Yellow Banks

Anchored off the west side of Highborne Cay, we woke to a light 10 kt easterly breeze. Highborne’s shelter had provided us with a quiet and peaceful night. At 8 AM we were underway headed for the Nassau Harbor Club marina 35 nm to the Northwest.


Our route crossed the Yellow Banks, a swath of coral heads and relatively shallow water about 17 nm ahead. Our chart showed us crossing a spot with a low water depth of 6.8 feet. Add waves of 3 feet or more and Eagle’s Wings with her 4.5 foot draft would become part of the Yellow Bank. So I planned to cross at about high tide scheduled for noon at Nassau as a high tide would add about 2.5 feet to the water level.


Now I have a reference book that states that the tide at the Yellow Banks is one hour behind Nassau. This didn’t make sense to me so I thought I would acquire some local knowledge at the Highborne Marina. The lady at the marina told me I would have no problem if I stayed on the route given on the Explorer Chart. When I asked about the one hour difference in tide listed in the book, she asked what book. When I told her, she said that the author hadn’t been in the Bahamas in years and to ignore everything in the book but the history of the cays.


Anyway we sailed to the Yellow Banks with reefed main and genoa making 6 kts. To be extra careful I motor sailed across the banks around 11 AM (near high tide) dodging only a few coral heads and never seeing depths less than 12 feet.


The wind really picked up as we approached Nassau and I was glad I had left the reef in the main that I put in a few days before. We docked at the Nassau Harbor Club after waiting around a while for other boats to dock that came in just before us. We tied up at 2:30 PM on the east side of the east dock, the least preferable docking location. When we called for a reservation, Peter, the Dock Master, said “No Problem.” I assumed that meant that plenty of spaces were available. We are glad that we called early because the marina is almost full.