Day 18: Bimini-Bound!

 

S/V Free Spirit, kicking our butt on the way from Miami to Bimini, the Bahamas.

We left at oh-dark-hundred, also known as anchors up by 6 am.

But first, a little more backtracking . . . (though I couldn't resist leading with this pretty sunrise sail photo)

The night before we left, we met up with our cruising buddies, Chris(toher) and Chris(tine) of s/v Scintilla. They showed off their sailing skills, right up to the last minute into the Key Biscayne anchorage they selected for us to meet up. We motored.

Chris and Chris of s/v Scintilla, sailing into the Key Biscayne anchorage, Miami in the background.

After getting rocked and rolled from Pompano Beach to Miami, once we came inside industrial Miami's breakwaters, the wind and waves calmed. When we stopped off at Cramer's Marina for fuel and to refill our water tanks, docking was relatively stress-free—a nice change of pace. The folks at Cramers said the winds rocketed through at 25 knots the previous night.

Night skyscape from our Key Biscayne anchorage.

Taking nightscapes is challenging and even more so when at anchor. Yet it was calm and clear enough to take a good nightscape the night before we left for Bimini.

Stilted homes of wilder bygone days in the Key Biscayne channel.

We traveled the Key Biscayne channel years ago, headed south to the Florida Keys. This time, they marked the initial part of our passage to Bimini. I wrote about the story of these historic stilted homes in this blog post.

A double rainbow as we exited the Key Biscayne channel struck us
as a good omen, heading to the Bahamas at last.

Even at 6 am, the Miami area was a warm 75 degrees, and balmy. Lovely as that rainbow was, we expected at least one squall on our passage.

S/V Gallivant, sailing through a squall on the way to Bimini.

We got two. Chis and Chris of Scintilla and Free Spirit, in the process of kicking our butt all the way across with an extra knot of speed, managed to outrace the second squall. The passage to Bimini was still a much calmer ride than the prior day. We still took our Bonine, just in case, and we're still glad that we did.

View of squall outside our cockpit, on the way to Bimini, Bahamas.

Both Scintilla and Free Spirit arrived at Brown's Marina in Alicetown, Bimini about 45 minutes to an hour before us, despite our all leaving Miami around the same time.

S/V Gallivant, a Gulfstar 45, at Brown's Marina, Alicetown, Bimini, the Bahamas.
The water really is that color, and that clear.

Location Location

We arrived at Brown's Marina (25 43.340N 79 17.930W) at high tide, at 3:45 pm, as planned. Getting into Browns Marina can be overly challenging at low tide or when the current is running strong. It's still close enough to the Gulf Stream that the water rushing past under our hull sounds like the whistling wind.

This blog post is a retrospective of two days ago. More on picturesque Bimini in upcoming posts.