Bimini, Waiting on Weather

Comments:  The wind continues to blow without shame.  We’re seeing a steady 28 knots, day and night.  I’ve forgiven the Mantus for Tuesday night, though it wasn’t its fault, as it has held tight since.  So with the strong blow, we visit the island. 

Maintenance day, yesterday, gave me a little scare.  After doing a variety of chores, I noticed a very

Busted exchanger cap gasket

fast dripping stream of coolant.  I searched high and low hoping it would be a loose hose or even one needing replacement.  The leak was not coming from a hose.  It appeared the drip was coming from the gasket between the heat exchanger and the block.  That gasket is not something I carry as a spare.  So, I tightened the six bolts securing the heat exchanger to the block.  After restarting the engine it seemed to stop.  During this process I called John, who I have extreme confidence in, and sought his advice.  The best advice he gave me was to not tighten the bolts anymore.  I’m glad he did because I was pondering that as my next move.  Tightening it too much could cause other serious problems like a cracked heat exchanger.  As it turned out the problem was not the gasket,  it was simply a bad gasket on the radiator cap, which I felt sure I had examined.  I pulled the gasket and made one from a hypalon patch (dinghy material) and there’s been no leak since.  Over the next 24 hours, John texted me with several ideas.  Thank you, John!

Ruth daring the ocean

Lobster salad at Joe's Conch Shack

Today, we took off toward town.  We docked the dinghy at the Mega Yacht Marina nearby, which has almost no business in this off season.  David,  manning the marina was extremely nice. The island is only about 3 miles long so we figured we could see most of it.  And that we did.  We couldn’t help but detour to the Atlantic Ocean side of the island and boy what a treat we were given.  Holed up in the anchorage, we don’t see the extreme beauty of the island that we saw on the west side today.  There were even a few sharks swimming the beach.  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  We had our first conch salads, well almost, as we chose lobster salad instead, visited a few sites and then made our way back.  According to Ruth’s gadget watch we walked a total of 6.38 miles.  My feet won’t argue the distance.  On the return dinghy ride, we met up for the 2^nd time with Menno and Val from a nearby anchored Lagoon 38.  They invited us aboard and we discussed possible shove off days and routes.  It is nice here but we’re ready to make our way south, hopefully Tuesday. 

Voila, An American Dream

Key Largo to Bimini, Alice Town - The Crossing

Date: Jan 7 & 8, 2020                      

Arrival Time: 1730 ET                      

Location:  Bimini, Bahamas

Weather:  70’s  

Sea State:  4-5 ft seas

Destination Tomorrow:  sit tight for weather

Engine Hours:  1426 Tue, 1429 Wed                                                                         

Crew:  Ruth and Greg    

Mileage Log:  1116 T/ 1122 W

Comments:  We pulled up anchor at 0630.  We had the motor running by 0600 but waited until we could see well enough to navigate.  The original plan was to shove off around 0430 but the crab traps had been so bad we didn’t want to risk it.  We actually didn’t see as many as we had been seeing and we assumed it was because we were passing through the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  However, we did change course just before running over a blue float.  I’m not sure why a crabber would paint it blue in blue waters. 

The route we took across the Gulf Stream from Key Largo to Bimini was approximately 75 N/Miles. 

Crossing the Gulf Stream

We were hoping to make it before sundown as it is never wise to enter an unfamiliar harbor at night.  We traveled about 20 miles NE up the Hawk Channel before steering ENE just north of Turtle Reef, before entering the big blue Atlantic Ocean.  Throughout Hawk Channel, our ETA to Bimini was showing to be near 2230.  It was disconcerting but I knew it would change, we just hoped the change would be significant and in our favor.  As we entered the Turtle Reef, the ETA dropped to 1730 and eventually to 1700 in the stream.  The stream was beautiful.  The seas were dark blue and deep.  My depth gauge no longer registered around 500 feet but the chart showed us to be in waters as deep as 2700 feet.  As we were traveling NE, through the stream, our speed was bouncing around 8.5 knots.  It was nice to travel that fast as we often travel around 6 knots.  Ruth definitely has her sea legs now as she handled the 4-5 foot swell as if she was riding Chapo, her childhood horse.  We were under full sails most of the way across but kept the engine going to help Pura Vida land by 1700.  We noticed the deep blue water turn to turquoise and knew we had arrived.  We dropped anchor in the south Bimini anchorage at 1700. And all is well….

She always looks happiest with money in hand

Well…not exactly! We made several attempts to set the anchor but it was like cement on the bottom.  We found out later that though Hurricane Dorian did not affect the Bimini infrastructure it did affect the sea surface.   The sand was gone from the anchorage. Our Mantus anchor was dragging on flat rocks.  It felt like I was dragging it across a parking lot.  After several attempts to set, we decided we would go into the Bimini Island entrance and look for an inside anchorage.  Of course, by this time it was dark.  During the trek to the entrance we studied the chart and I made a call over channel 16 for local knowledge assistance.  No one responded for a while.  Then, low and behold, Fred from Sea Tryst who we previously talked to at the Channel Five Pass at Long Key, answered.  He explained that the charts were wrong since Dorian and gave us another route.  We (mostly I) really couldn’t understand his suggestions though we questioned again and answered to the affirmative.  After a few minutes, I told Ruth that we were going back to the south Bimini anchorage and we would just stay up through the night, set the anchor alarm, watch the tracking on our phone charts and reset the anchor as we drifted.  We dropped the anchor with approximately 180 feet of 3/8 inch chain in 13 feet of water.  My thoughts were we’d put down as much weight onto that cement as possible.  The combined weight was probably over 350 pounds.  We ate dinner, went to bed and waited for the anchor alarm to sound.  One thing we had in our favor was that the winds were only blowing about 10 knots.  Around 2245 the alarm sounded.  We jumped up with vigilance and went to work.  Fortunately, the boat had shifted because of the tidal change but there was no need to reset.  We went back to bed and waited.  I was awakened around 0600 by the sound of Ruth turning on the generator to make coffee.  No other alarms sounded and there was little drag. 

