The essentials
- Reef-safe sunscreen. The Gulf sun is strong and reflects off the water — apply before you board and reapply. Reef-safe formulas protect our waters.
- Hat & sunglasses. Polarized sunglasses also help you spot dolphins and rays under the surface.
- Water. Bring a bottle to stay hydrated, especially in the warmer months.
- A camera or phone. Dolphins, sunsets and mansions are coming — a strap or floating case is smart near the water.
- Light layers. It’s breezier on the water; a light cover-up is nice, especially on a sunset cruise as the temperature drops.
Nice to have
- A towel and swimsuit if your trip includes a beach or sandbar stop or shelling.
- Water shoes or sandals for wading onto islands.
- A small bag for shells on a shelling trip (see our shelling packing guide).
- Snacks and drinks on a private charter — a small soft cooler is perfect (no glass, please).
- Motion-sickness remedy if you’re prone to it — take it before you board.
What we provide
You don’t need to bring safety gear. Every Sand Dollar trip includes a Coast Guard-approved life jacket for every guest, a USCG-licensed captain, and a clean, well-kept boat. Just tell us about little ones so we have the right-size jackets ready.
What to leave behind
Skip the glass bottles, leave valuables you don’t need at the hotel, and go easy on loose items that can blow away. On a wild island like Keewaydin there are no facilities, so use the restroom before you board and pack out what you bring in.
From the Helm: What the crossing at Caxambas Pass decides about your bag
Guests often step aboard holding a printed packing list and still ask us, right at the rail, whether they really need a jacket. The honest answer depends on something we check before you ever climb down the dock ladder: how the water’s moving through Caxambas Pass that morning. A calm crossing means a warm, breezy ride the whole way out. A choppier one, especially with a fresh wind behind it, means spray coming over the bow and a different answer to that same question ten minutes into the trip. A stiff wind out of the north in the cooler months tends to stack a short, choppy wave right at the pass mouth, which is usually the first real test of whether that light layer stays folded in the bag or comes out before we’ve even cleared the markers.
That’s why the one thing we genuinely wish more guests packed isn’t sunscreen — everyone remembers that — it’s a small zip-top or dry bag for a phone. A wave slapping the hull at the wrong angle can throw a fine mist thirty feet back into the cockpit, and a phone left loose in a lap or an open tote is usually the first casualty. We keep a couple of spares aboard for exactly this reason, but guests who brought their own never had to ask to borrow one, and they got the photos everyone else missed.
The packing list itself stays simple and doesn’t change much trip to trip — sun protection, water, a light layer. What it doesn’t tell you is that the captain is quietly adjusting speed and heading the entire crossing to keep the ride comfortable rather than fast. If the pass is running rough on an outgoing tide, we’ll idle down and take it at an angle instead of punching straight through, and that small adjustment is usually the difference between a dry ride and a soaked one. That kind of correction happens more in winter, when an outgoing tide tends to run harder against a north wind, than in the calmer summer months when the pass usually behaves itself no matter the clock.
On the calmest mornings, when the pass lays down flat and glassy, we’ll sometimes lengthen the ride and swing past a quiet stretch of shoreline before circling back toward the dock, since there’s no chop to fight and no reason to hurry. Guests who packed a light layer “just in case” usually end up not needing it at all on those days, tied loosely around a shoulder instead, while the ones who left it behind wish they hadn’t once the sun starts dropping and the breeze picks back up.
If it’s your first time out with us, our blog has more first-trip tips beyond just packing, and the crossing itself is a fair example of the kind of water our captains are reading before anyone’s even handed a life jacket. Ask about it when you book any of our island and beach tours, since the same read applies no matter which stretch of water we’re crossing that morning.