BAHAMA WINTER 2011-12 - To Bimini

What a great winter on Summer Breeze this was! The bulk of it was spent on the island of Grand Bahama in the Freeport, Lucaya, Ocean Reef area. We were hoping for more side trips farther south but the strong easterly winds prevented more extended exploring, and the overall warmer weather of this winter made us complacent and so content to be where we were on Grand Bahama. When things are so close to "perfect & relaxing", it's difficult to leave. We had wi-fi most of the winter, but connecting & downloading were weak at best, so photos were usually posted to my Facebook. My thoughts were usually more organized and spontaneous there. All the pics below from the past 5 months will be impossible to cronologically organize so just enjoy the mess. I posted a couple of blogs before we left mainland Florida, like the marina fire at Dinner Key/Coconut Grove, so these pics will start with our departure from Biscayne Bay for Bimini on Dec 30, 2011. You can't just hop in a 31-foot sailboat and strike out across a 3-5 knot river like the Gulf Stream; it takes a lot of patience. We've waited two months one previous winter and finally "gave up", and spent the rest of our cruising season in the Florida Keys and in the west coast's 10,000 Islands. We had been watching the weather closely for 3 weeks of December from Dinner Key Marina at Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay and we'd resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be ringing in the New Year in Miami. We had luckily been able to spend Christmas with Autumn down in Key West, but now we were starting to get antsy about crossing and the weather didn't appear to be cooperating. However, at 6 a.m. on Friday, 12/30/11, as the sun was just starting to come up out of the Atlantic straight to the east of us, the water was glassy calm with no wind whatsoever. A coldfront was supposed to be passing over us for the next couple of days, which normally means strong winds, but it had suddenly weakened and stalled north of us in mid-Florida. We were looking at a gorgeous weather window of 2-3 days that we could dink to Bimini on if we wanted. NOAA, Windfinder, Weather Underground, Barometer Bob, every weather source agreed . . . a rare consensus. We hopped out of bed and started really hustling. Time was critical now; it's 55 nautical miles to Bimini. We definitely wanted to make landfall in Bimini in the daylight, and this was going to be really cutting it close. Normally we would leave Biscayne in the dark around 3 a.m.. By 7 a.m. we were motoring as fast as we could across Biscayne; we hit the deep water around 8:45 a.m. with nothing but a flat horizon and 2-foot waves in front of us. We had a 5-knot breeze out of the north to help us along with the genoa up. By 2:45 p.m. we could see the trees of the Bahamas in our future. As the sun started to set behind us, we entered the cut through the sandbar into Bimini Sands Marina on the island of South Bimini at 5:00 p.m. We had beaten our previous record by two hours. Yahoo.

Dodging mammoth ships is part of the Gulf Stream challenge. At night it's really scarey. They won't acknowledge your presence on the vhf radio; most don't speak english anyway. These photos are typical crossings, but without radar on Summer Breeze they appear to be heading right for you, especially when you can see the bow wave clearly. They can appear and disappear within 15 minutes.

Bimini Sands Marina . . . this is the way you want it !

Bimini Sands Marina . . . this is just scarey !

Nan hunting "done" glass

Alicetown, North Bimini

Bouncey night in the slip during the passing coldfront; it's better than being outside.

Eco Trail hike

Termite mounds are all over the Bahamas

Ponce de Leon's "Fountain of Youth" makes you stupider, not younger.

Captain in his "coldfront socks"

This first week of January was the first & last time of the entire winter that we had to pull out our jackets & ski caps . . . so out of place in the Bahamas.