Tag: West End

Go for the grand on Grand Bahama

While the majority of yachtsmen enter The Bahamas through Bimini, Cat Cay or simply clear in at West End and cruise on to the Abacos, Grand Bahama Island is a great place to spend a few days or a whole season—or even to own a second home.

Cruising to Grand Bahama and then on to Moore’s Island and Sandy Point is a wonderful way to enter The Bahamas if you plan to visit north Eleuthera or Nassau-—or cruise from Sandy Point around Hole in the Wall to Schooner Bay, Cherokee and Little Harbour. Coming from Florida, clear Customs at Old Bahama Bay (West End) and stay a while to explore the area. On Sandy Cay, Keith and Linda Cooper now have eco tours for diving, fishing and birding. weefca.com 

If you need work done on your boat, Bradford Marine in Freeport is an excellent, full-service yard and a safe place to leave your boat if you fly home for a while.

In Lucaya, stay at Port Lucaya Marina or the Grand Bahama Yacht Club, where you’ll want to buy fuel as prices are usually the lowest in The Bahamas. portlucayamarina.com; grandbahamayachtclub.com

The Port Lucaya Marketplace has shopping, entertainment and several restaurants. Go to Zorba’s for Bahamian breakfast or lunch, Cappuccino’s for excellent Italian dinners, and Flying Fish for haute cuisine. UNEXSO runs a famous dive operation near the marina and the Dolphin Experience further down the waterway. unexso.com 

Grand Bahama’s three national parks—The Rand Nature Center, the Lucayan National Park, and Peterson Cay—are well worth a visit. Go to the Bahamas National Trust website for more information. bnt.bs

Moore’s Island

Moore’s Island (Mores Island for the locals) does not cater to tourists but is a useful anchorage on your way along the southern edge of the bank or a good stop going north or south across the Bight of Abaco. There is decent holding in grass off Hard Bargain; go into the northern creek if there is a cold front but be sure to check the entrance and the creek by dinghy before venturing in. Two important things you must do when on Moore’s Island: visit Mrs. Jones for some fresh baked bread, and take your boat or your dinghy out to Lily Cay, where the shelling and snorkeling are outstanding—there is always a good chance of spearing a hogfish.

Abaco Park Warden Marcus Davis helps with Sea Turtle Research.

Sandy Point

Sandy Point is one of my favorite anchorages. It’s also a fun place to visit by road from further north in Abaco. Whether you come by land or sea, enjoy a couple of sundowners and a delicious supper at Nancy’s Sea Side Inn (242-366-4120) or the Sunset Bar and Grill (242-699-0249) while watching the sunset light up the sky.

The anchorage is only protected from the east, but if a cold front approaches go up the creek north of the settlement if you draw 5′ or less. Anchor bow or stern, or tie up to the government dock among the fishing boats. The local people will help you find your way into the unmarked creek and help you moor your boat.

Diesel, gas, and free water are available at Lightbourne Marina, where there is a good grocery store. It’s also a great spot to fish and snorkel for conch. While in southern Abaco visit the Abaco National Park, home of the Bahama parrot. Call Marcus Davis, Park Warden for information and a tour; (242) 367-6310.

Back in business

Staniel Cay Airport re-opened to air traffic in mid-November after months of closure for refurbishment that led to a newly paved runway 3,000-foot long and 75-foot wide. Safety concerns prompted the Department of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Works to close the airport in April 2015.

Navigation notes:

The Grand Lucayan Waterway is still in very good condition. The Sir Charles Hayward Yacht Club (242-727-7245), just inside the southern entrance, has been refurbished and now has a growing youth program and a few slips for visiting yachts. Going all the way through the waterway is lovely, and you can look for property to purchase as you go. The lowest bridge has a 27.3-foot clearance. If you have a draft of 5′ or less, go out through the well-marked Dover Sound channel on the tide—the high tide is about 2 hours later than on the south shore. Proceed up to Mangrove Cay, Great Sale Cay and on to the Abacos. If you are towing a speedboat it is possible to explore Hawksbill Creek and Water Cay. The bonefishing on the north side is as good as anywhere in The Bahamas. The east end of Grand Bahama is seldom visited, and there are no detailed charts of the area. But a shallow draft vessel can get into Deep Water Cay (deepwatercay.com) and go gunkholing in the cays to the southeast with a little help from the local fishermen. The snorkeling and fishing are spectacular.

 

Words and photos by Stephen Connett, Southern Boating Magazine January 2016

Katrina 10 years later

“I’ve got ¾-inch nylon lines that I use for storms, and the boat gets so much pressure on it with the ropes getting so tight that they become like piano wires,” says Dennis Raziano. “The lines were actually sawing through the boat in places and they started moaning.” Raziano rode out Hurricane Katrina on board his 34-foot liveaboard oyster trawler in the Orleans Marina in West End New Orleans. “I was taught many years ago to never leave the boat. Even if it’s floating down the highway—you never leave the boat.”
The miserable and dangerous adventure Raziano and a few other brave souls went through in New Orleans in the summer of 2005 during and after the storm was ill-advised, but a decade after its landfall on the Mississippi Coast and the levee failures in New Orleans, their stories are now legend. After this terrible chapter, the recreational boating community on the Northern Gulf Coast has made great advances toward rebuilding and now holds thousands of state-of-the-art marinas and mended yacht clubs.

In Mississippi alone, nearly 1,000 slips have been rebuilt in marinas from Pass Christian to Pascagoula, and an entire new marina has been constructed adjacent to the historic and quaint downtown of Bay St. Louis. Out of the 33 Gulf Yachting Association’s yacht clubs from New Orleans to Pensacola—including 3 of the 5 oldest clubs in the Western Hemisphere—18 have been rebuilt or repaired. The 166-year-old Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans has a new 30,000-square-foot facility. Many of the more than 150 years of historic trophies and Olympic medals lost in the dual calamities of fire and water are slowly being replaced, including a Lipton sailing trophy, which was generously rebuilt by the Lipton Tea Company using the original London silversmith.
On the coast, junior sailing programs have been re-invigorated. Fishing tournaments and 150-year-old regattas have quickly returned with participation now getting back to “Pre-K” numbers as boats have been replaced and boat shows have boomed, including the Gulf Coast Yacht and Boat Show that relocated in 2010 to Gulfport, Mississippi.
The one outlier has been the Municipal Yacht Harbor in New Orleans and its 600+ slips. One of three public marinas in the city, the marina’s management board has been battling with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for rebuilding funds and now stands as a flashing beacon of bureaucracy, still without utilities and half empty.
The New Orleans’ boaters and the many businesses that serve them have struggled but learned to make do. New Orleans and this heavy boating community along the Gulf Coast will have endured everything from catastrophic hurricanes to oil spills, yet the strong boating culture and its infrastructure will continue their resurgence. The love of pulling in those red snappers or racing sailboats in century-old regattas will never be quashed on this coast—we are boat people.

By Troy Gildert, Southern Boating Magazine September 2015

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