The Crossing

It is only 50 miles from Florida to Bimini but the crossing is one of the most treacherous with the Gulf Stream current of 4 knots to the north and with all the freighter and cruise ship activity.  We pick our weather window carefully and cross with east southeast winds and seas 2-4 feet.  We watch continuously for big boat traffic. 

Leaving Key Biscayne - Bill Baggs State Park Lighthouse

Leaving at 4:30 pm planning for a 12-14 hour crossing, we arrive safely at Gun Cay to anchor on the west side.  We average 4 knots and log 48 nautical miles in 12 hours.  But we actually sailed 5-6 knots the whole crossing as we were going against the current.  We sailed 135 degrees most of the way and tracked 101 degrees straight to our destination! The current is ferocious.

Arriving in Bimini 

It’s great to be out on the open ocean as we sail with both sails, the jib and the main.  The waves build and the sun sets.  We have a half moon that lights our way. There are some dark clouds that affect our wind, but we see Orion clearly and the Big Dipper emerges. Cassiopeia is clear and we see the Seven Sisters.  It is not clear to the horizon, but lovely just the same. 

We immediately see 3 brightly lit cruise ships out of Miami. It is Saturday and one of the most frequent departure dates for cruise ships.  One of the ships is converging with us!  As it nears, Gordon identifies it as Disney Magic on his Automatic Information System (AIS) linked to his chartplotter.  Daryl calls the boat on VHF Channel 16 and the boat immediately responds to his call.  Daryl identifies our boat and asks if we are on their radar.  Disney navigator requests our position and Daryl responds with latitude and longitude. Disney navigator finds us on its systems and acknowledges our position, and advises it will clear us no problem.  Very cool.  We do the same thing with composite tug and barge, Galveston, and freighter, Pacuna J.  The Galveston actually thanked us and diverged from its path and gave us way. We must get an AIS system linked to our chartplotter!!

It was fun sailing with Fair Winds side by side.  Its profile in the setting sun and then the bright moon was beautiful to behold.  I was surprised at the amount of rocking and rolling it did in the 4-5 foot seas because it’s such a big boat. I guess we are all small out here.  We encountered one problem at sea.  Fair Winds battery voltage got so low some of its systems started to drop off.  Refrigeration and radar are 2 of the first systems. They went dark on navigation lights and moved up close to us for protection so other boats would see us. 

Before we knew it we were on the shores of Bimini and near the lighthouse at Gun Cay.  Time to rest and be grateful for another safe crossing.