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.

Dania Beach

We are in Harbour Towne Marina in Dania Beach, Florida, just south of Fort Lauderdale. We have had a fun week, topped off by an incredible dinner last night at Valentino Cucina Italiana in Fort Lauderdale .  While the weather has prevented crossing to Bimini, we have enjoyed our time on the boat.

Wednesday night we had the pleasure of dinner with our old friends Sean and Louise Welsh, who purchased our previous boat Steel Magnolia, now named Vector. (See www.ourodyssey.blogspot.com.) As always, I learn quite a bit from Sean and Louise, as they live full time on the boat and have become quite knowledgeable. And it's also just good to see them.

Tomorrow we plan to head back home for a little while, because it seems clear there is no good weather for getting to the Bahamas in the coming week. I'll be watching it closely and heading back this way when possible.

Mega Yachts

We are in Fort Lauderdale this evening, in the world of Mega Yachts, and in a marina where a boat slip costs more than a decent hotel room for the night. The yachts we have seen are simply stunning. Last night we spent the night in Jupiter, Florida, just a few slips down from  "Privacy", Tiger Woods' yacht.

Tiger Woods' Yacht

Tiger's yacht seems downright small compared to the boat tied up at the end of our dock. It is named "MLR" and was built by Delta Marine of Seattle. It is 53 meters in length, around 174 feet. While my boat's displacement is roughly 50 tons, MLR's is 955 tons. We use one 50-amp shore cord in marinas, but this yacht appears to be connected to three 100-amp cords.

MLR

 I have searched high and low on the internet and I cannot determine her owner, but I ran across one interesting tidbit. According to the yacht's designer, MLR stands for a "Momentary Lapse of Reason". This makes it the only boat I have heard of other than ours that is named after a Pink Floyd album. 

It is unlikely that we will be able to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas tomorrow. The wind just won't quit. The offshore forecast calls for seas of four to six feet, more than we wish to handle. My magical PredictWind app shows four-foot seas under all of its three models but shows the wave period, or time between waves, as only 4.5 seconds. So these are not gentle four-foot swells eight or 10 seconds apart but steep four-foot waves that would slam us up and down. Interestingly, my forecaster Chris Parker shows that a messy eastbound crossing might be available Friday or Sunday. We'll see, and will continue to watch and keep you posted.

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.