Welcome to The Bahamas

You know when you are trying to get away for a holiday or long weekend and everything takes so much longer than it should? That was us trying to get to Bahamas last Saturday, only our problem wasn’t traffic, it was the Gulf Stream.

Longer Than Expected

We figured the 40 nautical mile (nm, or knot) trip would take us 8 or so hours. Nope. With the wind at our front and the gulf stream pushing us north, we had to give up on sailing and turn on the engine. We discovered that the engine overheats when we go too fast. That 8 hours took 12. We cut it short and stopped north of our destination and anchored in the dark. But we made it to Bahamas in one piece! Success!

Arrival at Bimini and Welcome to The Bahamas

On Sunday morning we pulled up anchor and headed the last couple of miles south to North Bimini. Our destination was Brown’s Marina. We were advised to hug the right as close to the red markers as possible on the approach because there are some shallow patches and rocks outside the harbor that aren’t marked. We didn’t correctly follow those instructions and got beached. That damn 7 foot hull strikes again.

Fortunately for us, we don’t embarrass easily and we were sticking out right next to a busy channel. All the boats entering and exiting at 10am on Sunday morning saw us sitting there. Luckily, one of them stopped to help. Actually two! We tied our stern to one catamaran, and our main halyard to another, and they both together pulled us off the ground. We met some lovely people from St. Louis in the process. Thank you American midwest!

Exploring Bimini

Bimini was great! After 2 months in the cold of Florida, the warmth of the islands is a welcome change. Other sailors greeted us before we finished docking at Brown’s. We have already made friends and had cocktail hour on another boat. (We like this culture.)

We only spent a day and night in Bimini. We took care of customs and immigration and raised our first courtesy flag of the trip. Our first new country!!

We also checked out the sights and chatted with some friendly locals.

Bimini is closer to Florida than it is to any other part of The Bahamas. While never part of the U.S., just Spain and England before gaining independence in the 1970s, there is a bond between the countries. One of the local businessmen told us he went to school in Miami, as do many from Bimini. Tourists from Florida have been coming here for decades. We saw the site of the casino that used to be there during American prohibition.

Around town are also placards depicting places visited by two famous Americans, Ernest Hemingway and Martin Luther King Jr. There’s also a cool building made of coral and decorated with dolphins. It’s called Dolphin House.

Welcome to the Bahamas Water

The water is beautiful and the visibility is so clear. We checked out a local beach – it is the Bahamas! In addition to admiring the sand and water, we saw a cool shipwreck, hopefully not a harbinger of what’s to come.

Bimini is still popular: there’s a two hour fast ferry everyday from Fort Lauderdale. Beats Sava’s time. In fact, you can take a fast boat from Miami to almost any island in the Bahamas. I bet it’s more comfortable than ours!

We liked Bimini, it was a great welcome to the Bahamas. We want to see more of these islands and beautiful water. Bimini was the gateway to the rest of Bahamas.

Moving On In The Bahamas

Yesterday we scored a new achievement: we woke up before dawn and started sailing at 5:30am for The Berry Islands. We anchored in the dark at 7:15pm. I drove the last 3 hours. I woke up this morning after my first time driving the sailboat in the dark with the sorest muscles. My jaw, neck, shoulders, back, hips, fingers: all of it is stiff. I was holding in that stress and just trying to get the job done. Brian was out front on the bow so he could see where to anchor. We have an excellent GPS and I followed the charted course but it still felt dangerous to blindly follow the machine. I hope I get used to it because we will have to travel in the dark for longer trips.

Here is a photo of where we are anchored in the Berry Islands.

Now it’s time to relax and savor our first baby steps of success. Welcome to The Bahamas indeed.

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