Navigable water between Grand Bahama & Little Abaco.

dolce vita

Does anyone know if its possible to run the north side of Grand Bahama and enter the west side of Little Abaco? IF so anyone have a contact for that person? I'd like to try it.

I've driven up to it a couple times and it looks possible. I just want to hear from someone who has tried it before i go risk getting beached in the back water.

Thx

dolce vita

Rephrased... can you run the Little Bahama Bank / the north side of Grand Bahama and slide into the back side / west side of Little Abaco? Looking for a protected run to get to Hole in the Wall and to dive the East end of Grand Bahama during the winter months.

abacofever

Yes..Maybe ? Spence Channel just West, SW of Crown Haven area. I have never been through there. I thought about it one time to take a 60 Hatt and Flats boat for a Flats Fishing trip. My local spies told me the channel area is all hard bottom and the current rips through there and may not have as much water as the chart was showing. Having said that. Several good size commercial boats use it on a regular basis. Looks like draft is less than 5' @ low water in one spot..?
The other end by Sandy Point has more water so if you can get comfortable with Spence Channel then you will be good to go.

Just so happens I am supposed to meet up with someone from that area tonight. I will try to remember and ask him about it and post back any negative info.

dolce vita

abacofever wrote: »

Yes..Maybe ? Spence Channel just West, SW of Crown Haven area. I have never been through there. I thought about it one time to take a 60 Hatt and Flats boat for a Flats Fishing trip. My local spies told me the channel area is all hard bottom and the current rips through there and may not have as much water as the chart was showing. Having said that. Several good size commercial boats use it on a regular basis. Looks like draft is less than 5' @ low water in one spot..?
The other end by Sandy Point has more water so if you can get comfortable with Spence Channel then you will be good to go.

Just so happens I am supposed to meet up with someone from that area tonight. I will try to remember and ask him about it and post back any negative info.

Awesome thank you for your reply. I will look into Spence Channel.

Ironworker

abacofever wrote: »

Yes..Maybe ? Spence Channel just West, SW of Crown Haven area. I have never been through there. I thought about it one time to take a 60 Hatt and Flats boat for a Flats Fishing trip. My local spies told me the channel area is all hard bottom and the current rips through there and may not have as much water as the chart was showing. Having said that. Several good size commercial boats use it on a regular basis. Looks like draft is less than 5' @ low water in one spot..?
The other end by Sandy Point has more water so if you can get comfortable with Spence Channel then you will be good to go.

Just so happens I am supposed to meet up with someone from that area tonight. I will try to remember and ask him about it and post back any negative info.

Yes, there is 6' of draft through there. I have the route in a form that I can email you if you like. Its been transversed by both 40' power boats and sail boats. It also shown in the Explorer Charts. In fact, I have sent quite a few folks departing from PBI and locations north of there through this area to get to Eleuthera.

The is only one little squeeze around Cave Cay. The Abaco Bight is clear running until you get to Sandy Point then you need to be heads up getting back into the Providence Channel.

Blue Zone

There is a people and goods ferry service which runs from McLeans Town on Grand Bahama to Crown Point on Little Abaco. This single inboard boat runs across the Marls, so there should be some water there. I think they also run to Moores Island and Sandy Point across the Marls.

dolce vita

I went ahead and picked up the 2015 cruising the Abaco guide. Amateur hour!! haha

It has the coordinates I'll need to run. Glad to hear its possible though. Thanks again for the responses.

Ironworker

You need the Explorer charts. For the Abacos, you want the Near Bahamas.

http://www.explorercharts.com/

If you have a Garmin or CMAP chart plotter it should have the Explorer charts embedded.

Gary M

You'll want to run over the top/north side of Mangrove Cay as south of that (close to Grand Bahama Island) is mostly unknown but Steve Dodge told me "Don't risk it"......

Ironworker

Here is the route.

dolce vita

Ironworker wrote: »

Here is the route.

would you mind emailing me that picture in a larger file? [email protected]

Ironworker

dolce vita wrote: »

would you mind emailing me that picture in a larger file? [email protected]

I'll do you one better. I'll email you the route that you can import directly into your machine.

Ironworker

Here is an enlargement of the skinny area around Cave Cay, elsewhere is smooth running.

Ironworker

The Explorer Charts has this route and are a great resource if you're traveling this area. Garmin and CMAP includes the Explorer Charts data on their charting databases.

sharky12

if you want to play around looking at a chart, go to www.navionics.com click on the web viewer and you can check out a chart. might help you a bit.