Salty Podcast: Sailing Stories

Salty Podcast #80 ⛵ Bahamas Rewind: Weather & Routing for Sailing

• Captain Tinsley | Hayden & Radeen | SV Island Spirit • Season 1 • Episode 80

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Planning to sail from Miami to Georgetown without a single overnight? We lay out a proven, day-only route that respects winter weather, leverages the best anchorages, and removes guesswork from every leg. Think Biscayne Bay as your patient launchpad, South Bimini for an easy check-in, a smart pause on the Banks before Northwest Channel, and short, joyful hops all the way down the Exumas.

We start with a simple truth: the Gulf Stream rewards those who wait. Hawk Channel beats the skinny inside route for most boats, and Biscayne Bay offers a perfect rhythm—anchor off Dinner Key when it’s calm, duck to Boca Chita for frontal protection, and stage at No Name Harbor. With a clean window, cross to South Bimini’s protected basin and avoid the current-battered docks up north. From there, run the Banks by daylight, anchor off the rhumb line before Northwest Channel, then slip through at dawn toward West Bay, New Providence, and onward to Highbourne Cay.

Once in the Exumas, the sailing turns blissful: Highbourne to Shroud Cay’s mangrove river and ocean “slide,” a reservation-worthy stop in Warderick Wells for serious protection and scenery, Pig Beach at Big Major with fast dinghy runs to Staniel Cay’s supplies, and Black Point’s laundry, haircut, and legendary coconut bread. We share mooring tactics for strong currents, singlehander tricks for picking up a ball, and why “raging” cuts demand slack water or current-with-wind timing. The final push to Georgetown is a rewarding reach when you time your exit cut and entrance right; inside Elizabeth Harbour, use the moorings near Chat and Chill and consider shifting to the town side when south and west winds arrive. With a vibrant morning net, kid-run Saturdays, and easy side trips to Cat Island, Long Island, Rum Cay, and Conception, Georgetown becomes both a safe haven and a springboard.

Weather discipline holds the plan together. Expect fronts every 7 to 10 days, clocking winds and short periods of punchy west and northwest. Budget an hour each morning for forecasts, models, and routing choices. We lean on Marine Weather Center (Chris Parker) for conservative, cruiser-savvy guidance and combine it with tools like PredictWind and Windy. And a note on etiquette that pays dividends: tip dockhands fairly, protect park seabeds by taking moorings, and use island water with respect. Ready to chart your crossing? Follow, share with a sailor who needs a safer plan, and leave a review to help more cruisers find this route.

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Capn Tinsley:

Tonight I'm coming to you live from Southwest Florida aboard Salt T Bandon and joining me yet again are my good friends Hayden and Rain from Salem Vessel Island Spirit. At this point, I've honestly lost count of how many times they've been on the show, but every single time we learn something new. Tonight we're diving back into one of our favorite topics, the Bahamas. We'll be talking about weather, routing, and what to expect when sailing from No Name Harbor in Cubiscaine down to Georgetown. If you're planning your own Bahamas adventure or just love hearing how the pros do it, this episode is for you. But first, if you like these sailing stories, please smash that like button, subscribe, and share the video. It really helps the channel. I'm Captain Tinsley, and this is the Salty Podcast episode number 80. Please help me welcome Hayden and Raidine. Good afternoon and evening.

Hayden:

Yeah, good afternoon. Congratulations, Tinsley. Number 80. That's wonderful.

Capn Tinsley:

Number 80. Yeah, it's been two years now on this thing.

Hayden:

Great. Amazing. You're so you're so good at this. You really are a pro at this.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, compliments will get you everywhere.

unknown:

I know.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, speaking of everywhere, where are you? I am going. Thank you for asking. Um, I am in Cape Hayes, Florida. So that would be like south of Venice Beach, north of Captiva, North Captiva, all that. So that's my next stop. Is gonna be actually Pelican Bay. I'll be anchoring in Pelican Bay right off Cayo Costa.

Hayden:

You guys have been in that's wonderful.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, okay. Um looks like we uh you froze or I froze or something. Oh are you able to oh no? Okay. I'm still here. I'm on Starlink and it might be a little sketchy at times, but um okay, so that's where we are. We're gonna talk about about getting from no name harbor. Is it no name key or is it no name harbor?

Hayden:

No name harbor, yeah. Okay, yeah, to Georgetown. So first first first, you're gonna get yourself down the marathon around the corner and then up into Biscayne Bay, and then you're gonna queue yourself up in my little happy place of Biscayne Bay. That's that's that's one of your happy places.

Capn Tinsley:

I've heard you say many that many places are your happy place, yeah. But um so I was thinking about I've always gone under you know the seven mile bridge and then hang the left, but somebody messaged me about the north, but that there is a that pathway, there's a a channel that goes north of the keys. I don't know what it would be like in the winter, but I have run, I have run that.

Hayden:

Yeah, I've run that. We've run that one time. You can run on the north side of the keys all the way up to uh Biscayne Bay, it's very shallow, five feet, five and a half feet. You push mud around now and then. It's way, way ten times easier to go on the outside and go up the hawk channel, way easier.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, well, it just it's kind of cool, it just takes you right in there, doesn't it?

Hayden:

It does if you don't run aground and get stuck. I mean, there's a lot of cool places to stop, but yeah, you we did it one time and we've done probably five runs in uh in uh hawk channel, so I wouldn't yeah, at least at least five.

Radeen:

Yeah, we're there for five Christmases.

Hayden:

Yeah, we spent five Christmases in marathon, right?

Radeen:

So we've done it ten times, one time through the north side, and nine times through Hawk Channel. Go Hawk Channel, it'll be better for your nerves, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, it's if the weather's if the weather's cooperating, the east winds and all that, yeah.

Hayden:

Right, but that makes a nice beam reach going up the hawk channel.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, all right, you stole me. Yeah, yeah.

Hayden:

The hawk channel kind of turns, it goes northeast, but then it turns, it goes north. So, yeah, you just wait in marathon till and and then the beauty of marathon is you're going to anchor off the marathon harbor because the mooring balls will all be filled. That's fine, and then you can dingy in and out of marathon for services. And if a big front comes or any trouble comes, you just move around to the other side. So you can move around on you know the north side or the west side or south side of marathon. So it's pretty good. It's it's not the best anchorage like Biscayne Bay, but it'll be it'll be fine because you're not going to be there that long, you're just trying to time your weather to get up up the well.

Capn Tinsley:

It depends on the weather, uh, how long I'll be there, right?

Hayden:

Right, right. Yeah, some people some people make marathon their destination, which is fine.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, and I've stayed there many times, and I've stayed at uh faro blanco uh faro blanco on the north side, which is very swanky, it's expensive, but yeah uh they've got some nice amenities there, they got a pool and everything, and then of course the marathon marina that has a pool, also.

Hayden:

Yeah, we stayed right next to Faro Blanco. They were building Faro Blanco when we were down there. We were at the private club called um Harbor Harbor K Club, 24 private slips and a really nice, tight little community. But uh, like all those marinas on that side of Marathon, when the wind blows from the north, it is nasty. It's just rock and roll city in there. But that's that's true. That's the keys.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, and it's winter, so yeah, yeah, exactly. Would um would this be a good time to bring up the what we talked about?

Hayden:

Sure, yeah. Yeah, I want to go ahead and knock it out. Let's talk about let's talk about some tipping people.

Capn Tinsley:

And who knew it would be so controversial? So I I did a a real a little a little clip uh just saying, hey, we wanted to know what everybody what everybody tipped, you know. Well when when you come into a marina and two guys come out or one guy, help you tie up, help you plug in your power. How much do you tip? And I didn't tell I I told I would I would do a follow-up and tell what I tip, but I found out I was on the high end. Oh wow.

Hayden:

Well you're generous.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, well, yeah, and uh someone had told me that dock hands, and it's I think it's true, think that sailors are cheap.

Hayden:

Right, they do, they absolutely do.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, and I found out that many of them are.

Hayden:

They are sailors, sailors are cheap, you know. Power boaters come in and take a thousand gallons of fuel and five thousand dollars, you know. They flip a hundred dollar bill out there like it's it's a dollar to us, you know. So it's true.

