Arrival in Bimini

February 25, 2015

2-24 Well we did it, Last Mango sailed into Bimini Bahamas. After leaving Rodriquez Key, sailing out past the Molasses Reef and across the dreaded gulf stream we’re lying at Brown’s Bimini Marina "where rum is cheaper than water" (I used the quote from Dave Sciabaras) .

The trip started with anchors up 2:30 AM and a quick uneventful sail out into the gulf stream. The weather was calm with the moon setting at 11:30 the night before. The moonless night with only the stars shining down on us made the bio-illuminant waters even more brilliant. Karen commented on the glowing waters in our wake before I noticed and it was her morning for shooting stars and she saw several.

Island across from the Marina

Shortly before sunrise the wind picked up a bit and made it possible to motor-sail. Our plan with Fracas was to maintain at least 6 knots and hopefully pickup more speed with the assistance of the gulf stream. While motor-sailing we were consistently doing over 7 knots and at times over 8. It was shaping up to be a wonderful trip as the wind picked up from the north-east. As anyone who’s done this trip knows that when crossing the stream you don’t want any wind out of the North. We have wind now over 10 knots from the North and the waves quickly picked up and even Fracas was bouncing around like a pinball. Greg called us on the radio during this time and said “Welcome to the washing machine” as we too rocked and rolled. The wind did start to diminish as forecasted as did the waves, thank goodness. It would’ve been a really long day had the waves continued in this fashion. As the waves diminished into low rollers Karen and I relaxed and started to enjoy the trip. The temperature increased in the water as well as on land. It was 80 degrees and the fishing pole came out, unfortunately we caught only weeds. Who would think I would catch weeds in over 2000 feet of water but I did. While trolling we watched flying fish skip across the water and noticed other fish under the Sargasso weed but I have no idea what type of fish they were.

Raising the Q Flag

Karen and John raising the Bahamian Courtesy Flag

View from the marina

It’s a huge body of water and Karen was a bit premature with her calls of “Land Ho!”. I guess it was wishful thinking on her part but she did great and I could see her excitement. I did have to inform her that the land she spotted was the container ship “Dimietrioff” or some type of Russian name as I could see through the binoculars and Fracas confirmed through AIS on the radio. Although it was not too much later and we spotted land. It is exciting to be entering our first foreign port. After a bit more motor-sailing I went out on deck to raise the yellow Q flag to let the authorities know that Last Mango needs to clear customs after which we can raise the Bahamian courtesy flag.

We entered the channel into Bimini after much searching with the binoculars to find the charted entrance. The water is a magnificent color of blue, it reminds me of a blue Jello. I wanted to get more pictures entering but Karen made me stick to my task of making port without running aground. I’ve been in the Caribbean before but have never seen waters so colorful. Possibly it’s my imagination because we did it ourselves on our own boat. I’m not sure.

We contacted Brown’s via the radio and in no time were pulling onto their face dock until currents from tides slowed and we could safely pull into our slip. Cordell the dock worker and a host of other marina visitors helped ties us up and we went to help Fracas onto the face dock also.

It's gotta stink to make it the whole way over and sink at the dock

Anchorage area

Greg Walking along the Atlantic

Shortly thereafter Greg and I cleaned up and assembled our paperwork to clear into customs and procure the appropriate paperwork for being in the Bahamas for 90 days. Until such

time we are cleared in Karen and Mary Lynn need to remain on the boats. Clearing in and customs went without issue and Greg and I were back at the marina after dodging traffic from cars as well as golf carts.

Karen had Last Mango cleaned up and we started speaking with other boaters and decided to go for a walk around Alicetown. This is a very small island but it seems to me that cars outnumber people or at least too many cars for the roadway area. Several locals greeted us and made us feel welcome as we walked down the street. After arriving back at the marina a boater from Canada (of course) came and asked us if anyone warned us not to swim in the harbor and we said “No”. He continued to explain that just up the way from us fisherman come in and clean their fish and throw the remains into the water. This brings Bull Sharks into the area which can be an issue. Needless to say we don’t swim here by the harbor. We did walk down by the fish cleaning area and witnessed the cleaning of fish and the shark cage in the water if one wanted to see them up close. It’s hard to say exactly what the large dark shadows were that swam below the surface in the area because the light was getting low but we think we know.

That night Mary Lynn made a wonderful chicken parmesan and it was showers (ask me about the showers sometime) and then to bed, it was after all 8:30 and we have been up since 2 in the morning.