Paradise Found…..Bimini and Nassau Bahamas

By First Mate – Tamera Buckley

After a uneventful crossing of the Gulf Stream we arrived in paradise.  We came across the Gulf Stream with Sailing Vessel Alice Mae (crew David and Alice Woods).  We left Marathon FL at 14:00 on January 20, 2015 and arrived in Bimini at 12:00 January 21, 2015. We sailed within VHF radio distance and along the way we added two other boats to our flotilla.  Soul Serenade (crew Jimmy and Sue) and Sonara (Crew Craig and Joy).
Alice Mae                                 Soul Serenade                       Sonara
 
As we arrived in Bimini Mother Nature had one little squall she wanted to throw at us….we waited about 10 minutes for it to pass then went into Bimini with nerves a shaken. 

Arriving at Bimini with Alice Mae in the lead boat…..


We stayed at Blue water Marina and got to know the other two boats (Soul Serenade & Sonara).  We also made friends with the crew of OZ (crew Toby and Dana) and they decided to join us on our journey across the Great Bahama Banks.
OZ

We decided to leave Bimini on the next weather window which was on January 25, 2015.  We decided to make it an overnight journey so we left of the 25th at 09:00 and arrived on January 26, 2015 at 05:35.
We had a great trip across the Great Bahama Banks and an easy passage through the NW channel.  The seas got a little bit of rock and roll attitude around midnight and stayed that way till we got into Nassau Harbor.
 


Of course mother nature and wildlife did not disappoint…..

Here we are in Nassau…..these are the daily views we get from our “back porch”

 

So far it has been a great trip and we have made some wonderful new friends.  We will be in Nassau until Friday (January 30th) and then we will be off to another great island or two or three….
Internet will be spotty while we are in the Bahamas but when we find at hot spot we will update our position and photos.
Last Shot………A few photos of Bimini……..

Bimini to Nassau

By Capt. Scott Buckley

As predicted the great Bahamas cruiser circulatory system was at work.  As weather conditions improved for those cruisers wishing to cross the Gulf Stream to Bimini so also improved our weather in Bimini to cross over to Nassau.  The conditions looked good for an overnight crossing from Bimini down to Cat Cay and thru Triangle Rock pass onto the Great Bahamas Bank.  We would sail across the Great Bahamas bank and enter the Northwest channel and sail on to Nassau.
The Great Bahamas bank is this large expanse of shallow water between the island of Bimini  and the Gulf Stream channel on the west side and the large island of Andros and the Tongue of the Ocean on the east side.  The water depth is from 8 to 13 feet all the way across and the water is amazingly clear.

We had good weather for crossing the bank and there were 5 boats in our flotilla. SV Alice Mae (crew David and Alice Woods).  SV Soul Serenade (crew Jimmy and Sue) MV OZ (crew Toby and Dana) and SV Sognara (Crew Craig and Joy).  Oh and us.

SV Alice Mae a 36’ Endeavor Sailing Cat


MV OZ a 36’ Endeavor Motor Cat


SV Sognare a 48’ Sailing Cat


SV Soul Serenade a 38’ Sailing mono hull.

After crossing the bank you enter the Northwest channel.  The water here is very deep and the channel is part of the body of water known as the tongue of the ocean.  This stretch of water can be particularly unforgiving to east bound sail boat if the wind is blowing hard from the east. Fortunately for us over winds were from the west but the Northwest channel still supplied some rolly conditions.  Some of the group got spooked by updated weather reports received when we passed close enough to Chub Cay to get cellular service and increased their speed to get to Nassau ASAP.  However there was little on those weather reports to support this action.  Winds were from the west and though they were expected freshen to 15 to 20 knots they were to stay from the west.  Later in the day however the winds were predicted to increase to gale force.  We should be tied up in a marina before those winds showed.up at our location.  Running ahead meant getting into Nassau harbor in the wee hours of the morning and having to find a place to wait because the marina did not open until 8AM.

Approach to Nassau Harbor

Before entering the Nassau Harbor it required to get permission from the Harbor Control.  This was a simple procedure.  You would hail “Nassau Harbor Control” on VHF channel 16 and they would direct you to switch and answer on VHF channel 09.  They would ask for your vessel name, last port of call, vessel ID number and intended destination in the harbor. They would then give you permission to enter.
Route thru the Harbor to the Yacht Marinas.

Even though SV Alice Mae and SV Kooky Dance did not run for Nassau we still got to location about 2 hours early.  We went up to the Nassau Harbor Club Marina at about 6AM and tied up.  The tide was pretty low, a strong current was running and the city lights made visual navigation very difficult at night.  Fortunately there was not a lot of other vessel traffic and the winds were still moderate. As a bonus it began to rain lightly as we were tying up.  At that point I was really too tired to mind very much.  I knew I was exhausted but it took me a little while to relax after the tension filled trip of entering a strange port at night.  I did get about an hour of sleep before going into the marina office to check in.

New Friends

Kooky Dance got her first cleaning sense we left Naples Florida and she needed it. 

We continued to bond with our new cruising friends while in Nassau and this proves to be a lot of fun.

Alice Mae of SV Alice Mae


Capt Dave also from SV Alice Mae


Dana from OZ


Toby from OZ

The next leg.

