A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in The Exumas
The Exumas publishes two come-ashore-for-lunch tariffs, and both are worth knowing.
Compass Cay publishes a day rate. Its own page states $4.00 per foot for a day visit on vessels 25 feet and over, plus a $15.00 per person landing fee — against $5.00 per foot to stay the night. That is a stated price, in dollars, for bringing the boat in, spending the day and leaving. The gate is the tide, not the money: six feet of draft at low water, eight at high, into a harbour its own page puts at ten to sixteen feet once you are inside.
Staniel Cay prices the other one by the hour. The club states 21 mooring balls for daily and nightly rental, and a partial-day rate capped at two hours: $28 under 50 feet, $44 from 50 to 65 feet, $60 over 65 feet. Overnight on the same balls runs $48.40 to $99.00 by length. If you want to be ashore for lunch rather than the night, that two-hour ball is the mechanism.
Beyond those two, dining in the Exumas works the way it always has: take a ball or an anchorage, and go in by tender. The famous stops in the chain are famous for the water around them, and the venues that sit on a dock sit on a marina's dock, where the terms belong to the marina.
Inside the park, the tender ride comes with a tariff. The Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park charges $27.27 to $172.73 a night for a ball and $0.45 to $0.91 per foot to anchor, adds $14 per guest per day, takes no reservations, and requires every vessel including the dinghy to move at idle speed in any mooring field or anchorage. Warderick Wells wants a call on VHF 09 before you arrive.
So the instruction for this market is short: pay the park, take the ball or the anchorage, and run the tender. The chart below runs the chain the way a boat works it — George Town and Elizabeth Harbour at the south-east end, up past Great Exuma's ports of entry, through Staniel Cay and Compass Cay, across the park to Warderick Wells and Shroud Cay, and out at Highbourne.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Compass Cay — a published day rate for coming ashoreA published price for a day rather than a night. The money is not the gate — the tide is: "Boats with up to six-foot draft at low tide and eight-foot at high tide can enter the harbor", into water its own page puts at ten to sixteen feet once you are inside. No fuel here, so arrive with what you need; the nearest is about five miles away at Staniel Cay. | Compass Cay | Day visit $4.00 per foot for vessels 25 ft and over, plus a $15.00 per person landing fee; overnight $5.00 per foot |
| Staniel Cay Yacht Club — the two-hour mooringThe come-ashore mechanism at Staniel Cay is priced by the hour rather than the night — a partial-day mooring capped at two hours, $28 under 50 ft, $44 from 50 to 65 ft and $60 over 65 ft. If lunch ashore is the plan and a slip is not, that is the instrument. Overnight on the same balls runs $48.40 to $99.00 by length, and the fuel dock alongside works 08:00 to 17:00 daily. | Staniel Cay | 21 mooring balls · partial day capped at two hours, $28 under 50 ft, $44 from 50–65 ft, $60 over 65 ft · overnight $48.40–$99.00 |
| Dining in the Exuma caysDining here works the way it always has: take a ball or an anchorage, and go in by tender. The venues that sit on a dock sit on a marina's dock, where the terms belong to the marina. Inside the park the mechanism is the BNT's own tariff — a ball or an anchorage, no reservations taken, idle speed for the dinghy — and then the tender ride ashore. | The chain, Highbourne Cay to George Town | Take a ball or anchor, and go in by tender |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
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