Capn Tinsley:

And some people said because they're spending so much money on fuel and everything, they just put it on their credit card and it's like no big deal. But sailors come in, work, work them to death, get get five gallons of fuel, pump out. Someone said, use the shower. I mean, it was they just it was a dock hand, it was an ex-dock hand. He was just wow, that's funny.

Hayden:

I have to I have to say, I think they might be right on that. You know, they yeah, sailors, sailors are tend to be on the cheaper side, yeah.

Radeen:

And you tie up their dock filling up with water mainly.

Hayden:

Water forever, yeah.

Radeen:

You take forever, fuel, right?

Hayden:

You know, you take it on 150, 200 gallons of water, and then you I need five gallons of gas for the dinghy, and I need 10 gallons of diesel for the for the boat, and I have five bags of two. You know, I got 10 bags of trash. I want to give you here's here's my trash. Oh, by the way, here's two dollars tip for you. Thanks. Right, just want to get you out, leave.

Capn Tinsley:

So uh someone told me in a dock in marina that they the dock hands take bets on if they're gonna get a tip from a sailor when they're coming in.

Hayden:

Oh, oh, no, I can see that.

Capn Tinsley:

Come to find out, it's true. So uh let's share what we and maybe we'll influence people in a positive way. Like some people said, Why should I tip? Because they're making they're making a but I mean it's like saying you're not gonna tip your your your servers, you know. Right, right. They're not getting a big salary or something, right?

Hayden:

Yeah. Oh, we'll tip a dock hand five, ten, twenty dollars, depending upon how it goes. You know, that's not a lot, but it's something, and it if they go out of their way, it might be ten or twenty dollars for them helping us. So some some dock hands are fabulous. They're just I know Crandon State Park in Miami, where I'll show you where that is. It's one of our favorites. We love that place. The guy's been there for like 30 years, he's wonderful.

Capn Tinsley:

You were kind of sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher there for a second. Can you still hear me? I guess my my service is a little interrupted. Well, what we were saying offline was uh the the a dog hand at a marina is what Ratine said, local knowledge for that marina. They're the expert in that marina, and they often will help will keep you from bumping the dog. That's valuable to me. Yeah, um, you know, I've had those that you know just barely do anything, but mostly that's not the case. Wouldn't you agree?

Hayden:

Right, absolutely, yeah. No question about it.

Capn Tinsley:

So I do 20 bucks.

Hayden:

Yeah, that's fair. That's nice, that's generous.

Capn Tinsley:

When they come in, if it's two of them, they'll split it. If it's one, I give them 20 bucks. Right. Because you know, when I need something, I want them to think, I'm gonna help her.

unknown:

Right.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, exactly. She's a nice lady. Exactly.

Hayden:

Well, I would I would say that's probably more generous than most sailors will tip. I would think I would think uh that's that's above the average, I would think. And I think a lot of people don't tip anything.

Capn Tinsley:

It's true, and when you return, they remember. Oh, definitely.

Hayden:

Oh, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, it's definitely it helps me to do that for selfish reasons. Um, but yeah, yeah, I can tell that not everybody tips because they'll go, thank you, you know, or something like that. They'll act like thank you. So I enjoy that, that part of it.

Hayden:

Of course, of course. It's it's nice to be generous and it's nice to share when you can.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, so uh let's talk. Let's just kind of I would like to say to sailors, please think about tipping more. You can do whatever you want. I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I'm encouraging you to.

Hayden:

Let's try to elevate our our status as a sailboater.

Capn Tinsley:

Our reputation, you know what I'm saying?

Hayden:

This is ridiculous. We don't have to be cheap.

Capn Tinsley:

No, we got a sailboat, we're already spending money like crazy.

Hayden:

Oh my god, yeah, we burn hundred dollar bills. We don't need to think about them.

Capn Tinsley:

You come in with it on fire, exactly. All right, well, thank you for the support on that. Um, so are you ready to dive in?

Hayden:

Yeah, let's let's let's bring up one of those slides and we'll we'll jump through these. It's gonna be interesting again.

Capn Tinsley:

Let's see. Okay, so yeah.

Hayden:

So this is this is the overview, just trying to give a an overview of uh the whole concept of trying to get from Miami down to Georgetown, and that's that's Tinsley's destination. Her first time of going down here, we've done it how many times, right then? 10 times, yeah. Yeah, we've we've gone Miami to Georgetown 10 times, so we know this run. And the thing I focused on is because you're single-handing, I focused on how can you get from Miami to Georgetown without any overnight passages?

Capn Tinsley:

That's nice.

Hayden:

Yes, so this entire run, the longest run is 65 nautical miles when you go from Miami out across the Bahama banks, and that's safe and easy. But we'll look at that. Every other run is 10, 20, 30 miles. It's really, really simple. I like that. It's really simple once you get out of Miami and you get you get east. You see, if you look at that chart and you just think I have to go from Miami through that little skinny northwest channel, down around Nassau, uh New Providence Island, and then I finally reach the first Exuma Key, which is called Highborn Key, that is 200 nautical miles east of Miami. Oh, okay. And that's the challenge. You have to pick a weather window where you can either make those, that's about one, two, three, four-day run. You you can make that in four days, but you'll never get a four-day window. So, what's going to happen is on this run east to get out to the exumas, you're going to end up getting stuck at one of these places for usually a weather window till the next front comes through. And we'll talk about that when we look in closer. But that's the challenge is Miami to the first Exuma key is 200 nautical miles.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so you're you uh uh initially said you there's a place in South Bimini that it's yeah, yeah, we're gonna look at that.

Hayden:

Yeah, let's look at the next, let's look at the next slide.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Hayden:

Yeah, now the the the next slide is what I'm trying to focus on here is just the beauty of Biscayne Bay because it's one of my top three to five best sailing places on the entire east coast. You have five to fifteen knot trade winds blowing from the east, and I got four areas identified. Number one is Boca Cheetah, number two is no name harbor, number three is up at the top where Crandon State Park is, and number four is Denner Key Marina. These between these four areas, it's all you really need in Biscayne Bay. They've kind of taken away South Beach from us, so we don't we can't really go up there anymore.

Radeen:

Because they took away the dinghy dot.

Hayden:

Yeah, it's unfortunate, it's fabulous up there, but I could do a whole discussion on South Beach, but it's it's taken away. So that's fine. We focus on these four areas and we sail every day. Now, if you go to the next slide, uh you'll see tell me about this one.

Capn Tinsley:

Are you gonna tell me about that?

Hayden:

The number one that's Boca Cheetah. I actually didn't prepare a slide for Boca Cheetah, but let's talk about it. The thing that you do with Boca Cheetah is there's a marina, well, not a marina, it's a harbor in there made by Honeywell, and he made it uh for his own purpose, and he would bring his boats over there from Miami, and you side tie up in the marine in the in the harbor, and it's very protected. So, what you're gonna do in Biscayne Bay is when the fronts come, they they you know, the trade winds are blowing east, and then the winds go south, and then they go southwest, and then they blow like crazy from the west, and then they blow like crazy from the northwest. Well, two and three and four are not that great for west winds. Four is okay, but when the winds blow north and then they go northeast, this is a typical frontal passage, and they come every seven to ten days. So, what you do in preparation for that is you run down the number one, you run down to Bucca Cheetah, and that's about I don't know, 15 miles down to there. It's a great beam reach sale. Sail down there, you tie up in there a day before the fronts come. The fronts come, whack everybody, the front passes, and guess what? The trade winds come back, the five to 15 knot trade winds come back, and you sail out of there and you sail back up to two or three or four.

unknown:

Okay.

Radeen:

So Bocachita is a park, and there is no trash facilities, there's no bathrooms, there's you have to be self-sufficient while you're there. The park ranger only comes a couple of days a week, it is uninhabited, but it is beautiful. Oh, and it's like docking in a swimming pool. The dock is uh all concrete and curved, and um, people help each other tie up, and people do come on the weekends to camp. There's a boat that'll bring you over to camp on the grounds, so there is a rudimentary uh outhouse type arrangement for that, and it's just a very cool place. You don't want to be there when there's no breeze, though, because it's very, very buggy.

Hayden:

Yeah, you're only going down there for the frontal passages, so you use Boca Cheetah as your safe security spot when the winds are blowing. You just sail down there, pull in there, tie up, you're gonna spend a day or two there. The the front's gonna pass, and you're gonna come back up to the upper bay.

