Carver Owners Forum

Who has taken their Caver to the Bahamas, Exumas, Turks and Cacos perhaps? What boat, when and how long.

We are in the early stages of planning for this coming winter on our 396.

Cheers

Zoomie J

Have not yet but thats our plan for this fall.
Before this Zombie Apocalypse our plan was to sell the house and travel from Lake Simcoe down to the Bahamas via the ICW.
House is still for sale and our fingers are crossed that we will still be able to set off this September.

We rented a 52 foot power cat in 2016 from The Moorings out of Tortola in the BVI's. It was absolutely fabulous and I thought I had died and gone the heaven moment.

Didn't take the Carver down. Not sure I could get the admiral to be on a boat away from the grandkids for that long.

The boating was amazing and we are planning a similar trip in April of 2021, depending on what happens with, and I like the term, the Zombie Apocalypse. A friend of mine goes from Miami to the Bahamas all the time and I have to admit, it looks fabulous.

So you should look forward to be very pleased with your decision to make these trips,

Good luck and enjoy.

Greg

We have bare boated out of St John in the VI. We were planning the Bahamas this summer prior to the hurricane shifting us to St Martin, which is now in jeopardy due to the CV 19 stuff. We have boated in smaller boats around Exuma. Beautiful area.

A lot of great loopers go to the Bahama’s. One of the big concerns on their web site AGLCA.com, is that Navionics chart application is not very accurate in the Bahamas. They have reported some groundings there as a result. I have no way of knowing how true that is.

Another recommendation was a water maker. The water there is scarce and expensive. If this is a one time trip, it probably isn’t worth it, but many say they add one before the trip.

Gun laws are another issue there, and they are pretty strict about it, if you are boarded.

I wish my wife would go for it. I think you will really enjoy your adventure.

One thing I would do is a little research on the best charting tool, and also the water situation.

Nharrison5 wrote:Source of the post

A lot of great loopers go to the Bahama’s. One of the big concerns on their web site AGLCA.com, is that Navionics chart application is not very accurate in the Bahamas. They have reported some groundings there as a result. I have no way of knowing how true that is.

One thing I would do is a little research on the best charting tool, and also the water situation.

I hear most people prefer Aquamaps for the Bahamas. I plan on using both Navionics and Aquamaps on a tablet + my original chartplotter.

X2 for loopers - lots of Caribbean loopers around with good info: https://captainjohn.org/Caribbean2.html

Thanks for the comments. We brought our boat down through the Great Lakes, Erie, Hudson etc. to Chesapeake bay last summer and the boat is poised and ready for us to start our retirement (which includes the Bahamas this winter). That said, we are in NL waiting for the boarder to open so that we can get to the boat. I launched this question to see if there were people that had experienced extensive cruising in a Carver. We have a 396 and am a little concerned with Bahamas winter winds, not so much the trades out of the N but the Westerly lows that humm through. Looking for feedback.
Cheers