Just after sunrise, Capt’n K and SloMo caught a nap in the cockpit. Here they are waking up before landfall in Bimini.

Okay, we’ve looked at the weather and here is our plan. We are going to leave bimini now and head across the Great Bahama Banks to the Berrys. We’ll have to anchor on the banks tonight and then finish the crossing tomorrow.

the winds are supposed to shift to the East and strengthen for the next week, so if we make it to the Berry’s we can then sail to the Exumas or Nassau or Andros in the east winds. If we stay here then the east winds will lock us in for a week or we’d have to motor into the east winds to get anywhere.

Heck with that!

So we’re taking off now to cross the banks and will check in when we get to the Berrrys.

We left Islamorada at 5:00pm on Friday. We sailed out towards the edge of the reef as the sun descended in the west. We debated about anchoring at Rodriguez Key to sleep for a few hours or the entire night before taking off on the crossing. The weather was nice, though, and the forecast was in our favor. We figured that if we stayed the night and left in the morning then we wouldn’t have enough time to make it into the Bahamas before sunset on Saturday. As it turned out, we were thinking right.

So we decided to keep going and cross the gulf stream on an overnight passage. We got out to the reef that protects the Keys as the sun was setting. We blew our conch shell to the four directions as it dipped beneath the horizon. The depth meter started displaying deeper and deeper depths until it finally read “—“ meaning depth in excess of 200 feet.

We wanted to actually sail to the Bahamas, not motor like everyone other “sailor” that we know. Most sailors leave from a launch spot as close to the Bahamas as possible, like Miami, in order to minimize the time in the gulf stream. We’ve even had professional sailor captains try to convince us to just motor full-throttle the whole way to “just get there.”

We calculated our course on paper to account for the northern 2 knot+ current of the gulf stream. It indicated to us that if we wanted to sail and not motor, we’d have to launch from a spot far south of Miami and Bimini. As it worked out, leaving from Islamorada was just the perfect amount of distance south to allow us to sail all the way to Bimini. Our calculated compass heading that we would maintain for the entire trip was an easy one: 90degrees. That’s due east, magnetic. Simple enough! All we had to do was point our bow due east for 19 hours, and we’d end up in the Bahamas 80 miles to the northeast.

We were both nervous about the crossing. It’s the first time we were going across a major ocean current on a significant open water ocean passage, and we were doing it alone without a buddy boat. Not only that, but we were going to actually SAIL it and not motor it, and we were leaving from a jump off point that no one leaves from, and we were doing an overnight when most everyone crosses starting at dawn. Leaving to cross at night can really be scary. But, the weather was perfect and delicious, so there was nothing to hold us back but ourselves.

We said our good-byes, send last emails and made the last phone calls that we could until our cell signal ran out on us. Then we were truly out of range of all friends and family. The wind was mostly out of the east-southeast, so we had to sail close-hauled and beat to windward the entire trip. It wasn’t bad, but when the wind shifted a bit to the east (on the nose), we actually had a few hours when we had to motor to keep up our speed so that we would make Bimini and not get blown by the gulf stream current too far north.

There was a significant amount of BIG boat traffic out there. We had to slow down and alter course to allow two separate cruise ships to pass and also once for a container ship and another time for a fuel barge being pushed by a tug. This was all under the near full-moon light on gleaming water only seeing the boats by their lights. It’s so difficult to figure out how far away the boats are, what direction they are heading, and what spped they are traveling at night just based on their lights. Thank goodness we have a pair of good binoculars! We were able to assess their heading and speed well enough to navigate safely around them with lots of comfort room.

Had one accidental heave-to in the night due to complications with a change in wind speed and direction and the autopilot’s inability to compensate quickly enough. We had to start the motor again and run on fuel for an hour until the winds picked up and shifted southeast again. While we were motoring in the luminous moonlight over the 2000 feet deep water, three dolphins came and raced us. The water was so amazingly clear that even just by moonlight we could see them swimming in the water aside and beneath our albin vega. They seemed to have mottled or spotted backs rather than the usual all gray dolphins we have seen in the keys. They were really hauling fin too, because we were cruising at 5 knots at that point.

