M/V MAERIN

Our cruise to Bimini began this morning as planned at o’dark-thirty, that’s 0430 hrs. Yawn…. well, not really, we slept light, anticipating our crossing to the Bahamas. A full moon glowed across the water behind us as Tavernier Key fell into the darkness. Eastbound! We encountered the gulf stream shortly after crossing the reef, and were greeted with some fairly sloppy water. We’ve heard stories of folks getting that far and turning back. Since we only had winds of less than 15 kts, and out of the ESE, we expected it to be a little rough. We had seas around 4 ft, and that’s just a little rough. No re-micowaving coffee while

underway!! One hand for you, one for the boat as the old saw goes. The boat performed flawlessly, the stabilizers smoothing out the roll, so we had primarily pitching to contend with. The rough water lasted until about 1100, then gradually subsided, and the rest of our trip was just like a day on the bay. Even Sammy relaxed and snoozed a bit. We passed several ships and tankers, the Florida Straits is a busy shipping lane! We were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean, several spottings of flying fish, and that deep dark blue of the ocean that seems to go down forever. Forever might be a bit of a stretch, but in the 3,000 ft. area was the depths we were transiting today. Our depth finder stops indicating in the 500 ft. area, so we really didn’t have any other confirmation of what is listed on the chart.

We spotted Bimini sometime after 1300 hrs, and arrived dockside at about 1530. Arrival in the Bahamas requires boaters to fly an international “Q” flag prior to checking into customs and immigration. Our check-in was easy, we had all our paperwork ready, in perfect order, and filled out, so the customs official simply had to stamp the papers and take our $300 cruising permit fee! Immigration was equally simple, and once completed, we could lower the “Q” pennant and hoist the Bahamas courtesy flag, indicating that we have received our permit.

Dinner (for me) consisted of a pair of fresh lobsters, hawked by the local fishermen. Nice, delivered right to the boat, fresh!! Very delicious! A short walk, a beautiful sunset, and a huge moon rising across the water when we returned to the boat capped off a wonderful day!

We’ll stay a day here to take in the sights and some of the local flavor, perhaps visit the beach and relax a bit. More pictures are in the Photo Gallery.