Don’t Take the Typical Exumas Route-A Tale of Two Bahamas

Tale 1: Two years back we left the US for the Bahamas with a plan of seeing the Exumas of which we had heard so much. Like many cruisers, we had plans of going at least to George Town, had read our Van Sant book, and had our route in mind from studying our Explorer Charts.

We picked our crossing window and after a few days made it over to New Providence Island like most guidance says. Sure, a lot of people say to skip over the Nassau area or New Providence all together, but the typical Exumas route is basically the same with nearby stops while avoiding the big city. Just one step away from the Exumas. All good, right?

Well, maybe not so much. At this point, we were already pretty frazzled and perpetually tired. We’d been making the right weather choices, but they all seemed to be the less of multiple evils. Strong norther coming: leave the anchorage without northern protection. West winds: move around to the east side of New Providence. 20 knot plus eastern trades for days on end: find a cheap marina and wait it out.

All the while we were moving in a generally straight line toward the northern Exumas. The anchorage choices were probably the best available along that line, but they still weren’t great. At this point, we’d had about a solid week of “half sleep”.

And, being that the Exumas are pretty much due east of most crossing points, the sailing (read motoring) is mostly bashing into the eastern trades. “I’d wait it out for a better sailing day,” you say. Ahhh, and while you’re waiting, you’d maybe suffer through 10 foot swell coming off the Tongue of the Ocean into the anchorage with northern exposure you’re in during the approaching front. No, you’ll probably choose the most benign day possible and bash into the seas like we did.

And, after you’ve made your mad dash and reached the Exumas…probably Highbourne, right?…you learn that anchorages on this thin strip of islets have about a 2 degree range of protection from the wind. That funny little word “Surge” becomes more than just script on the Explorer Chart anchorage locations. It becomes a living monster hiding under your V berth robbing you of night after night of sleep.

What looked like a solid line of giant island protection on the charts, when seen in person are actually dots of mostly submerged sand bars no match for the wind and wave coming across the giant Exuma Sound. There’s nowhere to hide! Well, that’s not true. There are plenty of places to hide, but we’ll get to that later. You’ll just feel like there is nowhere to hide after Highbourne and then maybe Shroud have bounced your boat around constantly for days at a time. Is it going be like this for the rest of….forever!?

So, there we sat in Shroud two years ago having been in the Bahamas for a few weeks. Yeah, we’d been having a lot of fun. We’d seen indescribable beauty. We’re cruisers living the dream for goodness sake. Yet, the amount of discomfort during the sailing and anchorages was equal to or more than all the good stuff.

For every picture or video you saw us post of our smiling faces, there were melt downs, frowns, and even tears. We just don’t usually point the cameras at each other at those times. (“We want to see that stuff too,” you say. Yeah, I’ll let you come and try that with Lindy some time. See how that turns out for you and your GoPro. Ha!)

It wasn’t sustainable to the degree that there were discussions of giving up cruising all together.

Spoiler alert: after Shroud we rebounded, started getting luckier with the weather, found better anchorages, and in general really enjoyed the remainder of our two month stay. From Warderick Wells, to Big Majors, Little Farmers, Lee Stocking, and finally George Town, there are more options for anchoring protection from all wind directions. If you find yourself in the state of the above mentioned route and discomfort, go ahead and skip down to Warderick Wells. Hit Shroud later. And Highbourne….eh…

“But, that’s not me,” you say. “I listen to Chris Parker every morning. I only go when the weather is right, and I’ll find the right anchorages along my route based on that info.” Hmmm, maybe you will.

I’m here to tell you that your chances are much better if you cross over to the Bahamas with total route flexibility. Sure, you can have a plan of getting to George Town or ending up all the way in Luperon or even Grenada. But once in the Bahamas, be prepared to go to the Abacos, or Eleuthera, or the Berrys, or wherever after your first stop at Bimini or Grand Bahama or wherever. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky, and the wind will be just perfect for a straight run in total comfort to Bimini, Chub, Nassau, Highbourne, etc, etc, George Town. But don’t count on it!

