Salty Podcast Bonus Episode ⛵ LIVE Chat: Sailing Bahamas Prep with Key West John!

The allure of crystal-clear Bahamian waters calls countless sailors each year, but planning that perfect island-hopping adventure requires insider knowledge and careful preparation. In this special bonus episode of the Salty Podcast, I'm sharing my upcoming journey from Orange Beach to Georgetown, Exumas—a voyage that represents both adventure and healing after the loss of my husband nine months ago.

Joined by experienced sailors Key West John and surprise guest Hayden, we dive deep into the practical elements of making this journey successfully. We chart the optimal route from Florida to the Bahamas, discussing the strategic advantages of checking in at South Bimini rather than North, why West Bay makes a better stopover than Nassau, and how to navigate the stunning Exuma chain through a series of manageable day hops.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is the candid perspective on Georgetown itself—that magical cruiser haven where up to 300 boats gather during peak season. We explore the vibrant community at Chat and Chill, the recent addition of mooring fields, and how to position your boat when weather fronts come through. The conversation touches on everything from pet import requirements to the significant increase in Bahamas entry fees, giving you a comprehensive planning guide.

Beyond the technical aspects, this episode captures something more profound—the healing power of the sailing community. As I prepare for this journey, I'm discovering that Georgetown's reputation as a welcoming sailor's paradise might be exactly the restorative experience needed after profound loss. Whether you're planning your own Bahamas adventure or simply dreaming of distant shores, you'll find something deeply valuable in this conversation between friends who share a passion for blue water and island life.

Have you sailed these waters before? What hidden gems should be on my must-visit list? Share your experiences and tips in the comments—I'd love to hear from fellow sailors and dreamers alike.

Transcript

Introduction: Planning for the Bahamas

Capn Tinsley 0:05

Good morning everybody from Gulf Shores, alabama. Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Salty Podcast. Today we're going to talk live right here about getting ready for an upcoming sail to the Bahamas Planning, provisioning, routing and everything in between. This fall, in October, I'll be solo sailing from Orange Beach, alabama, to Key West, and then I'll be buddy boating with Key West John all the way to Georgetown in the Exumas. This will be my first time sailing all the way to Georgetown. Last time I made it as far as Nassau and then I kind of just ran out of time.

Capn Tinsley 0:38

So even though I'm looking forward to it, I'll be honest, it's a little bittersweet. It's been nine months since I lost Salty Scotty and my husband and love of my life. It's the hardest thing I've ever been through. Some of you experienced the same and when you know, you know. But I'm incredibly grateful for the Circle of Friends who have been nothing but supportive through it all, including my good friend and buddy boat partner, key West John. He's been tremendously helpful to me and we've got a special guest popping in to give his two cents on sailing to the Bahamas. So please don't miss that.

Capn Tinsley 1:12

And if you've got thoughts, tips or salty comments, we'd really love to hear it from you during the live and if you're catching the replay, please feel free to comment anytime. We welcome it all. But first, please help support the channel by hitting that like button and if you haven't yet, go ahead and subscribe and check out some more videos. I'm getting real close to being monetized and I'm hoping that will help offset some of the out-of-pocket expenses for producing this podcast, because I want to keep it on going, even from the Bahamas. I'm Captain Tinsley of Sailor Vessel Salty Abandoned and Island Packet 320, and this is the Salty Podcast, a bonus episode with QS John, otherwise known as KWJ, and a surprise guest. Let's get into it. Good morning.

Key West John 2:00

Captain Tinsley.

Capn Tinsley 2:01

Good morning Captain. Captain QS John, okay, yeah, and we'll just say he is a double captain. He's a pilot and a boat captain, right?

Key West John 2:14

That's correct, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 2:15

Okay, so what are we talking about today? Key West John KWJ.

Key West John 2:20

Well, let's see you. You know, several months ago, obviously with a bad experience and then trying to rebound from some of that, you had the. I had mentioned to you over the years how much I like Georgetown. Georgetown is just such a great. I love the Exuma chain, so many great places in the Bahamas, but Georgetown's always been my favorite. And you just said let's go.

Key West John 2:42

You know you needed a challenge. You needed to get there, and I know you'd been headed that way before and got to Nassau and not beyond. So the challenge now is to get you know there, get past Nassau, give it a good wave on the way by and head down to the north end of the Exumas and then work your way down to Georgetown.

Capn Tinsley 3:03

I appreciate it because I'm just heading off there. I'll buy myself with what I'm going through. It sounded really sad, but once you add QS, John and and some others in there and some other friends that might travel with me, what I might have a home.

Key West John 3:20

I said motorcade, but a boat cage you might have a whole going by the time you get there.

Capn Tinsley 3:25

It'll be fun because I know there's other people that I've interviewed and I've heard so much about Georgetown from the people I've interviewed, including our surprise guest, who I'm going to go ahead and pop him in. He's a little early, but let's bring him in. Get ready, hayden, here you come.

Hayden Cochran 3:39

Yeah, boom, hey great to get my camera lined up here. Good to see you, yeah, good to see you. There you are, yeah, thanks a lot for having me in here.

Capn Tinsley 3:53

It's great Well. Having the two of you here is just extremely helpful to me. Both of you have been very helpful and so I really appreciate your advice and everything and over the years and in the future, because I'm not giving it up- I know Key West John knows his way around down there.

Key West John 4:14

Well, hayden and I are very different on that. Hayden has done it nautically. I've rented boats there. I have never taken a boat all the way to the Exum, but I've flown over there many times. As a retired airline I can fly basically for free. So I go, fly there and explore, whereas Hayden and Radine have been able to take their boat there and do a lot more exploring.

Capn Tinsley 4:38

So it's two different inputs but, great, great places.

Key West John 4:41

I mean, we both agree on that. It's just so beautiful. You can just almost turn in any direction and hit a really nice spot.

Key West John: The Exumas Expert

Hayden Cochran 4:48

Absolutely. We've run down there 10 winners in a row and just love it and I would say that I would avoid Nass coast and Bimini is an easy check-in and there's North Bimini and there's South Bimini and most people, for the first time they go over, they'll go into North Bimini at Brownstock because the customs is right there and it's easier. But there's a little secret to South Bimini when you come across the reef and instead of turning north and going up into North Bimini, you go straight ahead into a pond that's in South Bimini and you dock there on a floating dock very easy, and you ride a little ferry across to North Bimini and check in or you could check in on South Bimini at the airport. So I recommend, you know, going into South Bimini. It's way easier.

Key West John 5:51

I've heard that many, many times. A lot of people they'll come through Key West here and they're headed that way. And I've heard that quite often the last couple of years people prefer what Hayden was just mentioning.

Hayden Cochran 6:03

Yeah, it really simpl a project and then from Bimini we run down through the tongue of the ocean and you can, you know, there's a couple places to stop just through the tongue of the ocean there, with Chub Key, and then we use west instead of Nassau. What we do is we use West End, which is the western end of Nassau Island, new Providence Island. There's a big cove. There we go in. Now you're already checked into the Bahamas from Bimini. So yeah, right there, right there, where your mouse was Tinsley, we stop in there.

Capn Tinsley 6:35

And then, really, you have to go this way, right?

Hayden Cochran 6:38

Yeah, yeah, come to the tongue of the ocean right there, and so you pull into there. And then now some people aren't comfortable running overnight and if you're running by yourself, tinsley, you would run from bimini and you would run up to the tongue of the ocean and drop an anchor and you would sleep right there on the west side of the tongue of the ocean, right there where my little chart says nw channel. You just we've anchored there and spent the night there already, because you know once you go through there you the closest thing to anchor into is chub, which is not quite reachable in daylight hours from bimini. So if you don't want to run at night, you're going to drop an anchor there in the banks before you scoot through the Northwest Channel and then the next day it's a one-day run down to West Bay.

Capn Tinsley 7:30

Okay, yeah, we actually went from North Cat Key, scott and I, and this is Chubb Key right here. Right, we anchored right there. It was actually closed like Hurricane Marie or something.

