Video: Riding From Pensacola, FL to Abaco, Bahamas By WaveRunner

Sure, it took 7 days, with three supercharged Yamaha FX WaveRunners and a 22-foot Bay boat traveling 629 miles, but it turned into a lifetime’s worth of memories! After a year’s worth of planning and preparation, a group of five started the 10 hour drive from Pace, FL to Boynton Beach. From Boynton Beach Inlet, the four vessels left at daybreak, making it to West End in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

“After that,” Tim Golden writes, “things got interesting.” One of the skis began taking on water while a couple of the racks snapped under the harsh conditions. Others ran aground, some lost gas cans, and one of the skis ran out of gas. After a grueling 12 hours, the group finally made it to Abaco. There, they welcomed three more who joined the fun by plane. Together, they rode and explored for nearly a week, traveling to several secluded Cays and beaches before having to turn back for home.

Tim writes, “Due to poor weather forecasted for our return trip, we decided to leave a day early and break [the return trip] into 2 days.” Leaving from Treasure Cay at first daylight on Friday, the riders encountered 4-to-5 footers for a solid 9 hours before finally arriving in Freeport, Bahamas. There, they stayed the night and fueled up for the next morning’s crossing.

“The boat took some damage,” Tim writes. “The center console and T-top came loose and we had to strap each corner of the T-Top to cleats to keep the center console from coming completely loose. As daylight came the morning of the crossing, we left the inlet to see 7-to-9 foot rollers, which resulted in another long day. [And a] long day it was: 9 hours!”