Polite Compromise

For the past couple of weeks in Marathon, we have been watching the weather, listening to all the experts and waiting for an opening big enough for us to sail to Bimini. Ron had mapped out the trip, which would be 126 miles (about 20 hours on the water) so the plan was to sail all night to arrive in Bimini by lunchtime the following day. We could only arrive in daylight since the channel markers are not lighted. We finally decided that Sunday, Jan 24th, would be the beginning of a good three day window. We left Boot Key Harbor by 4:30pm and sailed past Sombrero Light House and jumped into the current of the Florida Straights about 4 miles offshore. To start, there was a North/West wind. The current in the straights travels at around 2-3 knots, and Compromise was doing about 5, so we were zipping along fairly well. All of the projections said around midnight the wind would die off to about 5 knots and then change to come from a more Southerly direction. Instead it switched to come from primarily the northeast - which was pretty much on our nose. We couldn’t do much sailing and had to motor the whole way. Since the current runs South to North - having the wind come from the North/East caused the waves to get “lumpy” and they were piled up. No nice rolls - they were really bouncy, pointy, and steep. Waves were 4-6 feet and sometimes exceeded 8, and the winds were originally 15 to 20 knots, but by the end of the trip they slowed down to under 10 knots. The only good news was that we had just had a full moon so the sky was still bright at night. We didn’t keep to standard watch times, but just took turns at the helm and took naps when we could catch a little time. It was too rough to cook - and neither of us eats heavy during a rough sail - so we had snacks and fruit. I put together something we decided to call CRAP. Stands for candy, raisins, and peanuts. Pass the crap, please! It’s amazing what strikes you as funny in the middle of a long/scary night! Oh CRAP!!

Ron likes to sleep in the cockpit so he can pop his head up whenever he feels a change or hears me call him. I prefer to crawl under a blanket and get comfortable - so I crawled into the V-berth. (For my non-sailer friends - that’s in the pointy end of the boat!) This was not a good choice. Since the winds were high and the waves were bouncy and steep - the bow of the boat was constantly slamming the water and throwing me around. (Ron says it was not that bad and that I exaggerate. Whatever…) So after I went air-borne a few times, I gave up and joined him in the cockpit. In addition to typical freighters and another sailboat, I saw one cruise ship off in the distance. Very cool to see such a big thing all lit up out on the water. But I’ll bet they didn’t get bounced out of their beds…

By dawn, the wind died down to under 10 knots and the waves calmed down considerably. The water through there is extremely deep. Our depth meter reads to 650 feet - and according to the charts this water was about 5,000 feet deep. It finally started to get shallower when we got near the channel entrance to Bimini - and turned the most beautiful blue!

We are moored at the Bimini Sands Marina and Resort on the South island. Ron got us all cleared through customs so we were able to take our yellow (Quarantine) flag down and put up the Bahamian Flag. Our Texas flag is right beside it.

South island is pretty small, so if you want to go sightseeing or shopping, you have to take a water taxi over to the larger North island. We walked to the resort at the far end and had lunch. Lots of photos were taken and I will try to download a few to share. We’ve already met new folks here at the marina (they stopped to ask where in Texas we were from!). We all are planning to go to Great Harbour, which will require an overnight trip. There will be another good weather opportunity beginning this weekend and will last until the middle of next week. We will leave Saturday, drop anchor for the night in the Bahama Banks somewhere along the way, and then arrive at Great Harbour on Sunday. Sounds like fun….

More later -
Karen.