Hayden Cochran 7:42

Right, but could you make that in daylight hours? Could you make that in daylight hours, could you?

Capn Tinsley 7:46

make that in daylight hours. We left really, really early.

Hayden Cochran 7:48

Okay.

Capn Tinsley 7:49

Like 1 or 2 in the morning. It was crazy, but I'd like to do it your way.

Hayden Cochran 7:54

Yeah, it's okay to anchor on the banks. Sometimes it can get rough or the wind comes up. It's terrible, but yeah, okay, so yeah, chubb Key and then from Chubb Key down to West Bay and then, once you reach West Bay, everything to Georgetown is a day hop. It's all one day trips now.

Capn Tinsley 8:14

There's a picture in here of a show in West Bank. Yeah, there's.

Hayden Cochran 8:19

West Bay Day trip out to the Exumas. You get out to Highborne Key or Shroud Key and then you start working your way down

Key West John 8:29

okay, and, like I was just saying, there's so many great spots, uh day trips, that you can stop along the way there. I mean just tons and tons. I mean you, just, you know the uh, they're just beautiful places you can pull up an anchor.

Hayden Cochran 8:44

Oh yeah, oh my gosh, it's so wonderful. The hardest part is probably getting to West Bay, getting to Chub Key or West Bay and getting through that Northwest Channel, because most times when I leave Florida I'll run straight away through there and I might hit that about 2 AM in the morning and go through at night and uh, it's just, most people won't do that because it's a skinny little channel but it's about a mile wide. But uh, there's no reason to do that. You just check in at Bimini and carry on, carry on from Bimini. Okay, and you, you were, you know.

Surprise Guest: Hayden Joins In

Capn Tinsley 9:22

Bimini and carry on, carry on from Bimini. Okay, and you you were, you know you had talked to me in past podcasts about it you really like, you really do like to bypass. Do you just stop and check in or just stay overnight because you?

Hayden Cochran 9:40

before the winds change at Bimini. Yeah, I don't want to get stuck in Bimini. So the challenge is to study your weather fronts coming across while you're in Florida and if you have a good slow-moving weather front, then you can get to Bimini, check in and carry on the next day. What happens to most people is the front's coming, the wind goes south on the Gulf Stream, and then it goes southwest and then west, and then it blows like crazy from the northwest and you're making your run across using this south wind and you get into Bimini and you get docked up and then the front blows like crazy and that's okay, you're safe in Bimini, and now you need to wait for that front to blow out so you might end up being in bimini I don't know two, three, four days. We've been there a week already just waiting for weather.

Capn Tinsley 10:34

So yeah, and luckily, um, you know, I, I finally do understand when you talk about those things. It took me a while, but John understands it, being a pilot and a lifelong sailor, yeah yeah.

Hayden Cochran 10:52

I'm sure, flying over is a lot easier.

Key West John 10:54

Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, it's a big adjustment. When you have a vessel that will go 500 miles an hour, now you have to adapt to something that goes five miles an hour. Exactly, I was cut through a line of thunderstorms just the other day, coming back from a marathon, and I was like, oh, there's a nice gap. Well, in an airplane that would have worked, but in the boat I was two hours from the gap and the gap was you know so, and to go around the end was 20 miles around the end.

Hayden Cochran 11:21

so yeah, it's a different frame of mind. You have to get yourself in. Yeah, so true, I can't imagine. I would love to fly. I've been in a small plane already and my buddy gave me the stick and said just hold it to that mountain over there. And when I took control of the plane it was a little cub. I took control of the plane and I got vertigo so badly.

Capn Tinsley 11:43

Oh my, really you, as much as you're on the water, I'm looking out the window, everything's spinning around.

Hayden Cochran 11:50

He goes well, just let go of everything, just let go, it'll fly straight and level. I'm like, oh my God. And then it went away. He took over the plane and then, as soon as I took control of it again and I wasn't registering what I was seeing vertigo, immediately it was terrible, that's tough.

Key West John 12:11

Vertigo is a very unnerving feeling.

Hayden Cochran 12:15

Yeah, dangerous, very dangerous.

Key West John 12:23

Especially if you were solo flying Right. Hayden offered a very good comment that his friend said Most times in an airplane, let go of it. And it's amazing how well it can do if you just let go of it, right? Anyway, not that we get into aeronautical lessons here.

Hayden Cochran 12:40

No, no, go ahead.

Key West John 12:42

But that is something good to know. Sometimes in an airplane you're fighting to just let go of it and it's amazing how well it can do so what else from there we get?

Key West John 12:55

I was thinking we go from Key Largo, but I have gone from Dinner Key if you get there, like if you've got a front coming in and the winds have shifted to the southwest and you can ride the ride, the gulf stream up, you're, you're getting a good ride. You could do key largo to bimini and then but, like hayden said, you got to be checked in and get a lot of there because the front's coming through. Then you're going to get the strong northwesters and, uh, you know you're going to have to sit it out. But yeah, you could ride from key largo up there. Let's still have to sit it out.

Capn Tinsley 13:23

But yeah, you can drive from Key Largo up there. I still have to go to Bimini. I can't go to Cat Key.

Key West John 13:28

There's no check-in there.

Capn Tinsley 13:30

Yeah, okay, I do. Like you know, their plan was to go to no Name Harbor, and John's done that too, and I've been there earlier this year on a rented jet ski to just to check it out and that looks like a great place.

Key West John 13:48

It is a good place, oh yeah.

Hayden Cochran 13:49

No.

Key West John 13:50

Name Harbor is great, and then you can run over to Dinner Key Marina if you need to get any provision of fuel or anything like that. It's very short, just across the bay, but yeah, no Name is a great place to launch from.

Hayden Cochran 14:01

Yeah, we used no Name last year for the well two years ago when we went down to the Caribbean and I did not know. But there's a nice grocery store within walking distance from no Name Harbor up to the store and there's a free shuttle that runs up and down from no Name up to Key.

Key West John 14:19

Biscayne.

Capn Tinsley 14:20

Yeah.

Hayden Cochran 14:21

And you can ride the free shuttle back and forth. So we used, we walked up, got groceries and then the shuttle brought us back. So that it's a good, we use dinner key and we use no name. Those are the two.

Key West John 14:32

The big thing with no name. Don't count on any nightlife. This game does not in in. Uh encourage nightlife and uh. So they don't want any of the other. They don't want any of the other crowd. We won't mention their name.

Hayden Cochran 14:47

I love it yeah.

Key West John 14:48

So yeah, there there's a. I really don't know that. We tried to watch the U S open tennis finals one year years ago and so we we wrote into to keep his game it's a eight o'clock or nine o'clock man, you could. There was nothing. We finally went to the fire department and watched it with the firemen for a little bit. I mean they rolled up yeah 8 or 9 o'clock is pretty much rolled up, but anyway there is the store that Hayden mentioned is a great way to get stocked.

Hayden Cochran 15:19

Yeah, I think we spent a week in no Name Harbor waiting for a passage to go out to the Bahamas.

Key West John 15:27

It's a great state park. It's really well run and you could, like I said, spend in a week. It's not bad there.

Hayden Cochran 15:35

I love Biscayne Bay. I've said it many, many times, I've written articles about it. It's the second best sailing destination on the entire east coast of USA.

Capn Tinsley 15:45

You said it's your happy place.

Hayden Cochran 15:47

Yeah, it's my happy place Number one is Newport and Block Island Sound. That area up there, because the southwest winds come in every day up off of Block Island and the America's Cup was there for hundreds of years that is a fabulous sailing area. You don't have any of that until you get down to Biscayne Bay again. You have the Chesapeake Bay, but that's the only winds you get on. That are frontal winds when a storm's coming.

Key West John 16:14

That's some good points, hayden, I like that.

Hayden Cochran 16:18

Biscayne Bay is trade wind sailing every day coming across the bay. You sail north and south and when you're done sailing you go to one of these eastern beaches to anchor off of and you're saying that's a good place to test out everything you know.