The problem is in the “set plan”. The dash to George Town without enough flexibility, or better yet: total route and plan flexibility based on weather and wind direction, can be very uncomfortable and discouraging. When it comes to the weather, there will still be luck involved, good and bad. But, the amount of comfort we’ve had seems to be tied directly to the amount of flexibility in our travel plans. With that in mind, fast forward two years to the present. I give you…

Tale 2: After crossing to Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama, we sat in a cafe having breakfast the very next morning talking about the upcoming wind and weather. The question always, “when and where next?” The over all goal and plan were the same as our first trip described above. We’re heading at least to George Town where we will stage for whatever comes after (hoping further south this time!).

We had decided before we even crossed to go with full flexibility in our travel plans, determined to have a better experience than the prior trip. Also, we were wanting to see some new and different islands.

In the cafe in Port Lucaya is where we made the first of many decisions so far that has led to a much better cruising experience in the Bahamas. We deciphered the weather, abandoned our idea of going to the Abacos, and headed the opposite direction and went to the Berrys.

Did this ensure that we were going to have comfortable anchorages? No. The weather gets pretty uncertain outside of 48 to 72 hours. But, we were showing more flexibility and using the information we had to the best of our ability.

And guess what, the Berrys were awesome! Much better than I had expected. We loved it there. With our new found flexibility skill and a little luck, we didn’t have one bad night in our most of a week there.

Next came the best and most surprising decision. When we decided to skip the Abacos, I had pretty much also written off going to Eleuthera this year too. However, when the weather was telling us it was time to leave the Berrys, it was also telling us that sailing to Eleuthera was the better choice than toward Nassau. Not a direct route to the Exumas by any means, but let’s put this flexibility thing into real practice here.

Well, we had a perfect sail across the big waters of the Northeast Providence Channel, found comfortable anchorages for our 15 day stay, and loved Eleuthera. We even weathered a couple of fronts with gusts of wind in the 40s without discomfort. (Go to Hatchet Bay! The poor holding that the Explorer Charts talk about is wrong.)

Once reaching the southern parts of Eleuthera, we were now EAST of the Exumas. What? Travelling down the Bahamas and actually getting to sail WEST with the trades behind us? That’s unheard of!

But, it’s true. With basically any number of days with east wind to choose, we picked a moderate one, and had an awesome downwind sail across the big waters of the Exuma Sound to Warderick Cut. Yes, we skipped Highbourne and Shroud.

We arrived to the Exumas rested, happy, and in awe of the beauty around us. We also arrived with a number of nice comfortable big water passages under our belts to give us confidence for future voyaging.

What a difference in our tales of two Bahamas! What a difference in our arrival to the Exumas!

I can still remember vividly that bashing motor across the banks from New Providence to Highbourne two years ago. Already tired and stressed. Then arriving to a rolly anchorage with another rolly anchorage to follow. Wondering what was wrong with us. How could we not be loving every second of the Bahamas?

We weren’t travelling with enough flexibility to improve our chances of good luck with the weather. What could we have done differently the first year? Hard to say, but I’d guess that one of our first moves should have been from Andros north to the Berrys instead of toward New Providence and directly to the Exumas. It wouldn’t surprise me if a similar loop around Eleuthera and then to Warderick Cut would have been the right moves. But, now I’m just totally speculating.

Do all good cruising roads run through the Berrys? Definitely not. It all depends on the weather and wind direction. Again, the point is total route flexibility.

Here I type at Big Majors Spot next to Staniel Cay in the Exumas still. After a week in the Land and Sea Park at two of our favorite spots: Warderick Wells and Cambridge Cay, we’ve been having a great time with very little of the discomfort of our first experience.

I can say that this year I love the Exumas. Before I would have told you that it was definitely a love hate relationship.

It’s inevitable that there will be bad luck with weather (not to mention the unavoidable occurrences of “stuff breaking on your boat”) to make things uncomfortable and put you in a bad mood. Even make you second guess your life long dream of living on a boat.

Obviously, if you’ve cruised the Bahamas for 10 years straight, and have your system figured out, this post isn’t for you. Leave us a comment and add your experience to our knowledge. But, if you are planning your first trip or maybe you’re on your first trip and having the same experience you can learn from us. Leave with a plan of total route flexibility based on weather and wind direction.

It seems to put the odds of luck and chance in your favor. It has definitely made for a much better second chapter to our Bahamas cruising.