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.

Mission to Bimini Success

by Capt. Scott Buckley
Left marathon the night of January 20 and made a night passage to Bimini.  Raced along with the Gulf Stream at 8.5 knots.  Got into Bimini about mid day.
We can see the bottom in 55 ft of depth.  In 8 ft you are freaking thinking the water is only 2 inches deep.
.
More to come we made it safe and in one piece.

Mission to Bimini Scrubbed

by Captain Scott Buckley

As we were getting ready to slip the lines from the mooring ball we passed Ms. Alice Mae from SV Alice Mae.  She informed us they found one of the sail drives on their catamaran had water in the lower unit crank case. They would not be leaving for the Bahamas until the problem was sorted. 

What to do what to do?

SV Alice Mae has been to the Bahams 5 previous times and was the lead boat of our flotilla of two boats.  If we still decided to go we would be going alone.  I really did not want to make my first crossing of the Gulf Stream and subsequent check in at Bimini on my own.  While I am sure we could do it, it would add a level of stress that I did not welcome.  Additionally when I asked the 1st mate for her thoughts she had to stop biting her finger nails to answer.  This was significant to me because she was also feeling the stress of going it alone.
I admitted to the 1st mate that much of my confidence and lack of anxiety was due in large part from traveling with Bahama veterans on SV Alice Mae.  Tamera went over the pros and cons, recent weather updates and discussed my consideration of also scrubbing our departure. Before I made a final decision I was going to talk with David on SV Alice Mae.

Helping a Friend

I rowed over and talked with David.  He described the problems and we came up with some ideas to find the cause.  All involved hauling the boat out of the water so Dave was on the phone to schedule a  yard to lift the boat.  I decided I would stay and help Dave sort the problem out.  We had a scheduled haul out for the next day.

More on that in later posts.

Message from first mate Tamera

There was so much to consider before we cancelled this jump to the Bahamas. We were all packed, stocked, mentally ready for the trip so not going was a big deal. While going over all the pros and cons something I kept telling Scott "we are part of a buddy boat team, we should not and will not abandon our buddy boat".  I think we made the right decision.

We still have lots of time to get to the Bahamas this year and now we are talking about a return trip next year to catch anything we miss this year. It's all good.

There does not seem to be another weather window for 10 days so we will have to continue playing in the great state of Florida. 😊😍😋😸☀️⚓️🚣⛵️

Tamera 

Casting off for Bimini

By Captain Scott Buckley

We got the green light from the weather router to go from Marathon to Bimini .  We plan to leave Tuesday afternoon and arrive in Bimini Wednesday mid day.  We will be "buddy boating with SV Alice Mae.
This is our first Atlantic sail and our first Gulf Stream crossing.
Tamera and I are giddy like teenagers with a secrete so we must be excited about going.  We will miss our new friends in Marathon "Bill Jamar and Anita Eastman" and the numerous cruisers we have met here at Boot Key Harbor.  There are too many to list.
Our time right now is being spent making last minute preparations.

Enough for now
Scott

Making the Crossing to the Bahamas

By Captain Scott Buckley

The 1st mate and I have been here at Boot Key harbor for about 7 weeks now and that seems like a long time for us but when you think about the fact that we will be doing this for the next decade 7 weeks is not that long.  Further the weather seems to be conspiring to keep us here.

Boot Key Harbor at night

As explained in previous post it is not advised to cross the Gulf Stream in any wind that is out of the north.  Since we arrived here in Boot Key on Nov 15, 2014 we have had 1 weather window to cross over the Gulf Stream about 6 days after we arrived.  We decided to pass on this weather window for a couple of reasons.  Primarily it was to take some time and explore Marathon and the Florida Keys.  Since leaving TX we have been very much on the move and have had very little time to enjoy what we were doing. 
We would get to the next destination and fix what was broken, buy what we needed and plan the next leg.  Much of our time was spent on the logistics of cruising and almost nothing was spent on the exploration and discovery. What we did not realize when we skipped this weather window to the Bahamas was another window would not be forthcoming for some time. The wind have been from the north and north east 15 to 20 knots day after day. 

Time to have fun

Word has spread in the harbor that Tamera and I are headed to the Bahamas and invariably that topic of conversation with fellow cruisers at the dinghy dock is when do we think we are headed there.  We end up discussing weather window with little decided about when it is likely to make the the break from Marathon.

Trouble with Locomotion

While we were here we used the inflatable dinghy with the propane outboard and after about 2 hrs of operation the lower unit on the outboard started leaking oil.  I called Lehr “as it is still covered under warrantee” and they put me in contact with a local repairman (Ben).  I brought the motor to the beach and away it went.  Ben found the problem in the seal between the water pump and the lower unit.  What Lehr failed to inform me was they had not shipped the parts needed to fix the outboard motor and they were closing from 24 Dec to Jan 5.  Without parts there was little Ben could do.  All calls to Lehr went to a recording reminding me they were closed.  I sent an email as well but it never got addressed until after the 5th of January.  Without the motor back on board we did not look too hard for weather windows to go to the Bahamas on but none were materializing anyway.