Capn Tinsley 16:33

Kind of take down, make sure nothing's broken.

Hayden Cochran 16:36

You gotta the weather fronts come every seven to ten days. So you just you're going to be waiting a week for your next weather window, or longer. So while you're waiting you can sail day, sail every day in Biscayne Bay and practice your equipment, check things out, work your anchor gear, you're going through provisionings and you're eating. So now you've got to restock, and that's convenient in Biscayne Bay, so you can sit on the waiting pad in Biscayne Bay and still have a great sailing season. Even if you don't get past there for some reason, it's still fabulous.

Hayden Cochran 17:13

It's one of your happy places I've heard you say it One of the best places on the East Coast.

Capn Tinsley 17:20

I've heard both of you say that in there for people who don't know that you can't stay overnight on the wall inside a no name. You can during the day and then you go in the middle and you anchor and it looked really calm in there when I was there.

Key West John 17:35

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's fabulous, even when, if it's rough out in Key Biscayne, oh yeah, it's just cause it's just one little small opening that goes into the little round harbor there. So yeah, it doesn't get anything.

Hayden Cochran 17:50

It does get crowded and people short scope it in there. So when a front or wind comes through, people drive and it's chaos.

Capn Tinsley 17:59

Short scope.

Key West John 17:59

I like that Short scope I like that, terry, because I saw a guy, an older guy that had gotten him a young girlfriend and we were watching one day and he had a power boat and he was dropping anchor straight down and no scope. And we were like, okay, and we everybody would watch, he would start drifting back. And finally one one guy yelled and said, let more scope out. And he didn't know what he's talking about. So he had, he had gotten a boat. He just thought, okay, I dropped the anchor. I'll do this on my John boat when I go bass fishing, exactly, but yeah, I like that term, short scoping. Yeah, you've got to watch people in there doing that, because if you start swinging it's kind of crowded. It can get crowded if you get 15, 16 boats in there.

Hayden Cochran 18:51

Oh yeah, start swinging. There's a you know it's kind of crowded. It can get crowded to get 15, 16 boats in there, oh yeah. So, yes, short scope, and you got to watch I like this term right yeah, but the beauty, the beauty of no name, is when that gets crowded in there. You just up anchor and go out in front of it out, right yeah, and you drop out 120 feet of chain and you lay it all out out there and you have no problems then. You then you're going to sleep well because you know you're not going to drag and the current switches in and out out there so you flip around on the current, but you got 120 feet of chain out, so you're good to go oh, yeah, yeah, that's.

Key West John 19:16

That is great, because that little area right there on the southwest side up there it's a good straight line like say good easy, good easy, anchorage you know 8, 10, 12 feet of water, it's good Perfect.

Capn Tinsley 19:26

What do y'all think it's going to be like in no Name Key around mid-October? I got to get there.

Key West John 19:33

It might be the end of October we got to get the Farmer's Almanac out for that.

Hayden Cochran 19:38

Well, you're going around in hurricane season, so that's a little early.

Navigation Strategy: Bimini to Georgetown

Capn Tinsley 19:46

Well, by the time, I'll probably leave Orange Beach mid-October and it's going to take time to get down there. I'll get down to QS, john will help me with whatever you know, do some things to the boat and then we'll go up there. So it might be November. That would be better.

Key West John 19:59

You're going to start to get fronts coming through by then. What?

Capn Tinsley 20:03

I'm asking about is how busy it's going to be in there.

Key West John 20:06

It doesn't matter If you don't go. The weekends will be busy in there, but during the week you'll be okay.

Capn Tinsley 20:12

With anchoring and everything, There'll be room for us If there's not there's plenty of other places to go, okay, like where?

Hayden Cochran 20:20

Just get the Biscayne Bay.

Key West John 20:22

Yeah, get the Biscayne.

Hayden Cochran 20:25

Right, just get the Biscayne Bay Right off of Nixon's helipad, right off of Key Biscayne. You just anchor off of Nixon's helipad, you got Sanford on your right and it's fine. There's tons of places to anchor in Biscayne.

Key West John 20:34

All of Biscayne Bay is about 10 feet of water and you can just anchor anywhere out there straight.

Capn Tinsley 20:41

Exactly, and I've been there. I stayed at Dinner Key Marina, the biggest marina I've ever seen in my life by the way.

Key West John 20:47

Oh yeah, that's a big one.

Capn Tinsley 20:50

And the mooring field. It's just like I don't know how many boats are there, but it must be a thousand or more.

Key West John 20:57

It's huge.

Hayden Cochran 20:57

Yeah, they've got a big marina.

Key West John 20:59

I think they have cleared it out some. I think they've made a pretty good effort with the derelict boats there.

Hayden Cochran 21:04

They have.

Key West John 21:06

It's gotten a lot better. Yeah, they ask how many boats there are. There are too many. There are a lot.

Capn Tinsley 21:14

We'll get in somewhere.

Key West John 21:16

You get there, and now you've got to head to the Bahamas.

Capn Tinsley 21:21

The good thing is that we can wait as long as we need to, because it's a good place to. We go to Bimini and I do have um a document I want to show. I uh chat my best friend and I chat GPT. Oh yeah, we came up with a list.

Key West John 21:40

This is a weird relationship.

Capn Tinsley 21:42

I call him brother G cause I used to go to Hawaii a lot.

Hayden Cochran 21:44

Brother means brother, so I call him Brudda G, because I used to go to.

Capn Tinsley 21:46

Hawaii a lot. Brudda means brother, so I call him.

Hayden Cochran 21:49

G Brudda G. Yeah, well, I'm using Brock's AI Brockcom.

Key West John 21:54

Oh, yeah, yeah, Elon's, yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

Capn Tinsley 21:59

Oh is it good, you like it.

Hayden Cochran 22:02

Yeah, they're all doing the same thing. They're fabulous.

Capn Tinsley 22:06

Okay, let me find this they're all taking over they are.

Key West John 22:11

One day they're gonna tell us I'm not listening to you anymore exactly.

Capn Tinsley 22:16

I think we got about 10 years I don't think so.

Key West John 22:19

I think you got about three years, oh okay, I think I think hayden's correct three is more like it, it's going, it's, it's quickly changing it's changing rapidly yeah, zuckerberg just decided to put five billion dollars into, uh uh, developing a super intelligence yeah, so five billion dollars goes a long way.

Hayden Cochran 22:46

yeah, yeah, these guys have the money to spend. Yeah, oh yeah, you got to check in your pet.

Capn Tinsley 22:50

I'm trying to zoom it in here.

Hayden Cochran 22:52

Yeah that's good.

Capn Tinsley 22:54

Yeah, so here's the pet part of it.

Key West John 22:57

Her cat.

Hayden Cochran 22:58

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 22:59

So it has links here for Bahamas Pet Import. You got to go to these and fill out these and that one and then I have to have a health certificate completed by within 48 hours before arrival. I've got to get the chip, which I can do now, rabies certificate, less than 30 days, parasite treatment. So there's a lot going on there. I'll have to do some of this in the Keys.

Hayden Cochran 23:26

Well, some of that you could do probably most of that right at Dinner Key Marina up in Coconut.

Key West John 23:31

Grove.

Hayden Cochran 23:32

Coconut Grove. I'm sure there's a vet that does this all the time.

Key West John 23:35

Oh yeah, I would do it at Dinner. Key Coconut Grove is going to have everything you need. This is not going to be the first time they've dealt with this.

Capn Tinsley 23:47

Exactly, and so here's the cruising permit to fill out there.

Hayden Cochran 23:54

Yep, I've used that.

Capn Tinsley 23:57

I've got this, so you're as I always heard. The documentation for your boat is like your passport for your boat when you go out of the country. So I've got all that.

Hayden Cochran 24:07

And your insurance document.

Capn Tinsley 24:09

Okay, okay, I don't even have that on here.

Hayden Cochran 24:13

You need to have an insurance declaration page usually.

