Silly question?!

[Tabby]

Hello

We are renting a boat whilst on Elbow Cay and we have noted on these forums and others that rental boats can't be used in the dark. We really hope to go to Cracker P's fullmoon party, how do you get there from White Sound if you can't use the boat? Our rental property has access by boat only. This is probably a daft question but any answers would be appreciated!

Thanks

[steamboat]

There are several possibilities: Froggies may run a fullmoon party trip out of Hope Town, try to make friends with someone that is going in their personal boat and catch a ride. There are no night beacons for navigation and lots of shallow water in the area so running a boat at night is not advisable. Hope this helps.

[yellowpages]

...unless you can make a friend who has own boat and can/will run at night.
With your rental only available by boat you can get to Hopetown to catch a Froggies trip but how would you return to your cottage late at night? Ask around the Marina at White Sound...and don't be shy about getting on the NET (VHF Ch. 68, 8:15am) in the morning (Open Mike section) and asking for a lift...people are real nice about helping out and if the can they will.

[HALF-A-HAMIAN]

It will be full moon, so if you think you are familiar enough with a specific route in daylight, it's not overcast, and you run at slow to idle speed with a light of some sort, you should be fine, but have a designated driver if you plan to party.

[Dale Eichel]

Make a safe set of bread crumbs on your GPS during light hours with pleanty of margin in your track. You can follow that back pretty safely. Dale

[ModeratorXXX]

You guys wouldn't be advising Tabby to take the rental boat out after dark against the rental's regulations, would you? No........I didn't think so.

Tabby,play it safe. Follow the sage advice offered from yp and steamboat.

[gettin-there]

I rented a house on Lubbers a few years ago. by the time we were settled in- with no gro. the 1st.nite went to abaco inn for dinner. followed the crusiers guide precisely for nav info. (lining up the red lites on the roof with the channel markers)... had a great dinner and retraced our tracks back to lubbers - non-event (garmin etrex a plus). later in the week, we (me, wife,3kids) went up a few docks by boat to Cracker |P's . There and back in the dark - New Years at that,no problem. had never been to either location before.

BTW the boat did not have an after dark exclusion. first time to both places. I am/was comfortable nav. in dark and had backup gps. Not a long distance. Biggest obstacle was draft depth. Know where you are going. you don't want to ground on tilloo beach. I watched several boats do that during clear days during that week.

[HALF-A-HAMIAN]

If the rental's up a creek, with no other access to the settlement and food, I'm going to learn to navigate that real quick. This fat boy likes to eat. Clear night with full moon is almost as good as an overcast day or in a squall. OK, to please the moderator, ask first.

[JJ]

I thought I heard in the past that the rental boats don't have nighttime running lights to prevent using them at night, but that sounds dangerous so maybe my memory is failing. I don't recall whether our boat last summer had lights. I looked at our trip pictures and it appears that there are running lights on the bow. Our rental agreement required that our boat be in before nightfall and the rental company came by each night to make sure our boat was docked and we were back safely. We were on Green Turtle where we traveled by golf cart at night.

[haziewaller]

Don't forget that it's just as important for the "other guy" to have running lights, too! There was a bad accident in the harbor at New Plymouth a few years back; don't know if one or both lacked lights. Ya just can't be too careful.....

[Abaco Girl]

Also if you are going to run at night in a rental that specifically says "No night time use" be prepared for the rental company to take the boat away from you if you are caught and in case of an accident can you really afford to pay for the boat's replacement.

[islandgator]

Go spend a couple of Happy Hours at HHL, Abaco Inn, Seaspray and the Edge and you will find a ride. As good as I know the area, its the other inexperienced guy I worrry about. You don't have to look hard at the rental boats to realize the skill levels of some. The last place I would take my personal boat would be Cracker P's full moon party and bang rails all nite long with folks who don't quite know how to dock with care. Any damage to the rental boat can become your expense.

Follow the Happy Hour advice and enjoy the Full Moon party.

[dogfish]

We spend every night on the hook and the one that that can wake me out of a dead sleep is the sound of a motor boat above idle at night.

-Doug

[snorkler]

The last place I would take my personal boat would be Cracker P's full moon party and bang rails all nite long with folks who don't quite know how to dock with care. Any damage to the rental boat can become your expense.

Follow the Happy Hour advice and enjoy the Full Moon party.
They have always had help at the dock to insure safe parking. I have no problem with my boat at Cracker P's. But i dont stay late.

If there are no working lights find a ride for sure. Several bad wrecks at night in the past year.

Dont go without lights!! Not just a flashlight either!!

A florida friend was just tee-boned near St. Pete and they had a guy who was on the bow with a spotlight???

[turtlehillvillas]

Froggies always provides trans from the post office dock in HT to the the full moon party - boat heads over around 7pm and returns around 11pm from what my daughters tell me. The roundtrip cost was $15 per person this summer.

[Tabby]

Hello

I have not been able to log on for a while, but I just wanted to thank everyone for their very helpful advice on here,its much appreciated. We definitely won't be going anywhere in our rental boat in the dark, we would be too worried! Just counting down the weeks until we are back on beautiful Elbow Cay!