Crossing to The Bahamas

Crossing to the Bahamas

The crossing, technically, began at 0730, 03 Apr 2017, when I shut down the AC power to JonNe’, and rolled up the power cords and stowed them.  As JonNe’ is a center cockpit style sailboat, there is stowage on the after deck, and we have two large ice chests back there.  Neither one is used for keeping any thing cold.  The one we have of the port side is used to store soft drinks (about 120), and the one on the starboard side is for storing power cables, the fuel filler, and extraneous straps to hold the dinghy in place while we are making transits.

At 0800, Scimitar was already in the channel heading out, Miss Piggy departed from her seawall berth, we backed out of our slip, then Flynnigan’s Wake departed the Office berth.  Scott and Annie had been working hard all the previous evening and were out early Tuesday morning to finish up any remaining issues.  Carpe Diem finally left her slip at about 0815, and caught up with the rest of us at the end of the channel. 

Originally, the plan was to get out of the end of the channel, and head out across Hawk Channel, exiting into the Atlantic at Maryland Shoals.  As it turned out, we felt more comfortable heading east up Hawk Channel and eventually jumped off shore around Sombrero Light, west of Marathon.  From there we headed due east (085deg mag actually), and maintained that heading to the area of Key Largo.  Although by that time, we were 12nm offshore.  We had already picked up the current and we were being swept east and eventually northeast with 1-2 kts of flow.  I had been asleep for an hour or so.  I awoke, took the helm.  I looked around, and couldn’t see our companions.  Miss Piggy had been lagging behind, and Flynnigan’s Wake chose to backtrack a few miles to travel with them.   I had assumed the lead for Carpe Diem and Scimitar, but I couldn’t find them. I got on the radio and made contact with them.  I was concerned, as now the current was moving us north at an angle of 45 degrees to our current course.  I realized they might actually miss Bimini if they didn’t make an immediate change of course.  So in our conversation, I asked them to increase their speed while we slowed down.  I also requested a change in course to reduce their movement north. 

In time, we were able to correct our courses and with minimal change until we arrived at the entrance to Bimini.  We arrived at Bimini Sands Resort Marina 27 hours after departing Key West.  Surprisingly, Flynnigan’s Wake pulled into the marina an hour later and Miss Piggy arrived an hour after them. 

It was a great trip.  A bit of rock and roll, but what is a crossing without mis-forecast winds and waves!!

Catch up with us on my FaceBook page – Jon Siewers – it is the only one there.  I am sending out a spot on a regular basis when we are moving.