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

Episode Transcript
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Capn Tinsley (00:04):
Tonight I'm coming to you live from Southwest
Florida aboard Salt T Bandon andjoining me yet again are my
good friends Hayden and Rainfrom Salem Vessel Island Spirit.
At this point, I've honestlylost count of how many times
they've been on the show, butevery single time we learn
something new.
Tonight we're diving back intoone of our favorite topics, the
Bahamas.
We'll be talking about weather,routing, and what to expect

(00:26):
when sailing from No Name Harborin Cubiscaine down to
Georgetown.
If you're planning your ownBahamas adventure or just love
hearing how the pros do it, thisepisode is for you.
But first, if you like thesesailing stories, please smash
that like button, subscribe, andshare the video.
It really helps the channel.
I'm Captain Tinsley, and thisis the Salty Podcast episode

(00:48):
number 80.
Please help me welcome Haydenand Raidine.
Good afternoon and evening.

Hayden (00:56):
Yeah, good afternoon.
Congratulations, Tinsley.
Number 80.
That's wonderful.

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

Hayden (01:04):
Great.
Amazing.
You're so you're so good atthis.
You really are a pro at this.

Well, compliments will get you everywhere.

unknown (01:11):
I know.

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 ofVenice Beach, north of Captiva,
North Captiva, all that.
So that's my next stop.
Is gonna be actually PelicanBay.

(01:33):
I'll be anchoring in PelicanBay right off Cayo Costa.

Hayden (01:36):
You guys have been in that's wonderful.

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

(02:01):
Is it no name key or is it noname harbor?

Hayden (02:04):
No name harbor, yeah.
Okay, yeah, to Georgetown.
So first first first, you'regonna get yourself down the
marathon around the corner andthen up into Biscayne Bay, and
then you're gonna queue yourselfup in my little happy place of
Biscayne Bay.
That's that's that's one ofyour happy places.

I've heard you say many that many places are your
happy place, yeah.
But um so I was thinking aboutI've always gone under you know
the seven mile bridge and thenhang the left, but somebody
messaged me about the north, butthat there is a that pathway,
there's a a channel that goesnorth of the keys.

(02:41):
I don't know what it would belike in the winter, but I have
run, I have run that.

Hayden (02:45):
Yeah, I've run that.
We've run that one time.
You can run on the north sideof the keys all the way up to uh
Biscayne Bay, it's veryshallow, five feet, five and a
half feet.
You push mud around now andthen.
It's way, way ten times easierto go on the outside and go up
the hawk channel, way easier.

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

Hayden (03:10):
It does if you don't run aground and get stuck.
I mean, there's a lot of coolplaces to stop, but yeah, you we
did it one time and we've doneprobably five runs in uh in uh
hawk channel, so I wouldn'tyeah, at least at least five.

Radeen (03:25):
Yeah, we're there for five Christmases.

Hayden (03:27):
Yeah, we spent five Christmases in marathon, right?

Radeen (03:29):
So we've done it ten times, one time through the
north side, and nine timesthrough Hawk Channel.
Go Hawk Channel, it'll bebetter for your nerves, yeah.

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

Hayden (03:45):
Right, but that makes a nice beam reach going up the
hawk channel.

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

Hayden (03:53):
The hawk channel kind of turns, it goes northeast, but
then it turns, it goes north.
So, yeah, you just wait inmarathon till and and then the
beauty of marathon is you'regoing to anchor off the marathon
harbor because the mooringballs will all be filled.
That's fine, and then you candingy in and out of marathon for
services.
And if a big front comes or anytrouble comes, you just move

(04:14):
around to the other side.
So you can move around on youknow the north side or the west
side or south side of marathon.
So it's pretty good.
It's it's not the bestanchorage like Biscayne Bay, but
it'll be it'll be fine becauseyou're not going to be there
that long, you're just trying totime your weather to get up up
the well.

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

Hayden (04:36):
Right, right.
Yeah, some people some peoplemake marathon their destination,
which is fine.

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

Hayden (04:59):
Yeah, we stayed right next to Faro Blanco.
They were building Faro Blancowhen we were down there.
We were at the private clubcalled um Harbor Harbor K Club,
24 private slips and a reallynice, tight little community.
But uh, like all those marinason that side of Marathon, when
the wind blows from the north,it is nasty.

(05:20):
It's just rock and roll city inthere.
But that's that's true.
That's the keys.

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

Hayden (05:35):
Sure, yeah.
Yeah, I want to go ahead andknock it out.
Let's talk about let's talkabout some tipping people.

And who knew it would be so controversial?
So I I did a a real a little alittle clip uh just saying, hey,
we wanted to know whateverybody what everybody tipped,
you know.
Well when when you come into amarina and two guys come out or
one guy, help you tie up, helpyou plug in your power.
How much do you tip?
And I didn't tell I I told Iwould I would do a follow-up and

(06:06):
tell what I tip, but I foundout I was on the high end.
Oh wow.

Hayden (06:11):
Well you're generous.

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

Hayden (06:21):
Right, they do, they absolutely do.

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

Hayden (06:26):
They are sailors, sailors are cheap, you know.
Power boaters come in and takea thousand gallons of fuel and
five thousand dollars, you know.
They flip a hundred dollar billout there like it's it's a
dollar to us, you know.
So it's true.

And some people said because they're spending so
much money on fuel andeverything, they just put it on
their credit card and it's likeno big deal.
But sailors come in, work, workthem to death, get get five
gallons of fuel, pump out.
Someone said, use the shower.
I mean, it was they just it wasa dock hand, it was an ex-dock
hand.
He was just wow, that's funny.

Hayden (07:01):
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 (07:07):
And you tie up their dock filling up with water
mainly.

Hayden (07:11):
Water forever, yeah.

Radeen (07:12):
You take forever, fuel, right?

Hayden (07:14):
You know, you take it on 150, 200 gallons of water, and
then you I need five gallons ofgas for the dinghy, and I need
10 gallons of diesel for the forthe boat, and I have five bags
of two.
You know, I got 10 bags oftrash.
I want to give you here'shere's my trash.
Oh, by the way, here's twodollars tip for you.
Thanks.
Right, just want to get youout, leave.

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

Hayden (07:44):
Oh, oh, no, I can see that.

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

Hayden (08:10):
Yeah.
Oh, we'll tip a dock hand five,ten, twenty dollars, depending
upon how it goes.
You know, that's not a lot, butit's something, and it if they
go out of their way, it might beten or twenty dollars for them
helping us.
So some some dock hands arefabulous.
They're just I know CrandonState Park in Miami, where I'll
show you where that is.

(08:30):
It's one of our favorites.
We love that place.
The guy's been there for like30 years, he's wonderful.

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 alittle interrupted.
Well, what we were sayingoffline was uh the the a dog
hand at a marina is what Ratinesaid, local knowledge for that
marina.
They're the expert in thatmarina, and they often will help

(08:59):
will keep you from bumping thedog.
That's valuable to me.
Yeah, um, you know, I've hadthose that you know just barely
do anything, but mostly that'snot the case.
Wouldn't you agree?

Hayden (09:13):
Right, absolutely, yeah.
No question about it.

So I do 20 bucks.

Hayden (09:18):
Yeah, that's fair.
That's nice, that's generous.

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

unknown (09:30):
Right.

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

Hayden (09:33):
Well, I would I would say that's probably more
generous than most sailors willtip.
I would think I would think uhthat's that's above the average,
I would think.
And I think a lot of peopledon't tip anything.