Capn Tinsley:

It's so so number four, dinner key. Um that's not I mean, I've been to there, it's huge. Yeah, uh, so because it's so big, there's not protection. Is that your right?

Hayden:

If you if you go to the next slide, I have the upper upper uh bay, because uh, you know, we could do a whole discussion just on Biscayne Bay. But if you go to the next slide, I think my next my next slide.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm sorry, you can't see anything. Yeah, my next slide shows.

Hayden:

Yeah, now what I did here is I tried to just identify on the upper beautiful, by the way, Hayden.

Capn Tinsley:

This is excellent work.

Hayden:

Well, I love making these things, it's fun because it's a good way for me to review and and how this all works and to help somebody else out is what we like to do. So, first of all, these are the number, these are the places on the upper Biscayne Bay, below the Rickbacker Causeway and below Marine Stadium. And so, what I have are Xs where you would drop the anchor. Okay, and what you were just talking about over there on Dinner Key, where it says Coconut Grove and food over to the west, right above the word waiting. That X there is where we anchor, which is at the back of the mooring field, because you're coming over here when it's not blowing, you're you're it's calm, it's 10 to 15 knots blowing from the east. So, yes, you're laying out in the middle of the bay, it feels like, and the waves are coming from the east, but it's never that rough until a front comes, and you have a plan for when a front comes, you're gonna run down to Boca Cheetah. Yeah, so you're you're only up here, you're only up here when it's calm, and uh and it and it's calm, you know, until a front arrives, and then you go into dinner key with the dinghy, and that's where you can do laundry, go to Coconut Grove, uh uh get groceries over there. And if you go over to the east now a little bit to uh Key Biscayne, the 1x on the bottom there where it says food, that's no name harbor. That's where you're gonna that's where you're gonna queue up to leave. You see how I have the dotted arrow that says out. That's you're gonna queue up there at no name harbor, and that's where everybody waits to leave. Right now, when when you got your weather window coming, you're done with all these places on Biscayne Bay. You queue up in front of no name and you shoot out right there at that um channel there. Now, in the meantime, you can use no name harbor and you can go in there to get food and groceries and go out to dinner. There's a little bar there, and you can walk up to the grocery store, and they got electric carts that bring you back and forth.

Radeen:

So, no name harbor is inside a state park called the Bill Bags State Park, and there's a lighthouse there that you can walk to and climb up the lighthouse, and there's park rangers, so it's a really nice destination, and there's a restaurant right in No Name Harbor.

Capn Tinsley:

If the more when I went uh earlier this year, I I took a uh a jet ski and I came down all the way down here.

Hayden:

Yeah, in there, yeah, yeah, it's popular, good for you, very popular.

Capn Tinsley:

It's not as far as I thought it was, right? So I wanted to kind of put my eyeballs on it, you know. Good good for you.

Hayden:

Yeah, now what happens in no name harbor is everybody goes in there and anchors in there and they stay for weeks and weeks and maybe all season. It gets very crowded, but you could just come out off of the harbor and anchor out there in 10-15 feet of water, a nice sandy bottom, lay out a whole bunch of chain. The current swings in and out, you know, it it's tidal, so it ebbs and floods, and you just swing around on the on the tide, and it's no problem. To get out of that, you go up to the next X, which is called Nixon Harbor, and that's where Nixon's helipad is. There's a house up there with a big concrete helipad that sticks out, and it's nicknamed Nick Nixon Harbor. It was Nixon's summer house, and that little sandbar right below that X is where everybody in Miami comes to play. No, one of the bring their teetoppers down, they drop anchor, they walk on that sandbar, it's about knee deep, and they swim and play there, and you're anchored between that sandbar and the shore. It's really, really cool.

Capn Tinsley:

You see a lot of thongs, don't you?

Hayden:

Yeah, you see a lot of Miami kids. Yeah, it's quite entertaining. Yeah, if you go north of there, you have where I say fuel, that's Crandon State Park, and there's a marina. If you zoom in there a little bit, you might be able to see the shape of the marina. But again, I did not focus on the harbors, I just am focusing on the overview what resources you have, but that's there's actually a marina right there. Yeah, there's a marina and mooring balls and floating docks, and okay, and it's at the top of Key Biscayne, and that's where you go get your fuel and water and pump out. It's fantastic. And then the last X is right off of Virginia Key. The first time we came down to Miami, my buddy was directing us, and we came under the Rickenbacher Causeway Bridge, hung a left, and went up to the sandy uh beach and dropped anchor. And that is where you get your most spectacular nighttime view of Miami as the city lights up and you're on anchor there, your bow is facing to the east, the port side is looking up to Miami City. It's it's it's beautiful. I've taken some spectacular pictures there.

Capn Tinsley:

So, between those anchorages and those resources of where to get food and fuel and where you queue up at, that is the beauty of Biscayne Bay, and then every single day you can go sailing, and you can also take your dinghy up up the Miami River here, which I did with the yeah, you yeah, above downtown, it was pretty cool.

Hayden:

Yeah, yeah, above here is the is Miami River. That's really cool. I didn't even focus on that. This is just like what do you do in Miami in Biscayne Bay, waiting to cross to the Bahamas? Because you're gonna perfect, you're gonna wait, you're gonna wait seven to ten days, and we've waited here for over a month many, many times, and you just want like the weather window comes, you're like, Oh, I could take that one, and I'm gonna get stuck in Bimini. No, thanks, I'd rather be stuck here, right? Because your next run from here is you're gonna try to go like a bat out of hell and get across the Bimini, across the banks, and out to at least Nassau area and get stuck out there and then move on.

Capn Tinsley:

And then check in. Where do you where are you checking?

Hayden:

Yeah, you so you you you use this as your holding pattern, right?

Radeen:

Yeah, and let's cross the Gulf Star.

Hayden:

Okay, right, Dean's like, let's get going. Okay, go to the next slide, go to the next slide. So now we're gonna now we're gonna take off. We got the weather window. It's like, let's go. So here it is, it's 48 nautical miles. That's all it is. So you shoot, yeah, you shoot across to Bimini. That's all it is. That's what seven, eight hours to get across there at you know, six six knots. Yeah, so now next slide will show us Bimini. The trick at Bimini is here's the I'll try to maximize my screen here. There we go.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, the trick of Bimini that looks nice and protected.

Hayden:

Yes, it is, and nobody goes here. This is ridiculous. What everybody does, everybody comes into Bimini. This is called South Bimini. Everybody comes into Bimini and turns north on the dotted line, and they go up into Brown's Wharf up top. That's now this is current. This is current driven. The current flushes in and out of here a lot. And what will happen up in the top of Bimini? You must turn across the current to dock. I don't have anything showing up there because you don't even want to go up there. There's no need to go up there. You want to come straight in, hit this channel, come into this pond. These are all floating docks, and it's extremely nice. And yeah, you're not in town, you're not right up in town where everything is. That's okay. You're only here to check in. So you dock, and they they have two ways to check in. You could take a golf cart down to the airport on South Bimini and check in at the airport, yeah. Or you can walk up to the top of this island where it says Bimini Cove Marina, and there'll be a there'll be a little ferry boat that'll run you across to North Bimini, and you can check in up at Browns Wharf at the at the main customs house up on North Bimini. Either way, you're gonna check in here. This is where you're going. Now, I like that if you timed it right and you watch the weather window, the perfect scenario is you come in here, you shoot in here, and you check in that same day. Now, that means you left as early as you could back at no name, so you have time to check in here because if you're running a weather window, you don't want to just sit here. But what happens to a lot of people is they take a narrow weather window and they run across the Gulf Stream and they just barely get in here before the before the northwest winds start blowing. And imagine the northwest winds blowing into this inlet. You're going to be surfing down four or five, six-foot waves trying to run into this little skinny channel between rocks. Very, very dangerous. So people that try to run a short weather window get caught right here, and now the wind is blowing and the waves are up, and they're trying to get in. Okay. And so, you know, you you would be better off in that situation to not make the run. Stay back in Miami and play day sailing up and down Biscayne Bay, enjoying all the places you can anchor and swim, and wait for a better, better weather window.

unknown:

Yep.

Hayden:

Yep. It's but so you're gonna go in here and you're gonna dock, and then you're gonna try to check in. You might have to stay the next day if you can't get checked in that day.

