WORLD OF THIS OUT
The best bareboat charter grounds share several features in common. They tend to be compact. Their waters are protected. They offer a combination of splendid isolation and funky nightlife. And unless we’re talking about a location in Europe, there had better be palm trees. The British Virgin Islands are poster art for such perfect charters, and the Abacos in the Bahamas aren’t bad either.
So when one of the leading charter companies—The Moorings—announced a new base for the Exumas, I was intrigued to say the least. I’ve cruised the Bahamas for a cumulative year and a half of my life, and part of that time included being a novice learning how to find my way in the Exumas.
“Let’s go,” I said to Jonathan Cooper, my colleague and editor-in-chief of. Cooper hails from Washington State and needed some experience with shallow water, sunshine and palm trees in the worst way. I, on the other hand, wanted to see the Exumas from the point of view of a charter and to learn what might have changed on the 130-mile-long archipelago since my last visit a dozen years ago.
