5th Trip Report -- Tuesday May 6,2008

At Dock – Bimini Sands Marina, South Bimini, Bahamas

Today was an interesting day.  We started off by getting up early and hiking down to the water taxi stand carrying our dive gear.  We passed one of the local stores – combination hardware and liquor store.

The water taxi is quick and efficient.  They get $2/person for a five-minute crossing.  The big surprise was when the water taxi docked.

Is it just me, or does the side of the boat say Scuba Bimini?  Apparently the “broken boat” makes more money as a water taxi than it does acting as a dive boat.  In any case, it got us across the water to N Bimini and Alice town.

We actually got to Alice town about an hour before we could sign in at the dive shop.  So we wandered down the main street.  It is very common for boaters from the US visiting the Bahamas to bring enough beer to last for their entire trip.  You may wonder why anyone would carry multiple cases of beer to the Bahamas.  Maybe this discount liquor store sign provides some clues.

Kalik is the local Bahamian beer and Gold is the top grade of the three grades in which it is brewed.  We got a great breakfast from a little hole in the wall we discovered last year.  It doesn’t look like much but they produce an awesome breakfast.

After breakfast, it was off to the dive shop and the necessary signing of wavers that exempt the operation from any possible problem you could have – even if they caused it!  We actually feel somewhat fortunate to be able to go diving at all here in Bimini.  Only one dive operation is going out, and because it’s the slow season, they would only go out if we had four divers.  Fortunately a couple of guys from a powerboat cruising the Bahamas also wanted to dive.  We only get to dive today because tomorrow the dive boat is being used for a more profitable “Wild Dolphin” encounter.
After signing in, we took our stuff to the dock and Sandy went out on the dock watching the spotted eagle rays that feed in this shallow harbor.

The diving turned out to be very nice – not exceptional, but very nice nonetheless.  The water was 78 degrees, the visibility was about 80’ and there was a good selection of the various fish varieties to observe.  The one thing we observed that is not native to the Atlantic, but is now present as an invasive species, is the Lionfish.  We found four on our second dive.

The Lionfish is native to the South Pacific.  It has no natural predators in the Atlantic, it is a very competitive predator and its sting is toxic to divers.  The theory is that some of these fish were released from aquariums.  They are now quite common in the Bahamas.  Unfortunately, between the first and second dives, Sandy’s dive computer failed.  This is the third failure we have had between us on this model UWTEC dive computer.  Fortunately, I am carrying a spare computer and pressure gauge that we purchased last year when my unit was sent back to the shop for the same problem.  So far, ScubaPro has been replacing these units at no dollar cost to us.  It has been inconvenient, but Brent at Dean’s dive center has been great about loaning us his unit or another one to use when ours was at the factory.

Because we have no more diving opportunities here, we plan to leave on the high tide tomorrow (around 9-10am) and start the two-day crossing of the Bahamas bank.  This wide, shallow area is sort of an ocean desert.  We will travel until we feel like stopping, throw out the anchor and sleep on the bank for the night.  The next day, depending on our fuel and water status, we may stop for fuel and/or water at Chub Cay in the Berry Islands, then move on to Frazer’s Hog Cay for the night and perhaps some exploration.  We may find our friends on Zydeco there.  The next stop will be Nassau and we may do some diving there.  That will probably be the next time we get Internet access.

We have heard from our friend Skip who will be flying into Nassau on May 19th.  He will then find a way to catch up with us wherever we are and spend a couple of weeks on board.  Skip is currently updating his Scuba skills and certification and is looking forward to some diving in warm, clear water.
Gerald and Sandra Canning
S/V Rum Daze
 
 
Sixth Trip Report -- Wednesday May 7,2008

Departed: South Bimini - Bahamas
Miles Traveled: 63.6 nm
Arrived: Bahamas Bank
At Anchor: 6:30 pm
Today was travel day.  In a sense, it was like crossing a broad desert – there is nothing out here and no land within sight.  The water ranges from 10-20 feet deep over a sand or grass bottom.  There is occasional boat traffic as there are some charted routes across the bank.  But mostly the view looked like this.

As I said, there are charted routes across this bank.  Before the days of GPS, the Bahamian government put up infrequent markers to serve as road signs at the intersection of several of these paths.  Today, they are useful to remind you that you are on course and they serve as resting places for birds.

We started out the day motoring in dead calm conditions.  As the day progressed, the winds picked up to the 10 knot range – unfortunately, the winds were directly from the east and since we were going east, they were right on the nose.  We had no opportunity to put the sails out at all.