Capn Tinsley:

I probably would being by myself, right?

Hayden:

You could stay there, and now I need a break.

Capn Tinsley:

You know, these kitties need a break.

Hayden:

Exactly, exactly.

Radeen:

They have two swimming pools that are not on this map, but it's nice, and restaurants, and you can take the ferry to North Bibini if you want to. A lot of people like to go to North Bibini to buy sim chips for their phones for the Bahamas, right?

Hayden:

It's nice, but you got Starlake, you don't need that anymore, right? So I don't know. I I try to use this to just come in, check in, and get moving because remember, you're trying to get 200 miles east. This is only 50 miles east. Yeah, you have another 150 miles to go till you get to the Exumas. So don't get stuck here. All right, let's look at the next slide. So now you come out of here, you've checked in. Here's your biggest challenge of all the way to Georgetown 68 nautical miles from South Bimini. You come out down the south, you run across the banks, which are 10 feet deep, and you get to Northwest Channel. Now, most people will not run through Northwest Channel at night because they feel it's a little scary, and it all depends on your navigational skills. And plus, look, if you go through there, where are you going to go?

Radeen:

Now you can't anchor.

Hayden:

There's it's deep, it's thousands of feet deep. So to play it safe, as a day tripper, like you're going to be, like I want you to be, you're going to day trip, day break, you're going to pull out a bimini, you're going to make this run, and you're going to stop before you go through the channel. Now go to the next slide. And what you're going to do is this you're going to be running, you're going to be running for the channel, which is about, I don't know, it's I don't know how wide it is. Doesn't matter. You can go through there, but you don't want to go through there. You're going to you're going to get off of the rum line and you're going to go just go down towards the reef, anywhere down here, and drop an anchor. And you're going to sleep. And you're going to light your boat up like New York City because you don't want anybody to hit you. Okay. Because people will be running here at night.

Radeen:

Oh, definitely. Ships as well as small boats.

Hayden:

So sometimes people run, you know, oh, there's a light. That might be the channel entrance. No, that's my boat with one anchor light on. No, we don't want just one anchor light on. We want every light you can have on if you're going to anchor right here. You want to look like New York City. So nobody hit nobody hits you. Now nobody should hit you here because if they did, they're going to run into the wheel.

Capn Tinsley:

It's off the beaten path, right?

Hayden:

Well, they're going to run into the reef if they're going there, if they're up that far off the channel. So you just get off the channel and get down here and drop and drop the anchor. You'll get there at sunset and sleep and get up at daybreak. And now you scoot through this little channel, which there might be the marker is there. There's a little piling. I've been through there. Yeah. Okay. So now the next stop is New Providence. So now it's 45 nautical miles from the Northwest Channel down to what's called West Bay. And that's the end of New New Providence. And I don't think I zoomed in on that because it's just a little round harbor. It's real easy to get into. And nothing.

Radeen:

Just let me clarify that the island is named New Providence, but it's where Nassau is located. So Nassau's on the north side, and West Bay is right about where the letter A is in Nassau.

Hayden:

Yeah, so on the on the west end of the island, there's a big hook there, a big harbor. And again, I didn't didn't what I was focusing on is the routes. Like how far is each leg to go from A to B to C to get out here? So now you're now you're at New Providence, West Bay. The next slide now. Okay, now you leave 45 nautical miles, another day trip. Now you make your last run east and you hit Highborne Key. And that's the first key you're going to run up, you're going to run up to because that's the closest key. And you just get there by sunset, you drop an anchor off the key. Again, the trade, the east trade winds are blowing across the Exumas, and you're on the back side of the island, you drop an anchor. Now you go to the next slide. Now it's It's a piece of cake. Look at this. That that is Highborn Key up at the top. Your next day is 13 miles down the Shroud Key.

Capn Tinsley:

Sweet.

Hayden:

And this is and now this now, this is the way it goes all the way down through the Exumas. You're now have reached the Exuma chain. Right. You're 200 miles east of Miami. You've busted your tail to get out here. Might have taken you four or five days if you're good and lucky with the weather. And it might have meant you waited seven to ten days in Bimini till another weather window comes along and you made it out here. But we've weren't we've run out here 10 times. Yeah, we've done this trip 10 times.

Capn Tinsley:

I like that. 13 nautical miles.

Hayden:

So now it's a piece of cake. 13 nautical miles. You scoot around the back side of the Bahamas. It's just so beautiful. Now you're at Shroud Key. This one I zoomed up. Go to the next slide.

Radeen:

So while you go to the next slide, I'll just say you're now in the Exuma's land and see. Yep. And this is the beginning of the park. And again, there is no place for trash. There's no ranger station here. It's an unoccupied island. And the fun thing to do here is the dinghy route that Hayden has laid out. You take it counter counterclockwise out to the beach, and you watch the surf come in up there, and people are are riding the waves in and out. It's so much fun. And then you dinghy the rest of the way. And while you're taking this dinghy ride, you're low, and the mangroves around you are higher. So you really don't have much of a view, and you just keep going until you get there. Yeah. Well, how many miles is that?

Hayden:

Oh, that's that's that would take you four 45 minutes to get out to where it says play here to an hour by dinghy, and then you come back around. It this loop might take an hour and a half if you did it nonstop with the dinghy. Okay. Because you can't plane through here. Now, there are people that come in here, the big mega yachts drop off, they're anchored off here, they drop their jet skis in and they blast through here with jet skis. But you're not supposed to you're not supposed to, but what what the what the fun thing is at the ocean up there, where I say play here, because this is tidal, the the little canals here are flowing out into the ocean or they're flooding in. And when you get there at high tide and it's flowing out, it's it's like a water ride, a water slide that you jump off the rocks and you jump into this river, and it jets you out into the ocean, and then you go left or right because you can't swim back against the current that's flushing out, and it's a playground.

Radeen:

It's one way, it's a playground, it's a playground, and it's so you need you need to know what the tide's doing because your dinghy won't go very fast if you're going against the current.

Hayden:

It's really fun. It it's it's not it's a absolute exuma's paradise, not to miss. There's no development.

Capn Tinsley:

Now, how long did it take you to learn this about that dinghy route?

Hayden:

Oh, we kind of did it every time we were down there.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, other other cruisers told us about it.

Hayden:

Yeah, yeah, that's well known. It's in the it's in all the guidebooks, and everybody talks about it. So it's yeah, it's very, very common.

Radeen:

So there's mooring balls here, and you are expected to use the mooring balls if they are available to um protect the seabed. You are allowed to anchor if all the balls are full.

Hayden:

Yeah, we usually anchor here because it's usually the mooring balls, they are usually full here. Now, from here, you're going to be going to Wardwick Wells and you start radioing into Wardwick Wells from here on VHF radio because you want to try to get a reservation on a mooring ball in Wardwick Wells a day ahead of your arrival time. They hold it for you. If you go to the next slide, you'll see the the run now.

Capn Tinsley:

And you have to call them on the radio.

Hayden:

You call them on the radio. I don't think they answer the phone. So this is the shroud key to Wardwick Wells run. Now there's a lot of places in between here, but it's again, this is 18 miles. It's it's what three hours. You scoot that you scoot down around here and you come up into the skinny little channel. Go to the next slide here for Wardrick Wells. Wait till you see this.

Radeen:

So Wardwick Wells is the park headquarters, and there is a ranger station here. And um uh they do parties on Saturday nights on the beach, and it's a wonderful place to be.

Hayden:

This is the dream of the Exumas. If you made it to nowhere else, this is the place to get to, is Wardwick Wells. There's nothing that we've been to in all of our travel trips and travels, and everywhere we've sailed, there's nothing that matches this in in uniqueness and and beauty.

Radeen:

Uh saying a lot, it's magical.

