Great Guana Cay, Bahamas
March 20 – March 30
Michael Wolf - President, Sporty's Pilot Shop
After missing last year’s visit to the Bahamas, my wife Sharon and I were looking forward to a little warm air and sunshine with good friends. This year we rented the Grandview Cottage on Great Guana Cay. The house belongs to one of Sporty’s suppliers, Greg Turton, owner of Arctic Air. The beautiful house sleeps up to twelve people so we asked Dan Robinson (Sporty’s CFO) and Anne Maj and Charlie and Rose Ann Masters to join us. Charlie is Vice President of Aircraft Sales for Sporty’s FBO, Eastern Cincinnati Aviation. Sharon, Dan, Anne, and I took off in Sporty’s Aztec (N702SP) and Charlie and Rose Ann followed in the 2009 Sporty’s Skyhawk Sweepstakes Cessna 172S. Dan handled all the radio work in the Aztec and I just flew.
Charlie and I both used the new e-APIS (electronic Advanced Passenger Information System) US Customs has started using. It’s voluntary now but becomes mandatory beginning May 8, 2009. We both signed up and entered the aircraft and crew information. The process is not very “user friendly” and we spent a fair amount of time figuring it out. I took an on line tutorial and even asked AOPA’s Pilot Information Center for a little help. Using the e-APIS the pilot must submit a “Notice of Departure” when leaving the US and a “Notice of Arrival” when returning. Charlie and I submitted our “Notice of Departure” on Thursday afternoon. You provide information on the aircraft, crew, and passengers. It took me about twenty minutes to complete the form but I’m sure I’ll get faster at it the more I use it. Within minutes I received confirmation that we were “cleared for departure”.
Both Aircraft left Sporty’s at lunchtime and headed to Lake City, Florida. We stopped in Hazlehurst, Georgia (KAZE) for $3.00 a gallon fuel. We couldn’t pass up the cheap avgas and it was the perfect leg length for the Skyhawk. We all spent the night in Lake City so we could leave early for Marsh Harbour to catch the 1:30pm ferry out to Great Guana Cay. Charlie and Rose Ann left about an hour earlier than us and flew down to Ft. Pierce to top off before heading out to Marsh Harbour. The fuel is over $5.00 a gallon at Marsh Harbour so it pays to take it with you. We took the Aztec, direct to Ormond Beach VOR (OMN) and direct to Marsh Harbor (MYAM). Miami Center needs us at 13,000 ft. to get radar coverage, otherwise we would have to go to Freeport first. It’s a nice shortcut and I’m glad we have oxygen on board as we were up at 13,000 ft. for about an hour. Charlie left Ft. Pierce and had to deviate around some weather before heading to Freeport at 7,000 ft. and then on to Marsh Harbour. We timed our departures so we arrived at Marsh Harbour at about the same time.
After arriving we quickly cleared customs and Immigrations. The people at Cherokee Aviation FBO were very friendly and helpful. We asked for a cab for six with luggage and stopped at the local grocery store for provisions. We found out later that the grocery store on Great Guana Cay is well stocked. The cab driver somehow squeezed all six of us along with our luggage, dive gear, and groceries into his minivan and delivered us to Albury Ferry Service. It costs $25.00 per person for a round trip to Great Guana Cay. But since we had all kinds of luggage and groceries the captain charged us $12.00 more for handling. Not bad for all we had. The trip out took about forty-five minutes.
Francis (the handler for the cottage) met us at the dock and helped us get the luggage to the Grandview Cottage. She also explained how everything worked and answered all our questions. It’s a beautiful place with three bedrooms and sleeps up to twelve people. It has a Master bedroom with its own full bath on the first floor. Upstairs there are two bedrooms with a full bath. There is also another full bath on the first floor. Of course there is a complete kitchen with an adjacent eating area. Unique to this house is the deck on the roof where we could watch the Atlantic surf on the ocean side and sunsets to the West over the Sea of Abaco. The house also has a backup generator as the power is prone to outages from time to time. We only used it once for about three hours on Friday. There are three televisions in the house all connected to “Dish Network” and wireless internet service. Our AT&T cell phones worked well. You should check out Greg’s web site www.grandviewbahamas.com for more information.
The Island is an awesome place. First is the great beach, although it was windy and a little cool all week, we enjoyed walks on its powdery pink sand. It’s a quiet Island. Although there were three restaurants complete with bars (Grabbers, Nippers, and Pirates Cove), by 10:00pm all is quiet. You can still find people at the bars (us) but it’s very laid back. All the bars we visited have a “specialty punch”. All were different and all were potent but went down easily. Food service was varied but most entrees averaged around $15.00 TO $18.00. There are other restaurants with fancier menus and prices that were somewhat higher, but we never made it to any of those on this trip.
