Seaplane from Miami to Mayaguana

Abraham's Bay lies roughly 513 statute miles southeast of downtown Miami, about 446 nautical and almost all of it is open water. That makes it the longest crossing on our seaplane map: Mayaguana is the easternmost island in the Bahamas, further from Nassau than Nassau is from Florida. Block time depends on the aircraft chosen for the leg and the departure point, so it comes with the boarding time rather than being promised in advance.

Yes. Mayaguana 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.

On the water. The island's runway sits inland and dates from a 1950s American tracking station, which is why it is far longer than an island of two hundred people would ever have built for itself and also why it is nowhere near most of what people come for.

A seaplane puts the party down at the shoreline instead. Where exactly depends on the wind, the sea state and the day and it is agreed before you travel rather than decided on arrival.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Abraham's Bay on Mayaguana is on the customs department's own list of them.

Which port your date clears at still depends on the aircraft, the routing and the hours the officers keep, so it is named in your itinerary. A clearance outside normal hours carries an overtime fee paid to the officers. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance.

Honestly, not well. At about 513 statute miles each way it is the wrong shape for a day: the water landing window closes 30 minutes before sunset and the customs desks close earlier still, so a same-day return leaves very little time on the island.

Parties who want a day on the water are better served closer in. Mayaguana is worth the flight when you are staying and most enquiries for it are for several days or for a leg of a longer itinerary.

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 and on a leg this long that end arrives earlier than people expect.

Bahamian customs desks keep daytime hours and close before the sun does, so in practice the desk sets the departure. Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest useful departure for your date comes with the quote.

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 fuel and baggage are aboard and fuel matters more on this route than on a short one. 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.

On a leg of this length fuel takes its share of that calculation first. 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 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.

By airline, through Nassau. Bahamasair serves the island on its own schedule, which means the trip out is a flight to Nassau, a wait and then a second flight and the return works the same way. That is the trade a charter removes: one aircraft, your dates, no connection to miss. There is no ferry from Florida to this end of the Bahamas.

Fishing and water, mostly. The flats and creeks behind Abraham's Bay hold bonefish, the reef offshore drops into wall diving in the 45 to 60 foot range and there is a cave system as well.

Booby Cay off the east end carries brown boobies and rock iguanas found nowhere else. The beaches are long and empty and the three settlements between them hold about two hundred people. If you want restaurants and marinas, this is the wrong island and we will say so.

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 and fuel are aboard and how long the aircraft stays with you.

A leg this long carries more fuel and more crew time than a short crossing and that is in the number rather than added later. Tell us those and you get one all-in figure before anything is due, with Bahamian and US entry fees inside it.

Yes. On this route it is often the point: the same aircraft carries on to Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Island, San Salvador, the Exumas and Nassau and the chain is under the floats on the way down anyway.

Say so when you send the dates, 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 an empty 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.