Hayden:

Yeah, we have a few miles, and uh yeah, I would say so. You come in, you come in here, and on your navionics, it'll tell you what the number of the balls are. You can see numbers on them here a little bit, but yeah, in your navionics screen, when you zoom in, it'll tell you what ball number 10, 12, 13, and the park will say, Okay, salty abandon, you're on ball number 12. Well, then you look at where that is. Now the challenge is, especially if we're a single hander, you're it's a skinny little channel. Yeah you're running in here, there's boats on every single ball, they're all facing bow into the current. So you're the current is either flooding or ebbing, coming in or going out. So you're coming in, and you got to study the current. Like, okay, the current is let's say coming out. This would be the nicest scenario. The current's coming out, you're driving into it, your bow is facing upstream. Good. You drive up your ball, you take it. When the current is flooding in and you drive in, you have to you either have to try to take the ball going downstream, and then your boat spins around, or you're better off to make a turn, make a make a 180 turn, go past your ball, make a 180 turn, and then come back upstream towards the mooring ball to take it. Very, very tricky in here because there's not much room. And so, you know, you run aground right here. Well, yeah, but it's all sand. It's you yeah, you don't want to run aground in here because of the current. Uh, but it's uh we were back here in the very old back where it says like 20 and 22. We were all the way back there um a couple times where the circle is is where the park office is and where the beach is that everybody goes to with their dinghy. There's a swimming platform there that we love it. We we go there to that beach every day. And then the the other thing people do is they hike, they hike Wardrick Wells up to what's called Boo Boo Hill, and they go up there because back in the before all this connectivity, people would go up there to hold their cell phone up on Boo Boo Hill so it could reach Staniel Key cell tower and they could get their mail and they could get their their messages, they can make a call. And when you come down off of Boo Boo Hill, your cell phones don't work. And so the park ranger, the park ranger here used to sell sim cards, and and they sometimes would sell you access to their Wi-Fi network. Well, all that's gone away with Starlink. It's not a big well.

Capn Tinsley:

Let me let me ask you how well protected is this channel from wind?

Hayden:

That's where you want to be for any any storms. Okay, everybody, everybody tries to get here for when the storms come, when the front, uh not storm, I use the word storm, but it's a front, a frontal system. When the fronts, the fronts come every seven to ten days all winter long, and they're stronger in the January, February, and then in the spring, March, April, they start to tame down. So a lot of people like to go over to the exumas in the spring. Literally, they stay back in Florida till March, and then they go, they go over.

Capn Tinsley:

I was watching a I was let me sorry to interrupt. I was watching a clip that you um that was from a former pod. I can't even remember how many times you've been on. I was trying to count it, but it's it's 80 episodes, it's getting unmanageable. But uh, I was uh you had said something like people think they're gonna come down in the winter and you know kind of go over to the abacos and they freeze to death.

Hayden:

Yeah, well, the abacos are cold. Yeah, the abacos are cold, they're just like Florida gets cold too, though. That's you recently discovered, yeah. When the fronts come down from the northwest, it brings the cold weather down, and then till that goes through and then comes back to the east trade winds, it's very cold.

Capn Tinsley:

So I was in Bimini in December and it was cold.

unknown:

Uh-huh.

Hayden:

Yeah. Some people think I'll get down to Florida, Thanksgiving, and I'll immediately go over the Bahamas as fast as I can, and they can, and then they get down to Georgetown as soon as possible. Now you're below most of the fronts. The fronts aren't reaching Georgetown as often. They do reach Georgetown, but you'll see as you go down this Exuma chain, there's not a lot of protection from west and northwests from west and northwest winds, which are going to come every seven to ten days. Like if you're sitting off a shroud quay and a front comes, no, that is you will not sit there. You're gonna have to find someplace else to move. Wardrick Wells is the place you would want to be. If you can't get in the top of Wardrick Wells, then people go to the bottom of Wardrick Wells and there's a place to anchor down there.

Radeen:

So and mooring balls as well. It's called Emerald Bay. Emerald Bay. So if you get assigned by the park office for your reservation to be in Emerald Bay, it's it's almost as good. You can take your dinghy into the park office and into that beautiful beach and up to Boo Boo Hills. So it would frankly be easier to take a ball at Emerald Bay. Oh, way easier than than in Wardrick Wells. So you can see it's a good thing.

Capn Tinsley:

Because getting in there is a little this is a little tougher than that. It's a little tougher, yeah.

Hayden:

It's tricky getting that ball, you know, by yourself. It would be, I mean, one of the tricks on getting a mooring ball that we've learned is you you tie your bow line off on one of your cleats, and then you take the long loop of the dock line. That end is tied to the boat, and you hold the other end of the dock line and you throw the entire dock line out over the mooring ball as a loop. Yeah, you let it sink on the outside. Yeah, it just gets on the outside of the outside of the mooring ball, and you got the one end held in your hand, the other end's on your boat. You pull it back and cleat it. So you've thrown a loop out there, yeah. And as opposed to trying to pull up the eyelet and and put your bow line through that. No, throw a loop, lasso the exit later tie yourself to that, and then deal with everything. Sure. It's another trick for single handing. Sure. All right. So if you go to the next slide, you'll see from Wardwick Wells, we go down to the famous pig beach, is where everybody loves.

Capn Tinsley:

Absolutely.

Hayden:

So now we come out of Wardwick Wells, and again, look how long we have to run.

Capn Tinsley:

So Emerald, you said Emerald Key.

Hayden:

Emerald Bay is just below Wardwick Wells. It's it's on the south side. It wasn't on that screen, but it's on the south side of uh of Wardwick Wells. Yeah, so when you look right in there, yeah. When you look in your charts, you'll see where it is. It's just south of so now you got another long, long day run, 20 miles. You run down to Pig Beach. So here's another four-hour day, and you come down into here. Now go to the next slide, you'll see what Pig Beach looks like. It's so cool. This is this is one of my favorite little spots again. I love this because you're going into it's called Big Major Spot.

Radeen:

Yeah, that's the name of the island.

Hayden:

The island is Big Major Spot. Everybody calls it Pig Beach because this is where they put the pigs, right? And it's it's a it's a tourist trap. People love it, but it's a great anchorage because you can see where the X is, you anchor there, and then you dinghy around on the dotted line over to Staniel Key Yacht Club, right? Which is where you can get groceries. You have the little bar restaurant there, it's fabulous. You got the blue store and the pink store, and you got a little airport there, you can fly supplies in and out. But uh Pig Beach is just beautiful. We we love it. You got the grotto there, that's Thunderball Grotto. People swim that. So from the X, which is where we always anchor, um, we prefer being there and then just dingy around over to Staniel Key in the grotto.

Capn Tinsley:

When it's windy, it's a little bit of a splashy ride, but it's okay.

Hayden:

Uh as opposed to where, like you said, if a if a front came of a strong westerly front came here, people tend to go over on the other side of the island. See how there's a slot in there, they anchor in between there. It and it and it's called between the majors, yeah. Not up north north, up north, right to the left of the word B. The beat, pig B.

Radeen:

Oh, how do you get in there?

Hayden:

Yeah, exactly. You go out by the you go out by the grotto and you go up and go in there, and so people go up and anchor in there, but I hate places like that because the current is ripping in and out, so every boat's gonna flip, bow into the current every six hours. You're gonna do a 180. You could break your anchor out, and then the wind is from the west, so the wind is now on your beam across you. I would rather sit where the X is and just take take the wind, you know, lay out 150 feet of chain and 10 feet of water and just just ride it out right there.

Capn Tinsley:

And what kind of winds are we talking when the those winds 2025, 2025?

Hayden:

That's maybe maybe gusting 30 sometimes, but it's the way it is. It's it comes every every seven to ten days, it's standard, so that's why people move keep moving south. The farther south you go, you get away from it. Okay, so again, again, we are in transit to Georgetown, right? We're trying, we we don't want to get stuck up here at all these fabulous places. You want to hit these in the spring when you're coming back, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

And the way the winds are not you're not like the front, the fronts are lighter.

Hayden:

So we're we're again, these are just the places we're trying to stop as we progress south. This is great.

Capn Tinsley:

This is great information. I mean this is how you do it.

Hayden:

So now, yeah, go to the next slide. The next slide, we have another big monstrous run. Nine miles.

Capn Tinsley:

Look at that, right there. Oh, I found a typo.

Hayden:

Oh no, that's that's our fault. Oh, forget it.

Capn Tinsley:

Let's end the podcast. We're done.

Hayden:

We're done, we're over. So then we had another we got a nine-mile run now to the pig beach down to Black Point. This is a fabulous little place. Um, now, by the way, I didn't show, but we have left Black Point here and gone out that inlet right above Black Point to go to Georgetown. You can exit right here, also, but I I'm having you exit down farther to make it a shorter run. So now go to the next slide. We only have about three more slides left here.