Capn Tinsley 24:17

Okay, I've got it on my computer.

Hayden Cochran 24:18

Yeah, if you check into a marina, a lot of times they want to see your insurance declaration page. Yeah, that shows you have insurance, because they won't let you in a marina if you don't have insurance.

Capn Tinsley 24:30

I've had to do that, and if I left it for a month I had to have their name put on there.

Hayden Cochran 24:34

Right yeah.

Capn Tinsley 24:35

Yeah, firearms. Last time I did take a firearm, so I went through that process. Yep you have to know how much, how much ammo you have. Yep, Because I went up there and they said how much ammo do you have? And I said about, and they go, don't guess, If we board you and you don't have it all there, they're going to say where's the body?

Hayden Cochran 24:57

That's what they told me Right.

Capn Tinsley 25:00

So it was no big deal Like. She came to the boat the next day and she was really nice. I took her picture and recounted all the ammo and then fly quarantine flag. All the ammo and then fly quarantine flag. Yep, Y'all can jump in any time here. Bring your clear Click to clear after permit. Okay, so that's this up here, right?

Hayden Cochran 25:21

Right, that's a need document. You'll get back an email, okay.

Capn Tinsley 25:29

And I'm hearing what I'm seeing online.

Hayden Cochran 25:31

It's very expensive. Now they got crazy. Yeah, their fees have gotten crazy. It's ridiculous.

Key West John 25:36

Yeah, they're, they're going up.

Capn Tinsley 25:37

Yeah, I, I heard I guess I have to get a six month. Is that what I have to do? It's like $800. So crazy.

Hayden Cochran 25:47

Yeah, it used to be 300 bucks, it used to be yeah.

Key West John 25:50

Yeah, it used to be 300, but yeah, it's gone crazy.

Hayden Cochran 25:53

Now, don't forget, you need a Bahamas flag.

Capn Tinsley 25:56

I've got it Okay.

Key West John 25:58

I have an extra 14 flag if you don't have one.

Capn Tinsley 26:01

I should have both, but that was on a different boat. I assume it's on. I think I brought it all to this boat, but yeah, I need to check on that. What is this? Brought it all to this boat, but, yeah, I need to check on that. What is this Exit form? So you got to check out.

Hayden Cochran 26:14

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 26:16

So chat GPT made this nice little.

Hayden Cochran 26:20

No, that's perfect, that's all.

Key West John 26:24

Hayden, I have a question Flying planes over there. The guy I flew for after I retired and then when I was flying charter.

Capn Tinsley 26:33

Go get my coffee.

Key West John 26:34

Be right back. We had a departure tax on aviation. Do you have that with the boat? Do you have a departure tax.

Hayden Cochran 26:40

No, no, there's no departure tax for yachts.

Key West John 26:43

Okay, okay, just clear out yeah. Like I say, my experience has been that even after I retired I flew charter over to the Bahamas and Cuba and all that. But yeah, we always had the departure tax. So I didn't know. That's good yeah.

Hayden Cochran 26:57

No, no, no. Departure tax, cheers, cheers. Tinsley, I got a coffee with you there.

Key West John 27:02

Well, y'all are behind me. I've got rum going Y'all got to catch up. Well, that's because you're in the keys and that's the smart place to be. Yeah, we are all here because we're not all there exactly uh-oh, my picture froze.

Capn Tinsley 27:19

Can y'all still hear me? We'll call you out some way okay, um, what was I gonna say? Um, yeah, I was going to say what he said. He said he's in the Keys.

Key West John 27:36

He's supposed to do that. While you were gone, Hayden, I talked about when flying charter planes over to and from, you have to pay a departure tax on each passenger. You don't have to do that on a boat. Hayden answered that for me, so there's no departure tax.

Capn Tinsley 27:51

I'm going to tell you something I did that they looked at me like I was crazy. So officially and I like to be a rule follower you know pretty much almost everything I like speed a lot in my car.

Key West John 28:04

But, anyway.

Capn Tinsley 28:08

so it said that if you leave the country that you have to turn in your firearm and they hold it.

Key West John 28:16

You broke up. What did you say?

Capn Tinsley 28:17

They said it says in there that if you leave the country, leave your boat, that you have to turn in your firearm and let them hold it. And I did it and they looked at me like what. They looked at me like you want us to do what?

Key West John 28:36

I guess people don't comply with that. It sounds like I don't think so and I instantly felt stupid.

Capn Tinsley 28:43

But now they already knew, so I had to go. So they were like all right, fine. I mean, it was like a big bother to them.

Key West John 28:50

But they did.

Capn Tinsley 28:52

So we won't say anything out of turn here, but that's officially what you're supposed to do.

Hayden Cochran 29:00

I checked out of customs during COVID down in Grenada and the buddy boat I was running with is a popular YouTuber. I won't name him, but he's also an ex-marine. And we're walking out of customs and he's he's got an over shoulder long gun, another over shoulder cases, two brief cases of weapons, and I walk out with him. I go, wow, holy hell, what are you doing? He goes nobody's messing with my family. I, I'm like, I am running with you, we're staying together, okay.

Hayden Cochran 29:36

I left him in the dust. Unfortunately, I beat him to St Croix. From Grenada to St Croix. It was a 60-hour run and I got there about 12 hours ahead of him. Shouldn't have happened, but I couldn't. He's right.

Sailing Through the Exuma Chain

Key West John 29:50

You get down there. You get down there. You know you need to increase your artillery, probably a little bit. And I talked with a guy. I was flying with a guy, a Coast Guard guy, and you know they had intercepted drug boats, all that kind of stuff, when he was in the Coast Guard. You know I was thinking okay, what kind of gun do I need? When I was thinking years ago about going to the Bahamas, I said 9 mil, you know 38,. Whatever he said, take an AK-47.

Key West John 30:17

And I said what he said. That way you sink them and then everything's over. You don't have to kill anybody, you just sink them. An AK-47 will sink most any boat. So you got somebody messing with you, you sink them, don't? They have a rule about when we're trying to get to Georgetown and chat and chill.

Hayden Cochran 30:39

We won't need any machine guns in Georgetown.

Key West John 30:41

We don't need a machine gun in Georgetown.

Capn Tinsley 30:44

Well, a lot of people ask about this stuff. So you know, I still am not clear. I mean, could I take a rifle because I mean I have one of those at ar?

Key West John 30:57

you better, you better, you better. Keep all this stuff private.

Capn Tinsley 31:00

That you're saying well, I do want to put the word out. Don't mess with me. You know exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always say you try to come on my boat. I got something for you, I'm in.

Key West John 31:14

Alabama. I know how to shoot. Hopefully this is not going to be required. We're passing, we're waving at Nassau as we go, flying by, exactly.

Hayden Cochran 31:24

South of Nassau is Shroud Key, where you're going to kayak into the Lazy River.

Capn Tinsley 31:30

Let me find that Key where you're going to kayak into the Lazy River. Let me climb that Shroud Key.

Hayden Cochran 31:35

You got the first key is Highborne Key, and then south of Highborne you got Shroud Key, and then south of Shroud Key you get Cambridge and Wardrick Wells, and then Staniel Key, yacht Club, the Pig Beach and then Black Point and then it's on to Georgetown.

Key West John 31:50

Yeah, One thing to throw this in, because I know Hayden and Radeen have a very, very capable dinghy and especially I are kind of limited on our dinghy Down in the Bahamas.

Hayden Cochran 32:05

It's nice to have a really capable dinghy that has some pretty good speed, because you might be going great distances yeah, there's the, there's the lay of the land, there's highborn key first, and then you have norman's key, which is also near shroud key, and and then below norman shroud key and then hawksbill and then, where it turns the corner to the east, that leads you to Wardrick Wells. That is like number one happy place and everybody, when you get to Wardrick Wells you really think you made it because it's just it's a national park and it's phenomenal and it's where you see those boats in that long skinny channel and they're on a mooring ball and that is quite the place to. To reach is wardrick wells, but let me see if there's another one in here here. It is right there. So see how they see how the exuma chain sort of bends to the east. That spot there, that corner, is wardrick wells and then south of wardrick wells, most people.