Weather looks like we can depart Nassau sometime Thursday and head to Roberts Cay the same day.  The trip is only 27 nm so it will be no more than a 5 hr trip.  Once we leave Nassau connecting to internet will be spotty so this post may be the last for a while.  We will continue to write them but it may be a week or two before a new post is sent and like this post is send with others..

Marathon to Bimini

By Capt. Scott Buckley

Things came together quickly at Marathon.  As originally planned we were to sail from Marathon to Bimini across the Gulf Stream.  On two prior occasions our plans fell apart.  The first time our outboard motor had to be worked on and the parts had not arrived and the second time our buddy boat experienced engine problems. 

Our buddy boat SV Alice Mae had some luck getting her parts and finding a marina that could get her ready quickly.  It looked like like they would be ready Tuesday Jan. 20, 2015 in the afternoon which was fortunate as it did not look like there would be another weather window for another 5 days. 
We made the boat ready and headed into the Marathon City Marina to wash up some laundry and do some final provisioning.  We agreed to split the chores.  Tamera would head to the store to provision and I would sort the laundry.  When I got to the laundry the power was out.  I made a call to my friend Bill and Anita there in Marathon and asked if I could do the laundry there.  Thankfully they saved the day.

We dropped the mooring ball at 14:00 and headed to the fuel dock for take on diesel before heading out.  We took on fuel and left the Marathon harbor.  It was strange to actually be headed to Bimini after 2 months waiting in Boot Key harbor.
We passed Sombrero Lighthouse at 15:30 that afternoon with 118 nm to the entrance to Bimini Harbor.

We continued sailing south southeast from Sombrero Lighthouse, not in the direction of Bimini in the northeast, to pick up the Gulf Stream.  We sailed until the water depth was 250 ft and did not pick up the stream.  We continued SSE to a water depth of 450 feet, where the depth instrument stopped picking up the bottom any longer and still did not pick up the stream.  We continued to a depth of 600 ft. (by the charted depth) and still did not pick up the stream.  The report we had received that the Gulf Stream was 1 mile south on the Sombrero Key lighthouse were not correct or out of date. 
We made our turn to the NE towards Bimini but were barely doing 5 knots.  At this rate we would not make Bimini in time to beat the weather.  I talked with Dave on SV Alice Mae and he thought we should just keep going and hope we pick up the stream in a couple of hours.
That night a little after 19:00 Tamera called down as I was coming on watch that she thought we were picking up the Gulf Stream as our speed had increased from 5 knots to 6 knots.  In the next two hours our speed would continue to increase to 7 knots and then 8 knots.  There were periods on time when we were flying alone at 8.5 knots with minimal winds and the engine only chugging along at 40%.
All the time lost from taking longer to pick up the stream than was anticipated was being made up by a very fast running Gulf Stream.  I found it incredible to consider.

 The mighty stream

The Gulf Stream in this area is 45 nm across and 2700 deep and moving at 3.5 to 4 knot. That is a cross sectional area of 737,748,000 sq. ft. that is moving at moving at 24,288 ft / hr..  That is 134,388,200,000,000 gallons/hr or 37,330,050,000 gallons/sec.  37 billion gallons per sec.  I can’t really fathom that number.  That would be enough water to fill 3.7 million good sized swimming pools every second.  Even that number is too staggering. so what about those big Olympic swimming pools.  Well this flow would ONLY fill 76,821 of those per second.
While this is impressive it is worth noting that the Gulf Stream is not the biggest ocean current out there. 

The Gulf Stream runs right up to the shores at Bimini.  As you approach Bimini and see you are only a mile of two from shore the water under the boat is still 1/2 mile deep.

Approach to Bimini

As we made our way into Bimini we noted we could clearly see the bottom while the depth gauge read 55 ft.  As we continued into the harbor entrance the water shallowed to 8.5 ft. and it took everything I had to not freak out because it look like it was only inches deep. 
We tied up at Blue Water Marina in Alice Town in Bimini Cay at around 10AM on the 21st of Jan.

Bimini Harbor

You can’t tell it but we are sitting in 11 ft of water here.

 

I still had to checking to the Bahamas so we raised our yellow flag and I headed into town to Immigration and then Customs to clear the vessel and crew into the Bahamas.  The agents were courteous and helpful and within about an hour and a half I was completed and back on the boat.  We lowered the yellow Q flag and raised the Bahamas national flag indicating we had cleared in.


Based on the weather forecast we were going to be here for a couple of days so we had to find some diversion while we were there.

 We went the Dolphin House that should actually be named the Ashley Saunders House.


We watched the sharks swim by the boat.

We made new friends and we went to the beach.

When we arrived at the Bimini marina we came into a mostly empty marina but before the sun fell that night it quickly filled to capacity.  Remember what I said about the ebb and flow of cruisers to the Bahamas.  When the weather is good the folks at the marina leave for other point in the Bahamas and it make room for the next group coming from the US.  See the previous post “The Rhythm of Cruising in Boot Key Harbor”.

The talk on the dock invariably center around when everybody was planning to leave for their next destination.  The talk was about weather, strategy and routes.
As I write this I am setting in Nassau so we obviously left Bimini but The Dolphin House and the next leg of the trip are for future post on this blog.