Tag Archives: Bimini

Waiting in Bimini

We left Dinner Key Marina on Sunday, December 16 at 0649 and arrived in Bimini at 1430. We had 3 to 6 foot swells on the port aft beam and it was an uncomfortable motorsail although we’ve had much worse Gulf Stream crossings. The first thing we had to do when we got to Bimini was check in with Bahamas Customs and Immigration. We filled out some paperwork and Mark took that, along with all of our other paperwork concerning us, the boat, and Sailor, in a taxi for a short ride to the airport. It costs $300 for our cruising permit. This allows us to stay in the Bahamas for eight months and the boat can be in Bahamian waters for 12 months. However, Customs and Immigration officials never give cruisers more than six months, with the ability for us to extend it to eight months. Usually they only give cruisers three of four months. Only one time in seven visits to the Bahamas have we gotten six months and we have always checked in at Bimini. In order to extend our cruising permit, we must be near a town with an Immigration official within a few days before it expires. We know we will be in Georgetown in three months so that is what we asked for this time. The last time we were in the Bahamas we asked for six months and were given four months. When it was about to expire we were in Spanish Wells where there isn’t an immigration office. We had to take a water taxi to Eleuthera and a land taxi to an immigration office to get the extension. Hopefully when we extend it in Georgetown the official will give us another three months. This does not always happen and we might need to extend it again in Spanish Wells. After Mark returned from the airport, he took down our yellow “quarantine” flag and raised the Bahamas courtesy flag.

Our plan was to stay at Bimini Sands one night and leave the next morning for Great Harbour Cay in the Berries. We got up at 0400 and Mark took Sailor for a quick walk. He went to the beach and saw rough seas in the inlet and further out in the ocean. We sail on the ocean for several miles before we reach the shallow Bahamas Bank. We decided to stay in Bimini and went back to bed. A very strong cold front was forecast to come through the Bahamas Thursday night and Friday so we needed to be in a safe place by then. We could have gotten to the extremely protected marina in Great Harbour Cay the following day when the seas were calmer and many cruisers did go there to wait out the storm. We stayed in Bimini because the marina we are at, Bimini Sands Resort and Marina, is running a special of $1 a foot ($42 for us) a day or $100 a week for a slip. If you have a 100 foot yacht, it’s still $100 a week. Great Harbour Cay has a weekly price of $10 a foot, or $420 for us before a discount with our Active Captain account. Since we had already spent much more money than planned on a marina in Ft. Lauderdale for two weeks and the mooring field in Miami for a month, plus the unexpected cost of replacing the jib furler, we decided to save about $300 and stay in Bimini. Oddly, even with the extremely good prices at Bimini Sands, only a few boats are here. Perhaps that is because Bimini Sands is not advertising their special prices. We didn’t know about it until we checked in. After the pictures below were taken several other boats did come in. We noticed the marinas in North Bimini were not full either, so most cruisers must have moved as far into the Bahamas as they could get before the predicted cold front arrives.
On Monday we took the water taxi a very short distance from South Bimini to North Bimini and walked to the Batelco (Bahamas Telephone Company) office on Kings Highway. After getting a new SIM card for our Bahamas smartphone, and some scratch off cards to add data and phone time to it as needed, we went back to South Bimini. For $29.95 we have 15 GB of data, unlimited phone calls within the Bahamas, and 1000 minutes to call the States or Canada for 15 days. The data rolls over if we don’t use it all. Every year we have come to the Bahamas Batelco seems to have better deals. There are several other options in the Bahamas for unlimited data with different companies which we will probably investigate when we get to Georgetown.
On Thursday, a prefrontal trough came through the Bahamas with high wind and torrential rain. We are tied up in a wide slip with numerous lines going from the boat’s cleats to both sides of the slip, so we hardly moved even when the wind picked up overnight with gusts over 40 kts. During the night the cold front arrived and all day Friday we had 30 to 35 kt sustained winds but the squalls had stopped. By Saturday morning the wind was down below 10 kts, and the high seas were slowly calming down. The photos below show waves crashing into the Bimini Sands Inlet on Friday.

