12 Dec 2012 2348 - 13 Dec 2012 0736 Key Biscayne, FL to South Bimini, Bahamas (50nm/57.5sm)
I'm not too keen on night crossings. But after evaluating the weather, a good window was open tonight to go. After that we might wait for several days for another one to open. We didn't leave alone. Two catamarans in the anchorage headed out right before us. We were headed out the Cape Florida Channel into the Atlantic Ocean. There are lit and unlit navigation aids. The blue areas on the charts are shallow. Imagine driving your car without any headlights or street lights on an unknown road.
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| Cape Florida Channel |
So, using our GPS, radar overlaid on the chartplotter and our bright spotlight, we slowly navigated out to sea. The bright lights of Miami provided back illumination for miles. Ahead of us, it was pitch dark. The radar showed us where ships and other boats were located relative to our position and the AIS (Automated Identification System) gave us the names of vessels with a transmitting AIS. The big ships have AIS. Before we could ever see the Royal Caribbean LIBERTY OF THE SEAS, she was just a glow in the distance. She passed 5 miles off our bow and must have had every light on.
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| Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas |
On my watch, a merchant ship came within 2 miles of our position before she also changed course. Ted hailed her, and as we were the privileged vessel with the "right of way", the merchant ship changed course and passed behind us. I find staring into the inky darkness a little spooky; but the radar gives me a picture of what's out there. Our heading was 120 degrees; our course made good was about 092 degrees. Why? We have to account for the impact the Gulf Stream will have on our course. We were literally crabbing across the Gulf Stream most of the night.
At twilight you could begin to see North Bimini take shape.
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| North Bimini at twilight |
And right before our eyes two whales passed in front of us, we slowed down to catch a possible picture but to no avail. We arrived at the Bimini Sands marina at 7:36AM. Here's a view from the marina looking out the channel. That ship is headed into North Bimini.
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| Channel - Bimini Sands marina |
Checking in with Customs and Immigration is the next order of business. Ted takes the paperwork and catches a ride to the airport to complete the process. We headed over to North Bimini by water taxi, $2.00 ea each way, to conduct business with the local Bahamas Telecommunications office.
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| North Bimini from the water taxi |
The University of Miami sponsors the
Bimini Biological Field Station here on South Bimini. They conduct shark research. We were able to join the last tour of the year while we were here this time.
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| BBFS - Shark pen photo from their Facebook page |
After a presentation and tour of the lab facility we walked out to the shark pens at low tide - ankle depth water. Our French tour guide, Jean-Sebastien Finger (one of the Principal Investigators), carefully captured one of three juvenile lemon sharks in the pen.
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| Lemon shark - BBFS |
We may leave tomorrow and head across the Great Bahama Bank and anchor near Northwest Shoal. The next day we plan to head into West Bay to anchor on the east end of New Providence island. The 3rd day we will head into the Exumas. I do not expect to have internet access until we reach Warderick Wells.