Hayden Cochran 33:09

These are pretty tricky little places. These other Compass Key at Cambridge and Sampson. Everybody kind of goes from Wardrick Wells to Staniel Key. That's Pig Beach, that's a day trip, wardrick Wells to Staniel Key. Now you're on Pig Beach and you've got the Staniel Key Yacht Club. Then the next one south is Great Guana and that's Black Point.

Key West John 33:30

Yeah, all these are great places, great, great places.

Hayden Cochran 33:34

They are the places. There's the grotto, that's Pig Beach, right there.

Capn Tinsley 33:39

Right here, where Right here?

Hayden Cochran 33:42

Up at this Top X, where it's a big major spot. Yeah, big major spot right there. That's where I live. I enter there and then I dingy around to Staniel Key Yacht Club, that other act right there, staniel Key Yacht Club. I dingy to there.

Capn Tinsley 33:59

Okay, I see it.

Hayden Cochran 34:01

There's your airport, Key West, John. You land in that.

Key West John 34:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, I've been in there several times, yeah, I have friends there.

Hayden Cochran 34:16

Vivian and Berkey that run the general.

Key West John 34:16

They've got general store, golf carts, balsa, weighted boats and everything. Staniel Key is a dream. Yeah, really really. Staniel Key is a really nice place because it's protected. There's a lot to do there, love it, love it.

Capn Tinsley 34:25

Yeah, I know you guys talked a lot about Staniel Key Yacht Club.

Hayden Cochran 34:29

Yep, it's a must stop. You don't pass this.

Key West John 34:33

Yeah, yeah, do not pass, and I'm too old to do it now, but I did it about probably 15 years ago. I highly recommend jump through the hole in the top of the ball ground.

Hayden Cochran 34:44

No, no, I'm not jumping through the hole, no.

Key West John 34:47

I'm not either. You got to do it while you're young. No, the hole no, I'm not either. You got to do it while you're young. No, it's crazy, it's 22 feet too late it's uh, you know I I almost chickened out and finally I threw my flip-flops down. And once you do that, because you can't walk back down over that right thing so right and, uh, I'm glad I did it. I would not do it again, but I'm glad I did did it. So yeah, you can still do it, you're young enough.

Hayden Cochran 35:14

Yeah, we could throw tensely in.

Capn Tinsley 35:20

I don't know. I've never been one to jump off of really tall things.

Key West John 35:23

Well, yeah, what's really crazy. You're standing up there and you look down and it looks sizably long distance. But when you look out across the uh, the water, the atlantic, or the baits of the? Uh to the west, you realize that that's the height of that water down there and you say, gosh, I'm way up here. So yeah, but it was exhilarating.

Capn Tinsley 35:43

I've heard so many people you know that that were paralyzed from jumping off into water.

Key West John 35:48

They I was- like well, no, you swim into there. The pool underneath is probably a 12 to 15 feet deep, so you swim in there, you check it out and and you can't miss the pool, because if you come through the hole you're going to hit the pool okay, so well, maybe, yeah, maybe it's.

Capn Tinsley 36:03

I mean, I got a tattoo on my back. I never said I'd do that. You've got to do this if you'll do a tattoo.

Key West John 36:08

You should do this, and I'm almost I'm gonna steal a whole hayden. Uh, I'm gonna still keep him uh under the um the radar to do this I don't know, I'm not a jumper either.

Hayden Cochran 36:19

I I would.

Key West John 36:20

No, I think it'll take care of the vertigo. You won't have vertigo, no I would not. I would wipe it out but it is a delight, even if you don't jump through the hole to swim in. This thing is a dome. It's like a domed-out cathedral. When you get inside, beautiful, and you swim in on either end. At high tide you'll have to snorkel in, but at low tide you can swim in with your head above water. There are cutouts on either end and once you get in there, it's beautiful.

Capn Tinsley 36:50

It is. So there are cutouts on either end, and once you get in there, it's beautiful, it is so there's no chance of, like you, hitting a wall or anything.

Key West John 36:54

It opens up after you drop through Once you come through.

Hayden Cochran 36:59

It's a big grotto, big round grotto, and then the grotto comes up around and there's a little tiny hole at the top.

Key West John 37:06

Ah, tiny, it's not tiny.

Hayden Cochran 37:12

You got a little tiny hole where you jump through and you drop down into the grotto. No, no thank you. What is?

Capn Tinsley 37:17

the distance that you're right 20 feet, 22 feet, that's two stories at a Gulf front condo.

Hayden Cochran 37:26

I think that there's swimming in the grotto when people come flying in from. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's something good to do. At least do that.

Key West John 37:34

Get under there and watch people drop in.

Hayden Cochran 37:36

Yeah.

Key West John 37:37

The locals they had to quit years ago quit promoting it. So they don't recommend or promote it, obviously for liability reasons.

Hayden Cochran 37:43

No, that is Staniel Key Yacht Club Ground Zero. You're already down in Georgetown, now you need to back up a slide.

Key West John 37:53

Yeah, you're at Chatham Shield. Yeah, how about this one.

Hayden Cochran 37:56

Okay, now, right there you can see, go forward one that's Black Point, go back where the big overview was. We're right there. So now you can see at the top there's Staniel Key, great guana, which is black point, and then you got a couple exits from the sound side that you can go out onto the ocean side, and that's what you have to do in order to get down to georgetown. So you go out one of these cuts. We usually go out up at black point or down at farmers or rudder, we those three and then you come out. And now, if you go to the next slide, you'll see, once you come out one of these cuts, you got about a 35 mile run I don't know how far it is and that's the entrance into Georgetown. Now you come in from the north and you come down to Chat and Chill and that's where you're going to base at right there at Chat. Andanooga and then at Town is across on the other side.

Capn Tinsley 38:52

Where's?

Hayden Cochran 38:52

the new mooring field. Well, it's all along there where all those 4Xs are. Those are all mooring fields now.

Georgetown: Mooring Fields and Anchoring

Key West John 39:02

Yeah, I haven't been there since they put the mooring balls in. It was just a big anchorage. I always liked it that way and I've heard pros and cons both ways.

Hayden Cochran 39:13

Yeah, yeah, I haven't been there since they've moored it out. It was a big debate. They didn't cruisers didn't like it, but there'll be 300 boats in here.

Key West John 39:24

Oh yeah, it's, great yeah.

Hayden Cochran 39:26

It's amazing. It's a whole community. It really is a community.

Key West John 39:30

Yeah, yeah, it's really good. And then, like you know, chattanooga is a great place to hang out. You come over to the town, like Hayden was just mentioning One. You've got that little lake there. You can come under a little bitty bridge if you're in your dinghy and you come in there and then you've hotels. We would always stay at Augusta Bay. It was a really good place.

Capn Tinsley 39:52

Wait, where are you talking about Over here in Georgetown, if you see where it says water.

Key West John 39:56

See where water is written. Yeah, Right in there. There are several hotels. I think I'm pretty sure it's right in there.

Capn Tinsley 40:03

Okay.

Key West John 40:04

And a cool little thing to do there. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called the fish fry. Now, it's a little area. You walk up the road and it's basically like a bunch of food trucks, but they're food shacks. Nice and it's called the fish fry, but I've never seen fried fish there. But everything else is good, Chef's loaves ribs are just to die for.

Hayden Cochran 40:29

Yeah, that's fun. Yeah yeah, Georgetown is fun there's. Just if it were not fun, there would not be 300 people there.

Capn Tinsley 40:39

Exactly, I have a message for you, Tinsley. Yes, james Morris says Hi. Tinsley, you might want to mention the recent increase in fees to enter the Bahamas. I heard they tripled. We were just talking about that. Yeah, I heard it was like $700 or $800 now.

Key West John 40:53

It went from $150 to $300 and now I think it's gone crazy.

