Patience, Patience, Patience

Our “plan” was to stay at the marina in Miami for three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 25^th through the 27^th) and then anchor out in No Name Harbor at the southern end of Key Biscayne on Monday, April 28^th, ready for an early departure the following morning. But as all cruisers know, so called “plans” are written in sand at low tide, subject to being washed away, and so it was with ours. Weather forecasts predicted that conditions would not be favorable for a safe, smooth Gulf Stream crossing for at least several days, so we would just have to be patient (not really one of our strong suits). Attitude adjustment, anyone?

And there are always little chores that one can do to while away the time, such as giving Ken a haircut and beard trim. It has to be done sometime, right?

Of course, when conditions are not perfect for cruising, one can always rent a car and take a road trip, so we decided that a trip to Key Largo would be fun. By this time, our good friend, Don Graf (who was going to join us on our Bahamas cruise) had arrived, so off the three of us went, away from the hustle-bustle of Miami toward the laid back atmosphere of the Florida Keys.

Many years ago we had visited Key Largo and remembered seeing the “African Queen” (from the movie of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart) moored next to a Holiday Inn, so we decided to see if it was still there. Guess what? It is! It’s now used for boat tours and charters.

 

Deciding to spend the night at this scenic spot, we checked in to the Holiday Inn and enjoyed a dip in one of their two swimming pools before deciding where to go for dinner.

We ended up making a great choice, dining at the Bayside Grill overlooking Sunset Cove, very picturesque, with wonderful food.

Before heading back to Miami we decided to stop at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which is the first undersea park in the U.S., encompassing 70 nautical square miles. We had hoped to see the Visitor Center’s exhibits, but it was closed for renovation, so we checked out a couple of replica cannons from a 1715 Spanish shipwreck and then donned our snorkel gear for a quick dip in the water.

On Monday, May 5^th, the weather window we were waiting for opened up, and we headed out into Biscayne Bay for a short, uneventful cruise to No Name Harbor (located inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park), where we dropped anchor and prepared to dinghy ashore to pay the $20 fee required for an overnight stay.

Then, off we went on foot in search of the oldest structure in Miami-Dade county, the 95-foot-high Cape Florida Lighthouse. Of course, it was closed for renovation, but it was still a beautiful sight to behold in its lush, tropical setting at the southern tip of Key Biscayne.

After our long hot walk, we were ready for a cold beer and tasty lunch at Boaters’ Grill, conveniently located at the head of No Name Harbor.

Back aboard “Docker’s Inn,” we spent the rest of the day soaking up the atmosphere of this marine environment, surrounded by several anchored sailboats which only added to the serenity of the scene.

As the sun set that evening, we felt more than ready to be on our way across the Gulf Stream the following day.

By 6:00 a.m. we were up, making final preparations for our departure, and expecting to see all of the folks on the sailboats around us doing the same. But, at 6:40 when we pulled up anchor and left the harbor, everyone else appeared to be staying put. So off we went, out the Cape Florida Channel toward the Fowey Rocks Light, whose position five miles offshore enables it to better guide deep-draft ships than the Cape Florida Lighthouse ever did.

From there we had plotted a course on our electronic chart plotter to Bimini, 50 miles east northeast of the Fowey Rocks buoy. Most of that distance we would be crossing the Gulf Stream, an actual river in the Atlantic Ocean which flows north with a current ranging from 1.5 knots on either side to 3 knots in the middle. Because of this we had to steer a course well south of our intended destination to allow for the current always pushing us northward. With east winds blowing at 10-12 knots and waves ranging from 1-3 ft. in height, it was a bumpy enough ride that we had to hang on to something most of the time, but overall, it wasn’t too bad. We did, however, have to carefully observe northbound and southbound freighters and tows in our path, three of which prompted us to temporarily change course and/or slow down to allow them to pass us, and thus, to avoid a possible collision.

At 11:40 a.m., less than five hours after leaving Key Biscayne, we first spotted land way off on the horizon, right where our GPS electronic chart plotter indicated that it should be. Almost simultaneously the bumpy sea began to calm down a bit, and we all breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that our long-awaited cruise to the Bahamas was really materializing at last. Not long after that the red rooftops of the Bimini Sands Resort and Marina on South Bimini came into view, and we knew that we were headed directly for the red and green buoys marking the entrance channel to both North and South Bimini.

A brief conversation with the harbormaster provided the instructions we needed to safely enter the harbor and find our reserved slip, and before we knew it we were there, tied up and raising our yellow quarantine flag, ready to clear customs and immigration. That process required the captain (Sharon) to fill out a bunch of forms and take a short taxi ride to the airport while Ken and Don sat on the aft deck of the “Docker” drinking beer and congratulating themselves on having the good sense to not be designated as “captain” of the vessel.

Finally, with passports stamped and $300 boat tax and fishing license paid, the quarantine flag came down and the Bahamas courtesy flag was raised, and we were free to check out our new surroundings. As we looked around at what this marina has to offer, we were very glad we had made this choice.

And now, having had to extend our stay here twice already due to windy and rough conditions in both the Gulf Stream to our west and the Great Bahama Bank to our east, we are still happy with our choice.  So, this is what it’s like to be stranded in paradise!