Four Months Later

After leaving the boat in Bimini on March 7, we might actually be on the verge of getting back to it this week. We have cleared the Covid-19 test requirement and have our Travel Health Visas issued by the Bahamas which will allow us to enter.

Red Tape

The closed border of the Bahamas has been extended another month until the end of June. Meanwhile, we have begun what appears to be an active hurricane season with Tropical Depression Three now formed off the coast of Mexico.

In the Bahamas, some travel is now being permitted between islands and the form to request a "Permit to Travel" notes that "Each person requesting permission to travel to or within The Bahamas is required to submit a copy of this form and original COVID-19 RT-PCR test result to COVID19travel@bahamas.gov.bs" I made a second request last week to enter the country and was told I would need to complete these forms first. So Friday, after getting our doctor to order a test, Laura Lee and I were tested at a nearby CVS, and today we received the results showing the virus was "not detected".

The next step is to complete the Application to Travel and another form that, if approved, will be sent back to us as our Permission to Travel. I am also required to include copies of the Covid-19 test results, our passports, and the cruising permit for the boat, which expires in three days.

I have no idea if this is a waste of time at this point or not, or if perhaps it can be issued with some future date for our entry. With my luck it will be rejected and then the test results will no longer be current enough to use. Nevertheless, it seems worth the effort, as I've really gotten pretty desperate to get the boat out of there after the three months it has sat in Bimini. Wish us luck.

UPDATE 6/2/20: It took just a few hours after submitting all of this to find out it was indeed a waste of time. I got an email saying that the Bahamas had suspended issuing these travel cards in order to handle the backlog. Moreover, the news from the Bahamas yesterday says travel cards are no longer needed for travel within the islands and that borders will be reopened on or before July 1. So if nothing changes with the virus in the Bahamas, we shall await the reopening of the border and get there as quickly as we can.
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Still Stuck

Just a brief update. The Bahamas continue to prohibit any visitors to the country, although some citizens and permanent residents have finally been allowed to return home if they agree to be quarantined for two weeks. The current order will expire at the end of May unless it is extended again. There have been a total of 96 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Bahamas and you can see the breakdown of status and location on the government dashboard here.

Bimini, where Division Belle is located, has become something of a hotspot for the virus. There have been 13 cases reported there among the roughly 2,000 residents, so the island is under a total lockdown. Bimini is very densely populated and it is difficult to maintain social distancing there.

Being optimistic, it might be possible for me to return to my boat by June 1, but if either of these two current orders are extended, the wait will be longer, and extend into the early part of hurricane season. I have a couple of possible ways to fly into Bimini directly from home by private plane whenever it is permitted, and my thinking is that I should go as quickly as possible to retrieve the boat in case travel restrictions are reimposed. We could distance ourselves when we arrive and go straight into self-quarantine on the boat until weather permits a departure to Florida.

Division Belle during Covid-19

I am acutely aware of the suffering of so many people all over the world during this pandemic. My heart goes out to those who are sick and to the untold millions of people in severe economic distress caused by this tragedy. We are doing fine and are very fortunate to live in a community that has battened down the hatches. Any small misstep can put many in danger, so I urge everyone to stay strong and in place.

As for Division Belle, she is still safely tied up at Brown's Marina in Bimini, and I am informed by the dock master that they are keeping an eye on her for me. She is still transmitting her AIS position regularly, and it shows up on the marinetraffic.com website like this:

The Bahamas have completely closed their borders to everyone, including their own citizens and residents who might be stuck elsewhere. There is no telling when it might be safe to travel again or when The Bahamas might begin to let people in. These islands are mostly quite poor and have very limited health care facilities. It took more than 24 hours to get one citizen of Bimini airlifted to a hospital in Nassau and she unfortunately passed away upon arrival. I wish nothing but the best for the gentle people of The Bahamas.

One final screenshot of the marinetraffic website. If you look carefully you can see eight Carnival cruise ships anchored together off the Bahamas, and numerous other cruise ships just aimlessly meandering between Florida and The Bahamas. One ship's AIS transmitter shows its destination as "drifting".

Stay safe everyone, and I'll check back in when there is something to report.

Coronavirus

It has become obvious now that the Coronavirus pandemic will affect our cruising plans on Division Belle. While being anchored out in the Bahamas is probably the safest place we could be, we had been planning to come and go from the boat while leaving it in the Exumas. From there, this would involve taking international flights and spending time in international airports, things that people my age have been advised not to do unnecessarily. On my trip home from Bimini a week ago, I took a small seaplane with seven passengers to Sheltair in Fort Lauderdale, the fixed based operator there for private planes. I then rented a car to drive home. I was well-equipped with hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes for the entire trip.

