Private Jet from Miami to Chub Cay

The Pocket is where the deep trench runs up against the shallow bank in the upper north west of the Berry Islands. Blue and white marlin, sailfish, tuna, wahoo and mahi-mahi come through it, and that water is the reason Chub Cay is called the billfish capital of the Bahamas. The Tongue of the Ocean borders the chain and reaches around six thousand feet, so the drop is not a long ride out. It is a few minutes from the dock, which is why a morning arrival is worth so much more here than it is on most islands. That is also the whole case for the aircraft. The boat leaves from the ground the jet stopped on, the hours belong to the tide, and a crossing flown above the weather arrives with the tide it was booked for rather than the one that is left.

Mama Rhoda Rock lies a few hundred yards west of the marina, with staghorn coral in the shallows and eels in the ledges. It is snorkel depth rather than dive depth, so it works for a party where not everybody is certified. The reef proper is about five minutes from the marina and holds sites from ten feet down to a hundred. A morning here and an afternoon on the beach is the commonest shape of a day on the cay. Visibility on a reef this shallow is a weather question and nothing else. A squall over the bank turns it off for the rest of the day, which is the argument for arriving early and for arriving on something that does not have to wait for the layer to lift.

The wall is where the bank ends. It has drop-offs, caves and caverns, and it is the reason divers book this cay rather than one of the shallower ones further up the chain. Tanks and weights are arranged at the marina, and certification cards travel with you. Say at booking who is diving and to what level, so the boat and the guide are held before you land. Diving is the part of the day with the least tolerance for a late start. Surface conditions decide whether the wall is on at all, and they are worse in the afternoon than in the morning, so the flight that gets you there first is the one that gets you there at all.

The beaches run along the south and west of the cay, and on a normal day they are empty. Almost nobody lives out here and the rest of the chain is mostly uninhabited, so an empty beach is the ordinary case rather than the lucky one. There is nothing on them, which is both the appeal and the whole of the planning. No bar, no shade you did not bring, nothing to buy. Add water toys or a beach picnic if the afternoon is going to be spent in the water. Whatever the afternoon needs travels out of Miami with your party, because an island of this size has nothing to sell you when you get there. That is a packing question on any aircraft and a weight question on a small one, and on this one it is neither.

Hoffman's Cay is uninhabited and holds the thing most people have already seen a photograph of. The blue hole has a cliff standing some twenty feet above the water and a short walk in from the beach. It is a run north from Chub Cay rather than a stop on the way, so it is booked as part of a boat day or an island hopping afternoon rather than squeezed in on arrival. Nobody lives on Hoffman's Cay, so whether the stop happens at all depends on the day holding. The walk is short, but the way there is open water and the way in is open ground, and neither improves in an afternoon squall.

Great Harbour Cay is the north end of the Berry Islands, around thirty miles up the chain with open water in between. Bullocks Harbour is the main settlement of the Berries and the marina sits beside it. It is a separate day rather than an excursion from here, and it has a page of its own. Parties who want both ends in one trip fly the Berry Islands route instead. Worth naming here only so that nobody plans a morning around it. Thirty miles of open water is a boat ride of its own, and on a day trip it is the one thing that will cost you the afternoon you came for.

Nassau lies about thirty seven statute miles south east across the channel, which makes Chub Cay the closest cay in the Berries to it and one of the easiest pairs of islands to put into a single trip. A morning on the drop and an afternoon on New Providence is a normal shape for a longer booking, and the aircraft is yours for both legs rather than two tickets. It is also the fallback when the water is not cooperating. A day that was going to be spent offshore does not have to be a day lost, because the second island is thirty seven miles away and the aircraft is already paid for.

A private jet charter from Miami to Chub Cay also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. The same aircraft carries on east and south to Grand Bahama, Harbour Island, Andros or Staniel Cay and the Exumas. Two islands in a day is one of the easier Bahamas days to build from here, and it is easier still on an aircraft that does not have to wait for the weather to clear between them. Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route. If a yacht is meeting you, that is a yacht transfer, arranged at the marina beside the field. The full island guide sits on the Chub Cay destination page, the packaged version is the Chub Cay day trip and the rest of the country is on the Bahamas destinations page.