GHYC 2015 Bahamas Cruise Alice Town, North Bimini

Transcription

1 GHYC 2015 Bahamas Cruise Alice Town, North Bimini Wednesday, 20 May 2015 Mother Nature decided to help wash our boats this morning. So we caught up on inside boat chores, checking future waypoints & routes, and editing photos. We then set off on foot to explore North Bimini. We walked both Kings Highway and Queens Highway. Decided that the use of highway in both cases was an oxymoron. However, the views from both were spectacular! A work crew was painting the outside of an Anglican Church and invited us to view the inside. Beautiful stained glass windows and alter. We found a great little local place for lunch. We all shared an order of conch fritters. Then after checking out the portion sizes we decided to share. Lynda & David shared fried lobster and David & I shared conch salad. All were fabulous!

2 Later in the afternoon David & I explored the rest of the island by golf cart. At the southern end of Bimini we found a cemetery and old ship wreck washed up on shore. A big resort and marina are going in at the north end of the island. We saw lots of construction workers, but only two guests. Whoever is financing it must have lots of disposable cash. On the way back to our marina we stopped at one of the many local bakeries for some wonderful Bahamian bread. Tuesday, 19 May 2015 As we were leaving Port Everglades and I was standing in the cockpit snapping photos, I realized Tonto s Reward was still flying her Yacht Ensign. The day before David had asked me if I knew where to find our quarantine and Bahamas courtesy flags. Found them, but never thought about changing out the Yacht Ensign for the American Ensign. Crossing the Gulf Stream was a little lumpier than we had expected or hoped for, but it was not bad. The trip over was

3 uneventful for both Sojourn and Tonto s Reward. Always a good way to cross the Gulf Stream. As soon as we got away from the Florida coast the water and sky turned very blue. As we reached the Bimini coast line the waters were just spectacular! After getting docked at Bimini Blue Water Resort, David and David went off to customs and immigration. We are now good to go. Quarantine flag is down and Bahamian courtesy flag is up. A little cleaning (desalting both boats) and we plan to head off exploring Alice Town and maybe checking out a bar or two.

4 Crossing Florida Monday, 18 May 2015 Today was slow going. The ICW south of the Worth Inlet has lots of LOW bridges! We passed a moving barge with a working crane on it. I am not sure what the crane was trying to accomplish maybe just moving the rocks around the barge. Pier 66 is a very nice marina with mega yachts. I feel tiny! Although not as tiny as the first time we went to the Bahamas in our Eastbay 38 and stopped at Bahia Mar. Tomorrow we head southeast for Alice Town, North Bimini. Sunday, 17 May 2015 We set our alarm early because we had a long day about 80 NM, with two more locks and lots of slow zones. We pushed off the dock at 6 AM, but met a fishing tournament at the Clewiston lock. The lock was open, but we waited for about 50 fishing boats to single file out before us. On a beautiful weekend day, the water traffic was crazy going through Hobe Sound and Jupiter. We caught up with David and Lynda Zachar at Old Port Cove Marina in North Palm Beach.

5 Saturday, 16 May 2015 David and I left Gulf Harbour Marina a few minutes after 7 Saturday morning. I knew it was going to be a good tip when we had dolphins jumping in our wake even before we reached the Cape Coral Parkway Bridge. Our lock timing was very good. For once we really lucked out! Saturday night at Roland Martin s in Clewiston was what we expected a loud band and lots of mosquitos.