Seattle to the Bahamas: Getting the kayak there

When my wife emailed me that she had found an online coupon to stay at an all-inclusive resort on Grand Bahama island, I was totally stoked.  The only thing was, I needed a new suitcase to take our double kayak with us.
I had carried on our Innova Safari on our last trip to North Carolina, and I had borrowed luggage to take our Innova Helios II and one of our Innova Safaris to Key West last year. 

Since the flight was international they allowed us to check one free bag each. We ended up fitting the double kayak (Helios II) and all of the extra gear (pumps, oars, PFDs, our clothes, etc.) into two bags - one large, one carry-on size. The airline let us slide a little, the big suitcase was 2.5 lbs over the 50 lb limit, but we were off.

Seattle to Chicago. Chicago to Miami. Miami to Freeport.

After a quick $25 cab ride to the resort(no need to exchange money in the Bahamas, the Bahamian dollar is the same as US and they accept both), we sat for a second, and then went to scope out the beach. The next morning we set off on our fist kayak adventure (next blog post). The kayak and gear made it fine, customs didn't even ask me to open the bags (even after I had told them I had a kayak in there!). They laughed at the fact that I brought my own boat and waived us through.
~Paul & Amber   ETC