Bahamas Gathering 2012 - Updated '08 Thread

[Bushwacker]

Here's the gig, often in July the ocean lays down to be like glass with almost no swell or chop in the early A.M. I've taken my Seafari over at 5 a.m. and comfortably run 25-30 mph all the 54 miles to West End. Later in the afternoon the sea-breeze gets up and you get a light to moderate chop, and the swell can build to 3'. Speeds necessarily drop then.

Late June through late July, with an early morning departure is the time to go.

Fr. Frank's absolutely right. Five of the six crossings I made were like that. (But we hit steep breaking 6-8' seas on the other one with winds of less than 10 kts, from the NW->N->NE! You have to either be prepared for that sort of thing, or stay the hell out of the Gulf Stream if the wind is from any northern quadrant!)

However, if you're going on across the Little Bahama Bank to the Abaco's, my experience is that's always the roughest part of the trip. You can almost always count on 2-3' square waves on the bank due to the large fetch and/or wind bucking the current at some part of the trip. The 20's seem to ride better in the big ocean swells than they do in the short steep chop. If you're running a 20, you'll be much more comfortable if it can plane at 12-13 mph!