Vero Beach to Bimini
Sunday, January 7,
2018. After spending three weeks at
home for the holidays, which were very nice, but very hectic, we left the house
in New Hampshire at 8am for Manchester Airport.
Our son James drove us and we arrived at 9:30am. Our Southwest folight left on time at 11:20,
we changed plans in Baltimore and arrived in West Palm Beach at 4:20pm. We retrieved our luggage and our friends Jim
and Judy (Tug-a-Long) picked us up at the airport and we drove to Port St.
Lucie and had a very nice dinner at Bone Fish Mac’s. We stayed overnight at their home in Port
St.Lucie.
Monday, January 8,
2018. Jim and Judy treated us to a nice breakfast at a local diner and
dropped us at Vero Beach City Marina at 11am.
Grant (Nightingale) met us at the dock with his dinghy and gave us a
ride out to the boat (we are rafted with Nightingale and Five and Dime). Seeker (Earl and Kathy) arrive in the afternoon
just before another front comes through and the rain begins. We turned on everything and found that the
forward refrigerator was not getting cold.
It seems to be running, but no coldness.
We called a couple of folks who do this work and they cannot come until
next week. Bummer.
Tuesday, January 9,
2018. It is clear and cold this morning.
Wind north and the temp in the 40’s. We used the jerry cans to move
water from the shore to the boat and put in 48 gallons of fresh water. While Lisa was driving the dinghy back and forth, she
saw 3 pods of dolphins (porpoises), including some babies. One pod followed her and went back and forth
under the dinghy. Rain on and off in the afternoon.
Wednesday, January
10, 2018. Sunny and cool this morning.
Wind North at 15. 50 degrees.
Dean (Autumn Borne) came to look at our refrigerator that was not cooling. He said he could not find a leak, the
compressor was working as it should and it seemed to him it only needed more
Freon. He had the stuff with him and he
put in a charge and Voila, COLD in the fridge.
We will keep and eye on it. There
are only 2 connections that might leak and he checked those and tightened them
a bit.
We spent the remainder of the day provisioning. Thanks to Lydia and Skip (Flying Pig) for use of their
vehicle! Dinner at Riverside with Dean
and Susan (Autumn Borne) and Ron and Karen (Compromise). Very nice evening, but a chilly dinghy ride
back to the boat.
Thursday, January 11,
2018. Sunny and a bit warmer today.
It is supposed to get to 70 today.
The wind has let up somewhat. We
walked to the Post Office and then had lunch at Casey’s ( a local sandwich spot
that has outdoor seating. The food is
good and reasonable. We then walked the
beach and found 3 sea beans! As we
headed back to the boat, it started to rain.
At 5pm, we had cocktails aboard Seeker (Earl and Kathy),
Autumn Borne (Dean and Susan) and Nightingale (Grant and Libby). Very nice!
Friday, January 12,
2018. Sunny and warmer this morning, 65 degrees. Lisa finished a new cabinet shelf and put up
spice bottle holders inside a couple of the kitchen cabinets. We moved the
thermostat for the heat/AC in the forward cabin so that it was more
accessible. When we had the new cabinet
put in a couple of years ago, the workman relocated this and it never has been
a good spot.
We met our long-time friends Stan and Judy (formerly Rhumb
Runner) at Citrus (on the beach) for dinner.
Very nice place, not cheap, but the food and the service was excellent.
Saturday, January 13,
2018. Sunny and beautiful today. 75
degrees, puffy clouds. Jim and Judy
Foster (Tug-a-Long) drove up from Port St. Lucie to visit. They are thinking about meeting us somewhere
over in the Bahamas again this year. Jim
also asked if we would help him bring his boat down from Baltimore and maybe
across to the Bahamas – at some point in the future to be determined. We had
lunch at the Kountry Kitchen, a local family eatery. Good food and service, reasonable, like a
diner.
Cloudy and very windy in the afternoon. I borrowed Skip and
Lydia’s mini-van and made a stop at Walmart and then went to Stan and Judy’s to
watch the Patriot’s game. They beat the
Jaguars handily to advance once again to the Superbowl. Go Pats!
Sunday, January 14,
2018. Sunny, but again cold and windy. George and Bev drove down from
Melbourne to visit. Lisa’a dad and
George were in the service together and have stayed close friends. He is like an uncle to Lisa. We went to Sonny’s Bar-b-Que for lunch. Mummm good.
