We are here!!!! I have never seen such crystal clear water!
The trip over was mostly uneventful. There will be lots of pictures that I will post to the gallery.
A little bit about the trip from Florida to the Bahamas:
We cleared customs in Marathon at our appointed time then headed back to Faro Blanco to say good bye to all the people we have met. We departed the marina at 12:40 estimating a 21-24 hour trip. We cleared under the Seven Mile Bridge at 13:45. Sky blue, full sun and it was promising to be a good forecast for us with winds east to southeast at 10 knots. Initially we had residual North East winds that made for sloppy seas of about 2-4'. As the day progressed the seas calmed down and the wind lightened so it was to be a motoring job to the Bahamas. Shortly after dark there was a loud bang off the stern and upon inspection one of the bales holding our davits block had broken. (Davits holds our dinghy up out of the water) It was too dangerous to let the dinghy down, (dark and still 3'waves) so we rigged it with a temporary line until we had good light to fix it properly.
The night was nice because it calmed considerably and there were millions of stars. We had a bit of excitement when our AIS (Automatic Identification System) sounded a collision alarm! We normally have the alarm set for 1/2 mile during the day because we are both awake and keep a lookout but we set it for 15 miles to have plenty of time to react when its dark and we are tired. We were on an exact head on collision course with a cruise ship. No argument from us, we moved out of the way in a purposeful way so the ship would also know our intentions. We passed about 8 cruise ships during the night. They look very cool at night as there is a glow on the horizon then they suddenly pop into sight. Most were cruising around 12 - 16 knots. The tankers aren't nearly as exciting as they only have a few lights in comparison to the cruise ships.
The water temperature was 22C when we left Faro Blanco and we were watching for a temperature increase to know when we were in the Gulf Stream. It was fairly easy to know we had hit the Stream because we were cruising along nicely at 5.5 knots and suddenly our boat speed was 7.4 knots! Sure enough we checked the temperature and it was 28C! The warm water giving us a nice ride.
It was warm overnight and a very pleasant trip.
At 8:43 am we got to shout "Land Ho" as we could start to see Bimini. This was perfect as we would have good light to enter the harbour.
The closer we got the more amazing as the water is so clear you can see straight to the bottom in 30' of water. The blue colour is indescribable. We entered the harbour and turned into Brown's marina at 10:45. This is a small marina but sturdy docks, super friendly people and a really nice view. Shortly after our arrival the lobster fisherman came in with a boat load of lobsters. Dinner!! They sell for $70.00/dozen so we split with another boat and got 6 large cleaned tails each. They were delicious over two days.
I spent almost the entire day either online or on the phone with Bell trying to get my email and data to work. Very frustrating as Bell insists that you phone them on a land line and there are no working pay phones on the island.
See the gallery for a few pictures. I'll post more when the internet improves.