Exuma Bank vs Exuma Sound: choosing your side of the chain

The Exuma chain splits your route in two. West of the cays lies the shallow Bank, and east of them lies deep Exuma Sound, which sits southeast of New Providence and Eleuthera and west of Cat Island¹. This page helps you choose a side before you leave, as part of the boating guide.

How deep is the Exuma Bank compared with Exuma Sound?

The gap is enormous. Great Bahama Bank water is generally no deeper than 80 feet, and the slopes at its edges, such as the Tongue of the Ocean, fall away steeply⁶. Exuma Sound reaches a maximum depth of 6,699 feet¹. Local fishing follows the same split: the shallower southern or western side on one hand, the deep water of the Sound on the other².

	Exuma Bank	Exuma Sound
Side of the chain	West / south	East
Depth	Generally 80 ft or less6	Up to 6,699 ft1
What it means for you	Draft and tide decide where you can go7	Deep water; check the swell forecast for the cuts5

Which side should I run?

Three questions decide it: draft, tide and swell.

Draft and tide. The Bahamas tidal range is 2.5 to 3 feet, and charter guidance calls close attention to the tide “extremely important” when underway and when entering or leaving harbours⁷. Boats with deeper keels plan around it. One cruising crew on a 6.5-foot-draft boat reported in June 2026 that a couple of their anchorages could only be entered and left at high tide⁸. Take depths from a current chart and the tide table for the day, not from a guide page.

Swell. Bahamas Met’s bulletin of 17 October 2026 warned that swells would break heavily across reefs, cuts and harbour entrances, with seas of 7 to 11 feet on the Atlantic exposures of the Central and Southeast Bahamas even though local winds were only 10 to 15 knots⁵. Check the forecast for the side you plan to run and for every cut you plan to use. The weather windows page explains how to plan around fronts, and the page on cuts and tides in the Exumas covers how to read a cut before you commit.

Where you stop. Plan your crossings first, then build the days around them. Starting from Nassau? The Nassau to the Exumas by boat page gives the leg distances and times.

What does the Sound side look like inside the park?

You see it from the anchorages even when you never leave the Bank. At Warderick Wells, the trail to Boo Boo Hill looks over the island, the anchorage and Exuma Sound⁷. Shroud Cay has a beach and swimming hole on its ocean side⁷. In June 2026, a cruising crew with a dinghy explored the Exuma Sound side of Hawksbill Cay and Shroud Cay, reefs they normally cannot reach safely, and picked a calm, windless day to do it⁸.

Which park rules apply on either side?

The same park rules apply on both sides of the chain. Read the park rules and the anchoring rules before you arrive, and see the park fees and mooring fees page for what you pay.

Call “Exuma Park” on VHF channel 09 to reach the park office. It sits on a remote small island, so contacting it can sometimes be challenging³. Channel 16 is monitored 24 hours a day for emergencies, and the Bahamas Defence Force can be reached there³. The VHF channels guide lists the channels cruisers use across the chain. Exuma waters reward attention to reef locations and tides⁴.