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

Hayden (09:49):
Oh, yeah.

I mean, it's definitely it helps me to do
that for selfish reasons.
Um, but yeah, yeah, I can tellthat 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 ofit.

Hayden (10:05):
Of course, of course.
It's it's nice to be generousand it's nice to share when you
can.

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

Hayden (10:21):
Let's try to elevate our our status as a sailboater.

Our reputation, you know what I'm saying?

Hayden (10:27):
This is ridiculous.
We don't have to be cheap.

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

Hayden (10:33):
Oh my god, yeah, we burn hundred dollar bills.
We don't need to think aboutthem.

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

Hayden (10:46):
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 interestingagain.

Let's see.
Okay, so yeah.

Hayden (10:55):
So this is this is the overview, just trying to give a
an overview of uh the wholeconcept of trying to get from
Miami down to Georgetown, andthat's that's Tinsley's
destination.
Her first time of going downhere, we've done it how many
times, right then?
10 times, yeah.
Yeah, we've we've gone Miami toGeorgetown 10 times, so we know

(11:15):
this run.
And the thing I focused on isbecause you're single-handing, I
focused on how can you get fromMiami to Georgetown without any
overnight passages?

That's nice.

Hayden (11:26):
Yes, so this entire run, the longest run is 65 nautical
miles when you go from Miami outacross the Bahama banks, and
that's safe and easy.
But we'll look at that.
Every other run is 10, 20, 30miles.
It's really, really simple.
I like that.
It's really simple once you getout of Miami and you get you

(11:46):
get east.
You see, if you look at thatchart and you just think I have
to go from Miami through thatlittle skinny northwest channel,
down around Nassau, uh NewProvidence Island, and then I
finally reach the first ExumaKey, which is called Highborn
Key, that is 200 nautical mileseast of Miami.
Oh, okay.
And that's the challenge.

(12:08):
You have to pick a weatherwindow where you can either make
those, that's about one, two,three, four-day run.
You you can make that in fourdays, but you'll never get a
four-day window.
So, what's going to happen ison this run east to get out to
the exumas, you're going to endup getting stuck at one of these

(12:29):
places for usually a weatherwindow till the next front comes
through.
And we'll talk about that whenwe look in closer.
But that's the challenge isMiami to the first Exuma key is
200 nautical miles.

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

Hayden (12:50):
Yeah, let's look at the next, let's look at the next
slide.

Okay.

Hayden (12:54):
Yeah, now the the the next slide is what I'm trying to
focus on here is just thebeauty of Biscayne Bay because
it's one of my top three to fivebest sailing places on the
entire east coast.
You have five to fifteen knottrade winds blowing from the
east, and I got four areasidentified.

(13:14):
Number one is Boca Cheetah,number two is no name harbor,
number three is up at the topwhere Crandon State Park is, and
number four is Denner KeyMarina.
These between these four areas,it's all you really need in
Biscayne Bay.
They've kind of taken awaySouth Beach from us, so we don't
we can't really go up thereanymore.

Radeen (13:34):
Because they took away the dinghy dot.

Hayden (13:35):
Yeah, it's unfortunate, it's fabulous up there, but I
could do a whole discussion onSouth Beach, but it's it's taken
away.
So that's fine.
We focus on these four areasand we sail every day.
Now, if you go to the nextslide, uh you'll see tell me
about this one.

Are you gonna tell me about that?

Hayden (13:52):
The number one that's Boca Cheetah.
I actually didn't prepare aslide for Boca Cheetah, but
let's talk about it.
The thing that you do with BocaCheetah is there's a marina,
well, not a marina, it's aharbor in there made by
Honeywell, and he made it uh forhis own purpose, and he would
bring his boats over there fromMiami, and you side tie up in

(14:12):
the marine in the in the harbor,and it's very protected.
So, what you're gonna do inBiscayne Bay is when the fronts
come, they they you know, thetrade winds are blowing east,
and then the winds go south, andthen they go southwest, and
then they blow like crazy fromthe west, and then they blow
like crazy from the northwest.
Well, two and three and fourare not that great for west

(14:34):
winds.
Four is okay, but when thewinds blow north and then they
go northeast, this is a typicalfrontal passage, and they come
every seven to ten days.
So, what you do in preparationfor that is you run down the
number one, you run down toBucca Cheetah, and that's about
I don't know, 15 miles down tothere.
It's a great beam reach sale.

(14:55):
Sail down there, you tie up inthere a day before the fronts
come.
The fronts come, whackeverybody, the front passes, and
guess what?
The trade winds come back, thefive to 15 knot trade winds come
back, and you sail out of thereand you sail back up to two or
three or four.

unknown (15:11):
Okay.

Radeen (15:11):
So Bocachita is a park, and there is no trash
facilities, there's nobathrooms, there's you have to
be self-sufficient while you'rethere.
The park ranger only comes acouple of days a week, it is
uninhabited, but it isbeautiful.
Oh, and it's like docking in aswimming pool.
The dock is uh all concrete andcurved, and um, people help

(15:33):
each other tie up, and people docome on the weekends to camp.
There's a boat that'll bringyou over to camp on the grounds,
so there is a rudimentary uhouthouse type arrangement for
that, and it's just a very coolplace.
You don't want to be there whenthere's no breeze, though,
because it's very, very buggy.

Hayden (15:51):
Yeah, you're only going down there for the frontal
passages, so you use BocaCheetah as your safe security
spot when the winds are blowing.
You just sail down there, pullin there, tie up, you're gonna
spend a day or two there.
The the front's gonna pass, andyou're gonna come back up to
the upper bay.

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

Hayden (16:19):
If you if you go to the next slide, I have the upper
upper uh bay, because uh, youknow, we could do a whole
discussion just on Biscayne Bay.
But if you go to the nextslide, I think my next my next
slide.

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

Hayden (16:34):
Yeah, now what I did here is I tried to just identify
on the upper beautiful, by theway, Hayden.

This is excellent work.

Hayden (16:43):
Well, I love making these things, it's fun because
it's a good way for me to reviewand and how this all works and
to help somebody else out iswhat we like to do.
So, first of all, these are thenumber, these are the places on
the upper Biscayne Bay, belowthe Rickbacker Causeway and
below Marine Stadium.
And so, what I have are Xswhere you would drop the anchor.

(17:05):
Okay, and what you were justtalking about over there on
Dinner Key, where it saysCoconut Grove and food over to
the west, right above the wordwaiting.
That X there is where weanchor, which is at the back of
the mooring field, becauseyou're coming over here when
it's not blowing, you're you'reit's calm, it's 10 to 15 knots

(17:26):
blowing from the east.
So, yes, you're laying out inthe middle of the bay, it feels
like, and the waves are comingfrom 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 rundown to Boca Cheetah.
Yeah, so you're you're only uphere, you're only up here when
it's calm, and uh and it andit's calm, you know, until a

(17:46):
front arrives, and then you gointo dinner key with the dinghy,
and that's where you can dolaundry, go to Coconut Grove, uh
uh get groceries over there.
And if you go over to the eastnow a little bit to uh Key
Biscayne, the 1x on the bottomthere where it says food, that's
no name harbor.
That's where you're gonnathat's where you're gonna queue

(18:07):
up to leave.
You see how I have the dottedarrow that says out.
That's you're gonna queue upthere at no name harbor, and
that's where everybody waits toleave.
Right now, when when you gotyour weather window coming,
you're done with all theseplaces on Biscayne Bay.
You queue up in front of noname and you shoot out right
there at that um channel there.

