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Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:48 am
by RickI
Repost from Kent Marinkovic of Adventure Sports Miami:

"While I'm normally a Bimini guy (and still am), I like to get off the beaten path from time to time. I've been to many, many of the out islands of the Bahamas including the Abacos, Eleuthera, Bimini, Cat Island, Mores, and many more. I'd guess that I spend my time pretty evenly split between fishing, kiting, spearing, and exploring. Having traveled the Bahamas often, I find myself becoming more enamored with the Berry Islands, most notably Great Harbour Cay every time I go. I believe that it is truly the closest, "real" out island to my home port of Miami. What it misses in waves, it makes up for in feel and its proximity to Miami.

The photos below are compiled from 2 separate trips to GHC. During a summer spear and tuna trip aboard Sleepwalker, we made our way south toward Hoffman's and Ambergris Cays. At that point, I knew that I would have to visit this area during the windy season and down wind from GHC to Ambergris on my kite. As luck would have it, plans came together over New Years and my friends and I were able to make the hop over on a cool little Cherokee Six. Although the tide was much lower than I would have liked and the wind was a touch too much to the left, the ride was amazing!

I hope that you enjoy the pics. If you are ever looking for something new, take a bet on GHC. You won't be disappointed! Enjoy!!!

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A kite mounted Go Pro shot of the small dotted islands and clear blue channels just south of Ambergris Cay


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The famous Blue hole at Hoffman's Cay. It's about a 20 ft. dive from the top into the hole. Summer relaxing at its finest!


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We had poor visibility during our first trip due to a previous storm, but we still managed to pick up a few nice fish and bugs


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The South exit from Hoffman's going East to the deep water was amazing. We could have spend our entire time in this area


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We had a killer pad in the Marina. Very unique and quite comfortable


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Had the tide been higher and the winds more from the East, riding in the middle flats would have been a treat... it wasn't bad in any case!


CONTINUED with more photos and story

HERE


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Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:58 am
by tautologies
that is so nice!!! makes it to my list of places to go for sure. :-)
:thumb:

Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:32 pm
by RickI
It is nice and an easy flight from Florida. So, I would keep it in mind when you hit SE Florida Alex.

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It is fairly close by


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The launch is 800 ft. from where you park your plane


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Lots of shallow, white sand bottom areas to rip through in the area


More images and info about Great Harbour Cay from five years ago:


HERE




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Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:52 pm
by sotheysay
tautologies wrote:that is so nice!!! makes it to my list of places to go for sure. :-)
:thumb:
Wow!

The kiting looks unreal. What's the temperature there around this time?

Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:01 pm
by RickI
When Kent last went over around New Years a powerful cold front moved through. I was in NE Florida and the air temperature dropped to about 40 F. I see in Nassau just south of the Berry Islands, it averaged about 71 F on the coldest day. All that shallow warm water over the Bahamas keeps things more toasty with sudden temperature drops than larger land masses. It was wetsuit weather anyway, but far from drysuit conditions. We are having a warm winter so most days the air in the high 70's in that part of the Bahamas.

Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 1:34 am
by Caesar
Very nice. How is the wind there? It doesn't look like it is blowing?
If there is at least 22 knots (constantly), I would pack my gear and get ready for my next adventure.

Cheers
Caesar 8)

Re: Photos - Island Adventures in the Bahamas

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2013 9:59 am
by RickI
Sorry Caesar, can't think of many places in this part of the world with constant wind. The winds there turn on and off with passing weather systems not unlike in Florida fairly close by to the west. Some of Kent's shots were taken in summer when winds can be particularly light. Good for diving at those times however. GHC doesn't get trade winds which some of the Bahamian islands do further to the SE. Even trade winds by the islands aren't constant however. Given the potentially higher pressure gradient at times across the Bahamian Plateau you may be a few more knots in systems there when compared to Florida at times. Given the shallow water you can have some pretty good wind that doesn't seem to show up in the photos. There is a wind station at the second link I posted above that you can monitor to get a feel for things there over time. It isn't a regularly strong wind location though.