Sailing the Exumas: A Week of Luxury & Unforgettable Anchorages

The Exumas chain runs 120 miles southeast from Nassau, a string of small cays sitting in water so shallow you can see the seabed in most anchorages. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, established in 1959, protects 176 square miles of this chain from Wax Cay Cut to Conch Cut — no fishing, no development, just mangroves, coral reefs, and beaches that see a handful of visitors a week.

A week-long charter through the Exumas covers roughly 162 nautical miles round trip from Nassau, with each day bringing a different kind of anchorage: mangrove creeks you explore by paddleboard, sandbars that appear and disappear with the tide, and a handful of famous stops — swimming pigs, nurse sharks, an underwater cave from a James Bond film — that have made the chain the most photographed corner of the Bahamas.

This itinerary is built for a catamaran or motor yacht with a draft of 4.5 metres or less. Deeper boats can still run the route, but the captain will spend more time routing around shallow banks than exploring them. For families, the week works especially well: no long passages, no certification required, and a new island to explore every morning.

The table above sketches the basic route. What follows is the finer grain — where to drop the hook, what really happens at each stop, and how to make the most of every anchorage without fighting the crowds.

Day 1: Nassau to Highbourne Cay — the crossing that sets the tone

You board around noon at a Nassau marina — Albany, Atlantis, or Yacht Haven — and clear customs before the 17:00 cutoff. The 35-nautical-mile run southeast crosses Yellow Bank, where coral heads sit in three metres of clear water and the crew reads the bottom by colour. It takes about five hours, and the afternoon light turns the bank a shade of turquoise that stays with you.

Highbourne Cay is the gateway to the Exumas: a private cay with a small marina, a beach on each side, and Xuma restaurant set above the sand. Dinner ashore here or on board — either works. The anchorage holds well in 4–8 metres of sand, and the wind usually settles after sunset.

Day 2: Highbourne to Norman’s Cay — iguanas, a wreck, and sandbars

A short detour north to Allan’s Cay before heading south gives you your first wildlife encounter: the endangered Exuma rock iguanas come down to the beach when they see a tender approach. They’re not shy, but the park asks visitors not to feed them.

Then six miles south to Norman’s Cay. The cay has an unlikely backstory — it was the base of Carlos Lehder’s cocaine-smuggling operation in the late 1970s, and a submerged C-46 cargo plane that missed the runway now sits in three metres of water as a snorkel site. The sandbars off the western hook come and go with the tide; you land on them for lunch and stay until the afternoon light softens.

Lunch is at MacDuff’s beach club, the only restaurant on the island. The anchorage for the night is off the west side near the old airstrip.

Day 3: Norman’s to Shroud Cay — the mangrove run

What makes Shroud Cay different from every other stop on this route?

The island is almost entirely mangrove. A network of tidal creeks cuts across it, and on the right tide you can take a tender — or a paddleboard — up Sanctuary Creek all the way to an empty ocean-side beach on the far side. Camp Driftwood, a small climb above that beach, gives you a view of the entire northern park boundary.

There are no bars, no docks, no restaurants. Dinner is on board, and the only sound after sunset is the tide moving through the mangroves.

Day 4: Shroud to Warderick Wells — the heart of the park

Twelve miles south, and you’re at the headquarters of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The mooring field curls along a sandbar, and the park office on Warderick Wells collects the daily fee — around $5 per person, paid to the rangers. Mooring runs about $50 per night.

A 16-metre sperm whale skeleton lies on the beach, a sobering display: the whale died from ingesting plastic, and the park makes sure every visitor knows it. Hike up Boo Boo Hill in the late afternoon — a 30-minute walk to a ridge where crews leave driftwood boards carved with their yacht’s name. The view over the bonefish flats and the surrounding cays is worth the climb.

Day 5: Warderick to Staniel Cay and Big Major — the postcard day

This is the day everyone remembers, and the one that needs the most planning. Sixteen miles south out of the park brings you to Thunderball Grotto, a domed underwater cave used in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball. Light shafts through the roof, and the interior swirls with sergeant majors. The trick is arriving at slack tide — at full ebb or flood the current makes the cave unsafe and the snorkelling poor. Slack at 06:00 or 18:00 gives you the cave to yourself; slack at noon puts you in a queue of day-boats from Nassau.

Then round to Big Major Cay, where the swimming pigs paddle out to meet any tender that approaches. The scene has been viral since 2014, and by 10:00 in peak season the beach hosts 30–50 day-boats plus a dozen yacht tenders. The solution is simple: arrive at 07:00. The pigs are awake, the light is clean, and you get a 30–45 minute window before the first Nassau boats appear.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club, the chain’s social hub since 1956, serves cracked-conch fritters and rum punch on a dock where nurse sharks gather under the lights after dark. You can anchor off Big Major or pick up a buoy at the yacht club for the night.

Day 6: Staniel to Black Point — the real Exumas

Five miles south of Staniel, Black Point Settlement is the largest community in the central Exumas — a few hundred people, no resort, no marina complex. This is where the Exumas live, not where they perform.

