Ocean speedway to Bahamas.

• Author: Luxner, Larry
• Position: Americas iojo!

A NEW FLORIDA -- BASED catamaran service has begun ferrying hundreds of passengers to Grand Bahama Island every day, boosting visitor arrivals to a ninety-mile-long Caribbean island in the midst of its own tourism renaissance.

Bahamas Florida Express went into business last November, offering daily 4 p.m. departures front Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades to Lucayan Harbor. The return trip leaves each day at 10 a.m., with the voyage taking only two hours in each direction.

The Australian-built catamaran, nicknamed "the Cat," carries up to nine hundred passengers at speeds as high as fifty miles per hour, though the ride is amazingly smooth. And if the spectacular ocean view through huge glass observation windows isn't enough to keep passengers busy, the Cat offers two TV-movie lounge areas, an eight hundred square foot duty-free gift shop, a cafeteria, two beverage bars, and a casino with seventy-five slot machines.

"It's a totally different experience than flying," says George Bradley, Jr., chief marketing officer at Bahamas Florida Express. "For the first time, travelers from around the world can arrive in Fort Lauderdale by air or automobile and make it to Grand Bahama the same day in time for dinner."

Bahamas Florida Express charges $129 to $189 per person round trip, depending on seating preference. Children aged three to seventeen travel for $70 round-trip; kids under three travel free.

"I think we're a tremendous value for the family market," says Bradley. "When you compare that with the cost of four airline...