We took shifts on deck while the other got to rest in the cabin below. At times it was a bit of a bucking bronco ride, but overall it was just a stimulating sail for 18 hours. We had picked a good weather window. The swells were maybe 5 to 6 feet with maybe 1 foot waves on top of them, all from the southeast. After experiencing this “calm” night, we definitely don’t want to ever experience it in BIG conditions.

By morning we were both very tired, but the color of the water was rejuvenating. Imagine grey merging with lapis lazuli. We caught the Bahamas weather forecast net on the shortwave radio at 6:30am, and the sun rose behind the clouds on the horizon at 7:00am. By 11:00am we were within 1 mile of our goal: North Bimini, Bahamas. We had traveled 85 miles over open ocean with a somewhat predictable current and a decently cooperative weather forecast. It was amazing to us that we didn’t miss the wee little 2 mile island in all that open water. We arrived spot on our target after 18 hours of pointing our bow at 90 degrees. Amazing! It worked! We arrived within 100 yards of our goal waypoint without even having to correct our navigation or heading.

By 12:00 noon we had found a marina for $30 for a slip, and we were eager to tie up and rest. We considered just continuing on across the Great Bahama Bank towards the Berrys or Nassau or Andros, but we were too tired to just start another 80 mile trip without rest. We raised our quarantine flag and went to the customs and immigration office, a bit worried about whether or not they would turn us away because of our two cats.

It really comes down to the luck of which agent you get at the counter! The guy next to me got asked about having pets on board, but I didn’t. If I’d have answered “yes” then most likely our cats would have been quarantined for a month or we would have been denied admittance to the Bahamas. Phew! The agent gave us our entry visa and cruising permit and fishing license, and that was that. I lowered the quarantine flag and raised our new Bahamas flag on Wee Happy. We are now official and able to cruise the Bahamas until we want to leave or our permits expire on July first, whichever comes first.

So now we are planning our next trip: crossing the Great Bahama Bank to the Berrys or Andros.

After a long 18 hour passage through the night, we arrived at Alicetown, North Bimini, Bahamas at noon today.

We just found wifi, so we are posting a quick note to our friends to tell you all that we are here and in good health.

We’ll post the story of the crossing soon along with pictures.

The plan is to leave here tomorrow to cross the Bahama Banks to the east and get to Nassau or the Berrys or the Exumas.

– Capt’n K & Lala

We’re heading out! We just pulled our anchor and are heading out to the gulf stream past the reef.

Here is our plan: 85 nautical mile passage from Islamorada Florida to Bimini Sands Marina, Bimini, Bahamas. True course 56 degrees. Assuming that we average 4 knots, our compensated course to steer is a heading of 82 degrees. We’ll see what the current is when we get out there though, and we will probably have to modify that a bit.

We stowed our dinghy on the deck, deflated, with the outboard in the v-berth. Everything looks good. The weather is for south to southeast winds of 10 to 15 knots for tonight and tomorrow, so hopefully we can sail the whole way! Gas is expensive, but we have 25 gallons on board if we need them.

When we arrive at e Bimini Sands Marina, we should have internet access, and we will post to let everyone know how it went and that we’re okay. So if you don’t hear from us by Saturday night then we are overdue.

Then we’ll check in with customs and consider the next leg of the trip from there.

So thanks for tuning in! Your thoughts and prayers are welcome.

– Capt’n K & Lala

check this out! It’s a shot from the bow of the annual ray migration in Mexico! (we did not take this photo, as we are en route to the Bahamas, not Mexico. Just a cool photo we wanted to share, and we are testing our new iPad application to upload photos).
Right now we are in Islamorada at my favorite restaurant, Loralei’s. They have the best Key Lime Pie in the entire world and Im eagerly awaiting my slice of heaven.

– Capt’n K & Lala

Wee finished many days of preparation this morning. Hauled up our two muck covered anchors and went to the city marina and filled our water tanks. Got lots of ice, dropped off our trash and said good bye to our sweet friends Janae and Dave from s/v Wave Dancer (see link to their blog in the right hand column).

Motored out of Sisters Creek to the ocean on Hawk Channel and turned left. The winds were precast to be light and variable, and they have proven so. We raised the gennaker and were able to make way at 3 knots eastward. Sweet.

