Inagua Islands, Bahamas
Made up of two islands
Made up of two islands, Great Inagua and Little Inagua, it is the Southernmost set of islands in the Bahamas. It is also where we cleared in. *Entering the country by private vessel requires a standardized process. We’ll make another post all about this process.* Largely unpopulated, Inagua is home to not one but two National Parks! Inagua National Park, the largest park, is located on Great Inagua. A birders paradise as you’ll find the world’s largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos! These beautiful birds were once in danger of extinction but now with over 80,000 birds, the species is flourishing! In addition, there are over 140 species of migratory and native birds that call Inagua home. Little Inagua National Park makes up the entire island of Little Inagua. This park serves as an important fish nursery for the rest of the islands as the oceans currents flow from Little Inagua in a northwesterly direction.
Recognize this little blonde girl walking in the rain? Believe it or not, she plays an important part of this island’s history. The Morton Salt Factory on Great Inagua puts out approximately 1 million pounds of salt every year. But what’s important about this factory is the process of collecting the salt. A concentrated brine is formed through evaporation and moved through reservoirs. This contributes to the growth of algae which brine shrimp eat. Flamingos and other birds eat the brine shrimp completing the cycle and encouraging continued growth of the species.
We made it!
We arrived in the Bahamas on the West side of Great Inagua after our passage from Puerto Rico. It was quite the journey broken up by the unexpected stop in the Dominican Republic, which we detailed in our post entitled Seeking Safe Harbor.
We only spent one night off of Matthew Town and moved further North into the Man O’ War Bay. After snorkeling and exploring the bombies here, we spent the night and continued to the next island.
Sailing Tidbits
Navigation
Our navigation of the Bahamas was a mix bag of using our chartplotter in deeper water, visual navigation in shallower water and the legendary Explorer Chartbooks. Created by Monty and Sara Lewis, these chartbooks not only contain the BEST (in our opinion) navigational data but local marinas, places to eat, a tidal chart, and must visit places! We cannot recommend these books enough! They made sailing through the Bahamas an absolute breeze, no pun intended!
Anchorages
Matthew Town Anchorage
Located right outside of you guessed it Matthew Town! Anchor right off the Government basin in about 16ft/5m of clear blue water. Holding is good with a white sand bottom. Unfortunately mosquitos can be a problem especially if you have an Easterly wind. We were quite exhausted after our sail so we didn’t explore much after checking in.
Man of War Bay
The other anchorage we visited in our time at Great Inagua. Located in the Man O War Bay on the Northwestern side of Great Inagua, there are a plethora of anchoring opportunities in this bay. The Southern edge is just off of the Morton plant with limited services. We anchored in the North off the jetty. Be aware that you’ll have to dodge a bombies and get pretty close to shore. We moved a couple times to find our spot but once we did we didn’t budge. Depth is approximately 10-13ft/3-4m of sandy bottom. But again, beware of the mosquitos!
Customs
After dinghying into shore, we met customs to check in, which after all of my worrying was completely PAINLESS. We did have to pay an additional fee for delivery of the paperwork. But everyone we met was very friendly and after about 2 hours, we were officially done!
3 Responses
The Morton Salt factory story is very cool. Did you go on the factory tour there?
What is a bombies?
A massive coral head. Usually just a foot or two below the water. They litter the Bahamas. Need to weave around them going in and out of Anchorage. So you want good high sun when doing so.