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.
Planned by the Ahoy Club charter team and reshaped for every yacht and every group we send here.
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.
Compass Cay and Pipe Creek, central Exumas · 7 nm · 45 min · Sharks at the dock, a picnic in the creek
Forty-five minutes north into Pipe Creek. Swim with the nurse sharks at the Compass Cay marina, walk to Crescent Beach on the Atlantic side, then the beach picnic in your own bay at Pipe Cay and the float-off for the afternoon. Sunset drinks in the creek, the photograph of the weekend.
Nassau, New Providence · 55 nm · 5.5 h, or a 40-minute flight · Disembark, or fly from Staniel
Breakfast under way and back across the bank for an afternoon flight from Nassau. Or the yacht stays in the cays and you fly out of Staniel Cay's strip to Nassau in forty minutes, which gives you the morning in the water.
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 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 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.
Ellie'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
NOW OR NEVER
Westport · 34m · 2010, refit 2020
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
$65k – 75k
LEXINGTON
Horizon · 26m · 2006, refit 2024
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$40k – 46k
LADY J
Palmer Johnson · 43m · 1997, refit 2021
12 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
$109k – 119k
MEMENTO VIVERE
Westport · 40m · 2005, refit 2021
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
$120k – 150k
RISK & REWARD
Crescent Yachts · 37m · 2004, refit 2022
9 guests | 4 cabins | 6 crew
$75k – 85k
CARPE DIEM
Azimut · 31m · 2023
10 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
$99k – 115k
INDY
Hatteras · 26m · 2005, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$45k – 50k
BG
Feadship · 47m · 1990, refit 2022
12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew
$140k – 170k
PRIVILEGE
Custom Line · 34m · 2010, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
Price on request
LADY GRACE
Westport · 28m · 1996, refit 2025
6 guests | 3 cabins | 4 crew
$35k – 40k
NEVER ENOUGH
Feadship · 43m · 1992, refit 2019
10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew
$110k – 127k
M3
Intermarine Savannah · 45m · 2002, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
$145k – 167k
BUNDALONG
Sunreef Yachts · 24m · 2019
10 guests | 5 cabins
$82k
RELENTLESS
Trinity Yachts · 44m · 2001, refit 2019
10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
$150k – 173k
SeaQuest
Christensen · 38m · 1999, refit 2025
10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew
$85k – 98k
OCEAN VIEW
Gulf Craft · 32m · 2022
12 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
€110k
Alegria
Azimut · 32m · 2024
8 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
€100k – 110k
CHANSON
Christensen · 37m · 1995, refit 2020
9 guests | 4 cabins | 6 crew
$75k – 85k
A PLACE IN THE SUN
Broward Marine · 30m · 1992, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 4 crew
Price on request
COPAY
Lazzara · 24m · 2003, refit 2020
6 guests | 3 cabins | 3 crew
$36k – 41k
SWEET CAROLINE II
Trinity Yachts · 50m · 2009, refit 2021
12 guests | 7 cabins | 11 crew
$19k – 230k
MARY KATHLENE
Westport · 42m · 1989, refit 2023
8 guests | 4 cabins | 7 crew
$85k – 95k
KING OF FUN
Northern Marine · 40m · 2005, refit 2022
10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew
$120k – 138k
Akasha
Lagoon · 19m · 2018
8 guests | 2 crew
$45k
NOMADA
Mochi Craft · 24m · 2010, refit 2025
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$50k – 55k
SAINT
Sirena Yachts · 27m · 2021
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$85k – 98k
PIER PRESSURE
Azimut · 27m · 2020, refit 2024
10 guests | 5 cabins | 4 crew
$70k – 80k
BEYOND BEYOND
Riva · 29m · 2019
6 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$95k – 105k
TOP FIVE II
Royal Hakvoort · 61m · 2021
12 guests | 7 cabins | 19 crew
$600k – 650k
Giuli
Sunseeker · 23m · 2000
6 guests | 3 cabins | 3 crew
$34k – 44k
TRUE NORTH
Broward Marine · 36m · 2000, refit 2019
8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
$60k – 69k
HAPPY HOUR
Horizon · 34m · 2018
11 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
$95k – 105k
Andiamo
Symbol Yachts · 28m · 2010, refit 2023
6 guests | 3 cabins | 3 crew
$35k
SOVEREIGN
Burger · 30m · 1966, refit 2020
8 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew
$48k – 50k
LADY ELAINE
Christensen · 50m · 2008, refit 2024
12 guests | 6 cabins | 9 crew
$200k – 225k
SLEEPOVER
Westport · 34m · 2008, refit 2021
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$65k – 75k
Afforded Leisure
Lazzara · 24m · 2001, refit 2025
6 guests | 3 cabins | 3 crew
$31k – 34k
Princess Mila
Fountaine Pajot · 20m · 2022
6 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew
$43k – 49k
PILOT LOUNGE
Horizon · 28m · 2015, refit 2024
8 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew
$48k – 52k
CROSSED SABRE
Burger · 44m · 2006, refit 2021
12 guests | 7 cabins | 11 crew
$175k – 195k
CAMILLE
Broward Marine · 38m · 2007, refit 2019
10 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew
$85k – 98k
MIDORI
Sunreef Yachts · 21m · 2016, refit 2026
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$44k – 48k
SPECTRE
Princess · 29m · 2009, refit 2025
8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew
$50k – 65k
MURPHY'S LAW
Delta Marine · 38m · 1998, refit 2015
10 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew
$7k – 81k
PLAYTIME
Lagoon · 20m · 2018, refit 2021
6 guests | 3 cabins | 3 crew
$43k – 49k
TCB
Trinity Yachts · 50m · 2008, refit 2022
11 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew
$175k – 200k
47 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.
