Marsh harbor week liveaboard sailing class

Welcome to the Abacos Bahamas adventure and sailing school. This page outlines some potential sailing destinations and various activities. It also lists the various sailing and cruising skills that will be practiced over the course of the week.

Items to bring for class

Swimsuit

Shorts and warm weather attire

A pair of water sandals – this is fairly important as we often use the dinghy to get ashore and then walk on very rough coral that requires sandals that hold your foot in securely.

Here is an example of a good water sandal

Small amount of sunscreen and bug repellent- what you can travel with in plane

Mask and snorkel

A wetsuit might be needed at water temps are maybe around 75

Optional fins

Sunglasses

Sun hat or visor

Passport

Bahamas cell service can be enabled day by day with $10 international plan. We have cell service where we can hot spot you and star link service too.

Additional notes

Entering Bahamas requires you fill out an entry card when entering. Immigration will want to know the address of where you are staying. If you are staying on a boat they require a copy of cruising permit for the vessel. It is not always convenient to have a printed copy of that document. It is easier to use a local hotel address which you might stay at in marsh harbor. We will attempt to provide you with our cruising permit which you can print out ahead of time.

Day 1 – we will pick you at Marsh harbor airport

Provisioning is an important part of any sailing adventure so we first stop at a local Bahamas grocery and pick up items to supplement our food stores already on the boat. We have a lot of storage space and sufficient refrigerator space for the week long adventure.

Depending upon you arrival time we may sail a few miles to man o war cay or stay at the current anchorage near marsh harbor and explore marsh harbor more and any other provisioning needs for snorkeling gear etc.

Where to sail near marsh harbor?

From Marsh harbour one can sail south about 15-20 miles and also north 15 miles before you are forced off the Abacos bank and more on open Atlantic waters which can be very rough and large swells.

To the north is a cut called whale cut that requires proper timing and conditions of calmer swells to go farther north.

To the south, once you exit at little harbour cut you are in open ocean again.

Destinations

Man of war cay

One of our favorite anchorages and small towns is man o war cay. This anchorage is only a few miles from marsh harbor area and offers various swimming and snorkeling trips inside and outside on the Atlantic is conditions are calm. The town is a nice walk away offering some beaches on the Bahamas side and the Atlantic side. Kayaking and dinghy rides and visiting other cruisers is always an option here.

Hope town

Another short sail to the busy cruiser town of Hope town. This town offers a quaint town with a historic light house to visit that uses old school kerosene lights and weights for rotation. Nice beach walks on the Atlantic and other hikes to explore the island.

Visiting the hope town light house gives great views of the town

Some islands like hope town offer some biking. We have two bikes on board

Kayaking is an easy activity to do almost everywhere and we have one on the boat

Tahiti beach

Just a short sail from hope town is another anchorage to visit the Tahiti beach and other hikes and snorkeling options near there

Great Guana cay

This island had numerous potential anchorages each offering nice beaches and snorkeling and access to Atlantic coasts

Some other cruisers we buddy boated with last year in the Abacos sailing near marsh harbor

Sandy cay

Always amazing sunrises and sunsets from boat as being on the water you have a very full horizon view. At night the ambient is often low enough to see the Milky Way and stars and planets clearly

This one tiny area offers some of the snorkeling in the Abacos and the Bahamas. This area does not have good beach access and rolly due to the Atlantic cut so it is often a day time stop and snorkel before moving on to an anchorage with better beach and shore access for walking and exploring.

At almost every anchoring spot will offer swimming right from the boat and kayaking and dinghy rides and exploring.

Easy to take the kayak ashore and walk the beaches. The kayak can handle 1-2 persons – dinghy can handle 4-5 and can plane at higher speeds

Sailing – we will try to sail each day if not waiting out a wind event.

Sailing class topics

Activities to participate in and practice

Sailing – everyone gets time at the wheel

Sailing trim and setting of jibs and main

Some practices of basic knot tying

Navigation and chart reading

Weather forecast planning

Anchoring

Some boat systems reviews from electrical to water making

Other notes

If you have any special dietary needs or food requests we can start to provision the boat ahead of your arrival.

Car rental – most larger islands offer car rental if you want to rent a car and get to parts of the island too far to walk.