The Bahamas

The Bahamas is in the Atlantic, not the Caribbean, but it works like the Caribbean and sits closer to Miami than any of it. The country is 700 islands and over 2,400 cays stretched across 800 kilometres of clear shallow water, with around thirty of the islands inhabited. It has been independent of Britain since 1973, and it has the closest premium yachting waters to the US east coast, which is why most American charters that don't go to the Mediterranean or the Caribbean end up here.

Most Bahamas charters concentrate on the Exumas, a chain of around 365 cays running south-east from Nassau, with three of the most-photographed yachting moments in the western hemisphere along its length. Big Major Cay has a small population of swimming pigs that started turning up in the early 1990s and now feed off visiting boats. Compass Cay has resident nurse sharks at its marina, made friendly enough by the local proprietor that swimming with them is a daily activity. Thunderball Grotto, near Staniel Cay, is the underwater cave used in the 1965 Bond film of the same name, snorkelable at low tide. North of the Exumas, the Abacos and Eleuthera offer pink-sand beaches and quieter anchorages, the Pink Sands Beach on Harbour Island regularly making the world-best lists.

The season runs December to April, when the trade winds blow steady and the calmer water and clearer visibility on the protected bank side make the cruising easy. Most Bahamas charters pick up in Nassau or, increasingly, in Florida, with the boat repositioning across the Gulf Stream at the start of the trip. A week is enough for the Exumas alone; ten days lets you add the Abacos for a fuller picture.