Seaplane from Miami to Compass Cay

About an hour and twenty minutes in the air. The marina at Compass Cay lies roughly 253 statute miles from downtown Miami, just under 220 nautical, almost all of it open water.

The exact block time depends on the aircraft and the departure point and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book. What sets the length of the day is not the flight. It is the two border filings, the clearance stop on the way in and how long the aircraft waits for you.

Compass Cay sits about halfway down the Exuma Cays, roughly 75 miles south of Nassau and about eight miles north of Staniel Cay. It has no runway. A seaplane lands on the water in the cay's own harbour and ties up at the dock.

That harbour is naturally protected, which is the reason the marina is there. A runway arrival lands at Staniel Cay instead and then needs a boat for the last eight miles.

Yes. Compass Cay is in the Bahamas, so this is an international flight and every passenger needs a valid passport, children and infants included.

Full names and passport numbers go in when you book rather than at the dock, because both border filings are made in advance from our side. There is no check-in desk on this route and nothing to hand over at the slip.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry the first time it enters the country. Compass Cay is not one of them. Neither is Staniel Cay: there is no customs or immigration desk anywhere in that part of the chain.

So the aircraft clears at an airport of entry on the way in and flies the last leg afterwards, which is short. Customs hours run from 09:00 to 17:30 and a clearance outside them carries an overtime fee. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.

The sharks in the marina are nurse sharks, Ginglymostoma cirratum, a bottom feeding species that is docile around people and has been fed at that dock for years. They live around 25 years and grown adults commonly run close to ten feet.

They are still wild animals in open water, so the marina's own rules on when and how to get in are the ones that count. The jetty was built with steps down to a low tide platform, so you can meet them without swimming if you would rather not.

Yes. It is why the charter exists. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting in the harbour rather than turning around, so six hours on the cay means six hours.

The day starts earlier than on a short crossing, because eighty minutes of flying and a clearance stop both have to fit inside the same daylight. Both borders are filed in advance from our side and the clearance is planned into the hours the officers keep.

A seaplane needs daylight on the water. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so the day has a hard end rather than an open one. On this route the customs desk closes before the sun does.

The return has eighty minutes of flying plus a clearance stop inside the same window. Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.

The aircraft is chartered whole rather than sold by the seat, so your party travels together on one booking and comes home on the same aircraft.

How many seats that is depends on which aircraft flies your date and on the payload once baggage is aboard, so it is confirmed with the quote rather than promised in advance. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.

Rods, dive gear and hard cases all travel regularly, within the payload for the aircraft on the day. The limit is a weight rather than a bag count, which is why bulky equipment is declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock: it comes out of the same payload the passengers do. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.

Yes. Most parties do. Big Major Cay, where the pigs swim, is under ten minutes away by boat. Staniel Cay and the grotto used in the Bond film are about eight miles south, the rock iguanas of Bitter Guana Cay a short run beyond that.

The sandbars of Pipe Creek lie just north. The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park runs north along the same chain. All of it is boat work from the dock, so say what you want to see when you send the date and the boat is arranged with the flight.

Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility, so a departure can move on a day that looks clear from the beach and summer afternoons move return legs more often than mornings.

The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest and you are told before you book how a moved departure is handled. Because the aircraft carries only your party, a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.

A charter is priced as a whole aircraft, not per seat, so the number moves with three things: which aircraft flies your date, how many of you there are once bags are aboard and how long the aircraft waits on the cay.

Tell us those and you get one all-in number, with the departure point, the boarding time and the hours on the cay it is based on, before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.

Yes. Compass Cay sits in the middle of the chain rather than at one end, so the same aircraft carries on to Staniel Cay, the wider Exumas, Nassau, Andros or Harbour Island.

Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing and the clearance is planned around the port of entry rather than around the stop you want.

For a yacht or another private cay we pass the coordinates, the pilots decide whether they can put down there and a tender has to be in the water to collect you.

Yes, pets travel in the cabin with you. The one thing we ask is that you tell us at the enquiry, with the type of animal and its weight, so the seating and the load plan are right from the start.