Wintering in the Bahamas

[boatbum]

First off, keep in mind that the Abacos are not somewhere one goes to be kept busy. It's where one goes to relax and socialize with other boaters or folks that are Wintering over in houses. If you need to be entertained by all sorts of activity, think about being somewhere else.

We are on a 1985 43 foot motor yacht and I am 6'4" at 220 lbs. I just fit. Make sure you can be comfortable on your boat for extended periods of time. Having adequate spares aboard and prepping it for the season so maintenance will be light is key. You don't want to be changing oil etc. over here if you can avoid it.
We enjoy spending a month at an island and moving on to another. Some enjoy staying at Boat Harbour all Winter as part of the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club. Running from North Palm Beach marina to Ft. Lauderdale, then Lucaya, the canal to the North and then to Elbow and back to Lucaya, Over to the Berry's and Bimini and back up to North Palm, we only ran 100 hours on the engines.
And make sure you can handle weather while on the boat at the dock. Some marinas are a bit exposed and you will be tempted to trade off protection to be here or there. We knew we were ok with this going in because during Summers past we lived on the boat. We've had her ten years and we all get along fine. We were tide up in 1 to 2 feet of chop on a couple of occasions.

Having laundry, a freezer, perhaps a water maker and without question a dink all make this time easier.
There are plenty of laundry facilities available but they will run you 5 bucks a load to wash and another 5 bucks to dry it. If you have facilities aboard the boat depending on consumption of water and electricity it might be cheaper to run your own machine. It also depends on the rates the marina offers. Flat rates for power and water work well with your own laundry, baking and showers.
If you have a water maker installed already it will save you money vs. purchasing water. It's cheaper to pay the electric bill to make water than it is to buy water. Over a month using a few hundred gallons of water is easy. For example if I am careful it still takes 50 gallons of water to wash Freedom. After a rough crossing of the Sea of Abaco washing the boat is important or you will be leaving salt foot prints everywhere. We've had water bills of a couple or three hundred dollars per month even when we were careful.
Last Winter we didn't have a freezer aboard. Given they are relatively cheap it's a good investment. For us a 3 cubic foot freezer made our lives much easier by allowing us to stock up on the main island of Abaco instead of buying proteins on the outer cays. Prices climb dramatically once off the main island.
Be ready to be a bit less picky about your vegetables regardless of being on the main island or outer cays. Often times you'll see some rotten produce that you have to push aside to get to the more appealing veggies. On the outer cays you won't find the selection of fresh veggies you will on the main island either. So perhaps having frozen veggies in the freezer is a good option. The beef, poultry and pork is all good over here and it is at a reasonable price on the main island. If you have specialties you enjoy like salmon, tuna, and tenderloin, freeze it up and bring it over.
Consumables like paper products are easy for us to bring over by stuffing them into difficult to access unused space on the boat.
In short if you shop in Marsh Harbour you will most likely find what you need. Groceries on Guana and Elbow are good but a tad more expensive. But once in a while they have specials that are very good. But remember, this isn't Shoprite, Winn Dixie, Publix, or any of those mega chains. You'll not find anything like those over here and you will learn what day of the week the shelves are better stocked.
Finding a good crusty loaf of bread is impossible and best baked aboard if the electric is a flat rate.

I can talk about other aspects another time if there is interest.

 

[rnbenton]

Good information, Dan. Thanks for the write up. I always like hearing the perspective of those who have "been there and done that".

No matter what, experience is always the best teacher.

Bob

 

[boatbum]

We've enjoyed our time over there two Winters running. That's in spite of weather that was often unsettled. Many weekends had winds exceeding gale force and we were always glad to be tied up to the dock. The result of that was the crabbers didn't get to set traps and retrieve them before the window closed so they never went out. We didn't see stone crab most of the Winter.
But we did have opportunities to go out in the dink and bring in conch that we "cracked", made salad or fritters with.

 

[The Other Gary]

How bout diesel pricing and availability Dan?

 

[Robyns Nest]

You left out booze!!!!

Rum is cheap in Marsh, jack Daniels is not!!!

 

[boatbum]

Diesel was cheapest at Lucaya, and then Green Turtle at the Green Turtle club. We heard that The Conch in at Marsh Harbour had cheaper diesel as well. But if you need it and you are not near one of those places it can be expensive. We paid 3.70 to 4.70 a gallon depending on where we were. In November we were glad Orchid took a shipment but we paid for it. On the way out last month, in April Green Turtle was taking fuel deliveries. Sometimes you might have to wait for fuel so it's a game. Fill now and pay more? Or wait and pay more . You never know. Filling up appropriately will help keep costs down (a little). We used this site to some advantage while we were over there.

explorer charts fuel page

Sometimes I think they play on folks to encourage them to stick around. For example when we arrived in the Bahamas in the Fall we landed in Lucaya, then came up the canal stopping at Great Sale and then Spanish Cay for a night each. At Spanish the man in charge warned us that power was unreliable in the Abacos because they had a power plant fire. "You'll be lucky you have power down there, but we always do". Then they charged 50 bucks a night for a fifty amp outlet. Yes, they had a fire at the plant, but the outages were well controlled even though they caught us by surprise once in a while. Which leads to optional power on the boat. Spanish Cay had a good restaurant. The food was good. But there was nothing else on the Cay. It was dead.
Back on the power aspect, we have a generator and an inverter installed. The inverter is terrific because we can keep the fridge cold and do things like watch TV without the genny spinning away. It also kicks in automatically when the power fails, and that gives us quite a bit of piece of mind since that can happen at any time.
We use a Track-it TV rig and it was giving us great signal down to the Berry Islands. I suspect it is fine in the Exumas as well. Weather Worx (WxWorx) was always on but their radar coverage ends at Freeport.

