The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Ragged Island by Private Charter
Ragged Island is the last inhabited island in the Bahamas going south and a seaplane is the only way there that ends on the water rather than on somebody else's timetable. Duncan Town, the one settlement on Ragged Island, lies about 374 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 325 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water.
This is a long crossing rather than a hop, so the aircraft and the routing are decided to your date rather than assumed. The distance is not the difficult part of it.
The difficult part is that Ragged Island is not a port of entry, so the aircraft clears into the country further north and flies the last leg afterwards. That stop is planned into the day from the beginning.
Everything between the slip in Miami and the water off Duncan Town 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.
This is the longest crossing we fly from a seaplane base in Miami and one of several seaplane routes out of the city. What it buys is an island of forty odd people at the end of a hundred and ten miles of empty cays.
Plan Your Ragged Island Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Ragged Island Actually Works
Ragged Island is a different country and it sits at the far end of it, so this day has two border crossings and one extra landing that a short crossing does not. Filed in advance all three are paperwork. Left to the morning they are the reason an itinerary falls apart.
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 Ragged Island CharterDistance and Time
Three hundred and seventy four miles of open water and the aircraft is decided to the leg
Downtown Miami to Ragged Island is roughly 374 statute miles, about 325 nautical, almost all of it water. That is far enough that the airframe, the fuel and the clearance stop are worked out for your date rather than assumed, so the block time comes back with the quote instead of standing here as a promise.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies down together and comes home together
The aircraft stays with you rather than turning around, which matters more on this route than on any short one: there is no second flight down here later in the day.
Water Landing
The floats land on the water where the day actually happens, so there is no runway leg at the end
The island has a single asphalt strip, 3,799 feet by 75, identifiers DCT and MYRD and a seaplane does not need it. The floats put the party down on the water where the boat or the flat actually is.
Each water landing site is approved in advance by the Bahamian civil aviation authority, which is part of what we file. The mechanics sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Ragged Island 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 and Ragged Island is not one
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and the customs list of thirty six does not include Ragged Island. The nearest one with officers stationed is George Town on Great Exuma, about 78 nautical miles north of Ragged Island.
The airport on Long Island is on the list but marked inactive, so it does not help the routing. So the day carries one clearance stop: passports out, forms already filed from Florida and then the last leg south. Customs hours run 09:00 to 17:30, which is the second clock on this route after the daylight.
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.
On a route this long that window is the planning constraint rather than a detail: the return leg, the clearance stop and the daylight all have to fit the same day and both clocks move through the year. A return that would arrive after dark needs a lit runway rather than water.
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 Ragged Island
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 Ragged Island from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Ragged Island 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 Island
Where a Miami to Ragged Island Seaplane Puts You Down
Ragged Island is 8.9 square miles at the bottom of a chain of more than a hundred cays, with one settlement on it and forty four people counted at the 2022 census. The water landing puts the party wherever the day actually happens, which down here is almost never the town.
What follows is what parties come this far for, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Ragged Island CharterThe Flats and the Bonefish
Most Asked For
The flats are why almost everybody comes this far. The concentration of bonefish over the sand in the Ragged Island Range is the one thing every account of the island agrees on and the same water holds permit and mature tarpon rather than only the small stuff.
Fish of fifteen pounds are on record here, permit over twenty five and tarpon over eighty, which is a different order of fishing from a resort flat with a road behind it. The reason is simply that nobody is on it: the whole district counts fewer people than a single hotel further north.
That is why parties book bonefishing and flats access or a full fishing day by seaplane. Rods and gear travel, within the payload for the aircraft on the day and on a leg this long that payload is worth naming when you send the date.
Hog Cay and the Anchorages
Where Boats Sit
Hog Cay lies just north of Ragged Island and is where cruising boats gather. Middle Pen Bay and Lobster Hole Point both give shelter from the prevailing easterlies with good holding in sand close to shore, which in a chain this exposed is the whole reason a boat stops there rather than somewhere else.
