The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Gun Cay by Private Charter
Gun Cay is a narrow strip of sand and rock about nine miles south of Bimini, with a lighthouse standing at the south end and a shallow bay called Honeymoon Harbour at the north end. Downtown Miami to that bay is roughly 57 statute miles, just under 50 nautical and almost every mile of it is open water.
The crossing runs about 30 minutes in the air. The aircraft lifts off Biscayne Bay, turns east and flies it low enough to read the water. The deep blue of the Gulf Stream gives way to the pale green of the Great Bahama Bank while you are still looking at it. Then the floats settle off the cay.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. Your party brings passports and a bag.
The nearest airstrip to Gun Cay sits on North Cat Cay two miles south and it belongs to a private club, so a runway arrival is not a way in for most parties. This is one of several seaplane routes out of the city and up to nine seats travel on one booking.
Plan Your Gun Cay Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Gun Cay Actually Works
Gun Cay is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one day. Filed in advance it is paperwork. Left to the morning it is the reason an itinerary falls apart. The distance is the short part.
Two governments want the passenger list before the aircraft moves and both filings sit on our side of the desk rather than yours. What follows is the whole sequence in order, from the water at the Miami end to the ramp where the day finishes on the way home.
Plan Your Gun Cay CharterDistance and Time
Fifty seven miles of open water, about half an hour of it in the air
Downtown Miami to Gun Cay is roughly 57 statute miles, just under 50 nautical, almost all of it water. On floats that is about 30 minutes airborne, plus the taxi out and the water landing at the far end. The clearance stop on the way in adds to that, so the number that matters for your day is the one on the itinerary rather than the flight time on its own.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies out together and comes home together
Up to nine seats travel on one booking. The aircraft stays with you rather than turning around, so six hours at the cay means six hours. That matters more here than on an island with hotels on it: there is nothing to wait in and nowhere to sit out a gap, so the hours you have are the hours you asked for.
Water Landing
The floats land on the water off the cay, because Gun Cay has nothing to land a wheeled aircraft on
There is no strip and no ferry service to the island. A seaplane puts the party down on the water and a tender or a beach landing does the last few yards. Which water it is depends on the wind that morning, because the north bay and the lee of the cay behave differently in a blow. The mechanics sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Gun Cay means the manifest is filed before you reach the dock
Every passenger needs a valid passport, children included and a driving licence will not do. What counts as valid is in the travel documents guidance. Names and numbers go in from our side, in advance.
Arriving in the Bahamas
Arriving in the Bahamas means clearing at a port of entry first, because Gun Cay is not one
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Gun Cay is not on that list. So the aircraft clears somewhere on the way in and flies the last few minutes afterwards. That extra stop is exactly what makes an island with no airstrip reachable at all.
The ones that sit on this line are Bimini nine miles north and Cat Cay two miles south. Which of them it is depends on the aircraft, the routing and the date and it comes with the quote. You do not arrange any of it: we file both borders, we book the clearance and it is quick.
The Way Back
The way back carries its own clock and it ends usually at US customs in Opa-locka
Water landings run only from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so nothing on floats arrives in the dark and the return leg carries a deadline from the moment the date is set.
The clearance on the way home runs through a manned desk as well, so in practice the office hours close the day earlier than the sun does. Both clocks move through the year, so the latest useful departure for your date comes with the quote.
The return is filed with US Customs before you leave and that filing decides where the aircraft may put down in South Florida. Opa-locka Executive is where a return from the islands clears, so a day that started on the water often finishes on a ramp. We take care of both ends of any chartered flight from Miami to the Bahamas.
Departure Points
Departure Points for a Seaplane Miami to Gun Cay
A seaplane needs no airport at the Miami end, so the departure point follows your morning rather than the aircraft. Two of these four put you on the water, two on a ramp.
Miami Seaplane Base
555 NE 15th St, Miami
The water departure, on Biscayne Bay just north of downtown. Boarding is from the dock, so nothing between the car and the aircraft looks like an airport. The shortest ground leg for Brickell, downtown and the beach and the usual choice when a yacht is the other half of the day.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
The executive airport north west of the city, with private terminal handling at both ends of the day. It is also where a return from the islands clears US customs, which is why an international day that leaves from the water often comes back here rather than to the dock it started from.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami, in the south west of the county. When the aircraft for your date is already based at this field, the charter starts without a positioning leg. That matters most on a same day return, where an hour lost in Florida is an hour lost at the far end.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
A pickup rather than a base and the right one when the party is already landing at MIA and the onward leg should leave from the same airport. No aircraft is stationed here, so it is arranged per flight and confirmed with the operator before it is quoted.
