Sunday 1 February-Wednesday 11 February

Not much to report. We have been waiting on a weather window to cross the Gulf stream. In the meantime we enjoy the sights and sounds of Miami. A bit of history-Dinner Key is the site of the old Pan American flying boat terminal. They use to fly the big clippers out of here to south America and the smaller ones to the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

We finally got our window and will leave at dawn for Bimini.

Thursday 12 February

Yippee, we’re in the Bahamas. We motorsailed the 48 miles from Miami to Bimini in 9 hours. The water in the Gulf stream is an incredible cobalt blue with over 2500 feet of water to the bottom, but when you get to the Bahamas banks the shallows turn a brilliant turquoise. The seas were light around 2 to 4 feet and we came over incident free. We are currently docked at the Blue Water marina where we have a WIFI signal from some part unknown. The water is gin clear so you can see right to the bottom as if it were glass. Tomorrow we explore the island then on Saturday we will head for Nassau, which is around 120 miles from here across the banks then some more deep water.

Friday 13 February

It’s island time mon, don’t worry. Did a little exploring and made plans for the next leg of the trip, here to Nassau. Saw Hemmingway’s hangout here on Bimini, now closed. TO bad would have like to have a drink at the bar and absorb some history.

Saturday 14 -Sunday 15 February

We left Bimini around 10 after fueling up. Turned once more into the Gulf stream for about 5 miles then on to the Banks. The whole of the Bahamas is several underwater plateaus with small mountains (viz. islands) poking up around the rim. As such the interior is barely under water. Our journey across this plateau was in water only about 15 feet deep and clear enough that you could see the bottom, which is largely sand and coral heads. When you are in the middle of the banks there is no land in sight. We sailed across until around 9:30 then headed a few mile off the well traveled route and dropped anchor, we had come about 70 miles and still had 50 to go to Nassau. The wind was just right and we sailed a lot of the way until dark and continued in the dark until we anchored. Now mind you, we did not tuck ourselves in a secure little gunkhole or behind a nice island, but just out in the middle of a vast sea out of sight of any land in 12 feet of water. We stopped because we were a few mile from an exit point off the Banks where the tidal waters flow off the banks creating a strong current and this current was against us, so the plan was to hang on the hook until 4:00 AM to catch some zzzzzs and ride the current off the banks. Mission accomplished, job done to quote our former leader. Made a comfortable exit off the banks into deep water again to complete our trip to Nassau, arriving about 2 in the afternoon. Nassau is the big city on the Island of New Providence. We have taken a dock here because there is some stormy weather on the way and we want to be secure. We went out for dinner to a Bahamian fish restaurant where we had grouper prepared wonderfully, what a treat and so good. Tomorrow we wait out the weather, then continue south to Georgetown.