We had a visitor.  This little fellow showed up when we were 20 miles from the nearest land.  He rested up for about 5 minutes, then took off – for where I have no idea as the closest land was a long ways away.

We are currently at anchor on the Bank in 10 feet of water approximately 25 miles from Chub Cay.  We will go there tomorrow for water and fuel before pushing on to Frazer’s Hog Cay.

Thursday May 8,2008

Departed: Bahamas Bank
Miles Traveled: 28.6 nm
Arrived: Frazer’s Hog Cay
At Mooring: 12:00 pm
Weather conditions deteriorated overnight.  We woke up to 15-18 knot winds on the nose and 2-3’ waves.

One of the things we discovered on the bank last year (or at least Skip discovered it since he was sleeping in the V berth) is that when the bow comes up on a wave, the water drains out of the bow thruster tube.  When the bow drops on the other side, the water rushes back in and makes a drumming sound.  It was not the most restful sleep we have had on this trip.  In any case, we got underway early.  The goal was to pick up fuel and then proceed to Frazer’s Hog Cay.

After about ten miles of travel, we left the Bahamas Bank and entered an area known as “the Tongue of the Ocean.”  This is an area of very deep water that runs N/S through the Bahamas.  Where we came off the bank, the deep water is dark blue and at the far end between Andros Island and the Exumas it has the shape of a tongue.  On our route, the water dropped from 20’ to over 3,000 feet in less than a mile.  Here we started hitting 3-5’ waves.  We had no choice but to just beat our way through the waves until finally we got to Chub Cay.

Chub Cay is a popular marina with the sports fishing group.  The deep waters they need for game fish start less than a mile from the entrance to the marina.  For those types of boats, this is often the first stop they make when crossing from Miami and there is a Customs and Immigration office on site.  The marina is on the main path between South Florida and Nassau so they see a lot of traffic.  Unfortunately for us, that meant that when I called for fuel, they were out.  I still have 10 gallons in jerry cans on deck, but I would have liked to fill up rather than run on the bottom half of the tank.
We worked our way around to Frazer’s Hog Cay.  We had good news and bad news.  The good news is that we could pick up a mooring in a nice location and our friends on Zydeco were already here on a mooring.  The bad news is that the Berry Island Club is currently closed.  Apparently they are missing a part for their water pump and have closed down the whole place until they get a replacement.
 
Right now the crossing to Nassau looks nasty.  We may spend a couple of days here looking for better weather.

That evening we went ashore to the Barry Island Club to pay for our mooring ball.  We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the water pump had been repaired and dinner would be served at 7pm.

We got ready and were treated to an excellent dinner of cracked conch at a very reasonable price.  Now if only the fuel barge would get here tomorrow and refill their diesel tanks we would be in excellent shape.

We have been watching the information we could get on the weather.  Zydeco has a system based on the Sirrus system.  Our system is based on the XM system.  So far, I much prefer the Sirrus system.  We don’t get a written synopsis, which is a feature of the other system.

Friday May 9,2008
Departed: Bahamas Bank
Miles Traveled: 37.5 nm
Arrived: Nassau, Bahamas
At Dock: 2:30 pm
We woke up to much better conditions than were forecast and decided to take off.  I guess everyone else was reading the same conditions because about 5 boats followed us out of the anchorage and headed south.  We had 1-2’ seas and the apparent wind was between 30-35° -- the ragged edge of being able to motor sail.  We actually did throw out the jib and motor sailed about half of the distance to Nassau.

The Atlantis Resort and the cruise ships dominate the Nassau area.  You can see Atlantis long before you can see Nassau.
Nassau Harbor is probably one of our least favorite places.  It is not really a harbor, but rather a channel between Nassau and Paradise Island (Hogg Island before the marketing people at the Atlantis got into the act).  That means that there are strong tidal currents that are crossways to most docking maneuvers and all the traffic up and down the channel creates wake that rocks the marina.  We had a particularly blind slip this time, which had a very tight entry.  Fortunately, we were close to slack tide when we got in which took most of the current out of the equation.  We were able to get diesel (32.5 gallons for $169).

We went ashore and purchased two additional 5 gallon diesel tanks, re-provisioned and set up some diving for Saturday and Sunday.  Monday is a national Holiday - Whit Monday.  Zydeco will leave us Saturday and head down into the Exumas.  We plan to follow on Monday.
Gerald and Sandra Canning
S/V Rum Daze
 
 
Seventh Trip Report -- Saturday May 10,2008

Today we dove with Bahama Divers.  We signed up for two days of two tank morning dives.  They are convenient – located in the marina – however they are far from the best dive operation we have ever used.  More about that later.