How to Charter
How to Charter a Seaplane to Gun Cay from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Gun Cay Charter- 01
Contact Us
Write to us on WhatsApp or by email. Send your dates, how many guests, where you are coming from and where you want to travel. Tell us the hour you would like to leave. A seaplane lands on water and on runways. Your pickup can be a marina, a hotel dock or a beach, and an airport works just as well.
- 02
Get Aircraft and Prices Back
We check what is free on your date and send the seaplanes that fit. Seats, baggage and flight time for each one. Every aircraft costs a little differently, so we can find the best fit for you.
- 03
Confirm and Pay
You pick the aircraft, and we set the pickup point and the landing site. Then everything around the flight. Catering on board, a car or a golf cart waiting when you land, ground transport to your hotel or back to the airport. Flowers if the day is a special one. You approve it, you pay, and your boarding time, departure point and everything included come back to you.
- 04
Just Arrive 30 Minutes Early
You will have no terminal and no queue. Just make sure you are there 30 minutes before. Then you take off, land right at your destination, and enjoy the day.
On the Cay
Where a Miami to Gun Cay Seaplane Puts You Down
Gun Cay is a narrow cay with a shallow bay at the north end, a lighthouse at the south end and a working boat passage in between. Nobody lives on it and nothing is built on it, which is the entire appeal.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, from the north end southwards and then outwards.
Plan Your Gun Cay CharterHoneymoon Harbour and the Stingrays
Most Asked For
The bay at the north end of the cay is the reason most parties come. It is shallow, pale and sheltered from the east and the southern shore of it is a stretch of white sand with nothing behind it. Southern stingrays patrol the shallows there and they are used to people.
In roughly three feet of water they come to you , so this is the one thing on the cay that works with small children along. Nurse sharks turn up in the same water, along with conch and starfish on the sand.
Say how many are getting in the water when you send the date, because the size of the tender we ask for at the far end is set by that number rather than by the seat count on the aircraft.
The Lighthouse at the South End
Standing Since 1836
The stone tower at the southern tip has been lit since 1836 and it is the oldest thing anybody built on this stretch of the bank. It was put there to mark the passage below it for shipping bound west, back when getting this wrong meant a wreck on the reef.
It is a landmark rather than an attraction: there is no visitor centre, no keeper and no path laid out to it. What it gives you is the turn on the way in and a point on the horizon that tells you which cay you are looking at from the air.
From the water it does the same job for the boats coming through the gap below it, which is what it was put there for in the first place and the reason it is still lit.
Gun Cay Cut
The Gateway
The channel between Gun Cay and North Cat Cay is one of the main gates from the Gulf Stream onto the Great Bahama Bank. Boats crossing from Florida come through here, then run east across the bank towards the Northwest Channel and Nassau beyond it.
That is why the water around the cay is busier than the empty look of it suggests and why the anchorage behind Gun Cay has been used for as long as anyone has been making that crossing. Reefs run north from the Cat Cay side, so traffic hugs the Gun Cay side of the cut.
From the air the cut is the clearest line on the whole approach: deep blue on one side, pale green on the other and a gap of maybe a few hundred yards between two cays. It is also the reason the pilots can find the cay in any light, because the colour change runs for miles either side of it and no other gap on this stretch looks like it.
The Beach and the Shallows
Low Water
The sand on the south side of the north bay is the part of the day people photograph. It shelves so gently that the water is still shin deep a long way out and at low water the pale ground around the cay dries into open sandbars with nothing on them.
That is where a beach picnic goes. Add water toys if the party wants the afternoon on the water rather than on the sand, or a dock pickup if a boat is meeting you.
Low water is what decides the hour here, not the one you would prefer. It is the single part of a Gun Cay day that is set by the sea rather than by the aircraft. The tide for your date is read into the itinerary before the boarding time is fixed, so a date sent early leaves more of the day to work with than one sent late.
The Fringing Reef
In the Water
Fringing reef runs along the seaward side of the cay and it starts close enough to the sand to swim to in places. There is no boat ride to reach it and no mooring field to queue for. What it lacks is any infrastructure at all, so masks, fins and shade travel with you or come out on the boat meeting you.
