Bimini part 2, the reckoning,

Well we are back in Bimini. Our Bahamas tour has come to an end. We will stay here at the Bimini Bluewater Marina one more night. It is a very cheap place but nice enough. I wish the places in the keys were this reasonable. Tomorrow we will head back across the Gulf Stream, the current that flows up the west coast at about 2-3 knots. On the way over to Bimini from Florida we took advantage of the current but tomorrow we will be fighting it. We will head straight for Miami and probably anchor behind Key Biscayne tomorrow night.

After leaving Nassau we went the 35 miles to Chub Cay in the Berry Islands. There is not really a good anchorage there so we stayed at a very nice marina called Chub Cay Marina. We had a 60 foot floating dock slip that made our boat look small but it was quite easy getting in and out.

This morning we began our crossing of the Great Bahama Bank at 5am. We had to make the 85 miles to Bimini before sunset so we could make our way into the harbor. We made much better time than anticipated and motor sailed the whole way across the bank. The Great Bahama Bank is a large area, about 80 miles across, of really shallow water but with no land in sight. It was about 20 feet deep the whole way across but the water clarity allowed you to see the bottom the whole time. Upon entering the bank we were in 1200 feet of water that abruptly shallowed to 12 feet!