The Route

To make the Exumas in the Bahamas it is not uncommon to check into that country at Bimini.  There are a couple of options for going to Bimini in the Bahamas.  One could leave from Marathon and travel 125 nm to Bimini or you could work your way north to ‘Miami and cross the 53 nm there.  Because of our contacts here in Marathon we elected to leave from Marathon to make Bimini in an over night passage.  Below is description of the route from Marathon to Bimini.

The overall route off the southeast Florida coast.

The route from Marathon to Bimini

Close up of Marathon

Close up of Bimini

Buddy Boating

We met fellow cruisers David and Alice Mae of SV Alice Mae who have crossed to the Bahamas 5 previous times.  They actually like the crossing from Marathon and had done that crossing twice before.  We had decided to buddy boat with them across because they had gone before and we had AIS on board and could watch out for ship for them.
We were set to leave on the evening of Jan 3 but when I consulted with weather router Chris Parker it was not recommended to make the crossing from Marathon even though he was recommending crossing from Miami.  The winds in the Florida Keys were not going to abate like the winds further north. 
SV Kooky Dance and SV Alice Mae made ready to depart Marathon until late Monday when the departure was called off.   I had made no headway with getting an outboard motor arranged and we really could not leave without one.   Actually it was that morning that I knew that SV Alice Mae was also having doubts about the departure from Marathon.  When the Cruiser net called for departing vessels to speak I only heard crickets. The light winds predicted would be farther to the north and we would be stuck with NE winds on the nose against the gulf stream.  Seas were increase from the 1 to 2 foot range to the 3 to 4 foot range.  There would be no sailing and it would be a bumpy voyage by motor only.  While we could have made it we would have burned a lot of fuel and had little enjoyable to remember from the crossing.

What to do in Paradice

It is not like we have been stuck in the harbor on the boat waiting for a break in the weather to go to the Bahamas.  We have actually had a pretty good time.  The cruisers in the harbor had a pot luck get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas that were a lot of fun and well attended. 
We went to Key West 3 times
and to Key Largo twice.  I did a few small projects on the boat like getting it so I could charge the phones and the computers directly from the battery without having to run the inverter.  I got our backup GPS patch into the 12 VDC breaker panel.  Previously it only ran on batteries that lasted about 2 days max.  Now it can run for months as long as the main batteries have a charge.  The back up GPS is also the device that feeds location data to the SSB radio incase an automatic distress call is sent.  We made the dinghy chaps and a couple of storage bags and visited with friends on land and in the Harbor.
We went fishing.
    


We went Snorkeling.


I have even taken some time to sail around in the sailing dinghy.

Still the weather has not been cooperating for a crossing.  Because it is our first time we are picking carefully so that it is not our last time.  We have heard horror stories about the Gulf Stream crossing and Florida is littered with boats of dreams gone bad.  Attempts to cruise that were disastrous and sailing trips that waited too long.
So a balance is played out between wanting to be in the Bahamas and picking the right weather window to get there on.  The story continues.

Dinghy Chaps

By Capt. Scott Buckley

Location: Boot Key Harbor.

We have two dinghy's on Kooky Dance.  A ridged wooden rowing and sailing dinghy,


and an inflatable motor powered dinghy.

The inflatable is a PVC type inflatable and not the expensive hypalon type so is more susceptible to sun damage.  One solution is to fit the inflatable with a protective cover that is secured to the dinghy so it does not become loose and go over the side and get fouled in the propeller.  This sounds like an easy thing to do EXCEPT there are lots of protrusion and attachments to the hull and nothing us straight  on the dinghy and you have to secure it to the top half of a tube.

I don’t think it would be possible to do while the dinghy is in the water so we had to decide where to work on it.  One option would be to take the boat and sewing machine to the marina.  Here at Marathon City Marina they have some indoor work spaces available to the cruisers free of charge.  It would require taking the dinghy, supplies and sewing machine to shore.  The other option would be to figure out how to do it on board.  I favored the last option because I don’t know enough about what I am doing to not forget most of what I will need and would have spent most of my time rowing back and forth between the marina and the boat fetching various things.
I found enough room on the bow of SV Kooky Dance and put the dinghy there.

The first step was to layout a pattern out of scrim.  Scrim is a light inexpensive plastic sheeting that is commonly used for making patterns.

The scrim was laid down on the hull in small segments and formed around the seems and contours of the hull tubes.  The scrim is transparent  so you can cut hole so the protrusions from the hull can poke thru and form darts in the scrim to form contours.

It was convenient to work on the boat so that test fits were easy and often.

We used various part around the boat to measure shapes.  The beer in the picture is not canned confidence for the fabric cutter guy but the right size circle for the cut outs.
 
The project was quite a bit of work to complete but should be worth the extra life we will get from the dinghy.