The dive boat looks pretty big, but they also take out a lot of people.  We quickly figured out that this operation has tied up the cruise ship trade.  Unfortunately, many of the divers on cruise ships are either new or have very few dives under their belt, so the operation was geared to the lowest common denominator.  We had a dive briefing more complete than anything I have experienced since becoming certified.

The first dive was a “group dive” into a Blue Hole.  For those of you who don’t know what a Blue Hole is, it is a sink hole or collapsed limestone cavern with a bottom deeper than recreational divers are allowed to reach.

The dive was planned for 20 minutes at 80.’  It took about 20 minutes to get everyone in the water then off we went.  Sandy and I were in the back in the clouds of sand that were being kicked up.  Once over the edge of the hole, the group spread out at various levels.  There actually wasn’t that much to see, other than the now common lionfish that seem to be everywhere.  It is more the experience of sailing out from a depth of 30’ into a depth in which you cannot see the bottom.  It can be a very interesting feeling.  When we got back on board, a couple of problems developed.  Divers had changed positions so that we couldn’t get to our seats – and there was no role call to see if everyone was back – a very scary operating protocol.  The boat ladder did not have a rail that extended above the water line that made it very difficult to get on board.  In addition, the way the boat was set up, about half the tanks could only be reached by crawling over the engine covers.  The boat had about the worst design I have ever seen for diving.
The second dive was a delightful surprise.  It was a shallow reef called Barracuda Shoals.  The reef was in pristine condition and it felt like diving in an aquarium.  Unfortunately, we were limited to 40 minutes of dive time even though we had enough air to easily do twice that at the 25’ average depth of the dive.

This is Sandy surrounded by Sgt. Major fish looking for a handout.

The picture on the left is an Azure Vase Sponge.  The picture on the right is a Flamingo Tongue, a type of snail.  The pretty colors on the shell are the mantle of the snail, essentially part of the snail’s foot.  When retracted the shell itself is plain.

Our friends on Zydeco left this morning for the Exumas.  We will catch up with them again down there.

We spent the afternoon cleaning dive gear, cleaning the boat and getting the new diesel tanks filled.  When I pay $52 to fill two five-gallon cans, I am glad I own a sailboat.  There was a medium sized sports fisherman at the dock when I went over.  His bill to fill up the boat was $6,376.  We complain about the price of fuel – but it is worse in the rest of the world and that population has even less resource to pay for it.

We are going to dinner tonight at a local Bahamian restaurant, a little mom and pop place we found yesterday.  We had a fabulous dinner there last night with Mike and Linda from Zydeco, so we thought we’d go back for a repeat.  Why mess with success!
Sunday May 11,2008

Today we again dove with Bahama Divers.  There were less divers going out but they also had a load of snorkelers – which meant shallow dives.  We switched to a smaller dive boat than we used the prior day.  It had some unique rules for getting into and out of the water as the “boat was not really designed for diving” in the words of the dive master.  Bahama Divers apparently has the contract for diving with the cruise ships and resorts in the Bahamas.  Many of the people on the boats were wearing wristbands for their respective accommodations.  Bahama Divers has a mini-van that they use to pick up and return the divers.  The bottom line is that they are a cattle car operation – but they are also pretty much the only game in town if you don’t have a car.


Today’s first dive was on the wreck of the Miranda.  This boat has been down 30 or 40 years and has been through some hurricanes.  It is pretty much a collection of steel plates with no recognizable boat left.  We again ran into a number of Lion Fish and small quantities of various, usual reef fish.

These are Christmas Tree Worms. They are capable of retracting into their tubes instantly at the approach of any trouble.

One unique thing Sandy found was a lettuce leaf sea slug.  These are hard to find because they are so small.

This one is on Sandy’s glove and is about 1” long.

Our second dive was just off the lighthouse that marks the entrance to Nassau Harbor.  There is another old wreck there as well as a harbor breakwater that dove on the outside of.  The wreck was much the same as the Miranda.  The breakwater had some interesting growth with some corals and sponges.  Again we saw lionfish.

We spent the rest of the day getting things in order to depart tomorrow.  It looks like a storm front will be passing through in the next 24 hours and we will have to decide weather to leave in front of it, or spend a couple of more days in Nassua waiting for the winds and seas to die down after it blows through.  If we leave, we are aiming for Allen’s Cay and we won’t be back in e-mail range for at least 3 or 4 days.

Jerry and Sandy
S/V Rum Daze
 

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