The Exumas and Harbour Island in ten nights

Board at Albany and go, four hours across the Yellow Bank with lunch under way. Highbourne for the night, with the nurse sharks off the marina dock, and the tender to Allen's Cay next door, where the endangered rock iguanas come down the beach to meet anyone with a piece of fruit. Before the move in the morning, walk from the marina across to Horseshoe Bay: a white beach with hammocks and pontoons, a little bar on the sand that opens at midday if you call ahead, and buggies for anyone who would rather ride. Grapes for the iguanas.

• Straight out from the airport
• The iguanas of Allen's Cay
• Nurse sharks at Highbourne

Tender into the marina and walk the island until it opens onto the west beach, with chairs on the sand and piña coladas waiting. Burgers at MacDuff's, buggies back for anyone who wants one. In the afternoon, snorkel the cartel's DC-3 drug plane lying in the shallows off the lagoon.

• The long walk to the west beach
• Piña coladas, then burgers at MacDuff's
• The DC-3 in six feet of water

The park headquarters, with the moorings in a crescent of sand round a sandbar that appears at low tide. Boo Boo Hill with a piece of driftwood for the pile, jet skis round the cays, a drift snorkel over a reef nobody fishes.

• Boo Boo Hill
• Jet skis round the sandbar
• The protected reef

Feeding and swimming with the pigs first, by tender or jet ski before the day boats arrive. Thunderball Grotto at low tide. Then Staniel Cay Yacht Club for drinks and pool, and the nurse sharks gathering under the dock at sunset.

• Carrots for the pigs at Big Major
• Thunderball Grotto
• The yacht club, then the sharks at sunset

A second night, same anchorage or round the island. The float-off day: pool off the boat, mats and loungers in, the esky with them, and the afternoon drifts by. A torch-lit dinner on an empty beach nearby in the evening.

• The float-off
• A new side of the island
• Dinner on the sand by torchlight

Swim with the nurse sharks at the Compass Cay dock, walk to Crescent Beach on the Atlantic side, and find Rachel's Bubble Bath at the north end if the swell is running. The beach picnic in your own bay at Pipe Cay, and sunset drinks in the creek.

• Nurse sharks at Compass Cay
• The Pipe Cay picnic
• Sunset in Pipe Creek

The mangrove creeks by jet ski, tender and paddleboard through to Driftwood Beach, and the washing machine when the tide is right: noodles, in one side, round to the other. The last Exumas night, and the closest point to Eleuthera for tomorrow.

• Through the creeks to the Atlantic beach
• The washing machine
• Last night in the park

The one sea day, across the deep blue of Exuma Sound with breakfast and lunch under way and the fishing lines out behind. Eleuthera's capital is a town of pastel houses on a hill above a wide bay, with French Leave Beach on the Atlantic side a short walk over. If it is a Friday, the whole town is at the fish fry on the beach.

• A sea day with the lines out
• Pastel Governor's Harbour
• The Friday fish fry, if it falls right

Three hours up the coast and round into the harbour. Harbour Island is like going back in time: pastel clapboard houses with picket fences, golf carts, and the oldest settlement in the Bahamas. Walk the streets of Dunmore Town in the afternoon, then the whole of Pink Sands Beach, three miles of it, before dinner at the Landing or Rock House.

• Dunmore Town on foot and by golf cart
• Pink Sands Beach, all three miles
• Dinner at the Landing or Rock House

Ellie's Harbour Island day. Ride horses along Pink Sands in the morning, get around the island by golf buggy, and have a long lunch at the Dunmore, the hotel on the beach, with another walk along the sand before or after. Swim with the turtles where the crew know they gather on the way back to the boat, dolphins if you are lucky, and come back ashore for pre-dinner drinks on the Dunmore's beach chairs. Sip Sip for the lobster quesadilla if lunch runs to two. Vic-Hum Club later for anyone who wants to dance in a room with a basketball court.

• Horse riding on Pink Sands
• Swim with the turtles on the way back to the boat
• Lunch at the Dunmore, pre-dinner drinks on its beach chairs

Fly out of North Eleuthera, ten minutes away by water taxi, with connections through Nassau and direct flights to Florida. Or the yacht leaves at dawn through Current Cut and Spanish Wells and has you at Albany for an afternoon flight from Nassau.

• North Eleuthera, ten minutes by water taxi
• Or back to Nassau over the morning