Crossing to Bimini

We spent 10 days tucked away in our corner of Biscayne Bay, watching for weather windows and taking care of boat projects. We gave the bottom a much-needed scrub, fixed a coolant leak on one of the engines and took care of bunch of tiny jobs.

Each morning, we’d check the weather hoping to see a favorable forecast to cross to the Bahamas. Last Friday, a window finally started to appear so we got to work with final preparations.

At this point, it had been two weeks since our last grocery run so we did one last stock up of meat, fruits and veggies. We stopped by Black Point Marina on Saturday to pick up groceries, thanks to Publix Delivery, and spent the night across the bay anchored off of Sands Key.

Sunday was the final staging day. We sailed up to the anchorage outside of No Name Harbor, got waked by a bunch of mega yachts and left before sunrise with half the anchorage. There hadn’t been a crossing window in a few weeks so many of us were staged for this crossing window.

The crossing was choppy but uneventful. The Gulf Stream was confused, as it often is after weeks of strong northerly winds. We made it to Bimini by the afternoon, with plenty of time to check in.

Since we arrived with a large contingent of boats, we decided to anchor off Radio Beach and dinghy in to clear customs and immigration. The hope was to beat the crowd docking at Bimini Big Game Club. There was a sandbar off the beach so I had to drop Tom off pretty far from shore. He waded through chest deep water from the sandbar to the beach and walked over to check us all in, soaking wet. It was a sight to see!

We got our one-year cruising permit and 120-day visas, which seems to be the Bimini standard. Once we got soggy Tom back on the big boat, we motored around to South Bimini and dropped the anchor right as the sun was setting.

The weather was supposed to get a bit spicy and it did. We waited out a northerly blow at Bimini and moved down to Cat Cay when the winds were forecast out of the south. Spoiler: the winds never shifted and stayed out of the east the rest of the week.

It’s been a rainy, rolly and salty start to our Bahamas trip. We are eager to head east!

Check out all the trip details with the SeaPeople links below:

Hello, Bimini! 🇧🇸

It’s been 11 years since we first came to Bimini on a bareboat charter. Our very first sailing experience was the crossing from Fort Lauderdale and we clearly caught the bug. It’s a crazy, full-circle feeling to be back now on our own boat! We cleared in at Big Game today and then anchored off South Bimini for the next few days. Feeling so happy to be back. Since we have nothing remarkable to share about this trip, here are some photos from our unforgettable trip to Bimini in 2014 with the best crew ever. And, we actually caught fish, unlike the last three crossings. ⬇️

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Morning Anchorage Change

Decided to change up the anchorage now that the northerly wind stopped. We got to cruise past the SS Sapona to Cat Cay but not much else going on. Trying to get into a good spot for a weekend sail east!

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