Seaplane from Miami to Marsh Harbour

About 80 minutes in the air. Marsh Harbour lies roughly 201 statute miles from downtown Miami, close to 175 nautical and the line runs east past Grand Bahama and over the Little Bahama Bank.

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 and how long the aircraft waits for you.

Yes. Marsh Harbour 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.

A seaplane comes down on the Sea of Abaco, the sheltered strip of water between Great Abaco and the barrier cays, rather than on the runway at Leonard M. Thompson International, MHH and MYAM, on the edge of town.

Both put you in the same settlement. The difference is what the day starts next to: on floats you are at the water the ferries and the boats leave from, which is where most Abaco days begin anyway.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Marsh Harbour is one of them, by air at the international airport and by water at the harbour. So you clear in the town you were heading for rather than at a detour.

The officers keep daytime hours, which is why an early departure is worth more than a late one. If your day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, a cay across the water or a private dock, the aircraft clears here first and flies on. None of the paperwork is yours.

Yes and it is a common way parties do it. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting on the island rather than turning around, and you tell the crew when you want to leave.

Both borders are filed in advance from our side and the clearance is planned into the hours the officers keep, so the day needs nothing on your list. Nothing about it is shared with anyone.

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 customs desk closes earlier than the sun does, so in practice the desk sets the return.

Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote rather than from a table. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.

The aircraft is chartered whole, 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.

The Marls draw enough fly rods that this comes up on most Abaco bookings. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.

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 Sea of Abaco is sheltered water, which helps at the island end but decides nothing about the crossing. The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest and you are told before you book how a moved departure is handled.

Yes, once the clearance is done. A seaplane needs water rather than a runway, so after the aircraft has cleared at a port of entry it can carry on and set the party down almost anywhere: Elbow Cay, Great Guana Cay, Treasure Cay, Green Turtle Cay, a resort dock or alongside a boat in the Sea of Abaco.

That is the order that matters and the only fixed point in it: customs first at the port of entry, then the aircraft goes where you are going. Say it when you send the date, because the second leg changes the timing. Many parties do the last hop by boat instead, the ferry docks are minutes from the water.

Yes. Marsh Harbour is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the crossing from Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach is marginally shorter 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 island. Say where the morning starts and the answer comes back with it already chosen.

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 island.

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

Abaco is the northern end of the Bahamas, a chain of islands and cays about 200 miles east of Miami, with Great Abaco as the mainland and Marsh Harbour as its largest town and the third largest settlement in the country.

It holds the deepest and best sheltered harbour in the group, which is why the boats, the ferries and the provisioning are all here. The cays with the beaches and the villages sit across the water from it, minutes away.

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.