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.