Capn Tinsley 40:58

Thank you, james.

Hayden Cochran 41:00

Anything else you want to drop in there, we appreciate it In Georgetown what I do is I anchor over at Chattin Chill or now I would take a mooring ball, if that's what you have to do and we base over there, right at that X, right there at Chat and Chill, and then when the fronts come through because again every seven to ten days you're going to have the east trade winds, are going to go south, and then the south winds are going to go southwest and then they're going to go west and they're going to blow like crazy from the northwest.

Hayden Cochran 41:31

So what we do is we would up, anchor and move across to town where, if you scroll down a little bit, that ends. I would go over there. I would anchor here for the frontal passages and then I had an easy access to town to get off the boat and ride the dinghy in. And then when the front passes and it gets back to north and northeast winds, I go back over to Chattin Chill. So I would move back and forth across the harbor here where most people go to Georgetown and they anchor or moor and they never move for the whole season.

Key West John 42:01

Yeah, yeah, that's a good plan to do that way, because that exit I hate to talk about it is very protected there from west and northwest.

Hayden Cochran 42:08

It is. We would move over there for any frontal passage. It was great I, but very protected there from northwest it is.

Capn Tinsley 42:12

We would move over there for any frontal passage. It was great. I'm going to do a quick search and see how much those mooring balls are.

Hayden Cochran 42:17

I think they're. Yeah, I don't know what the chart I think.

Key West John 42:20

I don't know if Hayden might know, but somebody might know. I don't know if they're required or if they're just recommended, or Well, what I wish they would do here since they put in the mooring balls.

Hayden Cochran 42:40

I wish they would have a very successful pump out boat, which they don't. Oh yeah, they did have one and the guy would just take it out to sea and dump it, you know, because they don't have sewage system. That's going to be able to service all these boats With the mooring balls, I would think should come a decent pump-out service. That would help, that would make it worthwhile.

Capn Tinsley 42:59

Is that Stocking Island? Moorings in Stocking Island.

Hayden Cochran 43:02

That would be it. Chattanooga is Stocking Island.

Key West John 43:07

One thing, that 500 per month.

Capn Tinsley 43:09

Whoa 250 per month, whoa 250 per week 500 per month. If I'm looking at the right thing, we have many deep water. Okay, so this is a resort St Francis Resort Marina.

Hayden Cochran 43:23

That might be something separate, that's inside those little ponds up there, if you scroll up.

Key West John 43:28

Oh yeah.

Hayden Cochran 43:29

There's three ponds up right off the chat and chill One, two, three little ponds up there If you scroll up. There's three ponds up right off of Chattin' Chill One, two, three little ponds there.

Capn Tinsley 43:34

Right here.

Hayden Cochran 43:35

Yeah, one, two and three, they have mooring balls at them. In St Francis Yacht Club that you just called out, they rent those balls out inside there. Those are the premier locations to be at.

Capn Tinsley 43:47

What would I call it? The Georgetown City mooring balls? I'd say. So what would I call it? Like the Georgetown City Moring Balls?

Key West John 43:51

I'd say I'd go Chat and Chill Moring Balls.

Hayden Cochran 43:54

Okay, yeah.

Key West John 43:55

Try that. I need to ask that.

Capn Tinsley 43:58

GBT and not Google.

Key West John 44:01

But I'm asking Google, I'm asking the old news.

Key West John 44:06

You know we've mentioned I don't know if anybody listens you know we've mentioned so much about Chat and Chill, and Hayden and I are both very familiar with it. We've been there. People need to realize how great this place is. I mean, it is basically Chat and Chill. You have a beach, they have chairs for you, you have at the end they're making a conch salad, and then they've got their little bar I mean bar, a small wooden bar, and then they cook something every day. It's just a great, great place to chat and chill.

Hayden Cochran 44:34

It is. And then they got volleyball courts there. Oh yeah, yeah, there's all kinds of volleyball competition going on. They got a burger joint, cheeseburger joint and beer. They got a little gift shop and the beach wraps around. That point you got a beach on the inside of the cove, a beach on the outside. It's just just. Yeah, it's paradise, it's.

Key West John 44:53

it's a perfect boater's destination yeah, no, it is, it's just and uh, you know, because you know you refer to somebody, a lot of people they say, okay, you get to here and they call it chicken out, that you don't go farther, the reason a lot of people don't want to go farther. This is like hayden just said it's paradise, it's all you need. Why keep going?

Hayden Cochran 45:10

this has protected water, clear water, great facility, everything yeah, the beauty I like about it is whenever something breaks on your boat, which happens every third day there's somebody in the harbor that knows how to fix it or has the part, or has the part you need, and in the morning the vhf radio net chats up and there's a section for I need help, or can anybody have a solution on this problem?

Hayden Cochran 45:38

And all of a sudden there's people there in the Harbor that know exactly how to fix the problem you're having and they will come over and they will gladly help you and show you how to fix it. And that's one of the keys to all of Georgetown is the community aspect of the boating community helping everybody.

Key West John 45:57

Yeah, oh yeah. It is just a great community that's developed and I think we've talked about it before. You've got kids that they know They've grown up down there. They go to school, they go, they own school there. Oh yeah, the kids know each there. They go to school, they own school there the kids know each other.

Hayden Cochran 46:11

They got Church Beach and everything they got.

Key West John 46:13

Yoga Beach.

Hayden Cochran 46:17

It's a community At the end of the season. I always thought this was a little funny. But at the end of the season they have a prom. If you will, they do. They have a formal dinner and a formal dance and a prom, and they have it at the end of the season and that's the wrap-up of the season. And that series of events goes on for about three or four days and there's something going on. There's dinghy races, there's a round-the-island race, oh yeah yeah, it's called regatta, so the Georgetown regatta.

Key West John 46:49

Yeah, oh yeah. It gets busy during the Regatta time, right? Yeah, that's like in March or April, isn't it?

Hayden Cochran 46:57

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, there's your boring ball fee $32 a day, depending on the vote size. Weekly available. $500 a month. $250 a week.

Capn Tinsley 47:07

Wow.

Hayden Cochran 47:10

Wow, 10% Plus that yeah, of course.

Chat and Chill: The Cruiser Community

Capn Tinsley 47:11

Your value added tax yeah. Wow, I wouldn't mind paying $500 if it's. You know my boat's going to be secure, I don't have to worry about it, and especially if you need to fly home, which I won't because I have cats.

Key West John 47:25

But John might need to. Yeah, see, I can fly, you know.

Hayden Cochran 47:32

For free.

Key West John 47:32

I can fly for free, basically for free, out of Georgetown, nice. I've been on several flights to Miami.

Hayden Cochran 47:38

You fly for American.

Key West John 47:40

No, I flew for Southwest, but I have retirement benefits with everybody. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 47:48

Nice benefit.

Key West John 47:49

They're making good money off those things.

Hayden Cochran 47:51

That's well good for them.

Capn Tinsley 47:53

Yeah, it says it's managed yeah, and managed by Elizabeth Harbor Conservation Partnership. These helix-driven moorings Are by reservation only and are located Just off Chattanooga and Sand Dollar. You can make them through DACWA or EHCP site. There are no first come, first serve. Some social media chatter mistakenly quoted fees around $1,100 a month and others claim $1,500, but the correct amount $250 a week, $500 a month.

Key West John 48:25

Yeah, yeah, gosh. Did you find out if you're still able to anchor. I would assume they can't take that away.

Hayden Cochran 48:32

I wouldn't think I'm sure you can anchor. Yeah, I'm sure you can anchor.

Capn Tinsley 48:37

I'll ask my brother G Reserve early, especially in winter season. Reserve early December through April to secure a spot near Chattin Chill. Ask for GBE Gaviota Bay East Field if you want shorter dinghy rides and check drawing limits, of course, wow yeah.

Key West John 48:56

Okay, all right. What was the?

Capn Tinsley 48:58

question you asked. What was the question?

Hayden Cochran 49:00

Yeah About if you can anchor.

