We're in the Bahamas - Marathon to The Berry Islands

When you leave your port on a cruise ship you have visions of people on shore waving as you leave. Although on a much smaller scale, that's how it felt when we left Faro Blanco on Friday. Jim & Mandy, AC & Jim, Eric and Dave helped see us off. Ann was taking pictures from her boat...it's been a fun time, now for a whole new adventure.

We traveled 77 miles along the bay route to just outside Steamboat Creek by Key Largo and anchored in 7' of water with good holding. We thought we might be the only boat there for the night but a sailboat came in at dusk. It's amazing to see the water change color to a bright turquoise as you near Islamorada, it stayed that way until we got close to Key Largo.
Up early Saturday we debated on whether we would stay put, anchor at Pumpkin Key or go to Key Biscayne. In the end we decided to head to Key Biscayne (34 miles) just east of Miami and anchor there in 15' of water. We actually anchored a short distance from former President Richard Nixon's Florida home along with 10 other boats.
Funny thing is when we did the loop we commented how we really had no need to go to Miami again (it's busy with yachts and pleasure boats everywhere and hard to find a spot to anchor) and that we would never go again on a weekend. Never say never...we decided we could get there early, which would allow us to get a good spot in the anchorage and sit and people watch. In the end it ended up being a good decision as there were several other boats that left that anchorage for Bimini when we did. The people watching was fun and there were several yachts with all their water toys and after noon the anchorage filled up with boats 30' + enjoying the sun and the water.

The alarm clock went off at 5:15 as the weathermen had stated the best time to leave for the Bahamas was early Sunday. The prevailing winds usually have some kind of north vector, today they were from the west and low at only 2-5 mph, a perfect crossing day. You need to cross the gulf stream to get to the Bahamas and the one wind direction you don't want is north, that is why the crossing opportunities at this time of year are so spread out. We had some swells because the winds had been strong, out of the east for a few days, but the ride was very comfortable.
We were both on whale watch and we saw something break the water on our port (left) side, suddenly a whale surfaced and turned on its side and raised its fin like it was waving to us. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to grab the camera.
As we approached Bimini we hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and marveled at the water color. It had gone from cobalt blue when we were in 2,700' of water to green and then turquois as we approached Bimini. Once we were tied up at Bluewater Marina Mark headed over to customs and then to immigration. Once he returned we took the yellow flag down and put the Bahamian flag up. We were now able to start exploring Bimini and the Bahamas.
While I waited for the captain to return I sat and watched the fish and rays swim. The water was so clear it was like we had been set right in the middle of an aquarium.
You can tell Bimini is still feeling the effects of hurricane Matthew, many structures are still in need of repair and some are in different stages of reconstruction or have been abandoned.
Being superbowl Sunday we headed over to the Big Game Club along with at least a dozen others to watch the game. We left at halftime knowing we had to get to bed early as we had another early departure scheduled for Monday and the game was a bore anyway.

Several boats left Monday morning at first light along with us, a couple heading back to the states and others heading to other islands in the Bahamas. The weathermen had said the winds would be less than 10 knots and waves about 2'. We know you have to take what they say with a grain of salt. When we left Bimini the waves were every bit of 4' and I thought, ugh this is going to be a rough ride. After we got past the point it smoothed out only to increase again later in the day. It was nothing too uncomfortable but we did have beam seas for awhile.
Mark tried his hand at fishing along the way and caught a blue runner. We looked it up, not a good eating fish so he let it go. Just a short time later he had another fish on the line and it was giving him a real fight until it decided to break the line.
We traveled 96 miles to the Berry Islands and anchored in 9' of water along with 7 others, sailboats and catamarans. If you have ever been on a cruise and heard of Great Stirrup Cay (NCL cruise ships private island), that is part of the Berries and just north of where we are anchored outside of Bullock Harbour. We took a dinghy ride into the harbor to Great Harbour Cay Marina to make reservations starting Tuesday.

Dolphins running with us after we left Faro Blanco

 

We aren't sure what happened other than they

ran aground but they were way off the channel. They

were trying to get their dinghy launched.

 

Parasailing in the turquoise waters

 

A hazy day, but the view of Miami with 100's

of little sailboats was beautiful

 

A helicopter filming the race boat

 

A few of the yachts anchored a little further out

 

Former President Richard Nixon's home on Key Biscayne

 

Sunset at anchor - Key Biscayne

 

Stiltsville - wood stilt houses that were built toward the

end of prohibition, one mile south of Cape Florida to

facilitate gambling, which was legal at one mile offshore

 

Sunrise as we leave Key Biscayne and head to Bimini

 

Water temperature of 72.1 before crossing the gulf stream

 

Water temperature of 79.5 after crossing the gulf stream

 

Company out in the calm Atlantic

 

The beautiful cobalt blue seas

 

Flying our yellow quarantine flag

 

Entering the bay at North Bimini, heading

to Alicetown

 

We're here! We've brought our boat to the Bahamas

 

Flying the Bahamian Flag after we cleared customs

 

The Dolphin House - enlarge to see the conch shells

Hand built using recycled materials it is still under

construction. You can walk through the completed sections 

 

Approaching The Berry Islands