I was recently asked about the details for mailing or shipping things to the island and it occurred to me that it would be a useful post to this blog. These details apply to Abaco Island but there will be similarities with other islands in the Bahamas however the less populated ones will probably not have direct freight services to Florida. For instance, San Salvador and Cat Island only have freight services on the “Mailboat” to Nassau therefore all goods have to transit New Providence and then get on another vessel to the island. Abaco has enough business activity to support multiple commercial shipping services with direct service to Florida and New Providence.

Shipping and getting mail to Abaco is a complex question to answer.

If you need mail to Abaco you can try to get a mail box at the MH govt complex however i have been waiting for one for 18 years. 

You could have mail sent to :

Your Name,

General Delivery, 

Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island,

Bahamas.

With the “General Delivery”, they will hold it for you at the Marsh Harbour post office and you would go in there periodically to find out if they have anything for you.  I suggest planning on 6 to 52 weeks for delivery of mail to the island.

Other, more reliable options are to set up an account with one of the freight forwarders.  Abaco Air, Tropix, or SEC Freight are 3 options.  The freight forwarder can receive your snail mail and delivery to MH where you can pick up.

These companies also offer freight services.  I typically use Abaco Freight for smaller items and things that have time sensitivity. Otherwise I like to use SEC Freight who provides consolidation and shipping services but they tend to send by boat instead of plane which means delivery takes a little bit longer. 

If you are shipping larger things like cars or building materials or a whole container loads, you can contact Abaco Shipping Ltd. M/V Duke of Topsail.  https://www.unitedabacoshipping.com/

Other freight boats servicing Abaco include Centauri, Tropical Shipping (www.Tropical.com), Seacor and Deans Shipping (m/v Legacy).