Biscayne Bay to Bimini

"Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me." Albert Schweitzer
It has been 11 days since our departure from Miami's Dinner Key Marina in the predawn hours of April Fool's day with our full complement of captain, mate, ship's dog and crew: Michael Brenner and Susan Baker. Michael and Susan left this morning from the Staniel Cay air strip in the Exumas.  We are now tied up at Sampson's Cay Marina, a few miles north of Staniel Cay.  This and the following entries will attempt to catch you up on our voyage so far:
April 1: We pulled out of the marina at 0530; We planned a slow transit across Biscayne Bay, exit through the so-called Stiltsville channel and dawn arrival at Fowey Rocks, the traditional point of departure for Bimini.
April Fools!!!!! Hard aground!!!! 50 ft outside of the marina with the ebbing tide. "Well," quoth the captain, "guess we'll go tomorrow. Got the phone number for Tow Boat US, Honey?" But as luck would have it, the cap'n's patented 'desperate squirming' tactic caused the bar to release its grip on our keel and we shot in reverse back toward the unseen, clearly marked (in the light) channel. From there we proceeded cautiously.  While the crew panned the dark horizon for nearby daymarks or distant lights, I largely ignored them and trusted the instruments. I just kept the little virtual boat thingy between the digital marker thingies on my dimmed chart plotter and hoped for the best.

So off to the Fowey Rock light after threading  our way through the Stiltsville channel just after dawn. 

As the sun rose, we ran out the genoa and proceeded to steer east. An hour later, the water temperature began to rise and we found our course over ground had been converted to east, north-east.  We knew we had found the gulf-stream. The waves built to about 3 ft and the wind 14-15 knots, but the boat and crew remained comfy as we made 7.5 kts toward North Bimini.

Our approach to North Bimini was stressful but uneventful. Stressful, because I had seen a photo on the internet of a Catalina 480 awash on the beach a few weeks before and read reports that some of the buoys marking the channel into the harbor might be missing. I had also heard that my electronic charts would be worthless. LIES!!!! As far as I could tell, ALL of the buoys were gone... but my chartplotter showed the ghostly images of the four missing buoys and the curving channel through them and gave us a close-enough idea of where to steer. Michael took on the role of honorary ship's figurehead (aka king of the world) and gave reports from the bow. Reading the water wasn't too difficult. The lighter the blue the shallower the water, but mustard or black areas indicate a coral head while less intense dark areas were generally grassy bottom. So I mostly steered for the darker lighter blue and muttered prayers. The bar had obviously drifted a bit as we had only a foot of water under the keel at the shallowest spot, but no worries. We arrived without incident at the Blue Water Marina around 1430, cleared customs around 1600 and the crew began a day of leisure before resuming our voyage east and south.  John