#20 - Knee Deep in the water somewhere
10 January 2014 | Alice Town, North Bimini, The Bahamas
Gwen
On January 2nd at 1:30 in the afternoon we arrived at the island of North Bimini in the Bahamas. We had left Key Biscayne in Miami at 4 am that morning with our buddy boat, Romana (unfortunately, LeeLoo, our other buddy boat stayed back to wait for boat parts) on a forecast that was expected to be SSE turning S at 15-20 knots. The forecasted direction was perfect for our 50-ish nautical mile dash from Florida to the Bahamas, the velocity, however was a wee bit on the high side, but after 12 days in Miami, we were ready to move, and hey, if you wait for a perfect window, you might never leave. The passage was pretty rocky and rolly with 3 foots seas with occasional 5-footers. The wind didn’t end up clocking to the south, so we were close-hauled and motor sailing at 6-ish knots. The color of the water began to change as we crossed and once we were in the channel to Bimini, I could see the bottom, about 10-15- feet down and it felt like we were hovering over it, pretty much felt like we were flying. We made our way in and landed at Weech’s Dock (Guillaume did a good job fighting the strong current). We were getting the lines all sorted out on the pilings, when Guillaume noticed a 5 foot shark swim under Slow Waltz. The dockmaster told us that bull sharks and nurse sharks hang around the docks, ok, so probably won’t be swimming off the docks. We have had a dozen or so sightings from the docks since, so it wasn’t by chance. We have seen nurse, bulls and one black tip. Once we had safely tied up (a lot of tweaking required when tieing up to pilings), we stepped back and it looked like Slow Waltz was sitting in the crystal blue water of a swimming pool. Back to the business of checking in with customs and immigration… I filled out the stack of forms and then the “Captain” had to report on his own with crew required to remain on the boat with the quarantine flag hoisted. We got a 90 day immigration permit (can extend if we want). So up went the Bahamian courtesy flag in place of the quarantine flag.
Meanwhile, back in Miami in December… We arrived at Coconut Grove on the 18th of December. Coconut Grove is an upscale and artsy little suburb of Miami, about a 45 minute transit ride from Miami Beach (where we went on Christmas Eve). We took a mooring ball in Dinner Key Marina ($22 / day). It’s a large mooring ball field on Biscayne Bay with a view of the Miami skyline. It’s quite exposed to the NE through S. So it was a bit rolly and wavy with those winds. Made for some bumpy and salty dinghy rides into shore. Our thought was to get all of our final provisions to be ready should a weather window present itself. In any case, we opted for Christmas in Miami with buddy boats. Between the three boat ovens (Romana and LeeLoo) we assembled a turkey dinner and all the fixings. There was beautiful sunny weather until Christmas day, then it turned cloudy and windy. Christmas for 6 was down below on Slow Waltz.
On the 26th, we got a surprise text from one Mr. David Rumble (our good friend, boat neighbour and notorious trouble maker) suggesting they may end up missing a flight connection in Miami on route to Curacao for a family vacation. Was it wrong to hope just a little, that their flight was delayed? We had a glorious dinner in the Grove and some cocktails on Slow Waltz, just like old times. So nice to see friends from back home.
We spent the next few days with final trips to West Marine and grocery stores for final ships stores and spares to get us through the Bahamas. We finally selected the January 2nd weather window and TADA, here we are. It feels like a big milestone on our trip.
We have been here for 8 days now, the first 4 were sunny and clear, then we had a rainy windy overcast spell (not complaining, just reporting) and now the sun has returned. We have heard the news of the brutality of this winter season back home including the “Polar Vortex” that has affected the entire eastern seaboard. Looks like we picked a good year to go. The same systems that have made the Canadian (particularly the east) winter so horrendous have caused unseasonable (relatively speaking) conditions and persistent strong north winds in the islands. The locals were wearing toques, gloves and puffy coats in the 19-ish C temperatures.
We have toured North and South Bimini islands since we have been here. A highlight was definitely the Bimini Biological Field Station Shark Lab. I was looking forward to becoming better informed about sharks, the presence of sharks in the islands and what we should do when swimming and snorkelling. We went for a tour and visited the shark pens, where one of the staff showed us a young lemon shark. He answered our multitude of questions about the sharks in the Bimini area and beyond. There is some basic protocol - don’t go in the water at dawn or dusk, because that’s when they feed. On the off chance that you do encounter a shark when you are in the water:
- Just continue to move/swim calmly
- Do not thrash around like wounded potential prey
- It’s a good idea to make eye contact, because you take away the element of surprise from them and are not an easy target
- If they are swimming at a consistent speed in the same direction as you with no sharp speed or direction changes, they are not being aggressive, so not a threat
- If you are spear fishing, the sharks, especially reef sharks just want the fish, the clear wisdom is just to let them have it
We must have gained some level of comfort since the next day we dinghied with 2 other dinghies across the channel to the shallows and went snorkelling where we saw starfish, rays and other small fish, and nary a shark on which to practice the above noted tips.
When we arrived in Bimini we also caught up with a couple of boats that we crossed paths with a few times, but hadn’t formally met, Eleanor Q and Magnolia. Eleanor Q, a blue-hulled Gozzard 41 is a sister ship of Slow Waltz. We had seen Eleanor Q anchored in Charleston back in November and found their blog online and dropped them a note. MaryMarie of Eleanor Q and I kept in email contact for the next almost two months and we referred to each other as “friends we hadn’t met”. They had crossed from Miami a few days before us so we were greeted at the dock by MaryMarie and we finally got to meet and have several happy hours with MaryMarie and Frank of EQ and Anthony and Annette of M before they took a weather window to Nassau. I am sure we will catch them in the Exhumas for more happy hours.
We are waiting for a weather window to make passage to Nassau where we are picking up a new dinghy motor to go with our spanky new dinghy. We upgraded from 9’4” inflatable bottom Achilles to a 9’6” AB 9 VL and WOW what a difference. Next upgrade is the outboard, going from a 4 HP 2 stroke to a 15 HP 2 stroke. That will amp up our travelling speed. We are expecting to leave in the morning and either overnite straight through to Nassau, or anchor on the Great Bahama Banks for a rest before making Nassau the next day.
Finally, we have been invited to attend a birthday party this afternoon. The sailing vessel “C Spirit” is our boat neighbour at the marina, a young family cruising with four daughters on a 32 foot Beneteau, two of which are celebrating their 10th and 5th birthdays respectively today. The non-birthday girls are 8 and 3. A very happy family. I remind myself of their space challenges and storage issues when I am fighting with a locker to dig out the item at the very bottom under a hundred things.
That’s the update from Slow Waltz. Happy new year to all and all the best for 2014.