There is nothing to hire on the cay and nowhere to buy a bottle of water. Parties who want a full day in the water usually pair the reef here with the deeper sites around Bimini and let the aircraft move them between the two.
The Drop Off and the Bank
Fishing Days
Two kinds of water meet within a mile of the cay and that is unusual. West of the cut the bottom falls away into the Gulf Stream, east of it the bank runs shallow for sixty miles.
So a boat working out of here can be on blue water in minutes or on the flats in the same minutes, depending on which way it turns. Parties book bonefishing and flats access or a full fishing day by seaplane on that basis. Rods and gear travel, within the payload for the aircraft on the day.
Cat Cay and Bimini
Minutes Away
Cat Cay begins two miles south across the cut and it is a private club. The marina and the houses there are for members and their sponsored guests, so for everyone else it is a stop seen from the water rather than a place to book into. Worth knowing before an afternoon gets planned around it.
Nine miles north is Bimini, which has the hotels, the marinas and the restaurants this cay does not. A good number of Gun Cay days are really Bimini days with an hour on the sand here. The aircraft moves the party between the two rather than a boat spending the afternoon doing it. The packaged version of that is the Bimini getaway day trip.
Onward Down the Chain
Same Aircraft
A private seaplane charter from Miami to Gun Cay also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. The same aircraft carries on east and south to Grand Bahama, Nassau, Harbour Island, Andros or Staniel Cay and the Exumas. That is what turns one cay into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day.
Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route. It also changes where you sleep, because nobody sleeps here. If a yacht is meeting you, the aircraft can set the party down alongside instead of at a pier. That is a yacht transfer and on a cay with no dock for aircraft it is the tidiest way to arrive.
The full island guide sits on the Gun Cay destination page, the neighbours either side of the cut have their own on the Cat Cay page and the Bimini page and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Gun Cay?
Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. You get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the day costs, before anything is booked.
Add-Ons
Seaplane to Gun Cay Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Gun Cay: The Gulf Stream, the Cut and a Water Landing
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, the cays either side and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Gun Cay: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Gun Cay seaplane
The crossing is not dead time between two airports. A seaplane runs low and slow, so the water under the wing is the first thing the day gives you. Downtown Miami to that bay is roughly 57 statute miles, just under 50 nautical and almost every mile of it is open water. The crossing runs about 30 minutes in the air. The date comes first and the aircraft is planned around it, so a lunch that cannot move or a boat that leaves at a set hour sets the hour of the flight rather than the other way round. Gun Cay is a narrow strip of sand and rock about nine miles south of Bimini, with a lighthouse standing at the south end and a shallow bay called Honeymoon Harbour at the north end. A beach picnic and a dock pickup are the two things guests add most often here, because there is nothing on the cay to hire once you are standing on it. Every seat is a window seat on seaplanes in the fleet of this size, so nobody watches the crossing over someone's shoulder. Other seaplane routes from Miami fly the same way.
Seaplane to Gun Cay from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Gun Cay
Nobody hands you a timetable on a charter. The day is built around the hour you name. You name the hour you want to lift off, the hour you want to be standing on Gun Cay and which water in the city suits your morning. The aircraft belongs to your party for the day, so all three are your decision rather than a departure somebody else set, and a change the week before is a message to us. If the drive is shorter the other way, the same day runs out of Fort Lauderdale. Half an hour before the lift-off is the whole of the check-in. Your party walks from the car to the aircraft, the bags go on in front of you, and the list for that flight carries your names and nobody else's. Nothing about the morning waits on a stranger. Seaplane flights from Miami to Gun Cay are the only scheduled-looking thing about an unscheduled island. And the half hour across is a reason in itself. The windows are deep and the aircraft crosses low, so there is room for everybody to sit and watch the water change instead of taking turns at one of them.
Miami to Gun Cay Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Gun Cay crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Gun Cay crosses an international border twice in a day. It is the part that goes wrong when nobody files it in advance. Entry into the Bahamas asks for a declaration filed from Florida, clearance at a port of entry on arrival and a US return filed before you leave, which is what sets where you may land coming home. On a Crown Air charter the crew files all three. Your party carries a valid passport and nothing else. Passports for everyone, children included, per the travel documents guidance. What may travel sits in the baggage guidance. That same filing sets where you land coming home: a return from the islands clears at Opa-locka Executive, so a day that began on the water finishes on a ramp and a departure moved by weather runs under the weather and delays policy. Gun Cay is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one day. If the party changes before the flight, the crew refiles. A name added, a name dropped: that is a message to us rather than a problem for you.