At this time of year in the Bahamas, there are never more than three or four days of safe traveling weather in a row. The forecast for the next three days is good for getting from Bimini to the Exumas so we will leave at about 0500 Sunday morning and sail to Chub Cay. Both Chub Cay and Great Harbour Cay are in the Berries and we could go to either one on Sunday. However, Chub Cay is closer to Nassau and will make our second travel day quicker. We will arrive in Chub Cay around 6 pm and anchor near the shore. Since days are short, we will be leaving Bimini in the dark and anchoring at Chub in the dark, but the anchorage there is a wide open area and there are usually few boats in the anchorage area. We will leave the next morning, arrive in Nassau in the early afternoon, get fuel and motor through the harbor to Nassau Harbour Club where we have a reservation for Monday night, which is Christmas Eve. Our Christmas present will be to arrive in the northern Exumas on Christmas Day. There will be several sections during the next two days where we will be on deep ocean water. Most of the sail from Bimini to Chub is on the Bahama Bank but the first part and the last part are on the ocean. From Chub Cay to Nassau we will be in deep water on the “Tongue of the Ocean” as soon as we leave the channel out of the anchorage at Chub Cay. The sail from Nassau to the Exumas is on the shallow Yellow Bank.

We are planning to reach the Exumas on Tuesday because on Wednesday another system with high winds enters the Bahamas. As weather allows, we will continue south on the Bank along the Exuma chain of islands and cays. Eventually we will exit the Bank through a cut between islands out to the deep Exuma Sound and sail to Georgetown where we plan to stay until the end of March.

Miami to Great Harbour Cay, Bahamas

At 0605 on 11-14-16 we released mooring ball 58 at Dinner Key Mooring Field and motorsailed across Biscayne Bay to the channel entering the Atlantic Ocean, beginning our fifth cruising season in the Bahamas. The seas were predicted to be calm, but with minimal wind for sailing. Unfortunately, we were headed right into what little wind there was and it was just choppy enough to make the ride uncomfortable. In other words I spent most of the morning in bed with Sailor. After several hours, a loud alarm went off to alert us that one of the engines was overheating. We turned that engine off and continued on with one engine until it cooled down. Mark checked it and added more coolant. The engine started up and ran fine the rest of the trip. This has never happened to us before, so it was a bit worrisome. I was very glad we were on a catamaran with two engines. As we approached Bimini, the seas smoothed out and we arrived at 1400 in Bimini Sands Marina and Resort.

Sunrise as we left Miami.

Seas the Day at Bimini Sands Resort and Marina

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We had been been looking forward to having a delicious seafood pizza at the Bimini Sands Beach Club Restaurant, but sadly it has closed. Also, the entire resort is closing at the end of November. The marina will stay open until March, but unless someone buys it, the marina will also close. There are condos at the resort, and the owners will be able to use them, but the restaurants will be closed and they can’t rent their condos. I’m sure many of the condos were purchased to be rentals but there will be no one on the property to handle them. Not good news! We have enjoyed this marina because it is on South Bimini, away from the noise and activity of North Bimini. Also it has two pools, restaurants, very nice floating docks, and a beach next to the marina. The North Bimini marinas have a very busy channel on one side and a busy street on the other. A water taxi connects the two islands.

At 0440 on Tuesday, November 15, in the pitch dark, we left Bimini Sands to motorsail to the Berries. Usually we stop and anchor at Chub Cay (pronounced Key), but the weather was going to deteriorate on Wednesday until at least the weekend. Therefore we decided to go to Great Harbour Cay Marina in the Berries. It is a little closer than Chub Cay and the entire trip is on the shallow Great Bahama Bank. The sky was cloudy, but the water was as smooth as glass.

