THE BAHAMAS

The Hurricane Island Outward Bound School’s Bahamas sailing expeditions explore the semitropical wilderness of Cape Eleuthera and the Exumas on a 30-foot open sailboat that serves as students' home and classroom. These programs are offered for college students and groups thanks to a partnership with The Island School.

The Bahamas are a network of low lying islands, shallow banks, and deep blue waters just across the Gulf Stream and a hundred miles from the east coast of southern Florida. Sand beaches, limestone cliffs, mangrove creeks and underwater reefs compose a maritime region diverse in species, and rich in human history. Originally inhabited by peoples moving north through the Caribbean from South America, for most of recorded history these expansive and remote islands served as hideouts for privateer, buccaneers and pirates. These renegades were slowly brought to order by the British Crown, and the islands became a haven for fisherman, woodcutters, salt exporters, and for freed slaves from the US and the Atlantic slave trade. Now a destination for sailors seeking stunning and remote cruising grounds, and those researching marine ecology, the Bahamas are a vibrant ecosystem and diverse culture.

Long thin islands laced with white and pink sand beaches, Cape Eleuthera and the Exumas offer exceptional sailing and, in calm conditions, snorkeling. There are two seasons in the Bahamas. Summer runs from April through November, when warm tropical air masses dominate. From December through March, continental air provides cooler drier weather.