On the beach north of Lobster Hole Point there is a covered gathering place with tables, chairs and two fire pits, built and kept up by people from Duncan Town. Every February the island holds a Valentine's Day gathering there, which is about as close as the Ragged Islands come to a season.
If a boat is meeting you, the aircraft can set the party down alongside at anchor rather than at a pier. That is a yacht transfer and on this route it is the most common shape the flight takes. A dock pickup works the same way at the Miami end.
Duncan Town, the Salt and the Lighthouse
The Only Settlement
Duncan Town is the only settlement in the Jumentos and the Ragged Islands and it is named after the man who opened the salt ponds in the late nineteenth century. Salt was the industry here and it peaked in the 1930s, after which people left for islands with more work on them.
What is left is a harbour, a lighthouse and the ponds and families still cut salt from their own plots. Three denominations share the one church. Nearly every house is placed so that it looks at the sea, which tells you most of what you need to know about the place.
Hurricane Irma came straight over the settlement on 8 September 2017 with winds around 185 miles an hour and the island was evacuated. The rebuild went in a direction nowhere else in the country had gone: a solar field started in December 2019 and finished in early February 2020, sized to carry at least ninety percent of the island's power.
The Jumentos Cays Above the Island
A Hundred Cays
The Jumentos and the Ragged Island Range are one crescent of more than a hundred cays running roughly 110 miles, from below the Exumas down to Little Ragged Island at the bottom. Raccoon Cay, Double-Breasted Cay and Hog Cay are the names that come up most and almost all of them are empty.
There is essentially nothing built along it: no fuel, no chandlery, no provisioning worth the word. That is the reason cruising boats treat the chain as an expedition rather than a stop and it is also the reason it looks the way it does.
From a seaplane it is a different proposition, because the aircraft carries what the day needs and puts it on a beach nobody is standing on. That is where a beach picnic goes and water toys if the afternoon is meant to be spent on the water.
Flamingo Cay and the Birds
Halfway Up
Flamingo Cay sits partway up the chain and carries resident birds and the watering holes on it hold the small shrimp that give flamingos their colour in the first place. It is one of the few names in the Jumentos that people outside the Bahamas recognise.
Getting there by boat from Ragged Island is a run of some hours. By air it is minutes, which is the whole argument for coming down here on floats rather than sailing in: the chain stops being a passage and becomes a set of places you can pick from.
Deep Water off the Range
Beyond the Flats
The flats are shallow and the water beside them is not. Grouper, snapper, barracuda, tuna and kingfish are all taken off the Ragged Islands, so a party that wants a rod bent rather than a fish stalked has that within the same day.
Nothing about it is organised the way it is further north. There is no fleet waiting and no counter to book at, so whatever the day needs is arranged before you leave Florida through custom requests rather than found on arrival.
Sailing Sloops and the Regatta
Built on the IslandRagged Islanders build boats. Sloops, booms and masts are made on the island and raced at regattas, which in the Bahamas is a serious business rather than a hobby and it is the other thing the place is known for besides salt and bonefish.
On Pigeon Cay there is a memorial cross to a bishop who died in 1904, which gives some idea of how long people have been working this water. Forty four residents at the last count is a small number to carry that much history.
Onward Up the Chain
Same Aircraft
A seaplane charter Miami to Ragged Island also works as one leg of something longer rather than as the whole trip. North of the Jumentos the same aircraft reaches George Town, Long Island, Black Point and Staniel Cay and the Exumas and further south again Great Inagua.
That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas trip. Because the clearance stop is already in the plan, adding a night in the Exumas on the way down usually costs less time than it sounds. The full island guide sits on the Ragged Island destination 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 Ragged Island?
