It is a bit more 3rd Worldish than I had imagined, and does not have the same tropical look as the Caribbean islands to my eye. Also, the weather is your adversary to a greater degree than many places we have cruised due to the frequent frontal passages compared to deeper in the trade belt. It would be less so once you had visited awhile, because it is clear that the cruising guides of the area are quite conservative in their recommendations and advice on anchorages; also the weather reports (while we have been here at least) are pessimistic compared to the actual conditions realized. On my second trip here I would be much more comfortable with both. There is also no great problem in finding an anchorage a lot of places in the Exumas with few if any other boats, but harder when your draft exceeds 5 ft. A catamaran makes a great deal of sense here.

I am always happy to have seen a place at least once. But one only has a few years on earth and so has to pick repeats carefully - there is so much of it to see.

When I am done with a season I usually ask myself, "how far out of the way would I sail to visit this area again?". For my own taste, while I was happy to have cruised Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake once, they were not my cup of tea and I would not go back a second time. I am not that interested in culture or architecture, but rather geography and these places have uninteresting geography. If there must be culture then I would prefer it suited my needs rather than being there but largely broken. Another personal peculiarity is that being fair haired and light skinned I consider 55 degrees more comfortable than 80, particularly if there is humidity involved. This makes the east coast of any continent problematic! I believe you are right that one of the things that makes the Bahamas attractive to east coast residents is that the climate where they live is so epically bad. I pick this up in conversation with a large percentage of cruisers here, who’s frequent comments are they would rather be here than in the freezing weather back home. If you already live in a decent climate, then this is certainly less of an attraction.

On our current binge since 2009, I think we both enjoyed Georgian Bay, Atlantic Canada (particularly Nova Scotia and Newfoundland), and Maine; and would count them as the only places we might wish to spend more of our limited time. I’m sure other people would have widely different opinions on this just as tastes and interests vary widely.