We on Island Time Mon!

Made it to the Bahamas. And our friend Wally says that "many people regard the ICW as the purgatory that must be completed in order to get to paradise." He does an excellent seminar on cruising the ICW, and tries to dispel this myth, but I am afraid that we are going to have to go with the "many people". Sorry Wally. This place is gorgeous, crystal clear water, warm temperatures, simple people, and a variety of wildlife that we have seen no where else. Don't get me wrong, there were some places along the ICW that really captured our admiration, Central Park in New York, Cumberland Island Georgia, many people, many gorgeous little towns, but none have captured our hearts the way that Bimini did the minute we got here. This just feels like somewhere we are supposed to be.

Sunset crossing the Gulf Stream from Miami to Bimini in the Bahamas. I just never get tired of seeing this, no matter how many times I am forced to view it.

So, way back to the last blog entry. After getting the alternator done, all cleaned up and put away, we decided to take a day off and play hooky. There were a lot of things still on the Miami bucket list that we hadn't got to do. Both Serena and I were starting to feel a little better, and we were both ready to get off the boat for a bit. So, we took the quarter bus ($.25) to the beach. And wouldn't you know it, we forgot the camera. More bikinis in one place than I have ever seen, and no way to capture the memory. I am slipping in my old age. Actually, and I shouldn't admit this, but I didn't really enjoy the bikinis as much as I had hoped. Apparently it is difficult to admire a tree in a forest, all those trees are too distracting. I am obviously more of a one or two tree guy. I went for a swim in the ocean. Serena couldn't, her back was still tender, and the surf would have crippled her. Then we went for a long walk down the street by the ocean. Packed with people, bars, restaurants, and live music. A party every day. We eventually ended up walking all the way back, admiring the evening and watching all the weird and wonderful people. Had a quick bite to eat, went to movies, and then dinghied back to the boat for a shower and a few coolies. A perfect day.

The following day we were starting to feel even better, and the anchorage was a mad house, so I finally Talked Serena into going for a dinghy ride through the little man made canals and lakes that run the length of Miami Beach.

It looks gorgeous in the photos, but this is little more than a drainage ditch for the city. When it rains, everything comes through here. Despite the smell, and the garbage, it was actually a pretty neat thing to do, and the water was really thin, maybe a foot deep in some places. We just squeaked through with the dinghy.

Even the homeless people liked the area down by the water. You would think that the number of homeless people we saw would surprise us, but the truth is we were surprised there wasn't more of them. Its warm here all year round, so without a roof is much more doable than Toronto at home.

At one point we noticed these guys sunning themselves in the overhanging trees. Imagine this bad boy falling out of a tree into your dinghy. I bet this guy was close to 20 lbs or better. We still aren't sure what the deal was, but we found several of these guys, where there was one orange one in a tree with a bunch of smaller green iguanas. Then the next tree would hold the same, but only one orange one. They were pretty anyway.

The canal doesn't stay tiny for the whole way.

More of our friends.

This green one was as big as the orange one it was with.

Some canals have room for very big dinghies, and the monster personal yachts that they go with.

The next day was a pretty quiet one, for the most part. We hit the boat hard, trying to get all those little jobs done that have been bugging us, or that need to get done before we left Miami. We cleaned, and organized, and tinkered, and prepared for sea. I was up at the bow working on the anchors, and needed to go below to get another tool. When I came back up, this run-away sailboat had settled against us. It seems that it had broke loose of its mooring at the front of the anchorage, and drifted all the way down to our boat at the back of the anchorage. One of the other cruisers came by and told us that the owner, and the coast guard had been called, so we decided to tie it up and wait for its rescuers. After us it would have been the bridge, so I thought that she had been pretty lucky to nestle up against us to be saved. We found out later that she had taken about 2 hours to drift through the anchorage, and several other boats had fended her off instead of trying to save her. I thought that that was pretty rude, but I guess its typical American culture, by saving the boat we were liable to keep her safe, and apparently nobody in the US wants that responsibility.

Eventually the owner showed up with Tow Boat US to take her back to her mooring.

That evening I went and did our last load of laundry, while Serena tried to recuperate from the days activities. Not quite healed up yet. But the boat was looking great.

The day of departure we decided to make one last attempt to find some more of Serena's favorite potato chips, as we had only been able to find 7 containers up to that point, and that was not going to last her 3 months in the Bahamas. We walked through the farmers market with our friends off of Anthyllide, and wandered down the length of Miami Beach looking for a Walgreens pharmacy where I had found her favorite chocolates. The plan was to check the Walgreens, then take the quarter bus to the big Publix grocery store to look for Lays Sour Cream. We found a Walgreens, one block from the Publix. Guess we should have taken the bus first. 7 boxes of chocolates, and 4 bags of number two favorite potato chips, but no Lays. Then we walked all the way back up Miami Beach looking for a shoe store so that I could buy new sandals, as mine were dying a quick death. We didn't find any sandals, because everyone in Miami wears flip flops, but we did find some really nice running shorts and 100% polyester shirts that were on supper clearance. A good day but long.

We got back to the boat and finished up the last minute things for sea. We were planning to leave at midnight, so we really wanted to get a nap in before departure. Load the dinghy, put everything away, text, email, facebook, blog, where does the time go. I got about an hour sleep, Serena just got more frustrated.

At 11:00 we got up and readied the boat, made coffee, hauled up the anchor, and by midnight we were motoring out of the anchorage for Government Cut and the Atlantic Ocean. All went well, but we had heard over the radio that Government Cut had been closed because there were 2 cruise ships transiting the cut. So we took our time, expecting to be turned back, but there was no one around, the cut was empty, so we cranked up the engine and headed out into the darkness.

The trip across the Gulf Stream was fairly uneventful, I had compensated for the flow of the stream by going 10 degrees further south, and I should have compensated as much as 25 degrees south. So we ended up fighting the current near the end in order to make the south of Bimini. We still made it in 10 hours motor sailing, so it wasn't that bad. Miami disappeared about half way across, and Bimini showed up for about the last 12 miles. We met our friends on Serenada in the anchorage south of the island to wait for slack tide, but we were already at slack tide, so they weighed anchor and followed us in to Brown's Marina. As we were making for the cut to go into the harbor, we noticed flying fishing coming out of the water, hundreds of them. We always assumed that flying fish jumped out of the water high into the air and then landed back in the water, with a flight pattern like and arch. What we found out yesterday, is that they come out of the top of a wavelet, and fly, (yep, fly), about a foot above the water for as long as a couple hundred yards, and then they reenter the water. It was so neat to watch. Like little flocks of humming birds skimming over the ocean. Too cool.

12 noon, we were here. Tied up to a very nice marina, $.90 per foot per day, for our 28 foot boat. Almost free. A lot cheaper than we expected, so a very nice surprise. Showers, lounge chairs, a bar, and a volleyball court. Yep, were in paradise.