Key West John 49:03

They can't restrict that, yeah, I'm pretty sure, unless they're.

Hayden Cochran 49:05

Miami Beach.

Key West John 49:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can still anchor.

Capn Tinsley 49:14

Okay, james says, says tinsley, they're okay with firearms and the bombs, but you can get in trouble with firearms in other countries. Yeah, I know there's, there's they, I mean you. At the very least they might send that email at home. That would be the very least that could happen to you, yeah, so yeah, we're just gonna stay there because that's the only one that I know.

Key West John 49:37

Yeah all right, you might uh now that, now that you've gotten to georgetown, remember I've yeah, I'm in the tube uh pre, uh, uh podcast. I have a, and you told me to hold it as a surprise oh yeah, I don't know if hayden has been this way or not. We talked about a different way for her to get. There is going south of casell bank and south of andros.

Capn Tinsley 49:52

Now you've got about a 330 mile straight shot have you ever done?

Hayden Cochran 49:57

anything on that guy no, I've never come in from the bottom. Uh, around the bottom of the banks and across the banks? No, I've never done that. I like to anchor every night is what I like, yeah.

Key West John 50:10

Yeah, a lot of people go to Case Albank From here it's 70 or 80 miles and supposedly the fishing is great and all that. Yeah, if you have to, I mean this gets to be a really long run. It's down south more, yeah keep south.

Hayden Cochran 50:26

Yeah, there you go Below that. There you go Under, Andrews Go under.

Key West John 50:30

Andrews. Yeah, about the bottom line of the screen. If you went around, see the K-Sol Bank out there to the west. Yeah, k-sol Bank. They go south of the K-Sol Bank, south of Andros and right up there into Georgetown.

Hayden Cochran 50:46

How long would that take? Oh, no, no, no, no I would not do it.

Key West John 50:51

But that I mean that's, that is an option, that is I think I plotted it, and it's 330 nautical miles.

Hayden Cochran 50:58

Yeah, that's too much.

Capn Tinsley 51:02

Well, we're the same, we like shorter days.

Hayden Cochran 51:05

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley 51:05

We want shorter days.

Hayden Cochran 51:07

I want to anchor, have a nice evening, go for a swim, yeah.

Capn Tinsley 51:12

Yeah. Yeah, yeah so knowing that about us, how long do you think, knowing that John and I both like to have shorter days and chilling out, how long do you think it'll take us to get to Georgetown if we just mosey along?

Hayden Cochran 51:28

I've gone from Biscayne Bay to Georgetown in five days. That's the fastest I've done it, yeah, but normally you might take a month just to casually work your way down there, because you're going to want to spend two or three days at each of these stops along the way.

Key West John 51:40

Oh yeah, like he mentioned earlier, it's going to be a great one.

Hayden Cochran 51:42

You could spend a week in Staniel Key. You could spend a week in Black Point. You could spend a week in Wardrick Wells. Right, there's three weeks there Now, from Miami out to where that first red arrow stops, which is Highborne Key. That could be about a 36-hour straightaway run, but most people break that up in two or three days.

Key West John 52:04

Yeah, oh yeah, I would want to go three days.

Hayden Cochran 52:07

That's 200 miles from Miami to the first Exuma Key is 200 miles. So once you get there you're day hopping. So you know I would take a month to get to Georgetown. I really would.

Key West John 52:20

I think that's a good, good plan with really great advice. It's like a friend of mine was going to. He took off three years leave of absence to sail around the world and I was talking to him about it and he said well, I could make it in two years, but I want to see the world. You don't want to just fly and get there. So the Exumas are so beautiful, stop along the way and smell the roses.

Hayden Cochran 52:46

Exactly, yep, yeah, you can get there in five days. I did it with delivering a friend down there once that had an apartment rented and we left Miami and his apartment started five days later and we pushed and made it to Georgetown in five days Not fun.

Capn Tinsley 53:03

People always ask me how long it takes to get from Orange Beach to Key West. And I go the way I go. I'm not going right across the Gulf because if there's a major problem I probably wouldn't know how to fix it. So, and you know, there might be a major problem out there. And what did they does, mike and um Bill? It took them like four and a half days oh, yeah, that's uh uh.

Key West John 53:26

Timothy had a couple of her friends were down here and they were actually on the dock right next to me and they were. They went straight shot. I plotted him with my foreflank which is aviation thing, and those guys evidently had a really good auto pilot. They did not waver a bit, but it was what was it?

Capn Tinsley 53:41

three and a half days for them, I think, yeah and when they they almost made it when they started having problems with the engine. They were like with inside of land, I mean, but bill was able to fix it, whatever it was. Yeah, and, and I'm afraid that I would have to call seto or something that's always a fuel problem.

Hayden Cochran 54:01

Whenever you have a problem with your engine not running, it's it's going to be your fuel system. There's a there's a plug of debris in one of your fuel fittings and one of the things everybody should do while they're sitting at home at their home dock is tear apart every single fuel fitting from the fuel tank to the engine, take it apart, look through it, blow through it, put it all back together and get the engine running again at your home dock. This is the number one thing to learn before you go offshore Tear your fuel system down and put it back together.

Capn Tinsley 54:33

John, can you help me with that? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Key West John 54:38

And the bad thing about it if you get out there in the middle of the Gulf at night and away from shore, it always sounds like the engine's running rough. The gremlins move in there and you start hearing things. You start seeing smoke. It's tough. I like your path that you take to get down here, stay around the shore.

Capn Tinsley 55:03

It's going to take me.

Permits, Pets and Paperwork

Hayden Cochran 55:04

I like to stop and ride around on my little bike you should make this trip be two or three weeks to get yourself around to biscayne bay, two, three weeks hanging out in biscayne bay waiting for the perfect weather window, and then one month to make it to georgetown. And then spend two months in georgetown minimum. And then coming back is easy because it's all downwind. The return trip is really wonderful.

Capn Tinsley 55:32

Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, you get the idea it might be so I could cut some time off getting to Cuba.

Key West John 55:38

That's for John and I to meet in Marathon instead of oh yeah, that'll save you two days if you just go straight to Marathon. Right, yeah, exactly.

Capn Tinsley 55:46

Yeah, and then we can hang out there and look at all our systems and all that stuff.

Key West John 55:50

Yeah, exactly, and then for a follow-up episode coming up here pretty soon, and Hayden has got a lot of experience with this. If you get there late enough and it's starting to get close to summertime, you could leave Georgetown, head up to Eleuthera and then go into the Albuquerque.

Capn Tinsley 56:08

And then go back to Palm Beach through the, the river, across the state of florida yeah, the okachobee yeah, I was a little worried about that because I have 40 48 foot mast and I think they have some 50 foot it's 49.6.

Hayden Cochran 56:22

I've been under it twice.

Key West John 56:24

You can make yeah yeah, I can make it down 49.6 yeah, but that that would be devastating. I'm going to obligate Hayden for this right now, here. In a few months you need to come up with an episode of going from Georgetown via the Appalachian Coast to get back to Orange Beach.

Hayden Cochran 56:45

Every time we went to the Exumas we came back that route you just described, eleuthera, up to Spanish Wells, spanish Wells to Little Pete's Harbor, little Pete's Harbor to Hopetown, hopetown to Marsh Harbor, marsh Harbor back. Yeah that was our run home always. Yeah, it's great.

Key West John 57:03

There you have it. You know, you get your satellite network set up, got your business going over there. You can come home that state of summer and come home that way. I think Hayden has been to the Abacos in March or April. That's too cold for me. I like to wait until at least May because it can get very cold up there.

Hayden Cochran 57:26

I always left Florida in January or February that was Exumas, then I'd be in the Abacos for April, then May 1st I'd hit the Florida coast to come back up April's for. Abaco yeah.

Capn Tinsley 57:41

I've been to Bimini in December and it was cold Great.

Key West John 57:46

Get to Georgetown first, and then Hayden's got the trip for you coming back.

