The long weekend · 3 nights · Nassau to Nassau, or Staniel Cay
Fly into Nassau on Friday, three nights around Staniel Cay for the pigs, the grotto, the sharks and a picnic in Pipe Creek, home on Monday. Or fly to the boat and skip the run.
Norman's Cay, northern Exumas · 45 nm · 4.5 h · Land, board, and out across the bank
Land in Nassau, board at Albany twenty minutes later, and go. Four and a half hours across the Yellow Bank with lunch under way, and the first swim off Norman's Cay before the sun goes down over the banks. The cartel's DC-3 lies in the shallows for a sunset snorkel if there is light left.
Staniel Cay, central Exumas · 25 nm · 2.5 h · The pigs, the grotto, the sharks
A morning run down to Staniel, with a stop at the sandbar if the tide is low. Feeding and swimming with the pigs at Big Major, by tender or jet ski; Thunderball Grotto at slack low tide; Staniel Cay Yacht Club for drinks and pool, and the nurse sharks arriving under the dock at sunset. Dinner on board under the stars.
The idea of the week
For the group with a long weekend and one thing on the list. Fly into Nassau on Friday, board and go straight out to the cays, and spend Saturday and Sunday around Staniel Cay: the swimming pigs, Thunderball Grotto, the yacht club and the sharks under the dock, the nurse sharks at Compass Cay and a picnic in Pipe Creek. Back to Nassau on Monday, or fly out of Staniel's own strip and skip the run.
For zero cruising, the boat waits in the cays and a forty-minute flight from Nassau puts you a tender ride from her. Superyacht charters start on any day of the week, so the route stands on its own. Legs are approximate, at a steady ten knots, and the captain adjusts them for the weather and the tide on the day. The banks are shallow, so the yacht moves in daylight and takes her time.
What the week costs
The yacht's published weekly rate, plus an Advance Provisioning Allowance, customarily 30 to 40 percent, for fuel, food, drink and berths, plus local VAT where it applies. Every listing shows its rate.
How charter pricing worksAlso on this coast
Everything we know about Bahamas: when to go, where the fleet is and the other weeks we have planned.
Open BahamasWoven into the week
The parts of the week that need a phone call before you arrive: tables, guides, instructors and the toys on deck.
The beach picnic, on a sandbar or in your own bayThe crew land a table, chairs, umbrellas and a kitchen and cook lunch there, with the yacht in view. Ellie's favourite is the little bay at Pipe Cay, but the Exumas have more picnic beaches than we could list, and a sandbar that only exists at low tide is the Bahamas version.
The float-off dayEllie's ritual. Every toy that floats goes in the water: the pool detached from the boat, the mats, the loungers. The esky goes in with them, and everyone drifts off together for the afternoon with drinks and snacks and nothing to do. Any yacht with floating mats can do it; the ones with a sea pool do it best.
Jet skis for the creeks and the sandbars, seabobs, paddleboards, wakeboards, the slide if the yacht has one. In the Exumas the water is the whole point, and the crew have the toys in by the time breakfast is cleared.
A seaplane or a propeller flight from Nassau to Staniel Cay takes forty minutes and lands you a tender ride from the yacht. For a short trip it buys you a day; for a longer one it means the boat is already in the cays when you arrive.
If the flights give you a night in the capital, we know how to spend it. Lunch at the Fish Fry on Arawak Cay, at Oh Andros, for the conch salad: go hungry, the plates are enormous, and bar-hop down the strip afterwards. The long slide at Atlantis for anyone who wants it, and Nobu there if the group wants Japanese. Then dinner at Graycliff, with its private room in a cellar of a quarter of a million bottles and the piano bar after. Wine lovers, this is your night. Over Christmas and New Year the night to be in Nassau is Junkanoo, the costumed street parade on Boxing Day and New Year's Day from two in the morning.
For keen fishers. We arrange a professional fishing tender with its own fishermen to run alongside the yacht for a half or full day: wahoo, mahi-mahi and tuna off the drop-off into Exuma Sound, bonefish on the flats, marlin off Bimini and Chub Cay in season. Ellie's family do it on every Bahamas trip.
Yachts
Live from our charter list, in a different order every visit so you see the range. Every rate is the real weekly figure from the listing.