Lorraine’s Cafe is the reason most people plan the stop: conch fritters and coconut bread that have become a route fixture. If you call ahead the day before, Lorraine will bake fresh. Scorpio’s pours rum at the end of the dock. Walk to the blowhole on the ocean side, swim off the settlement beach, and let the afternoon stretch.

Day 7: Black Point to Compass Cay and Pipe Creek — finish strong

Back north twelve miles into Pipe Creek, a tangle of cays and sandbars between Staniel and Compass. The water here is waist-deep in places, with tidal channels that shift the sandbars every season. At Compass Cay Marina, nurse sharks lie on a submerged dock shelf — you can wade among them. They’ve been fed here for decades and are used to people, but the experience is quieter than Pig Beach and, for many, more memorable.

Rachel’s Bubble Bath, at the north end of Pipe Creek, fills with sea foam on the incoming tide. It’s a natural rock pool that turns into a frothing bath — weird, photogenic, and best visited with a rising tide. The last night is at anchor in Pipe Creek, surrounded by sandbars in every direction.

The following morning, you run the 70 nautical miles back to Nassau across the banks, with a swim stop at Highbourne to break the passage. If you’re on a motor yacht at 14 knots, you’ll be at Cabbage Beach for a late lunch at Ocean Blu.

When to go and what it costs

The Bahamas charter season runs November through May. Peak months — February and March — deliver reliable trade winds (east-southeast at 12–20 knots) and water temperatures around 24–26°C. Shoulder weeks in November and early May offer rates 25–35% below peak, with water warming into the high 20s by late spring. Hurricane season shadows June through November, but most operators consider November safe for early-season charters.

For a 40-metre motor yacht in peak season, weekly base rates run roughly $160,000–$245,000, plus an APA (Advance Provisioning Allowance) of 25–30% that covers fuel, food, mooring fees, and permits. A fully-loaded week for 10 guests in February 2026 lands around $360,000 all-in. Catamarans in the 30–45-metre range run significantly less — $45,000–$70,000 weekly base — and their shallow draft opens bank anchorages that deeper monohulls can’t reach.

Permits add a few thousand dollars to the week. As of April 2026, a 30-day cruising permit for a vessel over 100 feet costs $600, plus a $1,500 anchoring permit if you’re spending nights at anchor outside a marina. The Exuma Land and Sea Park charges $50 per night for a mooring and $5 per person per day. Your broker or captain should handle all of this before you step on board.

Before you go — Exumas charter questions

Can I end the charter in Staniel Cay instead of returning to Nassau?

Yes, if you’re flying out on a private aircraft. Staniel Cay has a small airstrip that handles light private charters from Florida — about a 50-minute flight to Fort Lauderdale Executive. The trade-off is that the return leg to Nassau (roughly 95 nautical miles) is eliminated, but the air charter cost is significant.

What size yacht works best for the Exumas?

Thirty-five to sixty metres is the sweet spot. Below 35 metres, the longer passages between anchorages compress the week. Above 60 metres, inner anchorages at Shroud, Warderick, and Compass become tight, and the captain spends the week routing around shallow water rather than enjoying it.

Is the Exumas week suitable for young children?

The itinerary works well for kids — no long passages, no certification needed, and daily wildlife encounters (pigs, iguanas, nurse sharks, sandbars). For children under six, the nurse-shark dock at Compass Cay can feel loud and crowded; the iguanas at Allan’s Cay make a calmer substitute.

How far ahead do I need to book?

Christmas and Easter weeks on popular shallow-draft hulls book 12–18 months ahead. February and March have wider availability, and April–May shoulder weeks often have open slots 3–6 months out. As of mid-2026, Christmas 2026 through New Year 2027 is already taken on most of the better 45–55-metre motor yachts.

What’s the single most important thing to ask the broker?

Ask whether the captain has worked the Exumas before — specifically the park mooring system and the tide-dependent anchorages. A captain new to the Bahamas can waste a day routing around shallow water that an experienced captain crosses in an hour.

Anchors away

The Exumas are not a place you rush through. The chain rewards the slow pace — the kind where a sandbar becomes a three-hour lunch and a mangrove creek feels like a private expedition. The week works because the anchorages are close enough that you never feel like you’re chasing the next stop, and varied enough that no two days look the same on the chart. For a deeper dive into the broader Bahamas charter landscape, our guide to Bahamas water sports covers the other side of the archipelago.

References

Boatbookings. “Exumas Yacht Charter.” boatbookings.com. ↗

Yachts for Kings. “Seven-Day Exumas Itinerary.” yachtsforkings.com, 2026. ↗

Frontier Yachting. “Bahamas Exumas Yacht Charter Itinerary.” frontieryachting.com. ↗

If you’re building a longer Bahamas itinerary, our guide to Eleuthera’s pink-sand beaches and overview of Bahamas national parks offer two very different ways to extend the trip. For the anglers in the group, deep-sea fishing outside the park boundaries pairs naturally with a charter week.