Quote:
Quote:
to more than a half-dozen trips from Palm Beach to Grand Bahama in a 13' Whaler
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My back hurts just reading that.  That boat must have been a floating gas can.
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13' Whaler side console with a 35 hp Johnson. 18 gallon underseat fiberglass tank. We'd use about 12 gallons going across. It's only 54 miles from Lake Worth Inlet to West End. Steer a course of 101* to allow for the Gulf Stream current
2 guys, 4 tanks and scuba and fishing gear on the boat. Leave around 5 am, before daylight, while the sea is glassy and run 20-25 mph all the way across. We'd hit Jack Tar about 7:30am or so and refuel (and buy the fishing tackle we forgot). Dive and fish all day. Refuel again at the end of the day. Stay overnight at the Islander Inn (long gone now), and go back in the morning again while it was glassy.
You can only do this with such a small boat in the middle of summer when it's often like glass all the way across in the early morning. Normally it was 3 or 4 boats and about 9-10 people making the trip. The big boat that we always travelled with was a 28' John Allmand. On a couple of occasions, we came back the same day, and just towed the whaler home, cause the seabreeze kicks up the chop late in the day.
Today my back is part titanium, probably due in part because I did stuff like the above.
POST SCRIPT: I agree the best small-boat cruising in the Bahamas is the Abacos down through Eleuthra, and I would add the Berry Islands to that list.
__________________
Common Sense is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from the other guy's mistakes.
Fr. Frank says:
Jesus liked fishing, too. He even walked on water to get to the boat!
Currently without a SeaCraft 
(2) Pompano 12' fishing kayaks
'73 Cobia 18' prototype "Casting Skiff", 70hp Mercury