Radeen:

Black Point is a very traditional Bahamian island. Uh, the people that live there are very, very reserved, they're very polite. Um, yes, they're friendly, but they're reserved. Uh, on Sunday mornings, it's fun to watch the families all dressed up, going to church with the kids in their little cute outfits and lace socks and the whole deal. And uh, it's known for what Hayden has listed here: the laundry, the haircuts, the restaurants, the coconut bread. The coconut bread is wonderful. Yes, the woman named Lorraine who owns a couple of restaurants, and her mom is in her 90s now, and she makes coconut bread in her kitchen and regular bread in her own home bakery every day, and you can order ahead of time.

Capn Tinsley:

What I hear you saying is don't come in here being all loud and obnoxious.

Radeen:

No, it is a quiet place. Now, there are bars, they do serve alcohol, but it is not a rowdy place, no. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Don't come in here cutting up and all that, just be respectful, be respectful, yes, be respectful.

Hayden:

People will people will come to uh Black Point and just again stay for weeks because it's a great harbor, and it's got this V shape to it to the east, but when the fronts come in and they get around to the northwest, you're kind of protected a little bit by the shape of the harbor. So uh Alex, Alex and Amy and us rode out a storm there waiting for a big front to come through before we took off heading south to the Caribbean. And um, I remember we were having waves break over the bow sprit on the packet. Okay, on anchor. So you're going up and then you're diving down, and then you punch through a wave. That's on anchor. But it lasted about six hours, four hours. We knew it was coming, but we were waiting for that front to come through because as soon as it came through and went northeast, we had a beam reach down to the Turks and Caicos.

Capn Tinsley:

So that's this is right here on this X. Oh, wait, I gotta go.

Hayden:

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, the X.

Capn Tinsley:

So the this is where you were when the when the waves were the northwest wind would be that dotted line, but that's how we sail in and sail out.

Hayden:

We sail in and sail out on the trade winds. You can see it's easy to sail in and out of this harbor, and uh you can anchor anywhere, and people tend to anchor down closer to where the word laundry is. Uh and they like to be near Lorraine.

Radeen:

The word library.

Hayden:

Oh, libraries down there, yeah. They like to anchor down at the library. For some reason, they're anchored all over this whole place. I tend to go as far east as I can because the trade winds are blowing from the east and they get the most protection up there until the front front comes in. But the fronts move through pretty quickly, usually one day, and then you're and then you're protected. As soon as the wind would go northwest, you can see that people move over to this shoreline over here to the top, and they they anchor along there when the fronts come uh to get yeah, to get a little more protection. So this is a great harbor. There's a really good harbor.

Radeen:

I just want to mention that there's free water on the beach. You can bring jugs in by dinghy, yeah, and fill up your water jugs. Now, they don't want you to take hundreds of gallons, but five gallons a day. Again, be respectful. They're providing it to us for free. Yeah, water is produced produced by desalinization by burning diesel fuel on the island, yeah. And so they're sharing their water with us. That's very nice.

Hayden:

Yeah, Black Point is a great community, great destination. All right, now we got a couple more legs. We're gonna we're gonna reach.

Capn Tinsley:

I wanted to show this comment. Uh DCC says, I'm saving this and plan on rewatching as soon as possible. LOL. We hope to be on the water next winter. Wonderful. That's what we're here for. That's what we want. We want to provide good information for people to be safe. And this is like this is like local knowledge, and you don't even live there. So this is invaluable. Thank you. Thank you.

Hayden:

Thank you. Well, we've been down through here 10 times. We've gone, we've gone from Florida to Georgetown 10 times. So that's 10 times south and 10 times north.

unknown:

Right.

Hayden:

And then we've gone, we've gone five times from Miami to Grenada. So, anyways, all right.

Capn Tinsley:

Then you then you pass it.

Radeen:

So one time we passed it, yeah. Several times we left from Georgetown to the Caribbean. We left. But this last time we left right here from Black Point, we went out Dotham Cut to the north and headed straight to the Turks and Caicos.

Hayden:

We left here and ended up in the Turks and Caicos, yep. And we went to the city. And how long was that right?

Radeen:

Sorry, DR. DR. We didn't know. We went out.

Hayden:

We we we stopped in the Turks and Caicos anchor, yeah. We didn't know West West Caicos just for six hours to what get the weather window right for the Dominican Republic, and then we carried on. So we left this harbor, it ended up in the Dominican Republic.

Capn Tinsley:

And how long did that take?

Hayden:

Three days. Wow, three three days.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah. You guys are tough.

Hayden:

No, we're stupid. We think we can do it. It's amazing, it's not the southern ocean, but no, no, it's it's it's it's it's good sailing.

Capn Tinsley:

Hurricane comes or something.

Hayden:

It's good sailing. Yeah, we're lucky. All right, the next next slide now. Again, another easy day. Now, what we're trying, what we're trying to do, again, I could leave at a black point, but it's another 10 or 15 miles. So, what I'm trying to do is just get down to the next exit out to the and it's called little far, yeah. Little farmer's quay is a is a cool little place. You come down the backside and you anchor off a little farmers, and you go into the little beach bar there, and the and the little farmers yacht club, and it's it's cool. It's yeah, we spend we spend a day or two there. You swim and snorkel and go to the beach bar. Now, next one, go to the next slide. You come out of Little Farmers, and okay, here's the big here's the big picture. First of all, you're gonna come out of Galleon Cut, up at number one, up at number one, where Little Farmers is, and it's 38 miles now to Georgetown, all the way in the chat and chill. So, again, that's final switch.

Capn Tinsley:

Let's do it. Yeah, there it is.

Hayden:

Yes, there's your there's your next, and now again, just imagine that line there with east wind on it. If it's dead east wind, it's kind of upwind a little bit, you can see, right? What you would want would be a northeast wind, and that would make it more of a beam reach. So you you kind of sit back there in Black Point and Little Farmers, and you look at what are the winds going to do over the next couple days? When can I get a decent sale? This is a great sale down through here. It really is a good sale. The next slide, you'll see the cut. Okay, here's the challenge. This is the cut that's up called Galleon Cut, which is by Little Farmers Key. And the problem with every single Bahamian cut is you get wind against current. Yeah, that you just have to imagine the east trade winds are blowing.

Radeen:

Uh-oh, another typo. And I pointed this typo out to you, and you neglected to fix it. Oh study current. Oh no, you meant to study the current. I thought you meant steady current. Okay. I he's absorbed of all wrongdoing.

Hayden:

I I won on this one. False alarm.

Capn Tinsley:

False alarm.

Hayden:

You have to imagine the east trade winds are blowing nonstop.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, so you're gonna, you're gonna, it's like, yeah, you're gonna run.

Hayden:

The winds are blowing in from the east into this opening. These are high rocky cliffs on each side. The the uh water, the tide is going up and down, I don't know, three feet, four feet. Easily. So we have we have we have current now of ebbing and flooding, and when the current is flowing out against an in-blowing wind of trade winds, you get what's called a rage. The waves will stack up six, eight, ten feet, whatever, right between this, right where you would have to go out, and it's called a rage. And so, what happens on the radio is everybody talks about this, they they get on the radio. Does anybody know if galleon cut is raging today? And they and somebody, oh, I'm going out right now. I'm I'm in, I'm I just went out to cut, it's three foot C's, it's not bad. Or they all talk about how the cut is and can you run it? And it's all dependent upon what's the tide doing and what's the wind doing against the tide, against the current, right? So this this wind against current is the is the big deal. And the other challenging thing is you have a 38-mile run here. What's it gonna be at the other end when you got to go back in? See that you gotta cut here to go out, and you gotta cut at Georgetown to get in. Now, the one at Georgetown is much more open, so it's not as bad as these little ones up here at Farmers and up at Black Point. Uh, all of these up to the north are like this, but Georgetown is pretty big and open to go in.

Capn Tinsley:

It's not so it doesn't rage as much.

Hayden:

It doesn't rage, it's not it's not a worry. These are the worries is getting out. So to get out here, that's one of the things you gotta sort of really work on.

