Wednesday 1 January 2020
It's official. We have gone foreign! I am thumbing this as we cross the Gulf Stream, next stop Alice Town in North Bimini. We should arrive there just before dark and although it is unlikely that we will be able to clear Bahamian Customs today we will either find a spot to anchor or go in to Brown's Marina where we had stayed before. Once we get in range of the Bahamian cell towers we will call them to see if they have space for us. Then, weather conditions permitting, we will head for Fresh Creek, Andros Island.

I wonder what conditions the forecasters such as Chris Parker look for before they tell folks that it is OK to make the crossing. Today the winds were NNE at about 10 knots and the seas were 2' with a 5 second period. What I would call normal nice sailing weather back home. Does it have to be a mill pond before folks will make this crossing or did we just get lucky?

We are motor sailing across seas of beautiful blue under a cloudless sky. I have my fingers tightly crossed that the Weather Witches will be kind and true to their word for this crossing. We don't have any problems with these conditions at all!

Sigh!

By eleven o'clock the wind had diminished and we were left with only Yoki, our Yanmar Diesel engine, trying to push us at 45 degrees into the Gulf Stream at its strongest point to get us to the right latitude for Bimini. Oh well. Still safe conditions except a little less comfortable due to the lack of wind on the sails steadying the sea swell. So, we are rolling a bit more and going more slowly.

By noon we were 31.44nm from our waypoint at the entrance to Alice Town Harbour at North Bimini. Unless we manage to catch some speed from somewhere we won't get there in daylight and will have to anchor off unless we can contact someone from Brown's to be there to help us in.

Whoa there! Back up the train. After lunch I hailed on Ch 16 to see if there was anyone else heading to the Bahamas out here and two boats introduced themselves to us. Gyp C, with a Canadian crew and the sailboat that we can see behind us named Mutiny.

At four o'clock the US courtesy flag came down and the Q flag went up - excitement built.

We arrived at the entrance to North Bimini harbour at dark and promptly ran aground right where the chart plotter said we had plenty of water. After fifteen minutes of cursing and feeling hard done by we managed to motor our way off with a maximum effort from Yoki. Then, with the hep of a number of people we got into a slip at Bimini Blue Water Resort and Marina. We decided to clear customs tomorrow as to do it today would result in having to pay them a premium which we didn't want to do. We will walk in to the Customs and Immigration offices tomorrow morning instead. As for tonight we went out fo a very expensive bowl of conch soup and fritters as well as a couple of beers but we get that we deserved it after our ordeal at the end of today's trip.

A note from Barb:

We decided on Bimini Blue Water after Gyp C recommended it and it had a pretty good write up in the Waterway Guide. It wasn't very easy to find it in the dark in the profusion of lights on shore in several bars and the rest of the small marinas. There were folks from a couple of other boats, one was in the radio guiding us in, and a marina dockhand - they all had bright flashlights that they were turning on and off so we could spot them. We didn't do a spectacular job of "gliding into the dock space" but we made it without hurting Nelleke or the the boats in either side. Docking in the dark in a place where there are no lights on the docks stinks. Oh, one other thing, I had a reminder of why you hold on when moving forward on the boat even if the boat is proceeding slowly. I was making my way forward when we ran aground on the way into the channel. There was quite a lurch and if I were not holding on I would have lost my balance and gone over the side.

We had another reminder while using the ATM that things don't always work here like we are used to. It was well after dark and the ATM screen was not of sufficient brightness. In order for Mike to make out the screen messages we had to shine a flashlight in it at just the right angle.

Argh.