Finally we’ve cast off the dock lines and the voyages of discovery have started in earnest. It’s easy to see why some people spend years preparing to go cruising and just never leave. Preparations take forever and it doesn’t ever seem like you’re ever 100% ready to go. We’re probably 95% prepared, the boat is well stocked, all systems are running although our Raymarine electronics package (navigation equipment, plotter, radar, wind instruments, man over board etc) continues to have bugs despite hours spent by a tech looking over it. Our last boat had all Simrad equipment and we would change back in a heartbeat! Very underwhelmed by the Raymarine systems! The crossing from Florida to the Bahamas can be quite challenging. The gulfstream is a relatively strong current that travels Northwards at a rate of around 3 knots and can create some wicked sea state in an opposing wind so it’s important to avoid any Northerly winds. The Northerly flow also means you have to start further South and steer for a point well South of your final destination, otherwise there is a lot of back tracking against the current later on. We sailed down to Miami and overnighted near “No Name Harbour” which is a popular jump-off point for Bahamas bound yachts. We set off at 5am to time our arrival in Bimini around midday and make sure we’d have good visibility of the shifting sandbars around the harbour entrance. The starry skies gave way to the dawn at around 7:30am and we raised the sails but too little avail as there was barely a whisper of wind.
This was to be theme of the whole crossing and although it wasn’t our preference to have the motors running for the trip the flat calm seas made up for it. Apart from and a distant pod of dolphins and the many flying fish and Portuguese man-o-war jellyfish there was little to do but read a book and scan the horizon keeping an eye on the track of the big trade ships to whom we’re but a barnacle. It was all super relaxing until right in the middle of nowhere another yacht’s track crossed our own. Unbelievably he chose to cross 20m behind us, we yelled at him to give us some room as we had trolling lines out the back and proceeded to furiously wind our lines in. Cut lines averted we hailed him on the radio and a crazy French man came on the channel trying to tell us he had right of way despite him being the overtaking yacht and coming from our Port quarter which gives us double right of way! Guess the French sailing etiquette is much the same as their driving 😉 Eventually the deep blue gave way to the most intense aqua blue hues we’ve ever seen.
Negotiating the narrow fast flowing channel into North Bimini harbour was pretty straightforward. It would have been a much more daunting task if we had known how regularly yachts run aground there. Within hours exactly that happened and a beautiful sailing boat was stuck for a couple of hours awaiting the high tide. As I type this I can hear over the radio the call of another vessel touching bottom! After completing customs and immigration clearance we immediately sought out the local shark diving guys, who by handy coincidence were the owners of the dock we were tied up in. The water’s warming up now & this is the very end of the Great Hammerhead season so we booked in a dive guide who agreed to let us use our boat rather than a smaller vessel. That done we left the harbour to find an anchorage and start exploring the insanely clear waters around Bimini.
Two days later was sharking day and after loading dive gear and suitably stinky chum onboard we headed out to try and find ourselves some Great Hammerheads. Onsite we immediately had the attention of a bunch of Nurse Sharks whose numbers swelled to around 30 once the scent was out. Nurses are a very safe shark to swim with owing to the lack of big teeth so the girls were immediately in the water and enjoying some shark time.
It took about 2 hours but suddenly there they were, the unmistakable outlines of hammerheads approaching!
After a few minutes free diving with them we scrambled back to the boat to get our scuba gear on and spend some time on the bottom. 
An hour later with our air and chum used up we reluctantly headed back to the surface with permanent grins that wouldn’t leave for hours afterwards. Diving with these animals is such a privilege, it’s so sad that their numbers are so severely depleted due to finning (Hammerheads are particularly targeted for their big fins) and we may well be the last generation to get to see them so readily. We will spend at least another week exploring the islands around Bimini before welcoming our first visitors onboard.