George ran us around to do some errands and then we stopped at the
frozen custard shoppe. Back at the boat
by 5:00pm. Nice day.
Monday, January 15,
2018. Cold and windy – again. 42
degrees overnight! Brrrrrr….Trying to
get out of here……………..there is a reason this place is nicknamed Velcro
Beach. Nice place and everything is
convenient, hard to leave…..
Lisa did laundry and I again borrowed the mini-van to run
last minute errands. We walked to
Casey’s for a late lunch and again got caught in the rain! We did see a huge rainbow!
We called Nick and Caroline on New Providence to see if
Rhiannon and Benny could stay on their dock while Lisa flies home in
March. The said yes. They both seem to be doing well.
We had cocktails and appetizers aboard Five and Dime (Curt
and Kathy). Nice day.
Tuesday, January 16,
2018. Sunny and cool, wind NE @ 15+,
supposed to build during the day. Filled
fuel and water from jerry cans and then went back to the fuel dock in the
dinghy with the cans for what we hope is the final time before we depart. All tanks on Rhiannon and now full, both fuel
and water – jerry cans are all full also.
Lisa did a final load of laundry.
At 11:30am, we went with Kathy and Grant (Nightingale) to
see the movie Darkest Hour (Winston Churchill and the beginning of World War
II). Excellent movie. We stopped at Publix on the way back to the
boats for last minute items before departure tomorrow.
At 5:30pm, Curt and Kathy (Five and Dime) - the third boat in
our raft on the mooring) came for dinner.
Lisa made Lasagna and Kathy made fresh bread. Nice evening.
We originally met Curt and Kathy at Georgetown last year and it has been
good to get to know them better. Kathy
is President of SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) this year. They have been living the dream aboard Five
and Dime for 16 years!
Clear and cold again overnight.
Wednesday, January
17, 2018. Clear and 55 degrees this
morning. Wind North at 10. The drain plug on our dinghy has been
leaking. It has a mechanism so you can
tighten it (make it a bit bigger) once you put it in, but that does not seem to
be working. We have a new plug we got
yesterday at West Marine, but haven’t had a chance to replace the old one yet.
We are ready to depart and find that the mooring lines for
all three boats, as well as the original one on the mooring have wrapped around
themselves and under the mooring ball - spaghetti! This is ongoing problem as
boats swing around the mooring float with the changes in wind and tide. Grant (Nightingale) straightened these out
yesterday, but what a mess today. I got
in our dinghy and Curt got in his and between Lisa, Kathy and Libby on the
boats and us in the dinghys, we finally got the mess untangled and us off the mooring.
It took and hour!
We stowed the dinghy and motor and finally at 10:45, we say
goodbye to our mates on the raft, as well as many other boats in the harbor and
head south on the ICW. High clouds, hazy
sunshine, 60 degrees, wind North @ 15 (on our backs). The tide is with us
giving us an additional 1.5 knots of boat speed.
12:30pm Fort Pierce North Bridge (On Request) – timing of
the opening was perfect, did not even have to slow down. As we pass the opening to the ocean at Fort,
the tide switches against us and we lose the “push”.
2:35pm We passed a trawler (Island Daze) going very slowly
and asked if he needed assistance. He
said no, it was just the world’s slowest boat.
4:15pm Anchor down in Peck Lake, just south of Stuart. Dinner on board. 3 other boats here.
We averaged 7.7 knots for the day – love that tidal
push! 43 statute miles today. One bridge on request. MM 993. 27°06.9’N
080°08.53’W
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| Sunset at Peck Lake, Stuart, FL |
Thursday, January 18,
2018. Very cold and windy last night.
37 degrees! Coldest since we have
come back from New Hampshire! Cloudy and windy NW-N-NE at 15-25. At 2am, we let another 40 feet of chain out
for the anchor to make sure we stay put. By 3pm, it had “warmed” to 55, but the
wind continues to howl. We decide to
stay put for at least another day. 2
boats decide to leave, 2 more come into the anchorage. One of the boats is a 40 foot catamaran. The deep water here is shaped like an wine
glass, narrow where you turn off the ICW just south of Green 19 and head toward
the structure (which holds weather instruments by the shore). As you get closer to the shore the deep water
it widens out along the shore. About
half way to the shore, the cat drops his anchor and then it does not set and
soon he is in the shallows south of the channel - aground. The wind continues to howl out of the north,
pushing the boat farther south and farther aground. We talked to him on the radio, but our dinghy
is not going to pull a 40 foot catamaran out of the mud and we can’t get near
him with Rhiannon. I suggest he call
TowBoatUS before the tide changes and what little water he is in gets even
shallower. A couple of hours later, the
tow arrives and after about 30 minutes they get him off the shoal and anchored
in deep water. His radio is not on, so
we do not know if there is any damage to his outdrives.