(18:27):
Now, in the meantime, you canuse no name harbor and you can
go in there to get food andgroceries and go out to dinner.
There's a little bar there, andyou can walk up to the grocery
store, and they got electriccarts that bring you back and
forth.

Radeen (18:40):
So, no name harbor is inside a state park called the
Bill Bags State Park, andthere's a lighthouse there that
you can walk to and climb up thelighthouse, and there's park
rangers, so it's a really nicedestination, and there's a
restaurant right in No NameHarbor.

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

Hayden (19:09):
Yeah, in there, yeah, yeah, it's popular, good for
you, very popular.

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

Hayden (19:19):
Yeah, now what happens in no name harbor is everybody
goes in there and anchors inthere and they stay for weeks
and weeks and maybe all season.
It gets very crowded, but youcould just come out off of the
harbor and anchor out there in10-15 feet of water, a nice
sandy bottom, lay out a wholebunch of chain.
The current swings in and out,you know, it it's tidal, so it

(19:40):
ebbs and floods, and you justswing around on the on the tide,
and it's no problem.
To get out of that, you go upto the next X, which is called
Nixon Harbor, and that's whereNixon's helipad is.
There's a house up there with abig concrete helipad that
sticks out, and it's nicknamedNick Nixon Harbor.
It was Nixon's summer house,and that little sandbar right

(20:01):
below that X is where everybodyin Miami comes to play.
No, one of the bring theirteetoppers down, they drop
anchor, they walk on thatsandbar, 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.

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

Hayden (20:20):
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, andthere's a marina.
If you zoom in there a littlebit, you might be able to see
the shape of the marina.
But again, I did not focus onthe harbors, I just am focusing
on the overview what resourcesyou have, but that's there's

(20:43):
actually a marina right there.
Yeah, there's a marina andmooring balls and floating
docks, and okay, and it's at thetop of Key Biscayne, and that's
where you go get your fuel andwater and pump out.
It's fantastic.
And then the last X is rightoff of Virginia Key.
The first time we came down toMiami, my buddy was directing
us, and we came under theRickenbacher Causeway Bridge,

(21:04):
hung a left, and went up to thesandy uh beach and dropped
anchor.
And that is where you get yourmost spectacular nighttime view
of Miami as the city lights upand you're on anchor there, your
bow is facing to the east, theport side is looking up to Miami
City.
It's it's it's beautiful.
I've taken some spectacularpictures there.

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

Hayden (21:46):
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 youdo 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, andwe've waited here for over a
month many, many times, and youjust want like the weather

(22:07):
window comes, you're like, Oh, Icould take that one, and I'm
gonna get stuck in Bimini.
No, thanks, I'd rather be stuckhere, right?
Because your next run from hereis you're gonna try to go like
a bat out of hell and get acrossthe Bimini, across the banks,
and out to at least Nassau areaand get stuck out there and then
move on.

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

Hayden (22:30):
Yeah, you so you you you use this as your holding
pattern, right?

Radeen (22:34):
Yeah, and let's cross the Gulf Star.

Hayden (22:37):
Okay, right, Dean's like, let's get going.
Okay, go to the next slide, goto the next slide.
So now we're gonna now we'regonna take off.
We got the weather window.
It's like, let's go.
So here it is, it's 48 nauticalmiles.
That's all it is.
So you shoot, yeah, you shootacross to Bimini.
That's all it is.
That's what seven, eight hoursto get across there at you know,
six six knots.

(22:58):
Yeah, so now next slide willshow us Bimini.
The trick at Bimini is here'sthe I'll try to maximize my
screen here.
There we go.

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

Hayden (23:12):
Yes, it is, and nobody goes here.
This is ridiculous.
What everybody does, everybodycomes into Bimini.
This is called South Bimini.
Everybody comes into Bimini andturns north on the dotted line,
and they go up into Brown'sWharf up top.
That's now this is current.
This is current driven.
The current flushes in and outof here a lot.

(23:34):
And what will happen up in thetop of Bimini?
You must turn across thecurrent to dock.
I don't have anything showingup 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.

(23:54):
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 havetwo ways to check in.
You could take a golf cart downto the airport on South Bimini
and check in at the airport,yeah.
Or you can walk up to the topof this island where it says
Bimini Cove Marina, and there'llbe a there'll be a little ferry

(24:16):
boat that'll run you across toNorth Bimini, and you can check
in up at Browns Wharf at the atthe main customs house up on
North Bimini.
Either way, you're gonna checkin here.
This is where you're going.
Now, I like that if you timedit right and you watch the
weather window, the perfectscenario is you come in here,

(24:37):
you shoot in here, and you checkin that same day.
Now, that means you left asearly as you could back at no
name, so you have time to checkin here because if you're
running a weather window, youdon't want to just sit here.
But what happens to a lot ofpeople is they take a narrow
weather window and they runacross the Gulf Stream and they

(24:59):
just barely get in here beforethe before the northwest winds
start blowing.
And imagine the northwest windsblowing into this inlet.
You're going to be surfing downfour or five, six-foot waves
trying to run into this littleskinny channel between rocks.
Very, very dangerous.
So people that try to run ashort weather window get caught

(25:20):
right here, and now the wind isblowing and the waves are up,
and they're trying to get in.
Okay.
And so, you know, you you wouldbe better off in that situation
to not make the run.
Stay back in Miami and play daysailing up and down Biscayne
Bay, enjoying all the places youcan anchor and swim, and wait
for a better, better weatherwindow.

unknown (25:41):
Yep.

Hayden (25:42):
Yep.
It's but so you're gonna go inhere and you're gonna dock, and
then you're gonna try to checkin.
You might have to stay the nextday if you can't get checked in
that day.

I probably would being by myself, right?

Hayden (25:52):
You could stay there, and now I need a break.

You know, these kitties need a break.

Hayden (25:55):
Exactly, exactly.

Radeen (25:57):
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 toNorth Bibini to buy sim chips
for their phones for theBahamas, right?

Hayden (26:10):
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 justcome in, check in, and get
moving because remember, you'retrying to get 200 miles east.
This is only 50 miles east.
Yeah, you have another 150miles to go till you get to the
Exumas.
So don't get stuck here.
All right, let's look at thenext slide.

(26:32):
So now you come out of here,you've checked in.
Here's your biggest challengeof all the way to Georgetown 68
nautical miles from SouthBimini.
You come out down the south,you run across the banks, which
are 10 feet deep, and you get toNorthwest Channel.
Now, most people will not runthrough Northwest Channel at

(26:53):
night because they feel it's alittle scary, and it all depends
on your navigational skills.
And plus, look, if you gothrough there, where are you
going to go?

Radeen (27:03):
Now you can't anchor.

Hayden (27:04):
There's it's deep, it's thousands of feet deep.
So to play it safe, as a daytripper, 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 outa bimini, you're going to make
this run, and you're going tostop before you go through the
channel.
Now go to the next slide.
And what you're going to do isthis you're going to be running,

(27:27):
you're going to be running forthe channel, which is about, I
don't know, it's I don't knowhow wide it is.
Doesn't matter.
You can go through there, butyou don't want to go through
there.
You're going to you're going toget off of the rum line and
you're going to go just go downtowards the reef, anywhere down
here, and drop an anchor.
And you're going to sleep.
And you're going to light yourboat up like New York City

(27:49):
because you don't want anybodyto hit you.
Okay.
Because people will be runninghere at night.

Radeen (27:55):
Oh, definitely.
Ships as well as small boats.

