Crossing Over…

Floating…

We woke up to the tropical morning at our new anchorage, off of Key Biscayne outside Miami. The water was turquoise and the air was warm. The spot was a little bit exposed though, to the rolling swells of the sea, and it made Kathleen feel seasick. We soon got in the dingy and went to shore.

We motored into a small cove called No Name Harbor. There were many boats anchored there in the tight space. A sign read that you were supposed to pay $20 a night to anchor there, but upon later hearing some info that nobody was really paying that, we decided we would move the boat into that harbor for a spot more protected from the swells.

We spent 4 days in Key Biscayne. We were waiting for the best weather to make our journey offshore, to cross the Gulf Stream! This was the jumping off point at the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula. From here, we’d try to make it to the Bahamas, just on the other side of that vast underwater river. The Gulf takes careful navigation, one must be aware that the current is carrying you north while crossing it, and it’s 50 miles from Florida to Bimini Island in the Bahamas.

Unfortunately, Kathleen will have to return to the real world soon, where she works two jobs and is in school in Germany. Because we made good time down the coast she will be able to make it to the Bahamas with me though! If we can make the crossing.

As for me I’ll never be back in the “real world”, but I hope I can at least find a job when I eventually complete this trip.

We spent our week exploring the little island. It’s cool, because when I picked Kathleen up at the Miami airport, we spent the first day of her vacation running around the beach at Key Biscayne. (There’s a bridge that lets you drive to this place). We said at the time, we will try to sail back to this island. Here we are! Now we’re really getting to know the place.

 

The town was nice there, Spanish architecture and cobblestone streets. It was very posh, modern, expensive. There was a great farmers market, and lots of Cuban people. Where we lived was the perfect spot to wait for a few days, there was a marina with a restaurant which we ate at and used the wifi. It was out in the woods in the state park. Kathleen won’t tolerate using disposable plastic, so at this restaurant I asked for her, if we could have our meal with no disposable plastic cups or utensils. They gave us a free order of French fries because of that request!

The beach at Key Biscayne was haunted by a gang of raccoons. They were pretty fun to watch. They were very good at stealing food from tourists, and they would come right up to us unafraid. Kathleen and I took a lot of long walks, we ran errands like grocery shopping and filling our gas jugs with one of us on the bicycle and the other jogging alongside. Until we realized we could both ride on the bicycle! Then we travelled that way.

One day we rented a second bike and rode about 40 miles all through Miami and really explored.

The day came when we would leave. We had read the best way to make the crossing was to go in the night, leave around 1am and then you can usually get calmer winds and ensure that you arrive at Bimini in daylight.

We were a bit stressed out the afternoon before, trying to get everything done. I had to sew some stitching back on one of the sails that was coming out. Once our list was checked off we moved the boat, anchored back outside the harbor to go to bed early. Too excited to sleep…

The breeze was still strong though. It had been all week, and was predicted to die in the afternoon of our crossing day. Then the cold front storm would blow through the next day. The best crossing weather comes right before the storm! We woke up for the alarm at 1am to begin…

It was too windy out there, we both agreed. We decided to postpone the trip until 5am and try then, expecting it to calm down in the daytime.

It was a fitful sleep and we woke up before dawn at 5AM. The wind was still a bit rough. Let’s go for it!

We pulled up the anchor and started motoring into the dark, unsure what we would face. This was my first crossing on Simplicity, in fact the first time taking her into the open Atlantic. Still not totally sure what she could handle, but confident, we set our course for the Bahamas.

We had to first navigate the channel out of Biscayne Bay, around our little Key which we were sad to say goodbye to. Some of the channel marker posts are not lit and Kathleen held the flashlight for me so I wouldn’t hit one of those. Then we met the incoming tide, (although didn’t realize this at the time).

The waves steadily grew bigger and bigger as we made way out and to the dark ocean. Pretty soon we were crashing through them, spray from the waves flying up both sides of Simplicity. Can she handle this? Are these waves too big?

From here we could see all the buildings of Miami glowing in the distance. There was another boat we saw leaving before us, which gave us hope. We contacted them on the radio and asked about conditions and advice. They said it got calmer out there at sea, the waves just come at the entrance to the channel.

We knew they were on a larger boat than us though, and we were still unsure. All the way to sunrise we were contemplating turning around. We thought we probably would have to, and it was scary out there in the dark.

The sun gave us more strength when it finally came. We put the sails up and tried to sail, but couldn’t make enough headway into the waves to get any speed. So we left the engine on with the sails.

After sunrise, the buildings of the city were getting farther away. We decided, we’re not turning around. Kathleen for a moment was totally sure we’d have to, and I would agree with her if she didn’t want to go out to sea in this little boat. But both of us have this problem where we can’t give up no matter what… So we never did turn around.

Daylight was on us now and as we slowly made our way across the Gulf Stream, the waves became less and less. The wind was steady but not too strong. It was coming from a bad angle to sail with though, we were motoring directly into it, and I was trying to keep south of Bimini in case this mystical current came out of nowhere and carried us north. It never really affected us much.

We slowly calmed down and the sea did the same. Eventually Miami and the urban sprawl all the way to Fort Lauderdale was fading into the horizon. We came upon a tanker ship and had to adjust course to avoid it. Time passed and we watched our progress on the gps. We were making it out! Goodbye Florida!