As far as the joy juice goes, Lucaya came in with the best price for Havanna Club Anejo Reserva which is best taken in a snifter with a cigar. Less than 20 bucks a liter depending on where you get it. Bimini also had this cheap. Bristol in Marsh Harbour was best for most things like wine or generic mixing booze. Generally speaking booze is cheaper over there, but wine is not. If anything you'll find wine about the same price as in the States. Speaking of which, even tho we sell it in Supermarkets down South it's tough to find a five liter box of white wine in Florida.

By the way you won't find Bacardi on Bimini. That's because they bought the big game club and subsequently closed it down. So people there refuse to deal with them.

 

[pdecat]

Great info Dan but naturally I have a few questions.
What was your most reliable weather source for planning your inter island movement?
How did you pick your next destination?
We had a cold, windy winter here in mid FL how was it there?
What percent time did you spend at anchor vs dock?
What did you wish you had brought more of? Less of?
What percent of the time did you eat off the boat?
How did you learn if you needed to stock up on provisions, water, fuel etc, before leaving one location or should wait until your arrival?
Did you always feel safe or were some areas questionable from a personal or property security standpoint?

 

[Capt. Bill1]

"Havanna Club Anejo Reserva which is best taken in a snifter with a cigar."

Or on the rocks with just a bit of lime before dinner. You lucky dog.

 

[boatbum]

Bill that shtuff is one of the bexsht klept shescrets of the Bahamas [] When Deb's brother came down for a couple of weeks we did a side by side with that and several other rums and decided that it was better than even the 7 year version of Havanna Club.
After that we went to Grabbers AND Nippers. When we got to Nippers no matter what we ordered it killed a bottle, so Anthony obliged by hitting the next one a little heavy. It was a good thing the island is small so the walk is always short.

Anyway.....

Bruce we listened to the "Net" in the morning on a regular basis. That sweet heart Patty who continues on for Barometer Bob usually has good information. But with the internet, WxWorx, and her we generally knew what we were getting into as far as the weather is concerned. We always listened for agreement between all of the sources.
But for the most part, we did not care about the weather. Even when it was blowing 40 knots on the bow we took Freedom across the Sea of Abaco to Marsh Harbour from Great Guana Cay. If it was on the beam we would have thought about it twice. Once inside the barrier and on the bank it's not that bad even when it is blowing. But that depends on the boat!! Don't mess with the inlets when the wind and tide are conspiring. The only passage of genuine concern (for us) was going from Green Turtle to Guana Cay. It means going outside and around Whale Cay. If the wind is out of the South this is generally ok on the Atlantic, but Loggerhead channel can be kind of rough until you are back on the bank in 10 feet of water. If you wait for the tide to calm down it will offer a much smoother ride around the Whale.

The next destination was either schedule driven or on a whim. We planned to get as far as we could as slowly as we could taking advantage of docking specials and events like the Barefoot Man concert at Nippers in March. We had places we wanted to be at like Sea Spray, Hope Town, Guana, Marsh etc. so we looped around to hit all of those.
In general what ever Florida saw we did but it was 15 degrees or so warmer. I don't think it ever got below 50 at night. But wow, did the wind blow this year!! Like I said earlier, there was hardly any lobster or stone crab this year because the weather windows were not long enough to set traps, leave them a bit and return to harvest before the weather set in again.
On the hook? Not much at all. We had a couple of weekends out that's all.
We cooked and ate on the boat regularly. Perhaps 2 or three times a week we would go out for lunch, and once in a while we would go to dinner. We made our own bread, and did specialty meals aboard. If you want some things done right....

We never felt insecure.

I'd definely bring a larger dink. Like a center console. That and cash (or plastic with a high melting point).

 

[Robyns Nest]

How was Barefoot Man?

Have a few of his albums.

Nippers is one of my favorite places.

 

[boatbum]

Jonathan I believe I can sum that up easily. Someone got a shot of me from behind. There are several photos of the event on their facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abaco-Bahamas/Nippers-Beach-Bar-Grill/316798946881

He put on the usual day time show and it rocked. The place was packed. The next night they did the evening (duh) show and that was also very good. To give you an idea how everyone felt, I had one of those experiences. Some young man walked up to me by the bar and said "Do you see a frown on any face in here today?". We both had a good laugh. It didn't matter if you were 15 or 85. People were all having a great time. The real surprise was someone had oysters flown in by helicopter. Two of them buzzed the place and one dropped down to unload. Several planes buzzed it as well.
I have a few photos in the bucket but I think their facebook page reflects well on the events.

Back on being buzzed by planes, Bimini rules. It happens frequently at Guana by Nippers (the place is a magnet for behavior like that) but Bimini rules. We were buzzed by planes leaving the airport regularly. All kinds. Small jets (very cool to hear the turbines), twin Cesnas, it didn't matter. While walking the West beach by Alice Town someone was in his twin engine plane heading North. I saw him coming and stood with my arms out and waved. He did a wing wave back at about 25 feet, yanked back and was off to the blue yonder. Only in the Bahamas.

Damn good time.