Hayden (27:58):
So sometimes people run, you know, oh, there's a light.
That might be the channelentrance.
No, that's my boat with oneanchor light on.
No, we don't want just oneanchor light on.
We want every light you canhave on if you're going to
anchor right here.
You want to look like New YorkCity.
So nobody hit nobody hits you.
Now nobody should hit you herebecause if they did, they're

(28:19):
going to run into the wheel.

It's off the beaten path, right?

Hayden (28:22):
Well, they're going to run into the reef if they're
going there, if they're up thatfar off the channel.
So you just get off the channeland get down here and drop and
drop the anchor.
You'll get there at sunset andsleep and get up at daybreak.
And now you scoot through thislittle channel, which there
might be the marker is there.
There's a little piling.
I've been through there.

(28:42):
Yeah.
Okay.
So now the next stop is NewProvidence.
So now it's 45 nautical milesfrom the Northwest Channel down
to what's called West Bay.
And that's the end of New NewProvidence.
And I don't think I zoomed inon that because it's just a
little round harbor.
It's real easy to get into.
And nothing.

Radeen (29:02):
Just let me clarify that the island is named New
Providence, but it's whereNassau is located.
So Nassau's on the north side,and West Bay is right about
where the letter A is in Nassau.

Hayden (29:14):
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 whatI was focusing on is the
routes.
Like how far is each leg to gofrom A to B to C to get out
here?
So now you're now you're at NewProvidence, West Bay.
The next slide now.
Okay, now you leave 45 nauticalmiles, another day trip.

(29:36):
Now you make your last run eastand you hit Highborne Key.
And that's the first key you'regoing to run up, you're going
to run up to because that's theclosest key.
And you just get there bysunset, you drop an anchor off
the key.
Again, the trade, the easttrade winds are blowing across
the Exumas, and you're on theback side of the island, you
drop an anchor.

(29:57):
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 atthe top.
Your next day is 13 miles downthe Shroud Key.

Sweet.

Hayden (30:10):
And this is and now this now, this is the way it goes
all the way down through theExumas.
You're now have reached theExuma chain.
Right.
You're 200 miles east of Miami.
You've busted your tail to getout here.
Might have taken you four orfive days if you're good and
lucky with the weather.
And it might have meant youwaited seven to ten days in

(30:31):
Bimini till another weatherwindow comes along and you made
it out here.
But we've weren't we've run outhere 10 times.
Yeah, we've done this trip 10times.

I like that.
13 nautical miles.

Hayden (30:43):
So now it's a piece of cake.
13 nautical miles.
You scoot around the back sideof the Bahamas.
It's just so beautiful.
Now you're at Shroud Key.
This one I zoomed up.
Go to the next slide.

Radeen (30:54):
So while you go to the next slide, I'll just say you're
now in the Exuma's land andsee.
Yep.
And this is the beginning ofthe park.
And again, there is no placefor trash.
There's no ranger station here.
It's an unoccupied island.
And the fun thing to do here isthe dinghy route that Hayden
has laid out.
You take it countercounterclockwise out to the

(31:16):
beach, and you watch the surfcome in up there, and people are
are riding the waves in andout.
It's so much fun.
And then you dinghy the rest ofthe way.
And while you're taking thisdinghy ride, you're low, and the
mangroves around you arehigher.
So you really don't have muchof a view, and you just keep
going until you get there.
Yeah.

(31:37):
Well, how many miles is that?

Hayden (31:39):
Oh, that's that's that would take you four 45 minutes
to get out to where it says playhere to an hour by dinghy, and
then you come back around.
It this loop might take an hourand a half if you did it
nonstop with the dinghy.
Okay.
Because you can't plane throughhere.
Now, there are people that comein here, the big mega yachts

(32:00):
drop off, they're anchored offhere, they drop their jet skis
in and they blast through herewith jet skis.
But you're not supposed toyou're not supposed to, but what
what the what the fun thing isat the ocean up there, where I
say play here, because this istidal, the the little canals
here are flowing out into theocean or they're flooding in.

(32:23):
And when you get there at hightide and it's flowing out, it's
it's like a water ride, a waterslide that you jump off the
rocks and you jump into thisriver, and it jets you out into
the ocean, and then you go leftor right because you can't swim
back against the current that'sflushing out, and it's a
playground.

Radeen (32:43):
It's one way, it's a playground, it's a playground,
and it's so you need you need toknow what the tide's doing
because your dinghy won't govery fast if you're going
against the current.

Hayden (32:54):
It's really fun.
It it's it's not it's aabsolute exuma's paradise, not
to miss.
There's no development.

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

Hayden (33:06):
Oh, we kind of did it every time we were down there.

Well, other other cruisers told us about it.

Hayden (33:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's well known.
It's in the it's in all theguidebooks, and everybody talks
about it.
So it's yeah, it's very, verycommon.

Radeen (33:18):
So there's mooring balls here, and you are expected to
use the mooring balls if theyare available to um protect the
seabed.
You are allowed to anchor ifall the balls are full.

Hayden (33:29):
Yeah, we usually anchor here because it's usually the
mooring balls, they are usuallyfull here.
Now, from here, you're going tobe going to Wardwick Wells and
you start radioing into WardwickWells from here on VHF radio
because you want to try to get areservation on a mooring ball
in Wardwick Wells a day ahead ofyour arrival time.

(33:51):
They hold it for you.
If you go to the next slide,you'll see the the run now.

And you have to call them on the radio.

Hayden (33:57):
You call them on the radio.
I don't think they answer thephone.
So this is the shroud key toWardwick Wells run.
Now there's a lot of places inbetween here, but it's again,
this is 18 miles.
It's it's what three hours.
You scoot that you scoot downaround here and you come up into
the skinny little channel.
Go to the next slide here forWardrick Wells.
Wait till you see this.

Radeen (34:18):
So Wardwick Wells is the park headquarters, and there is
a ranger station here.
And um uh they do parties onSaturday nights on the beach,
and it's a wonderful place tobe.

Hayden (34:30):
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 beento in all of our travel trips
and travels, and everywherewe've sailed, there's nothing
that matches this in inuniqueness and and beauty.

Radeen (34:50):
Uh saying a lot, it's magical.

Hayden (34:53):
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 theballs are.
You can see numbers on themhere a little bit, but yeah, in
your navionics screen, when youzoom in, it'll tell you what
ball number 10, 12, 13, and thepark will say, Okay, salty

(35:13):
abandon, you're on ball number12.
Well, then you look at wherethat is.
Now the challenge is,especially if we're a single
hander, you're it's a skinnylittle channel.
Yeah you're running in here,there's boats on every single
ball, they're all facing bowinto the current.
So you're the current is eitherflooding or ebbing, coming in

(35:35):
or going out.
So you're coming in, and yougot to study the current.
Like, okay, the current islet's say coming out.
This would be the nicestscenario.
The current's coming out,you're driving into it, your bow
is facing upstream.
Good.
You drive up your ball, youtake it.
When the current is flooding inand you drive in, you have to

(35:57):
you either have to try to takethe ball going downstream, and
then your boat spins around, oryou're better off to make a
turn, make a make a 180 turn, gopast your ball, make a 180
turn, and then come backupstream towards the mooring
ball to take it.
Very, very tricky in herebecause there's not much room.