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A few hours before we reached Great Harbour Cay, it started to rain. It was a gentle rain, not a squall or a thunderstorm, and it continued to drizzle as we entered Great Harbour Cay. We knew from the charts and talking to other cruisers that it would be dangerous to enter the marina after dark. There is a channel with high rock sides and several sharp turns before eventually entering the marina. Many cruisers get to the Cay and then anchor outside the entrance until daylight. We arrived at 1620 with plenty of light and were directed to a wide slip. This marina has become very popular over the past few years after the owner of Active Captain, a site where cruisers rate and review anchorages and marinas, spread the word on his Facebook page, email to Active Captain subscribers, and other social media than this is THE place to stay in the Bahamas. Other cruisers agreed and now it is impossible to get a reservation here for the winter without booking many months in advance. When we arrived, there was only one other boat with people on it and a few sportsfishers and trawlers with no one aboard, although more boats have come in each day. We found out that some of the fishermen fly leave their boats here and fly in to the Great Harbour Cay Airport.

It is clear why this is a popular cruiser destination, where many stay for the entire winter/spring season. From our first contact on the phone with a receptionist through the check-in process, the staff was polite and professional. We were told our slip number before we arrived, which is rare at most Bahamian marinas. Even in Nassau, as you are calling them from outside the marinas to let them know you have arrived, they figure out where they’ll put you. Once we were guided into a slip at a Nassau marina that got narrower as we proceeded and we almost got stuck in it before quickly backing out! We always make reservations at least a day ahead once we know which day we can get to a marina. Movement in the Bahamas always depends on the weather.

During the season, when the marina is full, there are many activities here. We saw yoga mats in a storage shed and the professionally made information booklets we received spoke of art classes, exercise classes and more. Even now with few people here, we can get homemade bread delivered to the boat every other day, homemade pizza delivered to the boat at the time you choose on Thursdays, and a Bahamian BBQ meal on Fridays for $10. The booklets showed detailed maps of the local places to snorkel and where to take a dinghy into the mangroves. A long walk, or short bike ride on free marina bikes, brought us to a seven mile long sugary sand beach extending along the north side of the cay.

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There is a grocery store next to the marina and a Batelco phone store walking distance down a paved road. Every day fishermen come in and guests at the marina can get fresh fish or lobster. The free wifi is very fast with four towers around the marina. There are three showers/bathrooms which are very clean and modern and several more are being built. It’s nice to be plugged into shore power, although it is billed at 75 cents per KWH. There is well water at our slip that is free to wash off the boat and RO (reverse osmosis) drinking water from another hose at our slip for 50 cents a gallon. There is also a fuel dock at the marina.

My son used a bike today and went up and down the roads of Great Harbour Cay. He took the photos below showing the beautiful scenery.

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After Pete got back from his bike ride, Sailor was playing with his toys on the deck. He is not allowed to do this but often sneaks one or two out to his bed. We noticed that his hamburger toy was missing, and sure enough it was floating away from the boat. Mark thought about putting the dinghy down but Pete offered to jump off the dock and swim for it. He did, got the toy, and returned it to a relieved Sailor.

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This morning, we listened to Chris Parker, the marine weatherman we subscribe to, and found out that Saturday and Sunday will be our best days to get to the Exumas. Sunday night another front is coming through the Bahamas. Therefore, on Friday we will leave the marina to anchor nearby. We’ll sail early Saturday morning to Nassau, spend the night at Nassau Harbour Club Marina, which just happens to be across the street from our LAST Starbucks until June, and sail to Norman’s Cay or Shroud Cay in the northern Exumas on Sunday. The sail to Nassau is on deep ocean water, so even with mild wind, it might be rough. Once we leave Nassau, we are on the shallow Bahama Bank all through the Exumas until we have to go on the Exuma Sound for one day to reach Georgetown.

