2024: Bimini Bahamas

 3 March 2024

Depart: Pumpkin Key anchorage near Key Largo 8:05
Arrive: Bimini, Bahamas - Blue Water Marina  ~ 3:30
Distance: 62 nm
Conditions: Unpleasant start with 4’ waves on bow; smoothed out but still a bit bouncy once we got in Gulf Stream

 Today did not start out well. During the night we were both woken suddenly by a large bang. To me it sounded like something fell – like a picture off a wall. Clark, however, immediately ran outside to check the anchor and boat for issues. When he returned saying everything looked okay outside, he found the hard plastic shade for our porthole / portlight was on the floor. What a lot of noise for a piece of plastic! Clark thought the anchor hit a rock!

Then, this morning, we found when using our main toilet that we have a very odiferous leak coming from somewhere which we cannot identify. The stench it produced was unbelievably nauseating. We have seen this a couple of times before. Clark did an initial wipe up. Then, while  Clark prepped the boat for departure, I finished cleaning up the mess using Clorox wipes to disinfect the area. Gross! Thank goodness we have a second toilet!

With all the unexpected nonsense, we finally had the anchor up and were sailing away from Pumpkin Key just after 8:00. Clark gave me navigation details to use avoiding a shoal area. Once past that, we headed towards Angelfish Creek to start our day-long trek to Bimini to check into the Bahamas.

We were not the only ones crossing from Florida to the Bahamas today. As we traveled towards the Gulf Stream, we saw a sailboat parallel to our course named “Paper Sails”. Clark said that Nebo showed them as Great Looper folks. Also, we knew that “Done Saving” was traveling across today. Having left from different origins, it took a while, but we finally got close enough to talk to them on the VHF radio to check in.

Besides these pleasure boats, we did see some ships. We encountered several of what Clark refers to as “the big boys” along the way. At least two were container ships from Seaboard. When we got to Bimini, we saw a Carnival Cruise Ship there.

Seaboard Blue

Besides big boats and little boats, Clark spied several Man-o-War / jelly fish float by. He pointed out one to me. It was huge and just floating along with not a care in the world! I might have spied a sea turtle, but it disappeared under water before I could get a good look.

Because of the Gulf Stream influence on travel direction and speed, we headed due east to get to Bimini. When we hit the Gulf Stream, our course over ground changed to include a northerly component and our speed increased by around 2 knots. We went from 8.4 knots to 10.0 knots without doing anything to make that happen except hit the Gulf Stream.

Red line from bow of boat is our heading
Green line at angle shows our actual path

As we approached Bimini, the water changed color to a magnificent turquoise. Even though we traveled here in 2016, we still found it amazing to see the brilliance of the color.

We had a little trouble spotting the marina from the water. The dockmaster talked us in and greeted us at our assigned dock. When Clark saw the dock, he said, “Oh man! That’s tight!” I acted as his eyes in the stern and told him when he could start backing into the slip. He was quite concerned he would hit something given the maneuvering he had to do to get in there. Besides being tight from side to side, it was also several feet short to accommodate our boat, so we stick out into the fairway.

 As we tied up our lines, the dockmaster pointed out the two big sharks were prowling the slips. He recommended we not jump in for a swim.  I tried to get in a position to get a picture but could not get a good angle. I did spy a ray and snapped a shot. He came in after the sharks left.

Clark said looking into the water here is like looking into a swimming pool!

 Just before we came into dock, Clark put up the yellow quarantine flag to show we had not yet checked into the country. Until the captain has checked in, no one (like me) is allowed off the boat. Once we had the lines in place and the power plugged in, he grabbed the paperwork and our passports and walked down to the immigration office.

While he was gone, I tidied up the dock lines and then, since we had shore power, I pulled out what I needed to make Clark his applesauce cake. I did not start mixing and baking until he returned saying everything went well. I assumed there would be no complications, but I did not want to take the chance on being in the middle of cooking and have to stop to do something critical like move the boat.

When he returned, he replaced the Quarantine flag with the Bahamas flag, and I started cooking!

While admiring the Bahamas flag, I got a chance to look at the lettering we did at Pumpkin Key. Standing on the white, canvas-covered railing (as seen in the picture), while hanging onto the boat by my fingers under the dinghy, I could not see more than a couple of letters at a time then. Now I got the whole picture. It literally took me hours to draw, cut, and apply the letters, but we are quite happy with the end result.

Clark was non-stop busy since we arrived taking care of Bahamas business and trying to get the Bahamas phone number to be functional. He was gone from the boat for a while. When he returned, I said I wanted to go for a walk to stretch my legs. He was reluctant and said there was nothing to see, but I convinced him to walk the docks with me just so I could get off the boat.

Blue Water Resort
(not quite as glamorous as Marlin Bay)

Bad Captain boating .com

As we strolled around, we saw two rusty cannons on either side of the marina entrance.

Then I saw something I have not seen in a while - a phone booth!

As we were walking by the entrance, the folks from “Done Saving” just happened to be walking by to go out to dinner. We chatted for a while. As we talked vehicles (mostly golf carts) sped by at fast speeds. It is a skinny lane, and the four folks off “Done Saving” were on the edge of the path. I was a little anxious for their safety.

 After our walk, Clark went off to take a shower while went to start making dinner. When I went to add the spaghetti to the boiling water, I found numerous black bugs crawling in the spaghetti box. When I looked, I found many more crawling around in my food cabinet. Little black crawly bugs were hiding in among everything in the cabinet. It all had to come out and get scrubbed. Clearly the spaghetti had to be pitched in the garbage. Clark joked about extra protein, but I doubt he wanted to eat it.

Dinner had to wait while I dealt with this minor disaster. By the time I was done, I was hot, sweaty, and felt like bugs were crawling all over me. Clark told me to go take a proper shower up at the marina, so I abandoned dinner and went for a wash! We finally ate dinner at 8:30 which is quite late for us.

 Later, after dinner, Clark gave a yip which I thought meant something bad, but it turned out to be good as he saw his Bahamas cellphone number had been activated! We are using that for WiFi for the Blog!

 I had hoped to capture a sunset picture tonight, but with all the craziness, I forgot to look. Late afternoon, it looked to threaten rain, but we never saw any. I was actually chilly on the crossing and put on a sweater to keep warm. Then had to strip it off in a hurry to dock to avoid melting!

 Tomorrow we head to Chubb Key as we start making out way to the Exumas for the SSCA event mid-month.