(36:18):
And so, you know, you runaground right here.
Well, yeah, but it's all sand.
It's you yeah, you don't wantto run aground in here because
of the current.
Uh, but it's uh we were backhere in the very old back where
it says like 20 and 22.
We were all the way back thereum a couple times where the

(36:38):
circle is is where the parkoffice is and where the beach is
that everybody goes to withtheir dinghy.
There's a swimming platformthere that we love it.
We we go there to that beachevery day.
And then the the other thingpeople do is they hike, they
hike Wardrick Wells up to what'scalled Boo Boo Hill, and they
go up there because back in thebefore all this connectivity,

(37:02):
people would go up there to holdtheir cell phone up on Boo Boo
Hill so it could reach StanielKey cell tower and they could
get their mail and they couldget their their messages, they
can make a call.
And when you come down off ofBoo Boo Hill, your cell phones
don't work.
And so the park ranger, thepark ranger here used to sell
sim cards, and and theysometimes would sell you access
to their Wi-Fi network.

(37:23):
Well, all that's gone away withStarlink.
It's not a big well.

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

Hayden (37:30):
That's where you want to be for any any storms.
Okay, everybody, everybodytries to get here for when the
storms come, when the front, uhnot storm, I use the word storm,
but it's a front, a frontalsystem.
When the fronts, the frontscome every seven to ten days all
winter long, and they'restronger in the January,

(37:50):
February, and then in thespring, March, April, they start
to tame down.
So a lot of people like to goover to the exumas in the
spring.
Literally, they stay back inFlorida till March, and then
they go, they go over.

I was watching a I was let me sorry to interrupt.
I was watching a clip that youum that was from a former pod.
I can't even remember how manytimes you've been on.
I was trying to count it, butit's it's 80 episodes, it's
getting unmanageable.
But uh, I was uh you had saidsomething like people think
they're gonna come down in thewinter and you know kind of go
over to the abacos and theyfreeze to death.

Hayden (38:28):
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 fromthe northwest, it brings the
cold weather down, and then tillthat goes through and then
comes back to the east tradewinds, it's very cold.

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

unknown (38:49):
Uh-huh.

Hayden (38:50):
Yeah.
Some people think I'll get downto Florida, Thanksgiving, and
I'll immediately go over theBahamas as fast as I can, and
they can, and then they get downto Georgetown as soon as
possible.
Now you're below most of thefronts.
The fronts aren't reachingGeorgetown as often.
They do reach Georgetown, butyou'll see as you go down this

(39:12):
Exuma chain, there's not a lotof protection from west and
northwests from west andnorthwest winds, which are going
to come every seven to tendays.
Like if you're sitting off ashroud quay and a front comes,
no, that is you will not sitthere.
You're gonna have to findsomeplace else to move.
Wardrick Wells is the place youwould want to be.

(39:33):
If you can't get in the top ofWardrick Wells, then people go
to the bottom of Wardrick Wellsand there's a place to anchor
down there.

Radeen (39:40):
So and mooring balls as well.
It's called Emerald Bay.
Emerald Bay.
So if you get assigned by thepark office for your reservation
to be in Emerald Bay, it's it'salmost as good.
You can take your dinghy intothe park office and into that
beautiful beach and up to BooBoo Hills.
So it would frankly be easierto take a ball at Emerald Bay.
Oh, way easier than than inWardrick Wells.

(40:02):
So you can see it's a goodthing.

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

Hayden (40:08):
It's tricky getting that ball, you know, by yourself.
It would be, I mean, one of thetricks on getting a mooring
ball that we've learned is youyou tie your bow line off on one
of your cleats, and then youtake 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 theentire dock line out over the

(40:32):
mooring ball as a loop.
Yeah, you let it sink on theoutside.
Yeah, it just gets on theoutside of the outside of the
mooring ball, and you got theone 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 outthere, yeah.
And as opposed to trying topull up the eyelet and and put
your bow line through that.

(40:53):
No, throw a loop, lasso theexit later tie yourself to that,
and then deal with everything.
Sure.
It's another trick for singlehanding.
Sure.
All right.
So if you go to the next slide,you'll see from Wardwick Wells,
we go down to the famous pigbeach, is where everybody loves.

Absolutely.

Hayden (41:11):
So now we come out of Wardwick Wells, and again, look
how long we have to run.

So Emerald, you said Emerald Key.

Hayden (41:20):
Emerald Bay is just below Wardwick Wells.
It's it's on the south side.
It wasn't on that screen, butit's on the south side of uh of
Wardwick Wells.
Yeah, so when you look right inthere, yeah.
When you look in your charts,you'll see where it is.
It's just south of so now yougot another long, long day run,
20 miles.
You run down to Pig Beach.
So here's another four-hourday, and you come down into

(41:41):
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 myfavorite little spots again.
I love this because you'regoing into it's called Big Major
Spot.

Radeen (41:55):
Yeah, that's the name of the island.

Hayden (41:56):
The island is Big Major Spot.
Everybody calls it Pig Beachbecause this is where they put
the pigs, right?
And it's it's a it's a touristtrap.
People love it, but it's agreat anchorage because you can
see where the X is, you anchorthere, and then you dinghy
around on the dotted line overto Staniel Key Yacht Club,
right?
Which is where you can getgroceries.
You have the little barrestaurant there, it's fabulous.

(42:18):
You got the blue store and thepink store, and you got a little
airport there, you can flysupplies in and out.
But uh Pig Beach is justbeautiful.
We we love it.
You got the grotto there,that's Thunderball Grotto.
People swim that.
So from the X, which is wherewe always anchor, um, we prefer

(42:38):
being there and then just dingyaround over to Staniel Key in
the grotto.

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

Hayden (42:46):
Uh as opposed to where, like you said, if a if a front
came of a strong westerly frontcame here, people tend to go
over on the other side of theisland.
See how there's a slot inthere, they anchor in between
there.
It and it and it's calledbetween the majors, yeah.
Not up north north, up north,right to the left of the word B.

(43:07):
The beat, pig B.

Radeen (43:09):
Oh, how do you get in there?

Hayden (43:11):
Yeah, exactly.
You go out by the you go out bythe grotto and you go up and go
in there, and so people go upand anchor in there, but I hate
places like that because thecurrent is ripping in and out,
so every boat's gonna flip, bowinto the current every six
hours.
You're gonna do a 180.
You could break your anchorout, and then the wind is from

(43:32):
the west, so the wind is now onyour beam across you.
I would rather sit where the Xis and just take take the wind,
you know, lay out 150 feet ofchain and 10 feet of water and
just just ride it out rightthere.

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

Hayden (43:52):
That's maybe maybe gusting 30 sometimes, but it's
the way it is.
It's it comes every every sevento ten days, it's standard, so
that's why people move keepmoving south.
The farther south you go, youget away from it.
Okay, so again, again, we arein transit to Georgetown, right?
We're trying, we we don't wantto get stuck up here at all

(44:16):
these fabulous places.
You want to hit these in thespring when you're coming back,
okay.

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

Hayden (44:26):
So we're we're again, these are just the places we're
trying to stop as we progresssouth.
This is great.

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

Hayden (44:34):
So now, yeah, go to the next slide.
The next slide, we have anotherbig monstrous run.
Nine miles.

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

Hayden (44:42):
Oh no, that's that's our fault.
Oh, forget it.

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

Hayden (44:50):
We're done, we're over.
So then we had another we got anine-mile run now to the pig
beach down to Black Point.
This is a fabulous littleplace.
Um, now, by the way, I didn'tshow, but we have left Black
Point here and gone out thatinlet right above Black Point to
go to Georgetown.
You can exit right here, also,but I I'm having you exit down

(45:13):
farther to make it a shorterrun.
So now go to the next slide.
We only have about three moreslides left here.