CORAL OCEAN
Lürssen · 73m · 1994, refit 2026
12 guests | 6 cabins | 28 crew
€650k – 790k
INDIGO
Viking Yachts · 28m · 2019, refit 2024
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$58k – 75k
NAILED IT
Viking Yachts · 25m · 2017, refit 2026
8 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew
US$55k
TEMPTATION
Palmer Johnson · 37m · 2007, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
US$80k – 95k
VIRTUE
Benetti · 37m · 2008, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew
US$91k – 105k
YOLO
Westport · 40m · 2005, refit 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$120k – 138k
ADIOS
Sanlorenzo · 29m · 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew
US$90k – 105k
LEVERAGE
Palmer Johnson · 38m · 2003, refit 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$120k – 130k
ALLORA
Benetti · 37m · 2011, refit 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
Price on request
BEACHOUSE
Mangusta (Overmarine) · 40m · 2009, refit 2024
10 guests | 4 cabins | 6 crew
€110k – 130k
FAVOR
Crescent Yachts · 39m · 2000, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew
US$95k – 110k
A SALT WEAPON
Ocean Alexander · 35m · 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew
US$120k – 130k
50 SHADES OF PLAY
AB Yachts · 34m · 2025
10 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew
US$105k – 119k
UNWINED
Westport · 34m · 2005, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$69k – 75k
SEA CLASS
Christensen · 47m · 1997, refit 2024
12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew
US$190k – 230k
INVICTUS
Delta Marine · 66m · 2013, refit 2020
12 guests | 9 cabins | 19 crew
€650k – 695k
DIRT POOR
Trinity Yachts · 49m · 2007, refit 2026
12 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
US$195k – 225k
OCULUS
Numarine · 37m · 2024
12 guests | 6 cabins | 7 crew
US$180k – 210k
NORMA JEAN
Palmer Johnson · 46m · 2009, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew
US$160k – 180k
NEXT CHAPTER
Benetti · 55m · 2003, refit 2025
12 guests | 6 cabins | 14 crew
US$300k – 350k
KOJU
Benetti · 37m · 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew
US$160k – 175k
ENTERPRISE
Baglietto · 38m · 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
€179k – 224k
VIVIERAE II
Nordhavn Yachts · 30m · 2017, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
US$64k – 72k
WHITE STAR
Mangusta (Overmarine) · 39m · 2026
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$195k – 225k
INSIEME
Azimut · 32m · 2012, refit 2023
8 guests | 5 cabins | 4 crew
US$63k – 69k
REMEMBER WHEN
Christensen · 49m · 2011, refit 2024
12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew
US$230k – 260k
AWAY
Sanlorenzo · 37m · 2009, refit 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$120k – 145k
EROS
Custom Line · 37m · 2019, refit 2026
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$140k – 160k
TOTAL
Mangusta (Overmarine) · 33m · 2006, refit 2020
9 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$60k – 65k
SQUALO
Sanlorenzo · 27m · 2018, refit 2022
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$58k – 63k
GAIL FORCE II
Hatteras · 24m · 2011, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$35k – 40k
RENAISSANCE
Hargrave · 35m · 2016, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
US$95k – 120k
NEW LIFE
Lazzara · 28m · 2009, refit 2025
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$57k
SECOND LOVE
Westport · 50m · 2010, refit 2025
12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew
US$230k – 265k
STEALTH
Palmer Johnson · 46m · 2010, refit 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
US$165k – 180k
CynderElla
Hargrave · 35m · 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
US$125k – 145k
SCINTILLA MARIS
Damen Yachting · 46m · 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew
Price on request
MUCHOS MAS
Crescent Yachts · 44m · 2016, refit 2025
11 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
US$198k – 238k
ROAMER
Sunseeker · 28m · 2024
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
US$95k – 115k
WABASH
Benetti · 40m · 2018, refit 2025
11 guests | 6 cabins | 7 crew
US$170k – 190k
ESCAPE
Hatteras · 35m · 1995, refit 2023
9 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
US$55k – 65k
LEGACY
Westport · 34m · 2003, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
Price on request
MAVERICK
Mangusta (Overmarine) · 50m · 2022
12 guests | 6 cabins | 11 crew
US$295k – 320k
SYCARA V
Nobiskrug · 68m · 2010, refit 2024
12 guests | 7 cabins | 16 crew
US$650k
HANNAH
Westport · 34m · 2003, refit 2020
9 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
US$65k – 75k
NO BAD IDEAS
Trinity Yachts · 49m · 2000, refit 2024
12 guests | 6 cabins | 9 crew
US$225k – 250k
KEMOSABE
Westport · 34m · 2007, refit 2022
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
US$70k – 80k
ARTHURS WAY
Benetti · 44m · 2007, refit 2025
12 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
US$150k – 165k
48 yachts in rotation. The order changes with every visit so no boat is always last.
The other weeks we have planned on this coast, and when to go.