Radeen:

Yeah, you have to pay attention to the tide and know what the state of it you can do it at slack tide if you can time that, but usually you're gonna be choosing a time when this the tide is with the wind, yeah, or slack, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

With the wind is great, just like the just like the uh the Gulf Stream.

Hayden:

Exactly. There you go. Exactly, yeah. Same thing. All right, the next slide. Now I think I get us in Georgetown. So that's the cut. Here's the paradise. This is the destination, Chat and Chill. You want to get the Chat and Chill, everybody loves it. It's ground zero. We always would sail in here. Now, again, imagine East Trade Winds blowing across here. We're coming down from the upper left of the screen, and we normally have full sails up as we approach here, and then we drop them, and then we go right up the Chat and Chill beach as close as we can. We drop the anchor. Now, today, this is all moored out. There's moorings everywhere, which is probably better and it's safer. People don't drag when the fronts come.

Capn Tinsley:

And uh, but this is where you want to be, and that's where I heard that the moorings are someone told me yesterday $300 a month.

Hayden:

Probably something like that. That's reasonable. I mean, it people were upset about it because this was always the free place we all anchored, and uh, yeah, so they're making money off of this. It I haven't been I haven't been back here in five years, so I don't know. But we've been here 10 times, so we love it. I mean, it's great. We would always anchor, but now it's all moored out.

Capn Tinsley:

So but then the winds, I'm sorry, Radio. When the winds get get going here, um what what was it 30, you know.

Hayden:

Every front coming, every front coming through will be 25 knots at least 2025, gust 30. Uh yeah, it'll it'll be blowing, and it you you just have to imagine the wind clocks. You got east trade winds coming in normally, 10 to 15 round the clock. You're behind the beach, you're in a nice calm harbor, and then the winds go south. As soon as you have south winds, the front is coming. This is your warning when south winds come. Then it goes southwest, starts to build, and then it goes west and northwest and blows like crazy. And then when it gets up to north, it's really ripping. And when it gets the northeast, it's usually the strongest. Well, that's good. You're back in protected waters in northeast, and then it dies, and then it drops back down to east. Seven to ten days like clockwork, and it's related to the weather fronts coming across from Chicago down to Philly and out to New England at a big low pressure, swoops down across the country with this cold front, which is on the weather charts, is a blue V, little Vs on the lines, and that that cold front then drives across Florida, drives down into Bahamas, and eventually withers out. And it's it's all related to how strong is the low pressure, how deep is the millibars on the low pressure, as to how strong the wedge is. The blue cold front is like a wedge, a wedge of cold air pushing under the other air, and these updrafts, which then cause thunderstorms. So all of that goes together to cause these high winds. And what you're studying is how deep is the low up in Chicago and Philly and New England, how strong is the V, the blue line to the city. The trailing front, they call it the trailing front, and how fast is it moving? Like if it's just ripping across the country, it's going to be gone in 12 hours. If it's a slow-moving nor'easter snowstorm up in Philadelphia and Boston, and it's a blizzard, and it sits up off of the off of the coast for two, three, four days, a typical nor'easter. You can have west and northwest winds and chat and chill for three, four days.

Radeen:

So we always have to tell our worst stories, right? Everybody, every sailor likes to tell their worst stories. Let's hear it. Okay. Well, we subscribe to a weather service run by a man named Chris Parker. He's been a weather guru, a sailor for many, many years. And you can subscribe to him for a season or for annually. And he's a really good guy, and he he's conservative. And with a subscription service, you can talk to him and tell him where you are and what your plans are, and he'll um give you weather routing and good advice on where to be. And he's been in the Bahamas for years and years. He now lives in Lakeland, Florida. So one time we're at Chat and Chill anchored, we were one row back from the beach in a great spot. And Chris was telling everyone on the weather that it was going to be so bad that you needed to plan to not get off your boat for five days. Wow. And we're like, we are one row back from the beach. We're at Georgetown. How bad could it be? We didn't get off the boat for five days.

Hayden:

Your boat is you got waves that again, your your anchor is hitting the water, you know, you're bobbing around it, you're going left to right, things are flying out of the cabinets. You're like, oh my god, this is Georgetown.

Radeen:

Can get rough, but 90% of the time it's gorgeous.

Hayden:

Yeah, it's it's it's rare, very, very rare.

Capn Tinsley:

So, Roger McClure says, Hey guys, good to see you. We're coming down to ICW Burr. It's cold up here in South Carolina, planning on crossing the Bahamas in February. Hope to see you out there, Tinsley. Hayden, um, and then he said, Great info as always. Uh thank you, Roger. Roger first trip south.

Hayden:

Good job, Roger. That's the time. That's I think that's the best time to go over is February. Just spend your time in Biscayne Bay, prepping your boat, practicing all your sails and your equipment, and running your water maker and just enjoying life on the anchor, moving around Biscayne Bay. And when the perfect weather wind that comes in February, even March, go.

Capn Tinsley:

That's that's that's yeah, that's the most dangerous thing for sailors to be in a hurry.

Hayden:

Don't push. There's no reason to push out of my there's no reason to push out of Biscayne Bay. It's I cannot stress enough how wonderful it is to sail in Biscayne Bay. It really is.

Capn Tinsley:

Roger, where are you gonna be before February? Are you just taking your time coming down? Uh just curious about that. So I do have a question about Georgetown. I'm gonna put this back up. Yeah, um, so if it gets all do you ever move? Yes, yeah, we'll yes, we we I know you did that in other places. You would move around in Georgetown.

Hayden:

We always moved when the fronts would come. What we would do in Georgetown, again, this was when we were anchored in here. We would pick up anchor and move west to the other side of the harbor, which is where the town is. And again, I didn't focus on much of the uh you know, I could, but I didn't.

Capn Tinsley:

I think we did talk about that last time.

Hayden:

You on the other side of the on the other side of Georgetown is the town, and that's where you dinghy in and get your groceries and water go for a walk and get water at the free water dock. We move, we would move over there, anchor over on the other side. Nobody does that. Very few people move out when they sit when they sit. I think it's a smart move because it's a lot calmer on the other side of the harbor when the front comes, and then one or two days over there, and then you move back.

Capn Tinsley:

Great idea. Yeah, and nobody does it. I'm gonna look smart.

Hayden:

Yep.

Radeen:

Well, the only trick might be that now that they have mooring balls everywhere, I don't know that they have mooring balls on the west side, so you might not be able to. Well, I don't know that I don't know how friendly they are to anchoring. If you're already on a ball, they may not want you to anchor. That would be something to find out. I just want to put in a plug for the great community that they have in Georgetown, the cruising community. They have a morning radio net that uh longtime cruisers run, and there's a pattern and a routine to it, and a chance to ask questions and get advice and and find out what mechanic to use and all those kinds of things. It's about a 20-minute radio net every morning, and on Saturdays, cruising kids run it. Yeah, and it's so much fun to listen to the kids do the net, they take it so seriously, it's really cute, and they have a lot of social events they do, and they have a lot of social events too throughout the whole spring. It's it's really a lot of fun to be there.

Hayden:

It's so much fun, it really is. There's Roger.

Capn Tinsley:

So we'll spend some time in a key shoot to the Bahamas. So I might see you in Key Largo because I'm gonna that's one of my stops. I like to uh I've only been to Key Largo once. I mean, I've by land, yes, but by boat, I've been there once.

Hayden:

Right.

Capn Tinsley:

Uh huh.

Hayden:

All right, Roger. Do me a favor. Don't don't don't skip through Biscayne Bay without spending a week or two there. All right, that's that's a requirement.

Radeen:

On your way south or on your way uh east, either one.

Hayden:

Exactly. I don't know. Do I have any other slides, Tinsley? I think that's my last slide. I'm not sure if I have anything past towards it.

Radeen:

I think so.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I think that was the our goal was to get Tinsley to Georgetown. I think well, if it's raging, like someone said it is.

Hayden:

That's right.

Capn Tinsley:

I may just kind of hang out, you know. Um, okay, so someone over on Instagram says damage control underscore sailing says Georgetown is an excellent place to do trips to Cat Island and Long Island.