Radeen (45:19):
Black Point is a very traditional Bahamian island.
Uh, the people that live thereare very, very reserved, they're
very polite.
Um, yes, they're friendly, butthey're reserved.
Uh, on Sunday mornings, it'sfun to watch the families all
dressed up, going to church withthe kids in their little cute
outfits and lace socks and thewhole deal.

(45:42):
And uh, it's known for whatHayden has listed here: the
laundry, the haircuts, therestaurants, the coconut bread.
The coconut bread is wonderful.
Yes, the woman named Lorrainewho owns a couple of
restaurants, and her mom is inher 90s now, and she makes
coconut bread in her kitchen andregular bread in her own home

(46:03):
bakery every day, and you canorder ahead of time.

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

Radeen (46:12):
No, it is a quiet place.
Now, there are bars, they doserve alcohol, but it is not a
rowdy place, no.
Okay, yeah, yeah.

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

Hayden (46:27):
People will people will come to uh Black Point and just
again stay for weeks becauseit's a great harbor, and it's
got this V shape to it to theeast, but when the fronts come
in and they get around to thenorthwest, you're kind of
protected a little bit by theshape of the harbor.
So uh Alex, Alex and Amy and usrode out a storm there waiting

(46:49):
for a big front to come throughbefore we took off heading south
to the Caribbean.
And um, I remember we werehaving waves break over the bow
sprit on the packet.
Okay, on anchor.
So you're going up and thenyou're diving down, and then you
punch through a wave.
That's on anchor.
But it lasted about six hours,four hours.

(47:10):
We knew it was coming, but wewere waiting for that front to
come through because as soon asit came through and went
northeast, we had a beam reachdown to the Turks and Caicos.

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

Hayden (47:23):
Yeah, go ahead.
Yeah, the X.

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

Hayden (47:35):
We sail in and sail out on the trade winds.
You can see it's easy to sailin and out of this harbor, and
uh you can anchor anywhere, andpeople tend to anchor down
closer to where the word laundryis.
Uh and they like to be nearLorraine.

Radeen (47:50):
The word library.

Hayden (47:51):
Oh, libraries down there, yeah.
They like to anchor down at thelibrary.
For some reason, they'reanchored all over this whole
place.
I tend to go as far east as Ican because the trade winds are
blowing from the east and theyget the most protection up there
until the front front comes in.
But the fronts move throughpretty quickly, usually one day,
and then you're and then you'reprotected.

(48:11):
As soon as the wind would gonorthwest, you can see that
people move over to thisshoreline over here to the top,
and they they anchor along therewhen the fronts come uh to get
yeah, to get a little moreprotection.
So this is a great harbor.
There's a really good harbor.

Radeen (48:26):
I just want to mention that there's free water on the
beach.
You can bring jugs in bydinghy, yeah, and fill up your
water jugs.
Now, they don't want you totake hundreds of gallons, but
five gallons a day.
Again, be respectful.
They're providing it to us forfree.
Yeah, water is producedproduced by desalinization by

(48:48):
burning diesel fuel on theisland, yeah.
And so they're sharing theirwater with us.
That's very nice.

Hayden (48:53):
Yeah, Black Point is a great community, great
destination.
All right, now we got a couplemore legs.
We're gonna we're gonna reach.

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

(49:22):
Thank you.
Thank you.

Hayden (49:23):
Thank you.
Well, we've been down throughhere 10 times.
We've gone, we've gone fromFlorida to Georgetown 10 times.
So that's 10 times south and 10times north.

unknown (49:33):
Right.

Hayden (49:33):
And then we've gone, we've gone five times from Miami
to Grenada.
So, anyways, all right.

Then you then you pass it.

Radeen (49:42):
So one time we passed it, yeah.
Several times we left fromGeorgetown to the Caribbean.
We left.
But this last time we leftright here from Black Point, we
went out Dotham Cut to the northand headed straight to the
Turks and Caicos.

Hayden (49:54):
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 (49:57):
Sorry, DR.
DR.
We didn't know.
We went out.

Hayden (49:59):
We we we stopped in the Turks and Caicos anchor, yeah.
We didn't know West West Caicosjust for six hours to what get
the weather window right for theDominican Republic, and then we
carried on.
So we left this harbor, itended up in the Dominican
Republic.

And how long did that take?

Hayden (50:16):
Three days.
Wow, three three days.

Yeah, yeah.
You guys are tough.

Hayden (50:21):
No, we're stupid.
We think we can do it.
It's amazing, it's not thesouthern ocean, but no, no, it's
it's it's it's it's goodsailing.

Hurricane comes or something.

Hayden (50:35):
It's good sailing.
Yeah, we're lucky.
All right, the next next slidenow.
Again, another easy day.
Now, what we're trying, whatwe'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 isjust get down to the next exit
out to the and it's calledlittle far, yeah.
Little farmer's quay is a is acool little place.

(50:58):
You come down the backside andyou anchor off a little farmers,
and you go into the littlebeach bar there, and the and the
little farmers yacht club, andit's it's cool.
It's yeah, we spend we spend aday or two there.
You swim and snorkel and go tothe beach bar.
Now, next one, go to the nextslide.
You come out of Little Farmers,and okay, here's the big here's
the big picture.

(51:19):
First of all, you're gonna comeout 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.

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

Hayden (51:34):
Yes, there's your there's your next, and now
again, just imagine that linethere with east wind on it.
If it's dead east wind, it'skind of upwind a little bit, you
can see, right?
What you would want would be anortheast wind, and that would
make it more of a beam reach.
So you you kind of sit backthere in Black Point and Little
Farmers, and you look at whatare the winds going to do over

(51:56):
the next couple days?
When can I get a decent sale?
This is a great sale downthrough here.
It really is a good sale.
The next slide, you'll see thecut.
Okay, here's the challenge.
This is the cut that's upcalled Galleon Cut, which is by
Little Farmers Key.
And the problem with everysingle Bahamian cut is you get

(52:20):
wind against current.
Yeah, that you just have toimagine the east trade winds are
blowing.

Radeen (52:26):
Uh-oh, another typo.
And I pointed this typo out toyou, and you neglected to fix
it.
Oh study current.
Oh no, you meant to study thecurrent.
I thought you meant steadycurrent.
Okay.
I he's absorbed of allwrongdoing.

Hayden (52:41):
I I won on this one.
False alarm.

False alarm.

Hayden (52:45):
You have to imagine the east trade winds are blowing
nonstop.

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

Hayden (52:53):
The winds are blowing in from the east into this
opening.
These are high rocky cliffs oneach side.
The the uh water, the tide isgoing up and down, I don't know,
three feet, four feet.
Easily.
So we have we have we havecurrent now of ebbing and
flooding, and when the currentis flowing out against an

(53:15):
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 youwould have to go out, and it's
called a rage.
And so, what happens on theradio is everybody talks about
this, they they get on theradio.

(53:35):
Does anybody know if galleoncut is raging today?
And they and somebody, oh, I'mgoing out right now.
I'm I'm in, I'm I just went outto cut, it's three foot C's,
it's not bad.
Or they all talk about how thecut is and can you run it?
And it's all dependent uponwhat's the tide doing and what's
the wind doing against thetide, against the current,

(53:56):
right?
So this this wind againstcurrent is the is the big deal.
And the other challenging thingis you have a 38-mile run here.
What's it gonna be at the otherend when you got to go back in?
See that you gotta cut here togo out, and you gotta cut at
Georgetown to get in.
Now, the one at Georgetown ismuch more open, so it's not as

(54:19):
bad as these little ones up hereat Farmers and up at Black
Point.
Uh, all of these up to thenorth are like this, but
Georgetown is pretty big andopen to go in.