The seas are as flat as a calm lake, and the visibility in the water is fabulous for the middle keys. In 20 feet of water we can see the bottom. Our goal is simple: head northeast along the keys to get to our jump off point for the Bahamas by Friday. We have 70 miles to go and three days to do it in.

After a few hours, the wind went mostly behind us, so we pulled the genoa out on the port side and flew downwind wing and wing at a whopping 3 knots. That’s sailing! It’s making the best out of existing conditions. We are resolute not to use gasoline because it is so expensive, and it is twice as expensive in the Bahamas. We have 25 gallons total, and we want to make it last as long as possible.

So we’ve sailed all day, even though we got down to 0.9 knots at one point this afternoon. We resolved to just pull into our anchorage at midnight. An hour later the winds shifted to the northwest and picked up a little. We’re now sailing with the gennaker and main on a beam reach towards our anchorage in Long Key Bight. It is in sight, just 4 miles ahead. We should drop anchor just after sunset.

It currently looks like we will cross to Bimini, Bahamas on Saturday.

Thanks for checking in!
– Capt’n K & Lala

Location:Overseas Hwy,Marathon,United States

Well I hate to say it, but we haven’t left yet. So close, we are so close! The list of things to do before we left kept getting longer, and longer, and longer. Even just an hour ago we were on the verge of hauling the anchor and taking off, and then we thought of more stuff we really should take care of before leaving the country. What have you guys been doing?, you ask? Well, here is a partial list.
We got oil and hunted down oil filters (30 miles away) for our outboard motor.
We scrubbed the bottom of our dinghy, which was way overdue. It had barnacles growing on it and it took a lot of elbow grease to get them off. But wow does our dinghy go faster now!
We scrubbed the bottom of Wee Happy, which was also getting slimy and had some barnacles starting. Lala did part of it and we hired Diver Mike to do the keel.
We had to find space on our boat for a bunch of stuff we had in storage. Major stowage reorganization project. It took hours. Albin Vegas have a surprising amount of storage, and it is quite shocking how much stuff Cap’t K. managed to fit below decks.
We got a few extra emergency gas cans.
We have been taking care of where our mail is going, and cell phone bills, and student loan payments, and bank stuff.
We have been saying our good byes and trying to have as many going away parties as possible.

And of course, there is the minor detail of where exactly are we going in the Bahamas and what route are we taking to get there? Hmmmm, maybe we will just have to give you the answer to that one when we get there, as we are not sure yet. We have a vague plan that is changing hourly, and in the end it may depend on the weather. There is little to no wind forecasted for the next few days, so that either means motoring across a calm Gulf stream ( which could be easy and lovely if I didn’t hate motoring so much), or it means waiting until there is decent wind in our favor, which would probably be AT LEAST a week or 10 days. Lately it seems that if there IS wind, it is from the East, which is not the direction we want.

So for all you readers who are waiting to “go to the Bahamas with us”, rest assured we are just making sure everything is ready and then we will be leaving for a safe passage shortly! We have one working camera (at least it works today, although Im sorry to say I can’t upload any photos from it right now because we just shut down our Internet connection and Im writing this on an Ipad, which has the annoying inability to upload photos). But there will be news and photos and video as soon as we are able to post again. Bon voyage!

We’re doing it. We’re going to the Bahamas.

We made it through our small boat crises, at least for now, and we decided since we are this close to the Bahamas, we can’t go back to New England without at least stopping there.

So yesterday we did the “Big Bahamas Food Shopping Trip”. Everyone has been telling us to bring as much food and beer as possible to the Bahamas, because food, and especially beer and wine, are very expensive there, and sometimes there is not much available in stores on the smaller islands. So we borrowed a car, went to Publix, and loaded up. I don’t think I’ve ever bought that much food at one time. We were there for hours. We visited every aisle in the store.

Getting it all packed away in our wee boat is the major project of the day. Here is a hilarious photo of what the bench in Wee Happy looks like right now. I got a really good laugh out of this, hope you do too:

Departure date OUT OF MARATHON: tomorrow.

We are hoping to find some time to visit with our friends around a pool down the road this afternoon, once we surface from the mountian of canned goods that has overtaken our boat.