On Thursday, our last night at Great Harbour Cay Marina, we enjoyed homemade pizza delivered hot to our boat. We ordered two: a lobster/conch pizza and a special with “everything” on it. They were delicious! We did get our seafood pizza after all. I planned on taking a picture when they arrived but we were so hungry I forgot until the leftovers were in the refrigerator and freezer. Leftover pizza will be great to nibble on as we travel over the next few days. Next stop, Starbucks!

Cruising is a Waiting Game

Leaving Miami at daybreak on Friday, January 1, we had moderately rough seas for most of the cruise to Bimini. The forecast was for light wind, but unfortunately we were going right into it. We decided to stay on the mooring ball at Dinner Key Thursday night since it was New Year’s Eve. Normally we stage at No Name Harbor at the eastern end of Key Biscayne, which is right at the entrance to the ocean, the night before we leave for Bimini. We knew that there would be many boats out on the Bay celebrating and watching the midnight fireworks, and anchored in or near No Name would not be comfortable as it is next to a channel. Leaving from Dinner Key added an hour to our trip but at least we got some sleep. We left at 0650 and arrived in Bimini at 1500. The distance from Miami to Bimini is about 50 miles. Since we were motorsailing into the wind, we didn’t get much help from the sails.

Below is is a photo taken with Miami behind us and a screen shot of what our SPOT track looked like for the first hour, leaving Dinner Key and entering the Atlantic Ocean. (The SPOT track is always available on our website located in the “Location” menu.)

While it was a bit rougher than we like, headed into the waves and “hobby horsing,” to show how comfortable it is in a catamaran, I took a picture of a glass of water that was on the galley counter while the boat was rocking. Notice the water isn’t moving and the glass is not falling over nor is anything else on the counter moving. Outside in the cockpit, our plants are not sliding off into the ocean. This is one of many reasons why we like living and cruising on a catamaran.

As we approached Bimini, we were happy to see the Bimini Sands Marina and the narrow opening to the harbor. It is not much wider than our 25 ft beam. Once we are in the marina the water is always flat and backing into the wide slips is easy. This is the only marina we have ever stayed at where all slips are wide enough for two monohulls or one catamaran with no post in the middle. There is no extra charge for a catamaran.

We knew we would be in Bimini at least a week because we only had one more day left of the current “weather window” and that would get us to an anchorage in the Berries. There is a very nice marina called Great Harbour Marina in the Berries, but we would be arriving in the dark and have never been there so we decided to wait out the current weather system in Bimini. We have stayed at Bimini Sands many times, and it is always amazing to us that so many boats go to the North Bimini marinas instead of staying here. There are only a handful of boats with us at Bimini Sands while the marinas in North Bimini are much busier. Several of the popular marinas there are $1 a ft while at least one is $1.50 a ft. We are paying $1.50 a ft and it is so quiet and calm here compared to North Bimini where the streets are very busy and the docks, which aren’t floating like we have at Bimini Sands, are hit by the wakes of powerboats rushing back and forth in the channel next to the marinas all day long. We are completely surrounded by condos and the water is always flat. For us, it is well worth the extra $20 a day.

We have been waiting since we were here last May to return to the Bimini Sands Beach Club for their seafood pizza covered with big pieces of lobster, shrimp, and conch as well as veggies. We bought an extra pizza to take back for leftovers. The free shuttle took us to the the Beach Club at the southern end of South Bimini and picked us up after our delicious meal with boat buddies Sandy and Tom (Renaissance II). The colors of the bus match those in the Bahamas flag.

seafoodpizza Just like the weather in Miami was unusually stormy while we waited there, we haven’t had much sun in Bimini this week. It makes walking around the town difficult when rain clouds are overhead and the wind is blowing hard, but on Monday we took the water taxi the short distance from South Bimini to North Bimini. Our one goal was to go to Batelco, (Bahamas Telephone Company), to get a new phone and a SIM card for it. After several years of exclusively using our iPad with a Batelco SIM card while in the Bahamas to get online and a small cheap phone to make calls, we decided to get an unlocked smartphone with a hotspot feature so we could also use our US phones and computer online. Our current US smartphones are locked so we can’t put a Batelco SIM card in them. We were lucky to find a Samsung smartphone for a little over $100. It kills me to use an Android, after owning Apple products since the first one came out back in the early 80’s, but I have to admit this Samsung is a nice phone and has all the features we need while here.