The wind continues to howl.
Lisa and I put up the cockpit enclosure to help keep the heat in. First time we have done that this trip. We ran the generator, turned on the heat in
the boat, and dug the Mr. Buddy heater (Propane) and got that cleaned up and
working. Comfortable in the boat now.
The wind is supposed to calm down and it is forecast to be 67 tomorrow – a heat
wave!
Lisa made bean soup for dinner. Really hit the spot!
Friday, January 19,
2018. Very cold again overnight –
45. 10 boats here this morning, 5 left
heading south. The catamaran and what we
think was his “buddy boat” left today.
We spent the hunkered down reading and relaxing. By 3:00pm, it is only 60 degrees and the wind
has not let up. By dark, the wind is
finally starting to die down.
Received a call today from Jeff and Patti on board
Avalon. They are in Melbourne and headed
this way. We traveled with them in the
Abacos last year and they are one of the boats we crossed last to the US with
last year.
Benny made Chicken Lillian for dinner. Nightingale, Five and
Dime, Autumn Borne, and Seeker
Are still in Vero Beach.
Saturday, January 20,
2018. Warmer this morning – 55 degrees!
Cloudy, very little wind, supposed to get to 67 today!
10am a dinghy come over to our boat – Deb and Steve on
Outbound. They are anchored on the other
side of a much larger boat and we could not see their boat. We have traveled with them on and off since
we have been going to the Bahamas. One
summer, our boats sat facing each other in slips on the same dock in Brunswick,
GA. They are headed across, but are in a
hurry as they have people to meet. They
leave, but we are headed the same places, so hopefully, we will see them again
soon.
We finally get to the beach.
We found many sea beans (golf balls, 1 hamburger bean, 1 heart bean, 2
sea pearls, and some others that we don’t recognize). There are also lots of opened turtle eggs
(not sure when these guys hatched).
We heard from Avalon again.
They stopped for the day at Jensen Beach (about 9 miles north of us).
Dinner on board – pork chops.
Sunday, January 21,
2018. Cool 60 degrees. Mostly
cloudy. Lisa wanted to get up early and
go to the beach to see the sunrise, but it was completely overcast. We stowed the dinghy and motor and weighed
anchor. The entire chain, as well as the
anchor was caked in sticky mud. Great
holding, but what a mess. We installed a
salt water wash down pump with a hose in the anchor locker. It really paid for itself this morning.
Finally underway heading south in the ICW at 8:20am.
8:53am Hobe Sound Bridge – on request. Sun is starting to peak through the
clouds. Wind SE 10-15. We see Five and Dime anchored in Hobe Sound. We raise them on the radio. They plan to corss from Lake worth and keep
going all the way to Georgetown! We wish
them safe travels.
9:52am 707 Bridge – on request.
10:12am Jupiter Federal Bridge – on request. Lots of current here. The bridge tender takes his time opening the
bridge. Lots of current. We are forced to do a “go around” in order to
keep from slamming into the closed bridge.
10:32am Indiantown Blvd Bridge – scheduled on the hour and
half-hour. Sun is out, 75 degrees, wind
E @ 10.
11:10am Donald Ross Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour. The tender held the bridge opening
for us! Nice!
11:30am PGA Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour. Some guy driving a 40 foot center
console in front of us decides to stop and put it in reverse. I don’t know how we missed each other. He never looked back. We are yelling, blowing the air horn – he was
totally oblivious! Maybe some adult
beverages were involved???
11:45am Parker Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour. As we pass through Lake Worth
(Palm Beach), it is very rough – churned up by the wind and boat wakes.
1:15pm Flagler Bridge – scheduled only at 15 minutes past
the hour. Luckily the President is not in residence at Mara Lago (which is at
the east end of this bridge), so there is no one messing with either the boat
or the auto travel.
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| Trump's Mara Lago |
1:30pm Royal Park Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour.
2:15pm Southern Blvd. Bridge – scheduled on the hour and
half hour. Sun is fully out, puffy white clouds, 75 degrees, wind East at 10.
