Off to the Bahamas

It's Friday, 8 Feb 2013.  We are finally off to the islands.  The plan is for an easy hop to Congo Town BH (airport designator MYAK) on Andros for 30 mins with customs, then another 30 mins flying to Staniel Cay (MYES) and the Staniel Cay Yacht Club on Great Exuma for two nights.  The Sandhurst is as good as it's word, calling a cab for our trip back to the airport and paying the fare.

Everyone knows the Bahamas (BHs) is a bunch of islands off the Florida Coast and north of Cuba.  If you haven't been there before, what you don't necessarily appreciate is just how many places there are to go, and the number of airports scattered about.  From Grand Bahama in the north to Great Inagua in the south is around 450 nm.  We were about to fly that entire length and then some, starting 50 nm north of Grand Bahama.

When you fly in the Caribbean, you talk to Miami Center quite a bit.  They have specific ideas about what routes to take (on the other hand, they seem to be just a call away anytime you need to chat).  In our case, this being our first big jump over the water (Lake Erie excepted), we intended to fly further down the coast to Ft Lauderdale before making the jump to Bimini, the closest island to Florida.  Not a chance.  Seems they like to keep traffic out of the Miami area.  We're not the first to think we could sneak up on the jump.  Our routing is to Angee, a waypoint just off the coast from Ft Pierce, then to Bimini and Congo Town.

The water after Bimini changes.  We'd been told it was shallow in the BHs.  The lighter colored water to the left and below is not waves, but is actually the floor of the Caribbean.  
Congo Town is on Andros east coast, maybe 3/4 of the way down, on the second largest island.  Our only reason to stop there was for customs.  


From the air Andros northern island appears to almost not be an island.  We didn't do a geological survey before departing, so could not say for sure, but much of the island 
seems to be swampy or semi-awash.  


Eventually we got to the east side headed down to Congo Town.  The land seemed to firm up substantially the further east we got.  The airport is just past the inlet below, past the peninusula in the picture.

One of the great things about the BHs is they "really" want to make it easy to visit.  We were in and out of Congo Town in just about 30 mins.  There are several forms they need, but the one that was most useful is what they call a Cruising Permit.  One of these little puppies lets you fly anywhere in the BHs without a flight plan.   

With cruising permit in hand, once in the BHs all we had to do was take off VFR for other islands.  We headed for Staniel Cay which is due east of Congo Town on the Exumas (just to the left of the B in New Bight in the map above).  

We experimented with FltPlan.com to file international flight plans (ICAO format).  Our experience was spotty.  FltPlan sends emails saying plans were filed.  Ft Pierce to Congo Town worked OK, but Nassau never heard of us when we got in the air and called enroute to Staniel Cay.  Not sure if that is because they don't do "in the air" clearances the way we do in the US, or if they are substantially more focused on getting and hitting a slot at the time filed for.  Whatever the reason, VFR flight following was easy enough to get with the right frequencies in hand.  



I said there were a lot of islands in the BHs.  

The pictures above and to the right show a few of the many that don't show on the maps.  These are between Congo Town and Staniel Cay.  They were a little peculiar in that they were on an east west line.  In an emergency it would have been easy enough to put her down and wait for help. 

We finally caught sight of Staniel Cay, that long line of islands below.  

I joked to Ann before we left that the island looked just big enough on the charts for the runway and a dock.  On actually seeing it, that wasn't too much of an exaggeration.  The runway runs mostly north-south and is centrally located.  

The Yacht Club and most of the people live on the west (right) side of the runway.

On landing and chocking her on the ramp, we bumbled around for a while trying to figure out how to get to the Yacht Club.  There was a small shop (the pink building below) just off the ramp where you could get gifts and iced cream, but the sign on the door said they were out for a while.  

After figuring out how the phone worked at the blue and yellow open sided pavillion to the left of pic above, the folks at the Yacht Club said they'd send someone.  Before that happened, Monique showed up with a golf cart.  Monique is the lady who runs the gift shop / snack bar / golf cart rental.  She was just about to pick up her kids, so we piled aboard and headed for the Club.    

We would learn over the next day that a lot of people on the island seem to hustle, working multiple deals all the time, and balancing them all with their families.  Monique was no exception.  Among other things, she would be taking her kids to a library fund raising event right after dropping us off.

A very short ride to the west side of the island and we're there, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.  I'll tell you in advance, this was a very nice place to spend some time, and I'd go back in a heartbeat.  It's not the luxury hotel, covers turned down, mint on the pillow kind of experience some people require.  It was outstanding, so don't get the idea I'm criticizing when I make observations below.  

At Staniel Cay we had a cottage on the water, and the rate was outstanding for pilots - $165 a night less a 20% discount.  No TV except in the bar, and internet was iffy, all of which turned out to be blessings.  Bought a phone card at the bar so I could call for weather and clearances later.  

Getting checked in was a great introduction to the experience.  Monique dropped us off behind a garage by a path that led to the docks and the office.  A short walk and we're standing in front of the bar / restaurant.  We look around.  While there is a lot of activity, I don't see the sign for the office, so I head to the bar.  The fella at the bar points at a small building on the right edge of the dock and off we go.  When we get there, two fellas are chatting.  When I ask about checking in, one says "Mattie is not here right now.  You can check in at the bar."  

