. One word of advise, use either a preventer or boom brake always!

Anchor Windless – Had the recently rebuilt windless motor fail due to corrosion connecting fields to wiring. Repairable but took about 4 hours labor. Consider covers for windless when not in use.

Dinghy lift pulleys – We had one of the connections to hoist the dinghy on the arch fail while not under load. A cotter pin fell out either after snagging a bouncing line or improper bend in key. Loss of $40 shackle and clip. Repaired with more permanent connection and safety wire.

Roller Jib – Upon leaving Key West found could not unroll forward Jib. Upper roller jammed. Was not able to clear until in the Northern Bahamas, by manually unfurling jib, dropping sail, clean and lube upper bearing and reinstalling sail. About 5 hours total time. Loaded with Bird crap from wayward Ospreys in Key West.

Main Bilge Hose – In Green Turtle noticed a high bilge run count following a rain storm. Open access hatch as bilge kicked on and noted large amount of water spraying. Turns out to have a wear/Chafe spot in hose causing incomplete draining bilge and repeated pumping of same water. Patched hose and will replace entire hose this summer. It’s important to note that if i had not had bilge run counter would not have noticed leak in hose until high water alarm sounded.

Assorted fresh water/rain leaks – Yes, its a boat, but some of these rain leaks around port lights and windows are making it nuts. Wii be addressing these more now in Key West.

Money

So where did most of our funds typically go? Eating and drinking out account for over 60%. Fuel maybe 10% at around $475. Groceries around 15% at $700, and Bahama entry of $300. In the Exumas, there is an anchor fee per foot, and inside Wardrick mooring balls are $40 for our boat per night. So $340 for our time in the Land and Sea parks. And another $60 in Green Turtle for a mooring ball. That is the bulk of the costs.

So there you have an idea. We were gone from Key West just over 4 months. Over 1200 miles of traveling. Used somewhere around 95 gallons of Diesel. Took combined over 4000 photos. Caught only two fish, both Barracudas. And enough memories to last us til next year. And yes, worth every penny and every minute.

More updates to this page over next weeks.