3:15pm Lake Ave Bridge – on request.
3:30pm Lantana Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half hour.
4:00pm Ocean Ave. Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour.
4:10pm SE 15th Street Bridge – on request.
4:35pm George Bush Bridge – on request.
4:45pm Atlantic Ave. Bridge – scheduled at 15 minutes past
the hour and 15 minutes to the hour.
5:00pm Linton Blvd Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour.
5:30pm Spanish Blvd. Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour.
6:00pm Palmetto Park Bridge – scheduled on the hour and half
hour.
6:15pm Anchor down in the Northeast Corner of Lake Boca
Raton. Make sure when you enter to stay
north of green marker #65. We forgot and
went aground (softly) – easily backed off. Clear, wind East at 10, 65 degrees.
Dinner on board. Leftovers! Always better the day after! 12 other boats here.
We had new batteries, a new smart regulator and other electrical
work done over the summer. One of the
components installed is a new meter (in addition to the amp/volt meter we
currently have). The new meter is
supposed to tell us the percentage charge in the house batteries (which now
consists of 3 4D batteries). Unfortunately, the meter seems to get “stuck” on
one reading. For example, it read 83%
this morning, and after motoring all day, it still reads 83%. Not likely. Called Mike who installed all the new stuff
(except the additional solar panel). He
thinks there might be a conflict between the Morningstar smart controller for
the solar panel and the Balmar smart regulator for the engine. Tomorrow, we will run with the solar panels
turned off and see if that makes a difference. Mike said o call him when we are
anchored for the day and let him know what happens.
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| Old Battery Monitor and the New Balmar |
19 Bridges today. 14 scheduled – we made all but one! 5 on
request. 55 statute miles today.
MM1048. 26°20.77’N 080°04.40’W
Monday, January 22,
2018. Sunny, warm, 75 degrees, no clouds, wind east at 10, lovely. Anchor
up at 9:25am. As we head out of the
lake, we are called on the radio by Destiny
for US
(Pierre and Emilienne).
We met them in the Exumas last year and traveled on and off with
them. They are anchored in the Lake, but
were hidden behind a couple of large power boats. Great to hear from them. They are headed the way we are, so hopefully,
we will actually get to see them in person soon!
9:40am Camino Real Bridge – scheduled on the hour and every
20 minutes.
10:00am Hillsboro Blvd Bridge – scheduled on the hour and
half hour.
10:15am NE 14th Street Bridge – scheduled at a
quarter to and a quarter past the hour.
11:00am Atlantic Blvd Bridge – scheduled on the hour and
half hour.
11:30am Commercial Blvd. Bridge – scheduled on the hour and
half hour.
11:45am Oakland Park Bridge – scheduled at a quarter to the
hour and a quarter past the hour.
12:30pm Sunrise Blvd Bridge – schedules on the hour and half
hour – we missed the 12 o’clock opening.
12:45pm Las Olas Blvd Bridge – scheduled at a quarter to the
hour and a quarter past the hour.
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| Sunrise Blvd Bridge |
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| Sunrise Blvd Bridge |
Weather continues to be ideal.
1:45pm anchor down in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale. Plenty of room here, not many boats.
Checked the new battery monito and it read the same charge
percentage as when we raised anchor this morning. That doesn’t sound
right. Called Mike and gave him the
news. He will call Balmar and call us
back.
18 statute miles today. 9 scheduled bridges and we only
missed one opening! MM1064.5
26°06.32’N
080°06.68’W
Tuesday, January 23,
2018. High clouds, 70 degrees, wind SE at 10-15. Anchor up at 9:25am after putting three cans
of fuel in the boat from jerry cans.
10:00am 17th Street Bridge – scheduled on the
hour and the half hour. Several boats in
a line heading out to sea. Very bumpy
going out the inlet even though the tide is running the same direction as the
wind.
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| Lots of traffic in and out of Fort Lauderdale and Miami |
It is pretty lumpy out here.
Waves seem to be coming in from the southeast, but the wind has gone
south. Glad it is only 20 miles to
Miami. By the end of this ride I am
feeling a bit queasy.
1:52pm We enter Govenrment Cut (Miami). This is always interesting, there are ships
coming and going, ferries, tugs, pilot boats, yachts of all sizes and types,
Coast Guard boats…….
3:00pm Crandon Park Marina for fuel and water.