That pretty much summarized how everything works.  You need to check in, go to the bar.  Need a calling card for the pay phones (there are no phones in rooms), go to the bar.  Need to get access to the internet (it was on the fritz for most of our time), go to the bar.  Mid-day snack, drinks before dinner, dinner, drinks after dinner, chat with other visitors, chat with the staff . . . go to the bar.  

Mattie, by the way, is kind of a super-multitasker.  There are a lot of activities on the island, and everyone working one of those knows what they are doing.  Mattie, in addition to handling checkin when not otherwise occupied, fills in wherever she's needed, and seemed to coordinate where coordination was needed among them.  A very talented lady.  

So after going to the bar and checking in, we do a 20 yard bag drag to our accommodations, the Pink Cottage.  This a view from the porch of our cottage and a view of the porch.  

There are six cottages built right on the water like ours, and at least as many other suites. These are not the only accommodations on the island, but these are very nice.  There are also a number of homes to rent.  Frankly, a lot of visitors stay on their boats, either tied to the docks or anchored a short distance offshore.  

The room was comfortable, clean, and (although it's not clear we needed it this time of year) air conditioned.  There was plenty of hot water, and a small fridge to keep whatever you might want to keep chilled.

We got in early enough to have a beer and some bar snacks for lunch, and still had several hours before dinner.  As long as we were at the bar, we asked about renting a golf cart to explore the island.  

A call went out to Monique and 15 to 20 minutes later she's taking us back to the airport.  

But first, it seems there is a lot of construction on the island that takes place during the week.  This being Friday, most if not all the construction workers head for home and will return on Monday.  They are gathered in the blue and yellow pavilion.   Before Monique can get us the cart, she needs to take care of her role as airline ground manager, ticket taker, seat assigner, and baggage handler for this flight.  

The procedure is, like most things on Staniel Cay, informal and effective.  All the passengers seem to know Monique well.  She checks them off her list and they move forward with the second officer to the nose baggage compartment.  As they pass their bags forward #2 places them where he needs them, and the passengers head for the open cabin door.  

Once this is taken care of, Monique leads us to the gift shop / snack bar to get a cart.  We just need to get it back in about two hours.  

I mentioned this is a very small island.  The center is all water which you can see to the left of the runway above, leading to the sea on the south end of the island.  Our plan is to head for the southwest end of the island first, then move clockwise around the water until we get to the southeast end.  

The center of activity seems to be the center of the island between the airport and the yacht club.  There are businesses in some of the outlying areas, but the further you get from the airport / yacht club axis, the more you see personal homes and the less you see obvious economic activity.

The next few pictures look to the west of the road facing the bay on which the yacht club is located.

As you roam about, there are a number of interesting things you find, other than the sea views, that are not common at home.  Finding a radial aircraft engine to the right of one fella's driveway is in that category.  

On the other hand, some things are common enough.  As you drive out to the suburbs (so to speak ;-) folks seem to like a little space between their homes.  

Construction is pretty similar all over.  There is a lot of concrete.  We saw some deserted homes that appeared to have experimented with cinder block, or a concrete base with a wooden structure.  There were also wooden structures in some areas that seemed to have been around for a while.  It may be that there are locations that are better protected from the occasional hurricane during the summer, but concrete is clearly considered the more durable material, if one can afford it.  

We mentioned the construction crews earlier.  It seemed most of the new construction was taking place on the east side.  This yellow building is all concrete, and is located on a bluff looking to the east.  On the east side of the central waterway there is also dredging taking place to allow larger boats to dock further toward the north end of the inlet.  There is a lot of money going into this island.

As we circled to the east side we got some particularly good views of the central waterway.  

The north end of the island had many small islands which sheltered a large number of boats of all kinds -- sail and power.  There was one facility close to a magnificent beach whose drive was chained.  There was also a place called Thunderball Club, a large building facing west, which took its name from the James Bond movie "Thunderball".  The movie used an underwater tunnel at the north end of one of the small islands at left for some of it's scenes.  This club appeared deserted, though it could simply be a seasonal activity.  

The whole tour fit within our two hour cart limit and got us back to the Pink Cottage in time for some great views of the bay and the sunset from our patio.   

Inevitably, we made it back to the bar for dinner and a beer.  The place was packed with people staying at the yacht club, folks from the boats docked or anchored nearby, or folks from around the club.  

There was an interesting mix of people.  The bar seemed to be a major social center of the island, at least for visitors.  Everyone who got there by plane or boat ended up there for whatever your reason might be, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all points between.  Pretty good food as well, and the service was excellent - not white glove kinds of stuff, just good and friendly attention.  Lot of hustling folks make this place work.  There were a lot of Canadians all over the Caribbean.  Of course, its a bit cooler in Canada at this time of year . . . 

Interesting mix of rums, too - great "rum punch" according to Ann, and I liked the local BHs beer, Kalik.  We chatted about the following day's activities.  Ann made arrangements for a Boston whaler for morning before we turned in for the evening.