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Miami, USA to Nassau,Bahamas 1st
February - 12th February 2005 |
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We said fond farewells to our friends from the
yard in Miami, the Cole family from Red Flash and Scott and Barbara from
White Caps, who had all generously spent a lot of time chauffeuring us
around the nearby chandleries and supermarkets for supplies. It was
also time to say goodbye to our neighbours the manatee family, who had kept
Anju company while we had been away. It was time to head back
down the Miami River, through the eight lift bridges and head back to the
South Beach anchorage to resume our cruising
lifestyle.
Of course our timing was all wrong, as soon
as we'd left the dock we discovered that one of the bridges would be closed
for lunch, leaving us circling against the river current in a small space
for an hour. Finally, however, we were back anchored amongst the
millionaire's houses near South Beach, ready to prepare for our trip to the
Bahamas.
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Anju's companions, the
manatee family
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Our wishes were answered!
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Several dinghy trips to the supermarket later we
were almost ready to leave. Next came the normally irksome task of
refueling. We were trying to psych ourselves to take up
our anchor, locate a marina with an easily accessible and deep enough fuel
dock and top up our fuel tanks and were wishing that a magic diesel genie
should pass by and drop off our fuel, when what should we spot in the
anchorage but a floating diesel delivery service. Our wishes had
been answered! We called up Matt the captain, and he skillfully
brought the tanker close to Anju and dropped two hydraulic piles into the
mud to anchor himself. Once he was fixed we simply hauled Anju over to
the tanker by hand and fuelled up. Unbelievably the fuel prices
were cheaper than the marina and we hadn't had to risk our new paint job on
a dock!
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Our next challenge was to find out how to clear
out with Customs and Immigration in the US. We rang around and nobody seemed
really sure. Finally we managed to track down an Immigration Officer who
told us we'd have to take our landing cards to the immigration building in
the cruise ship dock - easy if you have a car! We had to dinghy to the
nearest marina, pay $10 to tie up the dinghy, hike three miles across a
highway bridge to the port and then wander around until we finally found a
person who gave us correct directions to the office. By the
time we arrived we were very hot and frustrated. Then we tried to hand
in our cards to the officer on duty, who wouldn't take them off us as we
weren't leaving until 4 am the next morning. We were told we'd have to
post them back to the office when we arrived in the Bahamas. Why we
couldn't have been told this on the phone, saving ourselves a lot of
trouble, was a mystery!
We left Miami at 4 am on the 3rd February and made our way out to sea
through the deserted cruise ship docks in the dark. The forecast was for
light and variable winds, so we were expecting a gentle motor across the
Gulf Stream to the Bahamas but what we found was 10 - 15 knots from the
east, right on the nose of course!
In the yard in Miami we'd changed the stuffing in our stuffing box (the
thing that stops the water coming up the prop shaft and into the boat) and
part way across the Gulf Stream we found the stuffing box was getting very
hot, so we had to take the engine out of gear, to make an adjustment by
loosening the nut a little bit. Once we were out of gear and
drifting, we could really tell we were in the Gulf Stream, as the boat
turned by herself to head due north at about 3 knots!
We'd planned to head straight to Nassau but a combination of the stuffing
box problem, the stronger winds and rougher conditions that we'd expected
and the fact that we had hardly slept the night before and didn't fancy
another overnight trip to Nassau made us decide to put into a marina in
South Bimini.
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The approach to the marina was pretty
scary! We had to follow leading lights, little more than orange sticks
on the shore, until we were very close to the beach and then run about half
a mile parallel to the beach in the swell. Once we reached the rock
breakwater of the marina entrance, when we had to make a quick turn to avoid
hitting it! It was also the first time in a long while that we'd
been navigating without the reassurance of electronic charts showing our
exact position however we found the Explorer chart books we'd bought were
excellent.
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Phil's the Captain's first job was to go ashore
and clear into the Bahamas, coughing up the $300 fee for a cruising permit -
ouch!
The marina was part of a condominium complex development which was pretty
quiet, most of the houses were only just being finished and people were
moving their furniture in when we were there. Most were holiday homes
for people based in Miami. We realised we'd have to stay a few days
until the next cold front had passed, but at least the marina was running a
special offer, giving us a free night's berthing!
The only problem with the marina was that the swell from outside found
its way into the marina, leaving Anju surfing backwards and forwards on her
dock, straining against her lines. By the next morning one of our
lines had already worn right through!
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Bimini Sands Marina and
Roller Coaster!