Many of the readers of this blog know that I talk to my 36 year old daughter Jennifer, who is autistic and lives in Florida, each night at 9:30. On past cruises, I used a Batelco phone which cost about 80 cents a minute when I called her each night for 3-5 minute conversations. This season we are using Facebook Messenger when we talk, which is free and uses very little data. The Samsung smartphone has an APP for Messsenger so I am still talking to her on a phone and it seems to be working beautifully, plus I am saving a lot of money.

The Bahamas started providing cell phone service with towers on or near every inhabited island a few years ago with SIM cards that can be easily topped off online or by using purchased cards. When we first came here in December, 2009, we had a wifi extender and used free or prepaid wifi. It was very expensive for the prepaid ones and the unlocked free wifi spots were few and not necesarily safe or broadcasting strong signals. Each year Batelco has improved their plans for cruisers and tourists who are not here all year. This year we can get 5 GB’s for $55. Last year it cost $30 for 2 GB’s and that option is still available. The year before it was $30 for 1 GB. Year round residents can get 15 GB’s for $75 after putting $300 down and there are other cell phone plans for people who are here all year.

We were in Bimini last May and during that visit my son Peter was with us so we took him to all of our favorite places. This time we have been spending most of the time relaxing and as always there are things to fix on the boat. As I write this, Mark is repairing our deck wash system. Sailor was happy to get to his first Bahamas beach of this cruise, just a few steps from the marina. The photo above of the entrance to Bimini Sands shows the beaches to the north and south. They are almost always empty or with one or two other people on them. The beaches on North Bimini are more used since the bulk of the residents of Bimini are located there, as are most of the tourists and cruisers.

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Tonight we will pay our marina bill, minus 10% for being here a week, and go to sleep early. We will leave before sunrise Friday morning at around 0530 and round North Bimini, headed to Chub Cay (pronounced Key) in the Berry Islands. It’s a long day, but we’ll be on the shallow Bahamas Bank most of the time, so the water should be relatively calm. We will arrive at the anchorage after sunset and it is an easy one to enter in the dark. We have reservations to stay at the Nassau Harbour Club on Saturday and will hopefully leave there for the Exumas on Sunday. We were smart to stay in Bimini this past week. Last night there were reports of squalls in the Exumas with gusts to 106 kts in Cambridge Cay and sustained 70-80 kt wind with gusts up to 105 kts in the Georgetown Harbor with five foot seas at the Chat ‘n Chill Restaurant on Volleyball Beach! This is extremely unusual and we heard that many anchored boats dragged and some landed on the beaches in Georgetown. When we are there we stay on a mooring ball in a very protected hole. That weather has moved out of the Bahamas and we will hope for “fair winds” for the next few days.

Miami to Bimini

The distance from Miami to Bimini is about 50 miles. We arrived at 1900 on 12/27/14, pulled into a slip and settled in for a few days. The first part of the trip was a little lumpy but about halfway across the seas flattened and it became more comfortable. We were motoring directly into the wind. We have been in Bimini a number of times so we knew the channel into Bimini Sands in South Bimini but they have changed the markers since last year. A new large unlit channel marker went between our hulls and popped out under the dinghy. No damage to the boat, but sure sounded bad!

