The chart

the chart
Originally uploaded by darenpackham

My Blog was supposed to be about the places that I go and people I go with and what we see and do when we are on the way and when we get there . Finally this entry should tick all the boxes.
The Captain wanted to show the owner the Bahamas because it is beautiful and he thought that they will love the adventure of these stunning islands. The thing is....Is an 80 meter boat a good tool for exploring the Bahamas? You could argue that cruise ships visit the Bahamas every day of the week but where we were going was not Nassau. We were heading for the Exumas, a chain of uninhabited islands south or Providence island, these little jewels are uninhabited because they are pretty much untenable and you have to be quite brave to cross the reefs especially if your boat has an underwater draft of 4.5 meters (17 feet)
The first step of the journey took us to Nassau where we mingled with the cruise ships of the world for just long enough for the guys to scuba dive on the boat to measure the accuracy of our depth sounders and to have a run ashore of course.

This is mad! I announced slightly worried! I printed labels for the sounders. GROUND = SOUNDER -10cms for the aft sounder and for the forward one GROUND = Sounder + 40 cms. If we are to operate within these sorts of perameters, then we are just too close for comfort...!
We scoured the chart for a spot where we could cross the bank. We found the only place that was going to be just doable, displaying a charted depth of 4.6 meters. It was clear that we would need a high tide, good weather and some luck as the depth of the boat is 4.5meters!