Miami to Bimini Bahamas

...Our Team at the Wallcast...
Hayden, Radeen, Jim, Cynthia, Loretta and Jim

We had our easiest and smoothest crossing of the Gulf Stream since 2012 when we first crossed over with our good friend, Carey, who taught us how to go to the Bahamas. For this crossing we left from South Beach Miami as we had attended our 7th New World Symphony Wallcast the night before. We had a great send off party at the Wallcast with boat buddies Jim and Loretta of IP 380 PLAN SEA and Jim and Cynthia of Crealock 34 NEVERLAND and Bill of IP380 Tamarak. We always enjoy these Wallcasts and this one was interesting once again, featuring 3 Viennese composers. The first half was unusual with an atonal style of music while the second half was a fantastic presentation of Schubert's 9th symphony. These free outdoor concerts have become one of Miami Beach's top events. After the concert it was back to the boat, de-rig the dinghy, take off the 15hp Yamaha outboard and fuel tank and secure the dinghy for an ocean passage.

Our new B&G Zeus2 sets a course for Bimini

Exiting the inlet was rough even in light air with wind against current and we all slammed through the waves. takin gspray over our bows. The crossing from Miami to Bimini is 50 nm and we knew the winds would be calm, 5-10 knots out of the east and our course is east. With the 3 to 4 knot north flow of the Gulf Stream, we needed to point the boat on a course of 120, which placed the winds 30 degrees off our port bow. This is a motor run, with the engine at 2500 rpms and the sails helping to dampen the rolling of the boat, so it was a dream passage. We pulled into Bimini Sands Marina at 1600 hrs and docked on their nice, long, floating docks. We all washed the salt spray and city dirt off our boats, since we all had not been to a dock in several weeks and then popped a celebratory bottle of GRUET. Welcome to the BAHAMAS where the people are so kind and friendly.

Docked at Bimini Sands Marina

Our next task was to find a Super Bowl party which we heard was canceled due to damage from Hurricane Matthew at the pub we went to last year with Jeff and Sharon. Fritz, the dock master, said the game would be on at the nearby Tipsy Turtle Pub and we thought we would go.....but we all crashed hard as we had very little sleep in the past few nights. So, we did not see the Brady Bunch win in the last seconds of the game of  "Was The Knee Down?" Atlanta was robbed of their Super Bowl win. Tough call.

So, now we will take a lay day here at Bimini Sands Marina and let the building east winds die down and then run directly to Highbourne Cay in the Exumas overnight from here, about a 150 nm run. We will be in Warderick Wells for the next front which arrives on Friday.

Welcome to the BAHAMAS....

Our last sunset in Biscayne Bay

Radeen, Cynthia and Loretta....the Girls

Jim, Hayden and Jim,...the Boys :-)

Wallcast # 7 for us and The New World Symphony's 29th Anniversary concert!
NWS is a highly competitive tuition-free post-graduate school for professional musicians.

Click here to read about and watch a video about the Wallcasts.
 https://www.nws.edu/events-tickets/wallcast-concerts-and-park-events/

Sunday sunrise in Government Cut lighting up the cruise ships

Good Morning Miami

Well, hello, cruise ship Adona underway, this is Island Spirit

Heading out Fisherman's channel

Neverland and Plan Sea heading out of Miami

This is a very calm day at sea, Neverland looking great 

Departure Selfie Year #6, Hayden & Radeen

B&G Triton 2 display showing the Gulf Stream current at 4.4 knots, very cool
Note: Our depth reads at 4.5 ft. whenever we are "off-soundings" in deep water,

We made this custom screen, Instruments left, Sail Steer center, Data column right.

AIS at the helm is very nice...LOOK OUT a ship!

That ship is 900 feet long and it is going 15 knots, YES, you may pass!

Check out the color of the water, this is the true colors

Hayden harnessed on and out on the deck dropping main and raising the Q flag

The required GRUET to celebrate arrival in the Bahamas

Radeen after washing the boat

Our Fleet: Island Spirit, Neverland and Plan Sea

Please note, we are running a new ship satellite tracking device called Garmin InReach. This places our position onto a building map of our trip. It also places our latest position onto the home page of our blog. So, with this, you never have to ask us "Where Are you?" You can simply see where we are an any time.

Here is our Trip Map
https://share.delorme.com/islandspirit

Here is our latest position, Look at our home page, top righthand column.
http://IslandSpirit.us