Seaplane Miami Gun Cay: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Gun Cay
A private seaplane from Miami to Gun Cay is booked when the day is worth marking: a birthday, a proposal, a graduation, a weekend away with the people who matter. The flight is short enough that the occasion, not the travelling, is what the day is about. That is what a seaplane Miami Gun Cay charter is for. The date comes first and the aircraft is planned around it, so a lunch that cannot move or a boat that leaves at a set hour sets the hour of the flight rather than the other way round. Some parties fly over for the day and are home the same evening. Others stay on and book the return for the day they want. Both are the same charter, and the whole group travels together on one booking. If there is something to celebrate, say so when you book: catering, a private chef, premium beverages and flowers travel with you. Everything is in place before you board in Miami.
Questions
Seaplane from Miami to Gun Cay: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Gun Cay?
About 30 minutes in the air. Gun Cay lies roughly 57 statute miles from downtown Miami, just under 50 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.
Do I need a passport to fly to Gun Cay?
Yes. Gun 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.
Where does a seaplane land at Gun Cay?
On the water. Gun Cay has no airstrip and no ferry service, so the floats put the party down beside the cay and a tender or a short wade covers the last few yards.
The usual water is the shallow bay at the north end, Honeymoon Harbour, which is sheltered from the east and is the anchorage the local boats already use. Wind on the day decides which side of the cay the aircraft uses. That call belongs to the pilots.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Gun Cay?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Gun Cay is not one of them, so the aircraft clears somewhere on the way in and flies the last few minutes afterwards. The ones on this line are Bimini nine miles north and Cat Cay two miles south.
Which one your date uses depends on the aircraft and the routing and it comes with the quote. None of it is your job: we file both borders and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.
Can you do Gun Cay as a day trip from Miami?
Yes and it is the only sensible way to do it, because nobody stays on the cay. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting rather than turning around, so six hours at the cay means six hours.
Both borders are filed in advance from our side and the clearance stop is planned into the hours the officers keep, so the day needs nothing on your list. Nothing about it is shared with anyone.
How late can we fly back from Gun Cay on the same day?
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. The clearance on the way home runs through a manned desk as well and those hours close earlier than the sun.
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.
How many people can fly to Gun Cay on one charter?
Up to nine. 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 of the nine are usable on your date depends on the payload once baggage is aboard, so the final figure is confirmed with the quote. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.
What can we take to Gun Cay and can we bring rods or snorkelling gear?
Rods, snorkelling 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.
There is nothing to hire at the cay, so whatever the afternoon needs travels with you or comes out on the boat meeting you.
What happens if the weather stops the Gun Cay flight?
Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility and this cay is more exposed than a harbour, so a departure can move on a day that looks clear from the beach. 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.
Is it better to fly to Gun Cay or to take a boat from Bimini?
It depends where the day starts. From Bimini it is about nine miles by water and a boat does it comfortably, so a party already staying there has no reason to fly the last leg.
From Miami the boat option means crossing the Gulf Stream first, which is a morning rather than half an hour and is weather dependent in a way a chartered aircraft is not. Flying puts you on the sand with the day still ahead of you.
Can you fly to Gun Cay from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. Gun Cay is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the crossing from Fort Lauderdale is a few miles longer than the one from Miami, which is worth very little once the drive is counted. The right departure point is the one closest to where you are staying, not the one closest to the cay. Say where the morning starts and the answer comes back with it already chosen.
Can the seaplane take us on from Gun Cay to another island the same day?
Yes. Gun Cay sits at the western edge of the bank rather than at the end of the chain and the same aircraft carries on to Bimini, Cat Cay, Nassau, Andros and the Exumas.
Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the timing and the clearance is planned around the port of entry rather than around the stop you want. For a yacht 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.
Can I bring a pet on a seaplane charter?
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.
Next Step
Ready to Book a Seaplane Charter Miami to Gun Cay?
Send the departure point, the party size and from when to when. Nothing else needs planning: you get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the Gun Cay day costs.
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