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We made the most of the opportunity to slow down
to Bahamian pace and visit the sights of Bimini. It was great cycling
as it was completely flat. On our first trip we visited the very under whelming
"Fountain of Youth" on South Bimini. Our next trip explored
the south end of the island to see the other "marina" which seemed
to be about a foot deep and unsurprisingly empty.
To get to the North island, where the main settlement Alicetown was
located, we had to take the ferry, which provided excellent service for only
$2 including our bikes. As we were well stocked up all we needed to buy was
fresh bread but despite searching every shop in the metropolis, all we could
find was banana bread! We toured both the Kings Highway and Queens
Highway, the island's only 2 streets, on our bikes. On our way back we
stopped off at the Yacht Club on the South Island, who not only refilled
Phil's dive bottle but also filled us up with a hearty and good value curry
meal. The Club was a popular spot with the locals.
Finally we had weather to leave for Nassau and made our way out of the
marina on the high tide just before dark. We had a fright a couple of miles
out when our autopilot compass decided to go crazy, but it quickly calmed
down and we decided it must have been something to do with huge
communications satellite dish we'd just passed. Being a steel boat,
for our autopilot we need a very complicated electronic fluxgate compass,
which has to be located high up the mast, away from the steel hull and as a
result has to compensate for any rolling or heeling of the boat.
Sailing near to power cables, communications equipment and military
facilities often causes it to have a brief and alarming fit.
Our overnight trip across the shallow Great Bahama bank was quite surreal
- we could see the glow of the red and green navigation lights reflecting on
the sand two metres (6 feet) below our hull. We travelled in company
with the yacht Meredith, our new Canadian friends Bob, Connie and son
Jake. Another boat had left earlier, planning to anchor out on
the bank that night but we were glad we hadn't selected that option, as the
waves would have been pretty uncomfortable.
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Our trip had only two scary moments, one when a
power yacht was heading straight at us but we managed to hail them on the
VHF radio and the other when we spotted some red lights which we couldn't
identify on the chart and after worrying about them for a long time, we
finally realised that they were actually about 20 miles away, not close at
all.
In the early morning as we approached Nassau,
we managed to hook three Dorado fish (Mahi Mahi) but only landed two.
It would be great to be eating fresh fish again!
By lunchtime we were calling up Nassau
Harbour Control for permission to enter the harbour. We anchored
in a spot close to another OCC (Ocean Cruising Club) boat, Catspaw, and were
immediately invited aboard for drinks by Pat and Liz.
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Approaching Nassau Harbour
Entrance
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We'd been pre-warned that the holding in Nassau
harbour wasn't very good, with the sea bed being littered with several
hundred years' of junk and only a thin covering of sand above the rock
below. This proved true as whilst we were aboard Catspaw, their
anchor dragged and we had to depart in a hurry to allow them to find a
better spot in which to anchor. After that fright,
we re-anchored with two anchors in series, totalling 100 pounds in weight
and finally, on hearing a forecast of 25-30 knots of wind for the next day,
found ourselves in a marina next to Meredith again!
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Spot Anju in scenes from Nassau's busy
harbour!
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At least knowing Anju was safely tucked up in
the marina meant we could spend our time sightseeing instead of on anchor
watch! We paid a visit to the swanky Atlantis Resort,
where both the rooms and marina berths were just a little out of our price
range but where visitors were kindly allowed to visit their very impressive
aquarium. The tank was actually the outside pond shown in the
photograph and the marine fish were viewed from an underground walkway
inside the building.
Once the cold front had passed by, it was
time to head to the Exuma Islands but first we had to somehow get out of our
marina berth, which wasn't as easy as it might seem. First a
motorboat which had been moored behind our berth, blocking us in and which
was being pinned on the dock by the strong winds, had to be sprung off the
dock in a military style operation involving half a dozen people and several
long lines on loan from Anju. Under the watchful eye of Tony the
dock master, it all went smoothly, then it was our turn.
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Our departure involved almost as many people and
lines because as soon as we backed out of our berth, with our prop kick
which always turns the boat to port in reverse (always the wrong way!), the
strong wind would pin us onto the dock the motor yacht had just
left. Unfortunately our maneouvre didn't go quite so smoothly,
Anju was unscathed but poor Anjulita, our dinghy, which was hanging on the
davits behind the boat, caught on a tall wooden post, several of her
securing rings were ripped out and the Hyperlon fixing the tubes to the
fibreglass hull got slightly torn. Luckily the damage wasn't
serious and the dinghy would still be seaworthy until we could carry out a
repair. If only we'd dropped the dinghy and towed it alongside -
hindsight is always 20/20!
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