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 Ragged Island Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Ragged Island: The Long Leg, the Clearance Stop and a Water Landing
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, the chain the island sits at the end of and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Ragged Island: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Ragged Island 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. Duncan Town, the one settlement on Ragged Island, lies about 374 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 325 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water. Seaplane flights from Miami to Ragged Island are a charter rather than a seat and on this route there is no alternative to fall back on: the island is served by a mail boat and by whatever else you arrange. Everything between the slip in Miami and the water off Duncan Town 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. 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 Ragged Island from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Ragged Island
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 Ragged Island 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. Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. And the crossing 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 Ragged Island Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Ragged Island crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Ragged Island 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. 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 Ragged Island: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Ragged Island
A private seaplane from Miami to Ragged Island 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 Ragged Island 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 Ragged Island: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Ragged Island?
Duncan Town lies about 374 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 325 nautical, almost all of it open water. On a leg that long the block time depends on which aircraft flies your date and on where the clearance stop goes, so it comes back with the boarding time rather than standing here as a promise.
What sets the length of the day is the two border filings, the stop in between and how long the aircraft waits for you.
Do I need a passport to fly to Ragged Island?
Yes. Ragged Island 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 Ragged Island and is there an airport?
A seaplane lands on the water, which on this island is the point: the flats, the anchorages and the cays are spread along the chain rather than gathered at the settlement.
There is an airstrip at Duncan Town, one asphalt runway of 3,799 feet by 75, identifiers DCT and MYRD and it is there if the sea state on your date makes it the better answer. Each water landing site is approved in advance by the Bahamian civil aviation authority.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Ragged Island?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Ragged Island is not one of them: the customs list runs to thirty six ports and Duncan Town is not on it. So the aircraft clears further north and flies the last leg afterwards.
The nearest port with officers stationed is George Town on Great Exuma, about 78 nautical miles away. Customs hours run 09:00 to 17:30. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance,
Is Ragged Island a day trip from Miami or an overnight?
That depends on your date rather than on a rule. Three hundred and twenty five nautical miles each way, a clearance stop on the way down and a daylight window that closes 30 minutes before sunset all have to fit the same day.
Most parties who come this far come for the fishing or to join a boat, so the trip is usually built as a stay. Send the dates and the answer comes back with the boarding time and the latest useful departure home.
How late can we fly back from Ragged Island 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 and on this route the clearance stop sits inside that window too.
Customs hours of 09:00 to 17:30 are the second clock. Both 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 Ragged Island on one charter?
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 and the fuel for a long leg are 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.
Can we bring rods and dive gear to the Ragged Island flats?
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 fuel does and on a crossing this long the fuel takes a larger share than usual. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.
What is there to do on Ragged Island?
The flats are the reason most people come. The bonefish concentration in the Ragged Island Range is the one thing every account of the island agrees on and the same water holds permit and tarpon.
Beyond that it is anchorages and empty cays: Hog Cay, Flamingo Cay with its resident birds, Raccoon Cay and the rest of a chain of more than a hundred. Duncan Town has a lighthouse, a harbour and the salt ponds that gave it its name.
What happens if the weather stops the Ragged Island 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. On a long leg with a clearance stop the margin is smaller, so the call is made earlier rather than at the slip.
The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest. Because the aircraft carries only your party, a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.
How else do people reach Ragged Island?
Historically by mail boat, which called about every ten days and that is still the shape of the alternative: something that runs to its own calendar rather than to yours. The island also carries a small airstrip.
What a seaplane changes is the ending: it puts the party on the water where the boat or the flat is, rather than at a strip with the rest of the day still to arrange.
Can you fly to Ragged Island from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. The Ragged Islands are reachable from every departure point in the corridor and over a crossing of this length the difference between them is small once the drive to the water 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.
What does a private seaplane charter from Miami to Ragged Island cost?
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 stays with you.
The clearance stop is part of that number rather than an extra at the end. Tell us those and you get one all-in figure before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside it.
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 Ragged Island?
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 Ragged Island trip costs.
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