The Crossing

On Friday, the forecast beyond Saturday looked bad.  Even though Saturday didn’t look like the best, it was an acceptable window.  The winds were to be out of the east (directly on our nose), but not much more than 15 kts.

At 5:00 AM on Saturday 12/8, we pulled anchor behind Key Biscayne and started our crossing to Bimini.  Since it was dark, and the channel out winds through “Stiltsville”, we went slowly.   We exited Biscayne Channel at Fowey Rocks light at 7:00 AM.  Within an hour we were in the Gulf Stream.  The water temp went up to 79.8 and the depth was over 2,000 ft.  We were on our way.

While we had planned on fishing, we felt it was a little too rough to deal with a fish in case we caught one.  Sorry Scott…no fish stories yet.

It was a fairly straight shot for around 8 hours.  We had to head further south to compensate for the flow of the Gulf Stream…around 2 – 3 kts.  In fact Kim slept much of the way.  She called it “resting”, but snoring is more than resting.

Then we see the beautiful water of the Bahamas.  The depth is still around 2,000 ft until about a half mile off Bimini.

Upon entering the harbor, we tied up at a marina in order to clear Customs and Immigration.  We had to fly the quarantine flag until we cleared.  Then we are required to fly the Bahamian courtesy flag for the duration of our stay in the Bahamas.

The first night in Bimini had us ordering dinner at the Big Game Club.  We had conch nuggets and grouper.  Wow, on all counts.

Since the next leg of our trip is across the Bahamas Bank for 70 miles, we’re waiting for the wind to let up a little.  It’s blowing 18 – 20 kts. out of the east, and that’s where we want to go.

So we’re just “hangin” in Bimini…not a bad place to hang out eating conch, grouper, and drinking rum.  There are some pictures of the beach bar where we watch the sunset.  We call it the Morton’s of Bimini Lounge.  Check out the picture and you’ll know what we mean.

That’s all for now…

Steve and Kim