The week passed by quickly, as usual and before we knew it we were watching “The Weather Channel” and checking weather up North on the internet for our trip home. We all loved the Grandview Cottage, and the Island, and its people and are looking forward to visiting it again next year.
On Friday Charlie and I each spent twenty minutes or so entering our e-APIS data and submitting it to Customs. This time though the reply from the e-APIS system told us “arrival and/or landing rights must be coordinated directly with the CBP destination port”. So we planned on calling Ft. Pierce Customs before we departed on Saturday morning. We entered our flight plans into Fltplan.com and started preparing for our departure on the 8:00am ferry Saturday morning.
It was a beautiful morning on the dock while we waited for Albury Ferry Service and they arrived about 7:45am. We loaded our luggage onto the ferry and this time there was no additional charge for the extra luggage. I guess the earlier charge covered both ways and this time we didn’t have groceries. Forty-five minutes later we loaded up the taxi for the ride back to the airport. We asked the driver when we arrived if he could pick us up when we returned to Marsh Harbour and sure enough he was waiting for us. I think it pays to tip well.
Back at Cherokee Aviation, our aircraft were pulled up as we paid our fees. Departure tax ($15.00 per person), Parking fees ($60.00 for the week per aircraft), Facility fee ($16.00 for the Sweepstakes airplane and $20.00 for the Aztec), and a $3.00 Government fee, bringing the total to $143.00 for the Aztec and $105.00 for the Sweepstakes Airplane. The people at Cherokee had us fill out a departure form and handled the other paperwork making it all very easy. Once that was finished we proceeded to the briefing area to check weather and give US Customs a call.
The weather was great for the return to Ft. Pierce. But when I called customs at 9:30am I received a recording stating that they were closed and would open at 10:00am (our scheduled departure time). I became worried but then the recording instructed me to call Miami customs to report our arrival into Ft. Pierce. When I called Miami, the agent did a lot of typing on her end and then asked for my tail number. After giving her that information I asked if she needed my e-APIS number and she said she did not. I was asked our aircraft type, N-number again, how many people on board, their nationality, and what time I planned on arriving. I was hoping for some confirmation about the e-APIS but she gave me her initials and ended the call. I passed the telephone to Charlie and he did the same thing. We said goodbye to the great people at Cherokee Aviation and headed out to the aircraft.
It was quite busy when we taxied out to the runway. There were several aircraft inbound and a Learjet behind us. We back taxied out to the end of runway 9 together and I took off first in the Aztec followed immediately by Charlie in the Sweepstakes 172. I climbed out toward the Freeport VOR (ZFP) and Dan gave Miami Center a call when we were at about 8000 ft. We got our clearance and arrived at Ft. Pierce right on time. Apparently customs had received our e-APIS and we were only in the building for a few minutes. I had the Aztec towed over to Volo FBO and the location of the Airport Tiki for a fuel top off and lunch to go.
The weather was terrible up north and we decided that we would get as far North as we could on Saturday and see where the “epic storm” was in the morning. We arrived in Lake City to high winds and very bumpy air. Sharon, Anne, Dan, and I grabbed our overnight bags and retreated to the FBO to await Charlie and Rose Ann’s arrival in the Sweepstakes 172. We met a group of guys in the FBO that were stationed in Lake City manning fire bombers for the fire season. When we told them we were from Sporty’s and the Sweepstakes Cessna 172 was following us they couldn’t wait to see the airplane they were hoping to win on May 16th. Charlie had a small crowd waiting as he taxied in. Everyone wanted to see the G1000 so Charlie fired it up. I had a practice picture taken with several of the guys, just in case one of them wins the airplane. I gave them each a Sporty’s hat as a souvenir. Ron from the FBO set us up with an airport rate at the Hampton Inn and gave us the airport courtesy car for the night. We checked in and went to a sports bar to get some dinner and watch the NCAA basketball tournament.
The weather on Sunday was better in Georgia but there was a lot of icing predicted North of the mountains all of the way to the Great Lakes. Ceilings North of Atlanta were only at 2,500 ft. and went down to 1,900 ft. in Batavia. We made a plan to get to Northern Georgia on Sunday as the weather Monday was forecast to be almost perfect all the way back home. We planned a stop in Athens, Georgia for the night. Athens has a very nice terminal building, a long runway with an ILS, and the city is nearby. Once again it was windy and bumpy below the 4,000 ft. ceilings but the crosswind was less than it had been in Lake City. We found a hotel, checked in, and went out for a late lunch and some more basketball. Anne went to Michigan State so we had a team to cheer for. And they won!
Monday morning it was severe clear and the only negative was a 25 kt. headwind over the mountains. We took off at 8:00am and got a smooth ride all the way back to Sporty’s. It was a long ride home, but we had fun on the way and it was well worth the trip.