I'm not in any kind of panic, but I am trying to listen carefully to the expert advice that is given. It seems logical that social distancing now will slow the spread, so as not to overwhelm our medical facilities. I'm washing my hands frequently, bumping elbows instead of shaking hands, and reconsidering gatherings and air travel that are not necessary. It just makes sense. One article I just read recommends against almost any social contact such as having friends to dinner in your home. 

I have said many times that I love being on the boat, no matter where it is. It is certainly not necessary to get to the Exumas this year, so I'm now focusing on how to get to Bimini to bring the boat back closer to home. If I can't get there next week, the boat may just sit where it is until I can safely travel. I'll be trying to figure it out over the next few days and watching the weather for a good time to start back. Here's hoping more travel restrictions are not enacted before I can get there.

Bimini Update and Photos

Bimini doesn't change much. The End of the World Bar is still open. I stuck my head in after arrival and it was very dark, with no customers. No doubt it will liven up as spring breakers begin arriving later this month.

I earlier mentioned that the Compleat Angler Hotel had burned down prior to my last visit in 2008. The ruins are still here with a couple of markers attesting to its history. It is sad that it was not rebuilt, as it was the place to go on Bimini for about 70 years. An awful lot of valuable memorabilia was lost in the fire, along with the life of its owner.

Ruins of the Compleat Angler Hotel

Note the list of guests includes Senator Gary Hart. His famous photo with Donna Rice on the yacht Monkey Business was taken right here in Bimini. What happens in Bimini doesn't just stay in Bimini.

This being the Bahamas, it is not unusual to go to odd places to locate goods or services. Years ago in Georgetown, Exuma we inquired where we could purchase fresh fish or Bahamian lobster and were directed to a beauty shop. The owner's husband caught fish and she sold it out of coolers in the back room. Here in Bimini, if you need a propane tank filled, a couple of large tanks and trucks are parked under some trees at the very south end of the island. If the proprietor is there, you will see his white pickup truck. Otherwise he can be found at the liquor store across the street from Brown's marina. I got one of our tanks filled yesterday ($15 for a small two-pound tank).

While here, I have enjoyed catching up with Sean and Louise, owners of my previous boat Steel Magnolia, now named Vector. We both left Florida Wednesday, they from Miami and I from Fort Lauderdale, and we have ended up docked next to each other for a few days.

Division Belle and Vector crossing the Gulf Stream

I will be cleaning up and packing today for my seaplane flight back to the states tomorrow. I hope to get back down here soon to resume travels in the Bahamas.

Islands in the Stream

Weather changes and plans change. The Lovely Laura Lee headed home today and I stayed with the boat because it looked like I might have a weather window to get to the Bahamas this week. I am planning to depart Wednesday morning to Bimini, the closest of the islands of the Bahamas. Seas are projected to be quite comfortable and we should make it across in about seven to eight hours depending on seas and the strength of the Gulf Stream current. I will be accompanied by a hired captain recommended by my old friend Joel Davidson who is a yacht broker here with Outer Reef Yachts https://www.outerreefyachts.com/bio-joeldavidson.cfm. 

I first visited Bimini in the 1990's when The Compleat Angler Hotel was still standing. It was where Ernest Hemingway apparently lived and wrote in the 1930's when he was not staying on his boat in Bimini. The old bar in the downstairs of the hotel was thriving, and the walls were covered with Hemingway photos and memorobilia. This bar was the also site of the original ring toss game, where a ring is attached to a string hooked to the ceiling, and the object is to swing the ring and have it land on a hook attached to the wall. I credit my friend Chuck Butterworth with introducing this game to me well before I ever visited Bimini. You can still find kits of ring and string for sale called the "Bimini Ring Toss Game".

My last visit to Bimini was in 2008 with my friend James Abele (Perfect Deck Hand). Here is the blog entry from that visit on March 13, 2008 when we travelled from Chub Cay to Bimini:

Yesterday, we departed early for the long run across the Banks to Bimini. We covered some 83 nautical miles and anchored just before dark on the east side of Bimini, as it was too close to dark to attempt coming around the island and into the harbor. We thought we had found a perfect anchorage off a beautiful beach but it became very rough when the wind moved around to northwest during the night and swells came around the island, hitting us from the north. The boat rolled and doors rattled, and our anchor dragged slightly. But we made it through the night. This morning, we came around into the harbor and tied up at Brown’s Hotel and Marina, right next to the famous “End of the World Bar”, which we’ll check out tonight. 