We have trouble getting the anchor to grab. The bottom is sand and shells and stays
pretty torn up with all the boats that come in here and anchor. As we pull up to one boat, a guy on the bow
says “you’re too close, I have 100 feet of chain out”. He’s about a 50 foot ketch, but there’s only
10 feet of water and the harbor is small. Anyway, we pick another spot. We
don’t want him swinging into us.
4:30pm Anchor down in No Name Harbor. 15 boats here which
seems like a lot for a Tuesday, a couple of days after a crossing window.
Dinner on board, steak!
36NM today.
MM1096 1 scheduled bridge today. 25°40.56N
080°09.71W
We walked to town, went to the grocery and picked up
packages at the mailing service. We took
an Uber back to the boat.
Thusday, January 25,
2018. Very windy overnight. No one is supposed to remain tied up to the
seawall overnight, but there is a 70 foot Azimut motor yacht tied up right
behind us. He has been there since
yesterday afternoon. The park service is
rebuilding the wall, so maybe they are not patrolling as regularly. At 11am Lisa goes bike riding into town with
Deb (Debbie Doll). No sooner does she leave, our anchor decided
to drag. We have been sitting for 36
hours and now it gives up. Being alone
on the boat, I managed to get the engine started and in gear so that we pulled
away from that 70 footer and the wall.
Ran forward and managed to get in about 30 feet of anchor chain, then
ran back to the helm to keep us from hitting other boats. Did I mention it is a small anchorage? Cav (Debbie
Doll), saw my predicament and came over in his dinghy to assist. With him on the helm, I got the anchor the
rest of the way up and we motored over to an open area at the far end of the
harbor. We managed to get the anchor
down and set, so the anchoring adventure for today came to a safe ending.
Friday, January 26,
2018. The Balmar monitor seems to be stuck at 75%. No matter how much we charge or use it still
reads 75%. Mike will talk to Balmar and
get them to ship us a replacement on Monday.
Using the old Link 20 (measures amps and volts), everything seems to be
working correctly except the new monitor.
Saturday, January 27,
2018. Sunny, the wind has gone into
the East, so all the boats are swinging differently. We are very close to the mangroves, but there
is plenty of water.
Lisa did laundry in the morning. Because of the construction
and the cold and wind, the “Cuban Navy” (lots of boats with folks of Cuban
descent partying all night) did not show up.
What a disappointment! Lisa and I walked to the east end of the island,
where the lighthouse is located and ate a late lunch at the Lighthouse
Café. The food was typical fried fish
fare, the beer was cold and the prices were not outrageous (for Miami).
Sunday, January 28,
2018. Sunny and still windy. Still
waiting on good weather to cross to the Bahamas. Lisa and I went for a walk. Explored some of the nature trails here in
the Bill Baggs State Park. We saw
butterflies, dragon flies, the same raccoon twice, cameleons, iguanas, lots of
birds. We also went exploring in the
dinghy (had to stay close to shore outside the harbor). We went up a couple of the canals that border
the park. We found a nice place to
anchor in one of them (if we ever need it).
Monday, January 29,
2018. Still very blustery. There is a green sail boat anchored near us
and he has had to move a couple of times already. He is either swinging into another boat or
into the mangroves.
Jeff and Patti (Avalon)
show up and anchor off our stern. Great
to see them and Fiona, their English Cocker Spaniel. We had them over for dinner. We cooked pork
country ribs on the grill and they brought Mojitos. Nice way to spend the evening.
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| Sunset at No Name Harbor - Avalon in the foreground |
Tuesday, January 30,
2018. Partly cloudy, wind still in
the North, supposed to go to the NE and E. Today, we worked on getting Lisa’s
new phone (and phone service) up and running.
It is always surprising how long it takes to get that done. Rain off and on all day. Maybe we will get the water tanks refilled! While it rained, Lisa gave the decks a scrub.
Looks like there might be a possibility of crossing to
Bimini on Friday!
Destiny for US
(Peirre and Emilienne) and their buddy boat (Wind Drifter) came in today.
Great to see them!
Wednesday, January
31, 2018. The sun is out and it is a
nice day, but we need the wind to switch out of the North. Can’t cross the Gulf Stream with the wind
opposing the flow of the Stream. The
waves are tremendous.
The new Balmar monitor has not arrived. Mike checked with Balmar and they did not
send it! No one seems to know why. I am promised they will overnight ship the
thing so it is here before we depart for Bimini.
