Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.

Bahamas Chatter: Help
Help
Posted: 05 Jun 2016 02:22 PM PDT
Good day all. Planning trip from Grand Bahama to Acklins. Is there a known channel between the southern tip of the tongue of the ocean to the crooked island passage, for vessel drawing 15′ water? Thanking in advance.

Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.

Bahamas Chatter: Bird Rock light restored
Bird Rock light restored
Posted: 02 Jun 2016 04:18 AM PDT
NOTICE TO MARINERS

(RBDF MAY 30th, 2016) The Aids to Navigation Section of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force wishes to advise mariners that the automatic light at Bird Rock Lighthouse, off Pitt’s Town, Crooked Island has been relit.

The light at Bird Rock is situated at Latitude 22° 50.7’N and Longitude 74° 21.6’W (Charts ACK 1 and ACK 2, pages 57 and 58 Explorer Chartbook Far Bahamas, Sixth Edition).

Any discrepancies with this or any navigational aid should be reported to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force at telephone number 362-4436 or by e-mail at aton@rbdf.gov.bs (For further information contact the RBDF Public Relations Department)

This aid was fixed on 30th May 2016 after being extinguished for some time. Technicians found evidence of vandalism, as the main cable from the batteries was severed by a sharp object and six of the eight solar panels were removed. The cable was reconnected and the technicians had to make do with the remaining two panels. These southern lighthouses are plagued by this sort of thing, rendering the aid extinguished.

Explorer Chartbooks, A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET PARTNER, has long been the standard navigational supplement for enjoyable, informative, and safe cruising through the beautiful Bahamian waters and island visits.

Bahamas Chatter: New species of snake found on Conception Island
New species of snake found on Conception Island
Posted: 31 May 2016 10:47 AM PDT
(from an article in the National Geographic published May 26, 2016)
On an uninhabited island in the southern Bahamas, a scientist noticed a snake that shined like metal as it climbed a tree.
“We all came to take a look at it, and it was instantly clear that this was something different,” says biologist R. Graham Reynolds, part of the scientific team exploring the remote islands.
Expedition member Alberto Puente-Rolón, an expert on Caribbean boas, agreed that the animal appeared unlike any species of known boa.
So the team went searching for more boas, finding four more snakes before settling down to sleep on the beach at Conception Island. But it turns out the boas weren’t ready to call it a night. (See “Extremely Rare Fishing Snakes Discovered.”)
“Sometime around 3:30 in the morning, I woke up to something crawling across my face,” says Reynolds, now a biologist at the University of North Carolina, Asheville.
Another silver boa had come down from the forest and crawled right over him as he slept. They’d located their sixth specimen, and DNA analyses back at the lab confirmed the snake was a new species.
The scientists named the Conception Bank silver boa (Chilabothrus argentum), based on both its color and the fact it was first found on an aptly named silver palm tree. A study on the species appeared in the journal Breviora.