Breezing up in "Briland".

C

Capt. Bill1

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Jan 1, 2000
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2017
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6,127
Blew up pretty good in Harbour Island the Bahamas the other day. We were at Valentine's marina. When the wind comes out of the west it can get pretty sporty in the marinas there.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/captbill11/boating%20vids/8E6B9ED5-7B4A-4841-995A-D191E9AB900E_zps6yummnub.mp4]
th_8E6B9ED5-7B4A-4841-995A-D191E9AB900E_zps6yummnub.jpg
 
We've stayed at Ramora Bay and staying there in a Westerly would remind us of being tide up at Lincoln Harbor in New Jersey the only difference being the lack of slam bang on the steel pilings.

It's been breezy on Elbow Cay this year as well. Chris P. is calling for a significant event next week, but the GFS has already backed off. At one point the GFS had us with gusts well over 53mph which for me, means we will see 60+.
 
OH heck why not revive an old thread... :). HI can't be as sporty in westerlies as Staniel :). Speaking of HI we finally made it there after all these years back in April and I can't say that I was impressed. The town is cute, I read somewhere it was a colorful Nantucket and its a pretty good analogy. That said the world famous like sand beach didn't impress me much. Too many people, too many houses...

I think HI is great place to fly in and rent a house or a nice hotel room but I don't see the point of going by boat. Even our charter guests, who were in their 80s, got bored after two days and were thrilled to head to the exumas...

Back to sporty conditions, how about the Exumas Three King Day Derecho? It was probably the worst storm I weathered on a boat in the 30 years I ve been boating. 4 hours of hurricane force winds funneling between the majors...
 
The thing that drives me nuts about Valentines are the taxi boats that go back and forth and wake the crap at of the marina, especially in a 50 ft boat. We find Romora Bay to be much more laid back and less wake. Also the beach just behind Romoras I think is the nicest on Harbor Island, really clear water and "pink" sand. But I have to say the nicest softest sand is here at Treasure Cay.
 
Hope Town Harbour on Elbow Cay has gotten quite busy as well. If you are stern to the Harbour or on a mooring you will know when the ferries go by. Then there is the freight boat and it's crane running all day.
 
No I'm sure the weather you saw in the Exumas was far worse.

As to whether HI is worth going to, all I can say is my owners and guests have always enjoyed and appreciated it for what it is. As they do the Exumas. It's not a get away from it all place like the Exumas. But then that would be an obvious apples to oranges comparison.

Personally I've always had a good time there. Of course I know people there and have friends on Spanishwells and Eleuthera that I can visit with so that helps.

But it's hard to beat the view from the Blue Bar at Pink Sands for drinks or lunch. Of course there's Gusty's on a good night, wall to wall models. :-) Also the beautiful beaches on both sides of the island, the ones at the near by islands and the one over at Bottom Harbour where you can see lots of baby sea turtles swimming on the grass flats.

Then throw in the diving and fishing out front. Plus the bone fish on the flats near Girls Bank that you can walk to, (at least from Valentine's) with your fly rod or spinning gear, while stopping for a beer and some conch salad at one of the snack stalls on the bay side of the street on the way back from the flats and you've got a pretty good place to hang for a few days or more.

But to each their own. :-)
 
I wish I could easily share photos here of our experience. I have the view at the BB in '11. Thoroughly enjoyed lunch there. I happened upon a photo of the "navaid" going into the harbour after rounding the 'bone. You know the rusty old pole?
Thanks for taking me back into the photo library.
 
It s a nice settlement. I read or someone told me that it was Nantucket with colors instead of all grey. It's kind of true.

But yeah it s all about personal preferences and I can see how some people like HI. We tend to get bored sitting a Marina and honestly I don't think that when asked any of our guests has ever said they prefered docked vs anchored. Usually the answer is "one of two night is nice but we loved being anchored out"

Just like some folks enjoy spending time at Atlantis :)
 
But only once. We only stop their for fuel now.
 
Stop where for fuel ? Atlantis?? No way. You get to wait way too long when just across, harbor central (next to Bay Street marina ) has a dock that s new, three time longer, a professional crew all at the same price as hurricane hole Atlantis!
 
Of course not. I meant Nassau in general. We did Atlantis once and have no need of ever going back there. Having driven around the whole island and visited a number of places we just cannot stop there except for fuel on the way back to Bimini via Chub.

We had a pleasant stop at Palm Cay (I think that is the place) on the South East side of the island. It's not for too many of the big guns but we enjoyed the place and they opened the restaurant early for us.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbyWHnXnPwE
 
quote:
Originally posted by PascalG

Stop where for fuel ? Atlantis?? No way. You get to wait way too long when just across, harbor central (next to Bay Street marina ) has a dock that s new, three time longer, a professional crew all at the same price as hurricane hole Atlantis!

Click to expand...


It's usually cheaper by several cents. Although they do charge a sir charge that varies in percentage based on which type of cc you use that I don't think the fuel dock at Hurricane Hole does.

Nor do I recall waiting there for any reason other than if there is another boat fuel there. Which is really no different than at
any fuel dock.
 
quote:
Originally posted by pdecat

Bill: If you edit out the parts of photobucket link the pix ...hat you meant. Cause it looks the same to me.
Click to expand...
 
It is a video not a photo that's why it doesn't look right?

ANYWAY, the lines on the Whaler look a bit light for the conditions. Remind me to dock inside your ride. It looks like you break it up well enough ;)
 
Yeah but the dock at HH is very small and only one boat at w time can be refueled, or sometimes they squeeze you on the side. It s mostly big boats refueling there so it takes a while.

The dock at HC is three times longer
 
True it is a big dock.

And yes, I guess because the link is to a video that must be why the picture is so small. Didn't think of that. :-)
 
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