South Florida and across to the Bahamas

After leaving Fort Pierce, our home for most of December through early January ,we started back on our southbound trail to select a spot to cross the Gulfstream to the Bahamas. We traveled the ICW down to Hillsboro inlet north of Ft. Lauderdale where we went outside for a great sail down to Miami. After so much motoring it was great to be under sail again. The south Florida portion of the ICW has to be seen to be believed, with hundreds of miles of multi-million dollar homes on both sides of the waterway each bigger and more elaborate than the last. Most have huge boats, including many with 80-100 ft mega yachts, parked in their “back yards.” We passed an empty lot about 100 x 200 ft listed for $4.8MM ( no house!) and a typical house was 4-5000 sq ft with dozens and dozens that must have been at least 15-20,000 sq ft. Mind boggling.

Sunset over the gulfstream.

We got to Miami last Friday where we anchored & did some final provisioning (mainly loading up with beer) while waiting for a good weather window to cross to the Bahamas. While there we met Mike and Kylie, a young couple from Thornbury on Meggie, a beautiful 30 wooden Choey Lee ketch and Bill, on Surfer Girl our sister boat, another Sabre 38. Both boats were planning to cross on the impending Monday/Tuesday forecasted weather window so we decided to buddy up for a group crossing. After a strategy session over a couple of beers it was decided based on the forecast to pull anchor 3:00 A.M Monday morning when the wind & seas were supposed to subside. When we awoke at 2:30 the wind hadn’t changed so back to sleep until 5:30 AM. It still hadn’t changed much but we were all anxious to go so we headed out the Miami inlet at daybreak only to be met by 4-6 footers on the nose. Deciding 10-12 hours of that didn’t seem like fun we elected to tuck our tails between our legs and retreat. Another strategy session that afternoon & we decided we would try again that evening but only if the forecast wind changes had actually occurred. So it was anchors up again at 11PM that evening and out the inlet at midnight only this time the wind direction and strength were much better so we forged onward. It was our first real night passage & we encountered about 8-10 freighters on our way across which was somewhat unnerving while we tried to learn to read their lights & determine if they were going to run us down. I felt a bit like George Costanza playing “Frogger” except we were the frog & we couldn’t see the trucks trying to squish us. With lots of help from our fellow travelers we managed not to get smoked & finally by about 5AM passed clear of the last of the ships.
Near day break we woke up the kids up to show them the amazing bio-luminessence being created by our wake. It’s sparkling irradescent flecks that look almost like green coloured sparks flashing in the water. The kids stayed up to enjoy the sunrise with us and the sunlight revealed the gorgeous color of the Gulfstream water, a deep rich indigo blue that we a hadn’t seen before. We crossed on to the Great Bahama Bank just north of Bimini at 9AM and in a space of about ¼ mile the water goes from 3000 ft deep under 20 ft and we were amazed all over again by the colours and legendary clarity of the water on the banks. You can see starfish on the bottom over 20 feet down as clear as if they were behind glass. It takes some getting used to it’s hard not to constantly think your going run aground because the bottom’ s so clearly visible. Surfer Girl pulled in to Bimini to get some rest as Bill was single-handing but we and Meggie carried on through the day.

Danielle raising the yellow “Q”( quarantine ) flag we had to fly once we entered Bahamian waters until we were cleared in by customs. We weren’t allowed to go ashore anywhere until we landed at an entry port.

The crew was hot & tired so we stopped about 2:00 & all went overboard for a quick dip enroute across the banks.
We carried on until about 4:00 in the afternoon where we anchored for a much needed nights rest. Although it was a relatively calm night and we were in about 15 feet of water it was rather odd being anchored 30 miles from the nearest land.