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

Hayden (54:33):
It doesn't rage, it's not it's not a worry.
These are the worries isgetting out.
So to get out here, that's oneof the things you gotta sort of
really work on.

Radeen (54:40):
Yeah, you have to pay attention to the tide and know
what the state of it you can doit at slack tide if you can time
that, but usually you're gonnabe choosing a time when this the
tide is with the wind, yeah, orslack, yeah.

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

Hayden (54:57):
Exactly.
There you go.
Exactly, yeah.
Same thing.
All right, the next slide.
Now I think I get us inGeorgetown.
So that's the cut.
Here's the paradise.
This is the destination, Chatand Chill.
You want to get the Chat andChill, everybody loves it.
It's ground zero.
We always would sail in here.
Now, again, imagine East TradeWinds blowing across here.

(55:18):
We're coming down from theupper left of the screen, and we
normally have full sails up aswe approach here, and then we
drop them, and then we go rightup the Chat and Chill beach as
close as we can.
We drop the anchor.
Now, today, this is all mooredout.
There's moorings everywhere,which is probably better and
it's safer.

(55:39):
People don't drag when thefronts come.

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

Hayden (55:50):
Probably something like that.
That's reasonable.
I mean, it people were upsetabout 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'tbeen 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 nowit's all moored out.

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

Hayden (56:22):
Every front coming, every front coming through will
be 25 knots at least 2025, gust30.
Uh yeah, it'll it'll beblowing, and it you you just
have to imagine the wind clocks.
You got east trade winds comingin normally, 10 to 15 round the
clock.
You're behind the beach, you'rein a nice calm harbor, and then

(56:44):
the winds go south.
As soon as you have southwinds, the front is coming.
This is your warning when southwinds come.
Then it goes southwest, startsto build, and then it goes west
and northwest and blows likecrazy.
And then when it gets up tonorth, it's really ripping.
And when it gets the northeast,it's usually the strongest.

(57:05):
Well, that's good.
You're back in protected watersin northeast, and then it dies,
and then it drops back down toeast.
Seven to ten days likeclockwork, and it's related to
the weather fronts coming acrossfrom Chicago down to Philly and
out to New England at a big lowpressure, swoops down across
the country with this coldfront, which is on the weather

(57:28):
charts, is a blue V, little Vson the lines, and that that cold
front then drives acrossFlorida, drives down into
Bahamas, and eventually withersout.
And it's it's all related tohow strong is the low pressure,
how deep is the millibars on thelow pressure, as to how strong

(57:49):
the wedge is.
The blue cold front is like awedge, a wedge of cold air
pushing under the other air, andthese updrafts, which then
cause thunderstorms.
So all of that goes together tocause these high winds.
And what you're studying is howdeep is the low up in Chicago
and Philly and New England, howstrong is the V, the blue line

(58:14):
to the city.
The trailing front, they callit the trailing front, and how
fast is it moving?
Like if it's just rippingacross the country, it's going
to be gone in 12 hours.
If it's a slow-movingnor'easter snowstorm up in
Philadelphia and Boston, andit's a blizzard, and it sits up

(58:34):
off of the off of the coast fortwo, three, four days, a typical
nor'easter.
You can have west and northwestwinds and chat and chill for
three, four days.

Radeen (58:45):
So we always have to tell our worst stories, right?
Everybody, every sailor likesto tell their worst stories.
Let's hear it.
Okay.
Well, we subscribe to a weatherservice run by a man named
Chris Parker.
He's been a weather guru, asailor for many, many years.
And you can subscribe to himfor a season or for annually.
And he's a really good guy, andhe he's conservative.

(59:08):
And with a subscriptionservice, you can talk to him and
tell him where you are and whatyour plans are, and he'll um
give you weather routing andgood advice on where to be.
And he's been in the Bahamasfor years and years.
He now lives in Lakeland,Florida.
So one time we're at Chat andChill anchored, we were one row
back from the beach in a greatspot.
And Chris was telling everyoneon the weather that it was going

(59:31):
to be so bad that you needed toplan to not get off your boat
for five days.
Wow.
And we're like, we are one rowback from the beach.
We're at Georgetown.
How bad could it be?
We didn't get off the boat forfive days.

Hayden (59:47):
Your boat is you got waves that again, your your
anchor is hitting the water, youknow, 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 isGeorgetown.

Radeen (01:00:00):
Can get rough, but 90% of the time it's gorgeous.

Hayden (01:00:04):
Yeah, it's it's it's rare, very, very rare.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:07):
So, Roger McClure says, Hey guys, good to see you.
We're coming down to ICW Burr.
It's cold up here in SouthCarolina, 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 (01:00:26):
Good job, Roger.
That's the time.
That's I think that's the besttime to go over is February.
Just spend your time inBiscayne Bay, prepping your
boat, practicing all your sailsand your equipment, and running
your water maker and justenjoying life on the anchor,
moving around Biscayne Bay.
And when the perfect weatherwind that comes in February,

(01:00:46):
even March, go.

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

Hayden (01:00:52):
Don't push.
There's no reason to push outof my there's no reason to push
out of Biscayne Bay.
It's I cannot stress enough howwonderful it is to sail in
Biscayne Bay.
It really is.

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

(01:01:27):
places.
You would move around inGeorgetown.

Hayden (01:01:30):
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 andmove west to the other side of
the harbor, which is where thetown is.
And again, I didn't focus onmuch of the uh you know, I
could, but I didn't.

I think we did talk about that last time.

Hayden (01:01:50):
You on the other side of the on the other side of
Georgetown is the town, andthat's where you dinghy in and
get your groceries and water gofor a walk and get water at the
free water dock.
We move, we would move overthere, anchor over on the other
side.
Nobody does that.
Very few people move out whenthey sit when they sit.
I think it's a smart movebecause it's a lot calmer on the

(01:02:12):
other side of the harbor whenthe front comes, and then one or
two days over there, and thenyou move back.

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

Hayden (01:02:23):
Yep.

Radeen (01:02:23):
Well, the only trick might be that now that they have
mooring balls everywhere, Idon'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'tknow 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 findout.
I just want to put in a plugfor the great community that

(01:02:44):
they have in Georgetown, thecruising community.
They have a morning radio netthat uh longtime cruisers run,
and there's a pattern and aroutine to it, and a chance to
ask questions and get advice andand find out what mechanic to
use and all those kinds ofthings.
It's about a 20-minute radionet every morning, and on
Saturdays, cruising kids run it.

(01:03:04):
Yeah, and it's so much fun tolisten to the kids do the net,
they take it so seriously, it'sreally cute, and they have a lot
of social events they do, andthey have a lot of social events
too throughout the wholespring.
It's it's really a lot of funto be there.

Hayden (01:03:19):
It's so much fun, it really is.
There's Roger.

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

Hayden (01:03:36):
Right.

Uh huh.

Hayden (01:03:37):
All right, Roger.
Do me a favor.
Don't don't don't skip throughBiscayne Bay without spending a
week or two there.
All right, that's that's arequirement.

Radeen (01:03:45):
On your way south or on your way uh east, either one.

Hayden (01:03:48):
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 anythingpast towards it.

Radeen (01:03:55):
I think so.

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 (01:04:05):
That's right.

