We hung around the San Blas for as long as we could, but the calendar finally dictated that we get going. We needed to get the boat situated up in the US prior to my late spring/early summer season, so we finally got a slight easterly shift in the trades and took off from the Holandes Cays one sunny morning.
The trip to Bimini was one of the best we’ve ever had. We put about 1350 miles under the keel in just over 6 days, averaging over 9 knots/220 miles per day for the passage, every bit of it under sail. Close reaching at 9-10 knots in just 10-12 knots of wind for much of the time was really a treat. Other than tucking in or shaking out a reef in the main on occasion, we hardly had to touch a thing all the way from Panama to the Yucatan channel. This whole trip was done with just the working sails, no chutes or code zero this time around. We like the big flying sails, but they definitely up the demands on us, so we were perfectly content to just dawdle along as we were. What’s the hurry, anyway?
We both got plenty of sleep, ate well, and even the dog seemed to enjoy himself for once. It was nice to go back to our normal double handed routine. Almost all of Jenny’s and my time together sailing has been with just the two of us, and we’ve really gelled over the years. I trust her to stand an excellent watch. Even more importantly, she’ll wake me up long before anything turns into a difficult situation, whether it’s about traffic or weather. Trust offshore takes an awfully long time to develop, and I’m happy to report that Jenny has 100% of mine. Well done, dear.
Rocket Science also was flawless on this leg. Well, we had a few mainsail slides fail at the headboard, but that was an easy fix.
Anyway, suffice it to say that the trip was about as good as they get… UNTIL we got to Bimini.
Here’s some background. Jenny discovered after we left the US that her visa is only good if she arrives in the country on a commercial carrier-plane, cruise ship, etc. So, while we were actually enroute to Florida, we had to sail past our destination so that she could get off the boat in the Bahamas only to board a ferry/plane and enter the country that way.
Well, as everyone knows, the Bahamas are not really known for their deep harbors. We have a draft of almost 10 feet, which works essentially nowhere in the country. Nassau, maybe, but that’s WAY out of the way.
I did some digging around, and found that Bimini was advertising a controlling depth of 12-15 feet. Excellent news! I’ve learned to be skeptical of these claims (it doesn’t really matter how deep your dock is if you have to pass over a 5′ shoal to get in…), so I called the marina on the satphone and confirmed (twice) that they really have 12 feet all the way in.
So, we arrived in the early afternoon at about half tide. By our calculations we had about a foot and a half over low water, so we were feeling fine about life. As we got closer, we saw a clearly marked channel, red and green buoys closely spaced. Child’s play after our eyeball navigation in Panama!
We hit the channel dead center with a good eye on the depth sounder and the water. It started to look pretty darned shallow up ahead, so I slowed down just before we ran hard aground right in the middle of the channel. The air was blue, that was for sure. The bulb keel augered in pretty well, so we sat there for a bit in the channel as go-fast boats went blazing by us on either side, making huge wakes and ignoring our motions to give us a break and slow down. We thumped around there for a while, unable to get off under our own power. It was starting to look like time to put the dinghy together and set up a kedge anchor when some nice folks on a trawler finally stopped by and gave our bow a tug in the right direction, enabling us to get off and go anchor in the open roadstead outside the harbor. It wasn’t much of a place to anchor, but it would have to do. I dove on the boat straight away, and thankfully found no damage, just some missing paint.
Jenny will have her own addition about the paperwork/official ordeal, so I will defer to her on that.
The following morning, after getting all checked in and out, I singlehanded the boat to Ft. Lauderdale, arriving several hours before Jenny. We found a nice spot at Bahia Mar marina, and settled in for a week of relaxation before continuing up the coast.
