Total DXpedition statistics including the contest:
617 QSO's: 589 SSB, 28 CW
30M: 6
20M: 591
17M: 20
78 countries
After a few days of reflection, I'm not as disappointed in the overall results as I initially was.
Although it may not seem like much, I did successfully setup a portable DX operation with homebrew antennas by myself for the first time ever. This is significant to me because if you look up the word "appliance operator" in the dictionary, I believe there is a picture of me shown. My previous operations (VP2MW, ZF2TG, V31RR) all had antennas and stations already set up-I brought and set up everything myself this time.
Most importantly, to paraphrase Thomas Edison I discovered a 1000 ways NOT to do a DXpedition and have made several key learnings I will use on future operations such as:
1. Never arrive later than Wednesday for a contest that starts Friday evening. The day of arrival always seems to be taken getting aquainted with the surroundings and the real work doesn't begin until the second day. Arriving on Thursday puts too much pressure on getting things set up on Friday before the contest.
2. Have all antennas measured and tested before arrival, if possible. I spent way too much time getting the loops measured and tuned on Friday.
3. Doing everything by yourself is hard. Next time I'm going to try to get a helper, hopefully someone that can climb.
4. Know your location before going. Although I had done some research on Google Earth, it's hard to get a full impression without being there. If I had, I would have put the antennas much closer to the beach as there was easier access than I had thought. The flat location with no elevation was probably suited much better to verticals close to ocean than the loop and inverted vee I went with. Those extra dB's sure would have helped. Now I know why big DXpeditions do site surveys several months before they go.
5. Pick a location and a band suited to the contest you are operating. 20M from the Bahamas using low wire antennas was a competitive disadvantage. The Bahamas are too far west in low sunspot conditions to expect much from Europe with my low wire antennas. In general an island in the eastern Caribbean is a much better choice for CQWW. However, I think the Bahamas is an ideal QTH for the ARRL contests (ARRL DX, 160M etc) where you only work the U.S. For CQWW to have a chance from C6 you need either high directional antennas on 20M or more sunspots.
6. Directional antennas with gain are good, even on an island. Being on a Caribbean island with an exotic callsign doesn't automatically mean you are going to be loud. I took that for granted, not realizing the reason I felt loud on previous trips was due in large part to better antennas.
7. If you can't run BOTH U.S. and EU in CQWW you can't win. See above. I could run U.S. but couldn't run EU and therefore I had no chance.
All of the above said, I don't want to leave the impression I didn't have a great time because I did. CQWW is always fun and I'm one big step closer to getting this thing right.
Next stop Dominica as J75W in CQWW CW!!
We put up 2 antennas. A delta loop in the backyard behind the cottage broadside to North America and a square loop across the street broadside to Europe. Here is a view of the EU loop. It is hard to see, but the loop is betwen the fourth and sixth trees from the left: 
The early results of these antennas are amazing. I was working loud EU pileups on my CQ an hour before sunset. I had so many calling I had to go split and even that was unmanageable at times. When I switched to the NA antenna, NA signals came way up. This looks like a great combination so I can null out 2 point NA signals to concentrate on 3 point EUs. What I've seen of the island looks beautiful. This is a very mountainous, jungle-filled island and very green. I hope to do some exploring Monday-Wednesday after the contest. The location here at seacliff seems perfect for radio. It overlooks the northeast coast of the island and is at a pretty good height above the sea. I'm sure most of the outstanding antenna results are due to the location. I rented the one bedroom cottage. It has no air conditioning, but a ceiling fan is really all that is necessary to keep it cool as the temps are in the low 80's in the daytime and mid 70's at night. We have gotten a couple of rainshowers during the day and evening to cool things even more. It also has great WiFi internet access. Here's a picture of the cottage from the front: 
Here is the view across the street to the Northeast. This is the same view the EU loop has.... 
CQWW is less than 24 hours away. I feel this is going to be a lot better result than I put up in C6.