Hayden:

Oh, yeah, yeah. You base in Georgetown, then you go out to Cat Island, you go up to Long Island, or you even get a calm day and you go out to Rum Key and Conception. Those are two more national parks that are just oh my gosh, they're they're really spectacular. But they're they're out there in the remote, there's not good harbors. So you go out there when it's flat calm, and then when the front's coming or the wind builds up, you race back to Georgetown. There's just so much you can do from Georgetown. I see why 300 boats go there and just spend the winter there.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, it really is as good as you don't go into um Sarah. Uh uh, Dr. Sarah Cole says, very helpful. Thanks so much. Hi, Sarah. Nice to welcome Sarah.

Radeen:

Nice to know you could join us. Good luck heading south on the Chesapeake tomorrow. Yes. So you know this, you know, Dr.

Capn Tinsley:

Sarah. Yes, and her husband. We met them at the Annapolis boat show one year. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thanks for tuning in. Um, so yeah, so we got the tips. We got I love that you talk what to do about when those west winds are coming because that is something you have to watch there. You can't just go and not be watching the weather. Would you agree?

Hayden:

You spend an hour a day on the weather. Yeah, you really do. You spend an hour a day.

Capn Tinsley:

An hour.

Hayden:

First thing you do in the morning, get up, you you you go through all your weather resources, you look at all the predict wind, you know, advancing predict wind forward, one, two, three days. What's the wind strength, wind angle? You spend an hour a day. Now, when you're in Georgetown, you're not going to do that, but when you're in transit and you're trying to get from A to B, you're going to spend an hour in the morning.

Capn Tinsley:

I plot my way forward based on the conditions.

Hayden:

Exactly. Sure. Yeah, you have to. I mean, yeah, you spend a lot of time on the weather. We really do. Yeah.

Radeen:

And if you don't subscribe to Chris Parker, I have to suggest it. He's great. He sends email or he does single sideband, or he does a live uh broadcast on the internet. Yeah. So with Starlight.

Capn Tinsley:

How do you find him? I want to I want to put that up.

Radeen:

His website is Marine Weather Center.

Hayden:

Yeah. Marine Weather Center.com. And it's what?

Radeen:

M W XC. Yeah. Marine Weather Center. So M W M X C dot com for Marine Weather. Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

So it's not it's not Marine Weather. All right. Let me redo this. Okay.

Radeen:

M W It's it's M for Marine and then W X for weather and C for center. So M, excuse me. W M X dot com.

Hayden:

It's MWXC.

Radeen:

That's what I said.

Capn Tinsley:

And that stands for Marine Weather Center.

Hayden:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Center. Chris.

Hayden:

Maybe I'm going to put that up. Subscribers forever. And I'm I pay a yearly fee. I mean, I'm home here. I'm not sailing till January. And I still read his emails every day. And just to kind of keep in tune to what's going on with the weather.

Radeen:

So he does broadcasts and emails based on your location. So for right now, you would be reading and listening to his Florida weather cast. Right. And then he does the Bahamas, the Upper Bahamas, and the Lower Bahamas. And he does Caribbean part of it.

Hayden:

He does this from he does this from Florida and he does it every day. And it's wow, it's it's a lot. Coffee, Chris Parker, and Wendy. There you go. There's what Roger, Roger's saying.

Radeen:

You need your coffee, you need Chris Parker, and you need Wendy. Good job, Roger.

Hayden:

You do it every day, and he tells you it's just the way you it's ridiculous. I mean, at home here, I don't spend any time in the weather. Oh, it's raining outside. Good. I didn't even know it. Right. Yeah. On the boat, every day we spend easily an hour listening to Chris, reading his email, you know, looking at predict when looking at Windy, any of the weather models you use.

Radeen:

When you go to Chris's website, he has a sample forecast that you can listen to, and also a sample that you can read. And something that took us a while to figure out is the math symbol for uh greater than less than is the symbol used for becoming. So it'll say SW15, then a greater than symbol 20. So that means southwest winds 15, becoming 20. Yeah. So that's a little tip I'll give you.

Hayden:

Yeah, he writes it in a cryptic manner, but it's I mean, it's a four-page essay every day on your area of the weather. It's a it's impressive.

Capn Tinsley:

So I could start using it for where I am now.

Hayden:

Okay, you certainly could.

Radeen:

Yeah, you should. I think money well spent. Um, do you have a single sideband on your boat?

Hayden:

No, don't need don't need it with Starlink.

Radeen:

Starlink, you don't need it, but he he does um uh single sideband, and then on the internet on his website, you can listen live and he shows weather maps, and then people ask questions, and it's great to listen to the question and answer session because a lot of times somebody's gonna ask the question that you were hoping to have answered, and then you find out the boat two boats over is doing what you're doing tomorrow, and then you've got somebody to travel with.

Capn Tinsley:

Sure. Well, so does this like a certain time every day?

Hayden:

Yes, yeah, it's a schedule, it's published on his website when he's on the radio every day, and it's fabulous. It's we've been using it. He's just a retired dude that just he's a young guy, he's probably oh, I don't think he's 50, 45, or 50, yeah. And um he was cruising, and uh it was back in the day when there was a weather broadcaster from Canada named Herb Hilgenberg.

Capn Tinsley:

We've talked about him on the podcast before, exactly.

Hayden:

So Herb was famous. When Herb, I think, passed away or stopped broadcasting. Chris picked up the void, and Chris Chris took over.

Capn Tinsley:

That's how it happened from what I and did did you have um did you know the price? Did you mention the price? I don't remember right off the top of my head.

Radeen:

I think an annual subscription is $300, yeah, and that's for everything, that's for the uh email as well as the broadcast, and then for a little bit more, you can actually pay him for a custom five-day uh forecast. Yeah, and he'll look exactly, he'll ask you how fast your boat goes, how far you want to go in a day, and he'll map out a plan as good as possible, reaching into the future for five days.

Hayden:

Yes, that's I think you can buy like you can buy passages, you can buy uh like three months, and you can buy six months, and you can buy a year. So, like you would only need a six-month subscription to follow your season down the down the Georgetown. Yeah, it would be great.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, you know, it the big bend of of Florida is tricky, right? You know, like it'll just pop if that I would definitely want his uh for that because it can be hit and miss, right?

Radeen:

And all of a sudden that's probably not an area he he focuses on, but if you were a subscriber because you're there, he would talk to you about it, yeah. Okay, perfect. Yeah, yeah, he's wonderful. We don't say enough good things about him, he's also a great human being, fabulous service.

Capn Tinsley:

So we we know him personally, and he's a great and with the you guys know the weather so well. If you're listening to this guy, that says a lot.

Hayden:

Wow, we've easily 15 years. We've we used them when we went up to New England and we used to sell in the summertime. The New England we used them, yeah. Wow, okay, there's other competing services.

Radeen:

There's oh um the girl from Canada, Jennifer Clark.

Hayden:

Clark, Jennifer Clark does the same thing, but it it doesn't matter. Chris, I think Chris is fabulous. Roger for me. Yep. See, look at Chris, look at Roger. That is so our lives revolve around the weather, so true.

Radeen:

Yeah, my gosh, it makes you become a weather geek, doesn't it?

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah. Well, you guys definitely are that. Well, makes so yeah, I'm gonna look into that. I'll probably do it tomorrow.

Hayden:

Excellent.

Capn Tinsley:

So you won't well. We tried to do 45 minutes, but it's been an hour and 13.

Hayden:

I'm sorry, I get a lot.

Radeen:

It was so much fun. Thank you.

Hayden:

Great job, Kinsley, as always.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank you so much. Uh are you already ready to do that? Wait, we got another comment here. Uh Brian says, Hayden Radim, what a wealth of sailing knowledge. You guys rock. You don't want to miss that compliment, do you?

Hayden:

Oh my god, nice here, bro. That's his brother. Thank you.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, that's your brother.

Hayden:

That's cool.

Capn Tinsley:

Because he he came on earlier. He was he uh he was that's cool, he wrote that uh earlier. So that's your brother. That's awesome.

Hayden:

How fun!

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, that's very nice.

Hayden:

That is fun. Is that a half brother, or is it a half brother? How fun.

Capn Tinsley:

I got some of those too. Mike periods like that.

Hayden:

Very fun. He all right.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, okay, so what do we say?

Hayden:

We say, and that is salty abandoned and out.

Capn Tinsley:

Salty abandoned out. Thank you, guys.

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Captain Tinsley

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Hayden & Radeen Cochran of SV Island Spirit

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