We enjoy Bimini Sands because it is so quiet here and the marina has wide slips and floating docks. It is the only Marina in South Bimini. In the photo below we are between a large powercat and Interlude. There are other marinas in North Bimini, but they aren’t this nice. Also the current is strong at the other marinasmaking boats rock in the slips. Today we watched a sportfisher try 4 or 5 times to get into a slip with a strong current at Big Game Club Marina. Bimini Sands Marina is surrounded by condos and there are two pools, a tennis court, and several restaurants here. The beach is nice for walking, and Sailor certainly loves running on it.

We are staying three nights and leaving tomorrow, December 30. As always, moving around on a sailboat is dependent on the weather. We are hoping to get to Chub Cay tomorrow and Nassau on Wednesday. If the good weather window continues we’ll go on to the Exumas, probably Highbourne Cay on Thursday. While here we had some delicious pizza last night at the Beach Club on South Bimini. Today we went to the phone company office. No matter how hard we try to activate our phone and iPad ourselves, something always seems to require a visit to the Batelco office. We took a colorful bus to the Beach Club and a water taxi to North Bimini. Lunch at the Big Game Club and Marina was excellent. (If you look closely, you can see the scars on my knees from the knee replacement surgeries in September and October.)

Mark had several jobs to do here. It seems that when we have the mast taken down for hurricane season, there are electrical repairs to make. This time, the anemometer (wind vane) at the top of the mast is not working. Also on the mast, the radar is not getting the information to our chart plotter. Much to his dismay, Mark had to climb up to the top of the mast to fix them. It is easier to climb a mast at a dock than when bobbing around at anchor. Still not a sailor’s favorite activity. After all this work he couldn’t get either one to work. I’m sure he’ll be back up again, perhaps at our next and last marina in Nassau, until we are headed home in May.

Waiting at Bimini Sands

We’ve been in Bimini since Tuesday and today is Friday. The weather had looked good for leaving on Saturday, but the winds have not dropped. They were up to 30 kts yesterday with sporadic rainstorms and dropped to the high teens today. We figured we’d leave before sunrise tomorrow, since it’s a long day’s sail to the Berries where our first stop will be. Then we took Sailor for an afternoon beach walk and this is what we saw.

At about 6 pm a 20 ft open fishing boat came into a slip by us. Six people got off with suitcases. I asked one of them if they had been out on the ocean and was shocked to hear they had left at noon from Ft. Lauderdale. He said the waves were 2-4 feet when they left and were 8-10 feet as they came into the marina. Part way over they lost one engine. The boat has two large outboard motors. Personally, I wouldn’t want to come across to the Bahamas in that boat in flat seas. They were soaked and of course thankful that they made it here. A few minutes later they would have had the additional problem of bouncing up and down in the waves in the dark.

We’ll get up early tomorrow and check the wind and seas, but I doubt that we’ll leave unless the wind has dropped considerably and the seas are much calmer. We don’t go anywhere unless the sea conditions are very mild.

Shortly after we arrived and took Sailor for his first beach walk in the Bahamas he started to vomit. Apparently he had eaten sand and then some grass. We tried to stop him but he was fast. For about a day and a half he kept vomiting and had no interest in food or water. Finally we got him to drink some water and he threw that up. At that point I searched online and discovered that if a dog is vomiting bile, which he was by then, you should give him ice cubes, then small amounts of water and then chicken and rice. At first he wouldn’t come near the chicken and rice. This is a dog who has never eaten “people food.” Eventually he gladly ate it, in fact he inhaled it. After a few meals of this we switched him back to his kibble. Surprise, surprise, he didn’t want it. Our previous doodle, Daisy, had many allergies and we traced them to eating table scraps. When we eliminated people food and went to a dog food that had no fillers and one meat ingredient, the allergies disappeared within days. We don’t want to make this mistake with Sailor. As you can see below, he is waiting for his chicken and rice and won’t let me put kibble in his dish. (Eventually he did go back to his regular food, but he is eyeing our meals a little more closely now.)

SV Seas the Day

Life Aboard Our Lagoon 420 Catamaran