Bahamas Bound

WHEW!!! The pups have their required paperwork. We have WAY too many groceries onboard. The Mabru crew worked their magic and both of our HVAC systems are operational. AND we have two full tanks of diesel, plus 30 extra gallons in fuel bladders. We are ready to head out! I think I mentioned in the last blog post that our plan was to sail south, really motor south as the winds were out of the south, to Biscayne Bay on Friday and then sail to Bimini on Saturday. I will explain why it makes sense for us to go south before crossing in a bit. Unfortunately, all of the events of Friday morning started later and took longer than we had planned. We were hoping to leave the marina by about noon and sail to Biscayne Bay. However, we weren’t ready to leave the marina until 3 pm.

We were specifically headed to No Name Harbor. This sets us up nicely to take advantage of the 2.5 - 3.0 knot current in the Gulf Stream on our way to Bimini. If we don’t first go south then we end up fighting that current for most of the trip. However, because of that current, it would take us about 7 hours to get to No Name where we would anchor for the night. We were planning on then leaving No Name by 6:30 in the morning. After much discussion, we decided that we would just skip No Name and do an overnight trip to Bimini. After further discussion, we decided to still head south until we were just offshore of Miami and then turn toward the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the wind was out of the south, so were not able to sail for that portion of the trip. However, once we made the turn toward Bimini, we had nice winds for crossing the Gulfstream, and the sea state was not as big as the forecasts had indicated. WHEW!!!

The crossing was as uneventful as we could have hoped for. We have done this crossing three times now, and this was by far the best conditions we have had. The sea state was not as big as was forecasted and the winds ended up being more favorable than predicted. YAY!!!  Dave took the first watch while I tried to get some rest. We take 4-hour shifts. This means that while one person is on watch the other is trying to get some rest so that they are ready to take the next watch. My watch began at 8:30 pm and was mostly uneventful. Just before Dave went to take a nap we put up the sails and made our turn toward the southeast. The current was definitely pushing us north, so we couldn’t just turn to the east as one might expect. We have to point a little to the south so that we don’t get pushed too far north. While on watch, I passed the time by watching a movie and listening to an audiobook. I was pleased that I really didn’t have an issue with seasickness at all on this trip. I think that the new medication I am taking is definitely helping. Dave was ready to take over the watch at 12:30 and I was ready to get some serious sleep, and sleep I did. I slept hard for about 3.5 hours and took over the watch at 4:30. When I went to the helm, I was surprised to find that we could already clearly see the lights of Bimini. In fact, Dave said that he had been trying to slow us down for most of his watch. That may sound silly, as you would think we would want to finish our passage as soon as possible; however, going into shallow cuts in the dark is generally something we would like to avoid. As our friend and mentor Rick says, “Remember rule number 1: Don’t hit anything hard.” Going into shallow cuts without good light can lead to us breaking rule number 1. As a result, I spent my shift also trying to slow us down. I reefed the genoa and turned us off course and more into the wind. Before Dave went to catch a nap, we decided that he would only sleep and hour and a half. We would then anchor outside of Bimini, and both get some sleep. It sounded like a great plan. In fact, it was a great plan. However, we dropped anchor 4 different times and could not get it to set. Instead, it just kept dragging across the rocky bottom. We finally gave up and went back out to deep water. We would just drift offshore for a couple of hours and make our entrance to the cut after sunrise.  Once the sun was up, and the tide was almost high, we headed into the cut and made our way to Big Game Marina. We were incredibly happy to throw the dock master our lines, tie off securely, and get some rest. However, first…Dave had to go check in with immigration and customs. THEN we took a long nap. Now that we are in the Bahamas we can begin to really start to cruise, but first, we have to make another 14-hour passage to the Berry Islands. I will tell you all about that in my next post.