Nassau to Bimini, Making way West towards the US

By Capt. Scott Buckley

From Robert’s Cay we headed to Nassau on New Providence Island.  We could do some lite provisioning before heading to Bimini across the Great Bahamas Bank.
The passage was pretty nice and we arrived in Nassau in the afternoon. 

We could not overcome the gloom we felt about this season’s cruising in the Bahamas coming to an end.  We had been discussing our next step for quit a few days.  It was many difficult conversations.  We had looked at heading up the east coast as we had originally planned and perhaps stay at my mother place in Maryland, however due to conditions there it would be too great a burden on them so any long term visit would need to be reconsidered.

A New Plan

Then Tamera thought of her friend in Houston that might let us stay at her house for a couple of months.  Tamera sent an email to inquire. In not more than 5 minutes passed when received a big “Yes Yes Yes” in response.  So now we had an option to return to Texas.  I can’t say we were totally in love with the idea of returning to Texas but it was now in our options list.  The down turn in oil prices would mean a likely down turn in oil field related projects and thus my opportunities for consultant work. 
Anyway we arrived back in Nassau and tied up at the Nassau Harbor Club Marina. 

You have to clear into and get permission to enter Nassau Harbor form Nassau Harbor control.  It is all done over the radio.  You need your vessel documentation number your last port of  call and your destination.  Permission is generally granted immediately unless one of the big cruise liners is maneuvering in the port.  You can easily plan around those cruise liners.  They arrive in the AM before 8AM and don’t leave until around 5PM and they generally don’t take more than 30 minutes to tie up.

Nassau Harbor Club Marina

We did some very light provisioning and some laundry at Nassau.  Though this marina is centrally located and has a fantastic pool, it does not have WiFi.  Therefore the last Internet signal we had had was back in Black Point.  It would be some time before we would have WiFi and enough time to post to the Blog. 

We would leave the next morning for Bimini and pass the Nassau Harbor lighthouse.  We would sail through the Northwest Channel during the day and cross over the Great Bahamas Bank during the night.

The winds picked up for a while during the day but fade in the evening and shifted from dead astern.  We ended up having to start the motor for most of the night.  We still had the sails up to increase the speed a little and save on fuel.

We proceeded across the bank and had to keep a sharp eye out for other boats anchored out on the bank directly on the rum line.  Even though the charts warn again even sailing on the rum line or magenta line there were about 5 boats anchor on it that night.  I advised the boats traveling with us that night as we came across them.

The Bahamas Explorer charts are the definitive guide for cruising in the Bahamas. They are design by cruisers for cruisers.  They have numerous waypoint that you can use to navigate your way around the shallows and reefs.  However with everyone using the same charts and waypoints and the likelihood that there are a few boaters out there with big power boats that think everyone else should get out of their way, you have a recipe for disaster.  There are recorded incidents of boats running into each other by both running down the magenta line in opposite directions.  They can enter these waypoints into their navigation plotter and configure the autopilot to follow the magenta line between the waypoints.  They then become distracted with all the other toys on their boats and don’t maintain a watch. 

It is not just the power boater that do this (but I secretly want to think it is) I personally know some sailors (that should know better) that set the autopilot and go below for an hour or more when the weather is bad. Their justification is that their boats go so slow they have that much time before they need to worry about hitting something.  That would be true if they were the only moving thing out on the Ocean.  The fact is a large freighter moving at a typical 20 knots will come from below the horizon (where you can’t see it, even on radar) and be on top of you in 15 or 20 minutes.  It is agreed by most seaman that 15 minutes is the maximum time that you can abandon your watch.

I can honestly say that this is not the case on SV Kooky Dance.  The 1st mate and the Captain maintain a constant watch and only go below and abandon their watch to make a cup of coffee or use the head.






As we crossed thru the Northwest Channel we encountered a very slow moving US Navy boat conducting some sort of maneuvers on the channel.  The Northwest Channel is thousands of feet deep and the US maintains a Navy base on Andros Island so they may have been listening for enemy subs.  They were very polite but it was easy to follow their instruction when then hailed you on the radio as:

Big Navy Boat:“This is the US War Ship 64 hailing the small insignificant target off my port bow. Over” 

SV Kooky Dance: “ This is the Sailing Vessel Kooky Dance.  I am about 2 miles off your port. Over.”

Big Navy Boat: “Yes you. I believe you are the boat that I have my guns innocently trained on for illustrative purposes only. Over” 

SV Kooky Dance: Gulp. “Roger, I see them now.  Thanks for the illustration, War Ship 64.”

SV Kooky Dance: Gulp. “Over.” Oh crap not again.

Big Navy Boat: “Alter your course 10 degrees to starboard and make no sudden movements and no flash photography.”

SV Kooky Dance: “Roger good copy.  Honey put down the camera slowly."   I altered course right after I changed out of my soiled britches.

SV Kooky Dance: “Over.”

Big Navy Boat: “Roger, Captain have a good day.”

OK I may have embellished on the exact conversation but like I said they make it very easy to pay attention.