I may just kind of hang out, you know.
Um, okay, so someone over onInstagram says damage control
underscore sailing saysGeorgetown is an excellent place
to do trips to Cat Island andLong Island.

Hayden (01:04:21):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You base in Georgetown, thenyou go out to Cat Island, you go
up to Long Island, or you evenget a calm day and you go out to
Rum Key and Conception.
Those are two more nationalparks that are just oh my gosh,
they're they're reallyspectacular.
But they're they're out therein the remote, there's not good
harbors.
So you go out there when it'sflat calm, and then when the

(01:04:42):
front's coming or the windbuilds up, you race back to
Georgetown.
There's just so much you can dofrom Georgetown.
I see why 300 boats go thereand just spend the winter there.

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 (01:05:06):
Nice to know you could join us.
Good luck heading south on theChesapeake tomorrow.
Yes.
So you know this, you know, Dr.

Sarah.
Yes, and her husband.
We met them at the Annapolisboat show one year.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Thanks for tuning in.
Um, so yeah, so we got thetips.
We got I love that you talkwhat to do about when those west
winds are coming because thatis something you have to watch
there.
You can't just go and not bewatching the weather.

(01:05:36):
Would you agree?

Hayden (01:05:37):
You spend an hour a day on the weather.
Yeah, you really do.
You spend an hour a day.

An hour.

Hayden (01:05:42):
First thing you do in the morning, get up, you you you
go through all your weatherresources, you look at all the
predict wind, you know,advancing predict wind forward,
one, two, three days.
What's the wind strength, windangle?
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 andyou're trying to get from A to

(01:06:04):
B, you're going to spend an hourin the morning.

I plot my way forward based on the conditions.

Hayden (01:06:10):
Exactly.
Sure.
Yeah, you have to.
I mean, yeah, you spend a lotof time on the weather.
We really do.
Yeah.

Radeen (01:06:17):
And if you don't subscribe to Chris Parker, I
have to suggest it.
He's great.
He sends email or he doessingle sideband, or he does a
live uh broadcast on theinternet.
Yeah.
So with Starlight.

How do you find him?
I want to I want to put thatup.

Radeen (01:06:34):
His website is Marine Weather Center.

Hayden (01:06:38):
Yeah.
Marine Weather Center.com.
And it's what?

Radeen (01:06:42):
M W XC.
Yeah.
Marine Weather Center.
So M W M X C dot com for MarineWeather.
Okay.

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

Radeen (01:06:56):
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 (01:07:09):
It's MWXC.

Radeen (01:07:13):
That's what I said.

And that stands for Marine Weather Center.

Hayden (01:07:19):
Yeah.

Center.
Chris.

Hayden (01:07:20):
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 emailsevery day.
And just to kind of keep intune to what's going on with the
weather.

Radeen (01:07:35):
So he does broadcasts and emails based on your
location.
So for right now, you would bereading 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 ofit.

Hayden (01:07:52):
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, andWendy.
There you go.
There's what Roger, Roger'ssaying.

Radeen (01:08:05):
You need your coffee, you need Chris Parker, and you
need Wendy.
Good job, Roger.

Hayden (01:08:09):
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'tspend 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 spendeasily an hour listening to
Chris, reading his email, youknow, looking at predict when
looking at Windy, any of theweather models you use.

Radeen (01:08:32):
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 awhile to figure out is the math
symbol for uh greater than lessthan is the symbol used for
becoming.
So it'll say SW15, then agreater than symbol 20.

(01:08:57):
So that means southwest winds15, becoming 20.
Yeah.
So that's a little tip I'llgive you.

Hayden (01:09:03):
Yeah, he writes it in a cryptic manner, but it's I mean,
it's a four-page essay everyday on your area of the weather.
It's a it's impressive.

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

Hayden (01:09:16):
Okay, you certainly could.

Radeen (01:09:17):
Yeah, you should.
I think money well spent.
Um, do you have a singlesideband on your boat?

Hayden (01:09:22):
No, don't need don't need it with Starlink.

Radeen (01:09:24):
Starlink, you don't need it, but he he does um uh single
sideband, and then on theinternet on his website, you can
listen live and he showsweather maps, and then people
ask questions, and it's great tolisten to the question and
answer session because a lot oftimes somebody's gonna ask the
question that you were hoping tohave answered, and then you

(01:09:45):
find out the boat two boats overis doing what you're doing
tomorrow, and then you've gotsomebody to travel with.

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

Hayden (01:09:55):
Yes, yeah, it's a schedule, it's published on his
website when he's on the radioevery day, and it's fabulous.
It's we've been using it.
He's just a retired dude thatjust he's a young guy, he's
probably oh, I don't think he's50, 45, or 50, yeah.
And um he was cruising, and uhit was back in the day when
there was a weather broadcasterfrom Canada named Herb

(01:10:18):
Hilgenberg.

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

Hayden (01:10:22):
So Herb was famous.
When Herb, I think, passed awayor stopped broadcasting.
Chris picked up the void, andChris Chris took over.

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

Radeen (01:10:40):
I think an annual subscription is $300, yeah, and
that's for everything, that'sfor the uh email as well as the
broadcast, and then for a littlebit more, you can actually pay
him for a custom five-day uhforecast.
Yeah, and he'll look exactly,he'll ask you how fast your boat
goes, how far you want to go ina day, and he'll map out a plan

(01:11:02):
as good as possible, reachinginto the future for five days.

Hayden (01:11:05):
Yes, that's I think you can buy like you can buy
passages, you can buy uh likethree months, and you can buy
six months, and you can buy ayear.
So, like you would only need asix-month subscription to follow
your season down the down theGeorgetown.
Yeah, it would be great.

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

Radeen (01:11:35):
And all of a sudden that's probably not an area he
he focuses on, but if you were asubscriber because you're
there, he would talk to youabout it, yeah.
Okay, perfect.
Yeah, yeah, he's wonderful.
We don't say enough good thingsabout him, he's also a great
human being, fabulous service.

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

Hayden (01:12:03):
Wow, we've easily 15 years.
We've we used them when we wentup to New England and we used
to sell in the summertime.
The New England we used them,yeah.
Wow, okay, there's othercompeting services.

Radeen (01:12:14):
There's oh um the girl from Canada, Jennifer Clark.

Hayden (01:12:19):
Clark, Jennifer Clark does the same thing, but it it
doesn't matter.
Chris, I think Chris isfabulous.
Roger for me.
Yep.
See, look at Chris, look atRoger.
That is so our lives revolvearound the weather, so true.

Radeen (01:12:34):
Yeah, my gosh, it makes you become a weather geek,
doesn't it?

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

Hayden (01:12:46):
Excellent.

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

Hayden (01:12:51):
I'm sorry, I get a lot.

Radeen (01:12:54):
It was so much fun.
Thank you.

Hayden (01:12:56):
Great job, Kinsley, as always.

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

Hayden (01:13:09):
Oh my god, nice here, bro.
That's his brother.
Thank you.

Oh, that's your brother.

Hayden (01:13:14):
That's cool.

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

Hayden (01:13:23):
How fun!

Oh, that's very nice.

Hayden (01:13:25):
That is fun.
Is that a half brother, or isit a half brother?
How fun.

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

Hayden (01:13:33):
Very fun.
He all right.

Well, okay, so what do we say?

Hayden (01:13:38):
We say, and that is salty abandoned and out.

Salty abandoned out.
Thank you, guys.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Salty Podcast #80 ⛵ Bahamas Rewind: Weather & Routing for Sailing

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The Bobby Bones Show

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

Dateline NBC