I spent most of the day catching up this blog. Hopefully, it will get published soon. Lisa
has set up a “pitch in” aka “pot luck dinner” for this evening. Maybe 10-12
people. Should be fun.
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| l to r: Diana (Wind Drifter), Emilienne (Destiny IV US), Tim (Wind Drifter), Benny, Debbie and Cav (Debbie Doll II), Pierre (Destiny IV US), Patti and Jeff (Avalon), Lisa |
Thursday, February 1,
2018. Wind still a factor, but sunny
and 75 degrees. Lisa and I walked to
town. We both got new coiffures at
Unisex Key Biscayne. Very nice folks and
we both liked the outcome. You never
know what you are going to get when you go to a new hair dresser!
We went to the bank nearby (BB&T) to get some cash from
the machine, but it would not accept our card – and then told us we were over
our daily limit. We went inside and one
of the tellers shrugged and said we need to call our bank – which we did. None of the transactions went through. This is the second time this has happened,
the last time at Caribbean Bank in Marsh Harbor. Next stop was at Sun Trust, where the card
worked perfectly.
We had a nice lunch at Victoria Clasica, a bakery in the
same strip mall as the hair cutter.
Wonderful food. Lisa had a
croissant sandwich and I had scrambled eggs, avocado and toast.
Next stop was Winn Dixie for last minute groceries and then
we walked four blocks to American Postal Service to pick up stuff from Amazon,
send the (new) Balmar meter back and get the replacement sent by Balmar.
We took and Uber back to the boat. Avalon has moved outside the harbor and
anchored preparing for a 2am departure tomorrow.
We took the trash ashore, put some money for the anchoring
fee in the box, filled the jerry cans with water and stowed the dinghy and the
motor for tomorrow morning’s departure.
We called Blue Water Marina in Bimini and made a dockage
reservation for tomorrow, had dinner on board and then early to bed.
Friday, February 2,
2018. 5:00am, we are up and about.
Winds calm. 65 degrees. Avalon
left at 2:00am.
5:50am anchor up.
Moon still up. Yesterday there
was a blue moon, a blood moon (Earth’s shadow passes over the moon, and a super
moon (closest to the earth), so there is plenty of light as we head out of No
Name Harbor.
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| Miami - as we depart No Name Harbor |
7:35am We converse with the tanker Constitution as it is
crossing our bow. We head off to make
sure we pass his stern.
8:30am We hear Diego 3 on the radio as he passes our stern (tug
and tow). Now squarely in the Gulf Stream.
The seas are confused and lumpy.
The ride is not terrible, but to be below is not comfortable.
9:35am We see fish
jumping, flying fish, a porpoise jumping, lots of Man-war sailing, and whales
spouting. We are at the edge of the very deep water.
9;50am We hear Avalon on the VHF, but are unable to reach
him.
10:15am Mostly cloudy, looks like rain, wind East 5-10,
waves 2-3 feet from the East. We put our
fishing lines out.
12:00 Land Ho! Bimini
dead ahead 11 miles! Sun peaking through
occasionally. Rain to the East of us.
Wind East @ 5.
12:30 Wind calm, partly sunny, seas flat.
2:00pm on the dock at Bimini Blue Water Marina – JR, the
dockmaster, whom we have met several times before, is here to greet us – “A warm
welcome to you Mr. Benny and Miss Lisa!”
3:00pm We are checked in at the Marina (which is full) and I
head to Customs and Immigration to check in and pay our visa fee. As we were coming in to the marina, another
boat tried to cut in front of us and take our slip. On the radio, we heard them tell JR that they
were ahead of Rhiannon. Unfortunately for them, we have a reservation! They also draw 7 feet of water, so not sure
where they will dock. When I arrive at
Customs, I have to wait in line to check in.
A guy comes in and cuts the line in front of everyone. The Bahamians are too polite to say
anything. The three of us in line just
look at each other and shrug. The guy is
the captain of the boat who tried to grab our slip in front of us!
4:00pm Check in at Immigration.
Now we are legally here and can replace the yellow quarantine flag
Rhiannon is flying with a “courtesy” Bahamian flag.
5:00pm Lisa and I go for a walk on the beach, get some cracked
conk and fries at KC’s on the beach and head back to the boat for dinner. Long
day. Nice to be here. 53NM today.
23°43.50’N 079° 17.86’W
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| Beach at Bimini |
