April 18, 2015 Bimini

Ocean Sunrise

Well, we left at 5:45.  We were supposed to leave at 5:30 but  neither of us woke up.  I finally did at 5:39 and scrambled around to get ready to leave.  Mary woke up with the engines running.  Jeff and Judy were prepared to swing over by use and use their horn.

We left the anchorage but They went of on my original routes and I took my new route out to sea.  The main difference was that I had originally had us anchored on the south side of the islands.  But with the weather change I planned on anchoring on the north side of Rodriguez so altered the route which altered how we left and traversed the reef out to the Ocean.

In any event we met up with them about 5 miles off shore and cruised together I the beautiful ocean.  We had large, but very widely spaced rollers from the north which proved to be no trouble at all.

Ocean cruising is great  for napping

About 30 miles off shore we had an encounter with a large container ship from Singapore.  I simply just slowed way a down and veered off to pass them on their stern rather than risk a miscalculation on our meeting courses. 

Our Car Carrier friend

After we did this Jeff and Judy began experiencing Auto pilot errors and ended up following us all the way into Biminis.

Entering Bimini's inlet. 

The water out in the gulf stream is incredibly blue.  And deep.  A few thousand feet.  Once we neared Biminis the color differentiation was quite noticeable.  Dark rich almost velvet blue to the light blue of tropical seas.

The inlet it self was a torrent of waves because of the tide rushing out..  Made for an interesting few minutes going in to the harbor.

Once inside we called repeatedly to Biminis Blue Water Marina but no one answered.  I even tried Browns marina and no one answered there either.  Mary had called and made a reservation for both of our boats at Blue Water the day before.  W ended up powering up a cell phone and calling them.  The dock master finally got on the radio after the office lady yelled at him.  It only took us a few minutes after that and we were tied up.

Thats us out on the end of the pier

They put us on the north face dock behind another large trawler while Jeff and Judy went into a slip on the same dock we were tied too.

After getting secured we filled out the paperwork the dock master gave us and walked the 4 blocks to Customs where we had to fill out a few more forms and then walk another few blocks to Immigration for 2 more forms and a passport stamping.  The the instructions on the door in big bold lettering were to knock first.  I did and a disembodied voice said "come ".   It was a spacious office with one guy and a humming air conditioner keeping the place nice and cool.

Customs Office and Administrative and Police offices

The neighborhood is typical of Caribbean towns, at least from my experience.  Run down, but not necessarily seedy.  Just tired and worn.

Looking back towards the marina

As we were walking back to the marina after completing the immigration process, I did notice a steady stream of boats coming into the harbor and heading down past us to the ritzy Resorts World Bimini.  And not small boats either but large yachts and sport fishing vessels.   Busy place!

Mary was confined to the boat during this check in procedure so once we were legally admitted to the country, she got off the boat and we put up the Bahamas courtesy flag.  The general rule here is only the master of the vessel (captain) can leave the boat and check into the country.

And I should also mention that even though Verizon has service over here, its hugely pricey so most everyone shuts down their phones and just buys a BTC phone with 4 gigs of data for a hundred bucks or so.  I'm afraid to see what that phone call to the marina cost us.

Mary, Jeff and I went to the marina office where we paid for two nights and Jeff got his phone updated with more minutes.  And I got their wireless key which only works if your within close proximity of the office.  But we have a wifi booster and … well, we can get the signal out here at the dock.  Not real fast network speeds, but at least its network access.

The marina pool

As we walked back to the boats, the pool was really humming with lots of activity and jovial boaters.  Cocktail hour around here seems to be thriving.  The boat behind us is leaving for Chub Cay tomorrow morning with a delightful, elderly couple.  I was able to pick their brain a little about the Bahamas and where to anchor. 

So we’re going to bed early tonight to recover from the shock of a pre-sunrise departure and then wander the town tomorrow.  But it is Sunday here and many places wont be open I’m guessing.

But down here no on has a plan.  You just go with the flow.