Cruising is not for sissies. 

South Bimini Airport

At 0645 Wednesday morning, we pulled up the anchor, which took a while and headed toward the Bimini Island entrance.  We studied the few boats that exited through the channel but it was from a distance (a couple miles).  We hailed each but none answered and so we went forward with the information we had from Fred and the information in Active Captain. Unfortunately, there is very little input in Active Captain since Hurricane Dorian last September and it was a bit spooky - but we made it through seeing depths no less than 8 feet. 

Bimini Bay North anchorage

We anchored right in front of Customs and Immigration and I went ashore in the dinghy.   It was pretty easy and once I explained that I couldn’t see the small print very well they were a little nicer and excused me.  I guess that was my first time I used the age card.  That anchorage was small and would not be very well protected with the incoming strong winds so we moved to the Bimini Bay North anchorage.  The rest of the day was spent dinghying and taking a taxi to the S. Bimini airport to get our island time wi-fi card. 

Now we wait for winds, forecast at 25 to 30 mph for the next week, to subside and spend this time touring Alice Town, Bimini, Bahamas and resting.   

And So We Wait

Date: Sunday, Jan 5, 2020                            

Arrival Time: 0900 ET, Jan 4                         

Location:  Key Largo, Fl.

Weather:  80 - 57             

Sea State:  choppy

Destination Tomorrow:  None

Engine Hours:  1413                                                                        

Crew:  Ruth and Greg    

Mileage Log:  1037

Comments:  Since arriving in Key Largo on Thursday, we’ve established a friendship with the

Lee Shore Anchorage off Key Largo

manager (Ken) and his hand (Dave) at the Pilot House Marina.  It seems marinas in the area are not very accommodating to transient cruising boats.  Most of their business is from the local and charter boats docked at the marinas or smaller fishing vessels and there is no shortage of business.  Anyway, since Ruth’s first phone call to Ken, we’ve had our own dinghy dock and freedom to come and go.  We have purchased fuel and given a few tips.  We made the 2 ½ mile dinghy trip once from Rodriquez Island, which provided protection from southern winds, then moved the boat about 1/4 mile from the southern lee shore of Key Largo because of the approaching norther on Saturday evening.

Anchor Alarm

The marina has a very good restaurant called the Pilot House that has been featured on Diners Drive-Ins & Dives, a Food Network TV show. We’ve enjoyed the patio section a couple times.  We reserved a car for Saturday from Enterprise and they were to deliver the car to the restaurant on Saturday, at 1000.  Ruth called them at 0930 that morning to let them know we were at the restaurant hoping they could bring it early.  We were informed they had no one to deliver the car so we hiked the mile to Enterprise.  When we arrived they had no car because the few they were expecting had not yet been returned.   Cadine, who was single-handing the store was wonderful and made several calls to secure a car.  She finally got us a Camaro convertible, the most expensive rental, at the cost of a 1973 Pinto.  We loaded up and went straight to West Marine for a few clothing purchases (Ruth, cough-cough) and other needs.  From there we drove a couple miles and bought out the Publix grocery store, where we realized the Camaro was not quite big enough.  We packed it like Ruth’s girdle (just seeing who’s paying attention) and made it back to the dinghy where we unloaded and brought everything back to the boat.  We were glad the dinghy ride was only about ½ mile outside the channel to the boat.  After stowing everything, we returned to the dock, put gasoline in the car and filled the gas can, then took the car back to Enterprise. After walking the mile back to the marina, we watched the first part of the Texans game at the restaurant and then made the dinghy trip back to the boat.  Upon arriving around 1720, we noticed the boat’s bow had started shifting toward the west.  Around 1800 the first blast of wind arrived from the NW.  It blew all night eventually shifting out of the north.  There was not much sleep to be had as I watched the anchor alarm and my hand held compass throughout the night.  The alarm did sound a couple times as the boat shifted but the anchor held tight.  With 95 feet of anchor rode out and the alarm set at 100 feet, as the winds shifted the boat swung 180 degrees and approximately 190 feet, beyond the alarm’s boundary. 

Our daily commuted channel

This morning (Sunday) it’s blowing a steady 20 knots from the north.  The sun is bright and the temperature is the lowest we’ve seen in a while, about 60 degrees, but warming.  Being fully provisioned, we plan to stay on the boat and relax today and only go to shore if we need something extremely important, like a pedicure and manicure (Ruth, cough-cough!)

According to Predict Wind, Windy and the VHF offshore weather radio station, we expect to shove off Tuesday morning for Alice Town, Bahamas.  The Gulf Stream waves are predicted to be 2-3 feet with 4-6 second intervals.  Hopefully, it is accurate.  And so we wait.