Capn Tinsley 57:50

You act like you're not going to be there, John.

Key West John 57:52

I'll be there, but I probably won't go to the Abaco. I won't go that way back because that takes me way out of my way.

Hayden Cochran 57:59

Yeah, it takes you so far north. You come back in at Fort Pierce minimum.

Key West John 58:03

Yeah, I might be crazy enough by then to take the south route around Andros.

Hayden Cochran 58:07

Oh geez.

Key West John 58:16

Well, knowing how much you don't like to sail for 36 hours, I don't know that that's way too long for me.

Capn Tinsley 58:20

It's uh. My longest ones will be from um dog island to tarpon springs. If scott was with me I would go destined to clear water. That's like almost two days, but if I'm by myself I'll just add a few extra days and then when I get to Captiva or Fort Myers, dropping down to Bimini will be about 18 hours.

Key West John 58:40

I mean not Bimini, I'm sorry Marathon. Either Marathon or Key West. Like I say, you do save a lot going straight to Marathon. That's only one day for me to get there in Marathon.

Hayden Cochran 58:50

And, like I say, you do save a lot going straight to marathon.

Key West John 58:52

That's only a one day for me to get there, yeah, in marathon, but that saves you two days to backtrack and come out this way and then out there.

Capn Tinsley 58:57

And I want to try, try, try, try to stay away to anchor as much as possible, Right. And I know that you do that, Hayden.

Hayden Cochran 59:06

Oh, it's easier, it's way easier.

Capn Tinsley 59:08

I get spoiled.

Hayden Cochran 59:10

No, easier, it's way easier. I get spoiled. It's a pain in the butt docking. It's way easier to just drop an anchor and dinghy in. So you know you want to have a good dinghy set up and easy to deploy it. Yeah, we anchor for six months at a time. We don't. We never dock.

Capn Tinsley 59:24

Well, so much money you save. I mean we don't pay for docks and there's getting about into that time. In South Florida it can be challenging to find a spot, especially with these prices. Someone commented two weeks ago when Stan from QS was talking about and there's probably going to be a lot of people in that mooring field in QS that are going to avoid the Bahamas because of the cost.

Hayden Cochran 59:53

Yeah, I would think it would reduce the number of boats.

Key West John 59:55

The last time we had a big surge here was during COVID, and the Bahamas had such tremendous restrictions that we had, you know, a dozen or so big old yachts. I'm talking about 150, 180-foot yachts. They were just anchored out here.

Capn Tinsley 1:00:09

We had them here in the intercoastal here.

Hayden Cochran 1:00:12

Yeah, you know what it costs to check into the French islands in St Martin and Martinique down in the Caribbean.

Key West John 1:00:19

What? How much did it cost?

Hayden Cochran 1:00:20

About $2. Some of three, maybe $2.

Capn Tinsley 1:00:25

Really yeah.

Hayden Cochran 1:00:26

Yeah.

Key West John 1:00:27

I'm headed that way.

Hayden Cochran 1:00:28

St.

Key West John 1:00:29

Martin, if I go south of Andros and K-Sal Bank, I'm headed that way.

Hayden Cochran 1:00:34

You've got to come down to St Martin. It's fabulous.

Capn Tinsley 1:00:37

I don't see that happening for John. I don't know.

Key West John 1:00:41

I talked when Mark got his boat here after he had lost his boat in Irma and then his friend that he worked with years ago down in the down in the bvis gave him that uh, 42 foot benito david well, yeah, he had.

Key West John 1:00:55

He had, uh, worked for him for 10 or so years, felt sorry, you know, and the insurance paid him 90 000 for the boat. He knew mark had lost his vote. Anyway, he gave. He just gave the boat to mark and uh, and so mark, but mark had to bring it here, no mass. So he's, he's got a sailboat right, because that's what happened to all those boats down there. He's ripped all the upper rigging off and so I was talking to him along the way. You know that he did that route. You know, right along the….

Capn Tinsley 1:01:20

Motoring.

Hayden Cochran 1:01:22

The DR the DR and all that. Good for him. Well, it's downstream. That's the way the current runs.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:35

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, this is somebody from here.

Key West John 1:01:37

Look at that josh.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:37

Oh, yeah, josh, okay, oh, I know josh. Yeah, yeah, josh, you met him when you were here at my marina. Hey, josh, oh, that'd be awesome.

Hayden Cochran 1:01:44

Yeah, so, um there you go, you got a buddy boat already I know he, he knows how to fix stuff, by the way.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:50

Well, that's even better.

Hayden Cochran 1:01:54

Don't lean on him too much or he'll leave you.

Capn Tinsley 1:01:56

That's what I'm saying he might not want to travel with me. I'll just get that credit card out, if I have to why are you sailing so fast?

Key West John 1:02:04

today I can't see you. That's good, That'd be good. Now you got paired up, you can have a motorcade coming down, I'll be honest with you.

Capn Tinsley 1:02:17

I'd like to add a little personal thing here. With me being all sad and everything, I was worried about me just taking off and being sad, but the fact that Georgetown is such a community.

Hayden Cochran 1:02:28

It is.

Capn Tinsley 1:02:29

It sounds like it would not be sad.

Key West John 1:02:32

You'll fit in down there. You'll get something going down there in a hurry.

Hayden Cochran 1:02:36

I predict you're going to go back every year for many years because it's really paradise. It's a great destination. It's not easy to get there. It does take some effort and challenge. Abaco's are a piece of cake. Difficulty level in the Abaco is a piece of cake. I mean difficulty level in the Abaco is about a two. Georgetown I'd say about a four or five. Yeah, just because it's a longer run.

Key West John 1:02:59

Yeah, yeah, okay A lot of good advice and a great phrase I learned today. Short scope.

Hayden Cochran 1:03:05

A lot of fun. Short scope, short scope. Thanks for the insight I love short scoping.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:09

thanks for the input alright you signing off, hayden?

Hayden Cochran 1:03:15

alright. Well, I'm going to say and that is it, tinsley out.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:20

Saltie Abandoned out. Saltie Abandoned out see you later. Hayden thanks a lot we'll be back in touch, yeah.

Key West John 1:03:34

It's afternoon now, so I have to stop drinking, so I guess I better go.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:39

It's afternoon, so you have to stop drinking.

Key West John 1:03:41

That's only drink in the morning here.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:43

So we'll do another one and talk about other things. I have a lot to accomplish. Like, um, I got to get the Garmin going back. Oh yeah, you got to get. You got things.

Key West John 1:03:51

I have a lot to accomplish like, uh, I gotta get the garmin going back, oh yeah, you gotta get. You gotta get your boat ready.

Capn Tinsley 1:03:53

Now you gotta get going on the boat so, basically, maybe josh did offer to help me with things, maybe he could help. So I put in a new garmin autopilot and when they did it unnamed company did it they cleared out my depth and wind speed from my chart platter, which is also a Garmin, and John and I tried to fix it. We upgraded the software, we put new charts on there, did everything Rebooted, followed all the instructions and we still, I can see the depth on one of those sides.

Key West John 1:04:26

The Raymarine has depth. The Raymarine instrument has depth.

Capn Tinsley 1:04:29

Yeah, and I used to have when I bought the boat. It had a Raymarine instrument has depth. Yeah, and I used to have when I bought the boat. It had a Raymarine chart platter. But now I have the NEMA 2000. You know, after I bought it I got all that put in. So I have that challenge the teak's being worked on, which is not a major deal. You know, we both probably have a list of things we have to accomplish and then I'll do my shakedown and work out all the problems by the time I see you.

Key West John 1:04:58

All right, yeah, don't bring me problems.

Capn Tinsley 1:05:02

All right, well, I guess that's it for today. Thank you for doing this. We'll have to do another one and talk about provisioning Dinghies, All that stuff.

Key West John 1:05:13

There you go. Alright, good deal, I enjoyed it.

Capn Tinsley 1:05:16

Thank you, key West John, and with that Salty Abandon, music, music, music Music.