Bimini has seen some improvement since last I was here. A gigantic development is going on at the north end of the island called “Bimini Bay”. We checked it out by golf cart today and it is going to be very nice. Unfortunately, the Compleat Angler Hotel, hangout of Earnest Hemingway, had a fire and may be gone for good. The outside walls are still standing but we don’t know if it will be salvaged or torn down. The remainder of Alicetown is still pretty run down, but there are signs of improvement, including the new docks at Brown’s where we are staying. 

In preparation for this visit, I have been re-reading Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream". In Part One of the book, entitled "Bimini", the main character, who resembles Hemingway himself, lives in a house that actually matches the description of the Compleat Angler Hotel. The hotel and bar are part of the story, but were called the "Ponce De Leon" in the book. I will again be docking at Brown's, mentioned in my old blog and the site of a great fistfight in Hemingway's book.

I'm excited to get back to Bimini, and I want to check out a few things. First, what I wrote of previously as "Bimini Bay" became "Resort World", and I will be interested to see how the resort has fared. Second, I want to return to the "End of the World Saloon", also known as the "Sand Bar" and see if it is still flourishing. It was a dive with Graffiti-covered walls, and the primary decor consisted of hundreds of pairs of women's underwear hanging from the walls and ceiling. There is just no telling what it is like today. And finally, I want to revisit the location of the Compleat Angler to see what, if anything, is left.

The weather has been terrible of late for crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas. We have had one cold front after another for weeks, leaving few good "windows" for a crossing. Wednesday looks like a good one, but we shall see. I'm excited to get this boat out in the open ocean, because so far I have only had a few calm days at sea. I'll perhaps find out what needs to be better secured and what falls off the kitchen counter. I'll report back to let you know how the trip went.

Watching the Weather

Front After Front

We are aboard the boat in Stuart, Florida. The plan is to depart and head south to the Palm Beach area by Monday night and Fort Lauderdale Tuesday night, trying to get into position to cross the Gulf Stream Wednesday to Bimini. It is a trip that may or may not happen, depending on the weather. I have no statistics to back this up, but this year to me has had an unusual weather pattern of one cold front after another passing through every two or three days, rather than about once every week or two as usual.

Normally when a cold front passes, the winds clock around from south to west to north, and the north winds are cold and strong for two or three days thereafter. That is exactly what happened here when the front passed last night with heavy rain and we awoke this morning to strong cold winds from a northerly direction. Strong north winds blowing against the Gulf Stream current make waves stand up and get very steep, and uncomfortable. So the usual practice is to wait a few days after the front and dash across the Gulf Stream before the next front arrives. The problem for quite awhile this winter is that the next front arrives before the winds ever settle down from the previous one.

The best advice I ever got about crossing the Gulf Stream was from a book entitled A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South by Bruce Van Sant. He said simply: "Under prevailing conditions, wait until the Offshore Forecast says south of east winds of less than 15 knots and seas less than three feet." He was speaking more of comfort than safety. Our boat can handle much rougher seas than I can. But in fact, under the current forecast for Wednesday, we should have southeast to south winds 10 to 15 knots and seas of two to four feet, pretty close to what he advised as the maximum.

There are two problems though. This is Saturday and a lot can change by Wednesday. And second, there are today many more models and forecasts than the National Weather Service Offshore Forecast, and they are not all in agreement. For Wednesday, Chris Parker's Marine Weather Center says: "Brisk SSE-S wind prevents comfortable travel Tue25, then very brisk S-SSW wind keeps travel window closed Wed26." PredictWind, an app I study regularly, calls for 2.5-foot waves Wednesday at noon between Fort Lauderdale and Bimini, but predicts winds of 19 knots. Using PredictWind's second model, it predicts similar seas but winds of only 13 knots. Its Euro model has winds at 19 knots and seas of 4.2 feet.

Too much information I think, but I have been watching it obsessively for the last few days. It does show that we are on the margins. The answer will not come until Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning when we can see what the sea buoys tell us about wind and seas, and see if the forecasts for the day have come more into agreement. If we can't go this time, we wait for the next front to pass and try again.

I'll keep you posted. The good news is that I am happy to be on the boat, no matter where it is. We will eventually get there.