Halfway and the water became an incredible shade of deep Atlantic blue. There were flying fish, the sea was finally clean. There were other boats out here too, maybe not so scary if something was to go wrong. After 20 miles with the motor, the wind had shifted south east and we were still heading east, for a point to the south of Bimini. We had made it far enough now, and we killed the motor. We adjusted course to sail the remaining 30 miles directly to Bimini, and when I made that little change to head north east, we started sailing perfectly and going much faster.

The day got better and better! Now without the engine things were quiet. The wave action was no problem. The wind was blowing us along, to find that tiny speck of an island out here in the middle of nowhere. We became happier as the day went on too, so thrilled, we were making it to paradise!

Finally, we could see the island. Amazing, such a small point of land and we could get to it no problem. Bimini was calling us.

It drew closer and closer. Finally we were there. We could see the vibrant turquoise of the shallow waters. Then we entered into them. Wow. It was truly mind blowing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen water so beautiful as this, at least never been affected this strongly by it. At 40 feet we could see the ocean floor, and the color surrounded us. The water was like paint, it was neon, it was unreal. Few things in life are as beautiful as this water.

What an adventure! As we entered the channel to cut between North Bimini and South Bimini the waves grew big and glassy. The channel would take us between the two islands to a protected shallow area inside. We shortcut over a reef accidentally! We could see it all around the boat, but no problem, back in the channel. As we entered the big harbor the waves died completely, and now we were motoring through the island interior.

We saw the town. It was a lot more run down looking than we expected. There was industry too, which made us feel bad. Looking the other way was a vast shallow swamplands, with all kinds of birds and small mangrove islands.

We motored past the town to a spot to anchor in crystal clear water, at a marina where we could go and check in with customs. However, it was not where we wanted to spend the night, we’d have to drive a bit further and re-anchor.

We were ashore! We had made it, but we should have just put off customs until the morning, we were exhausted! When we got in there was a line, I had a pile of paperwork to fill out, and the sun was getting low now. We had arrived at 3PM, and after a couple hours ashore, we decided we’d have to finish the check in in the morning. We needed to get our spot to anchor before dark.

All of that got us a bit stressed out which was unnecessary. We needed instead to celebrate… by eating dinner. The boat was trashed. We motored all the way to the north end of the island and anchored in a protected, man made lagoon someone had told us about. This would be the best spot to weather the storm coming in.

It also was in front of the Hilton resort and casino, and we would later find we could crash that place and use the facilities for free, including the hot tub!

In the morning we went to explore. We were confronted with the beach, the island is just a thin strip of land between the interior shallows and exposed ocean. We saw limestone rocks that ended in the open ocean. The water was electric turquoise, clear as air and we were completely awestruck.

Upon checking in at customs they scolded me for not doing it the night before, because I honestly told them we arrived yesterday. My mistake! Next time I’ll say we just got here. I was sat in the office and harassed and intimidated by the man in charge. He told me I’d have to pay a $10,000 fine and after me shrugging my shoulders to that and apologizing a few times he waved the fine. Cool we were allowed in, this still costs $150 though! That is for a “cruising permit” and fishing permit.

We spent the rest of the day riding around the island, both of us cozy and going slow on the same bicycle. We met a man, a bush medic named Dr. Barry John Roberts. He was very cool, tie dye shirt with lots of bling, and we sat with him on a sea cliff before the sparkling water as he told us stories about the fountain of youth.

It’s the same legendary foundation that Ponce de Leon was searching for when he came to Florida in the 1500s. That guy never did come to the land of Bimini though… and you can google it, the location of this mystical fountain is actually on South Bimini Island. Its renown for the mineral water which springs up in a few places around here, said to have healing properties. “It cures 3 types of cancer!” Barry told us. “Drink it and you can feel it coursing through your veins.”

Now the location that google will tell you is the tourist fountain, there’s a well with a sign on it in the jungle. But Barry told us the real location is actually a sinkhole in the mangroves on his property on South Bimini. He gave us very specific directions to find it. These are the fabled directions that Ponce de Leon never had, and perhaps very few people had ever visited this true location of the Fountain of Youth. We must go!

We spent the rest of the day biking around the north island. The north island is where the main town is located, and it’s a very cool Caribbean style place called Alice Town. The town is ragged, run down and free, and it definitely felt like we were not in Florida anymore.

But we went farther north, all the way to where the road ends and beyond. We made it to the jungle, we hiked the expansive beach. No one was out there. Sadly the beach is covered in plastic trash, washing in from Florida and the polluted seas.

That night at the Hilton casino we stood drooling in front of a display of beautiful cheesecakes, but a piece was 11 dollars and we could not afford this! A couple of rich people overheard us and bought us two pieces of cake! They said they like our spirit and we told them our story. The next day we went back to that cake bar…. And someone else immediately made us the same offer and we got more free cake!!

Haha, so the rest of the week went great. Kathleen unfortunately had to leave from Bimini, although she didn’t want to. She wanted to see more of the Bahamas, but at least we got a good time in this magical place. We went out in the sailboat most days, we snorkeled off an old shipwreck that we anchored next to. We sailed the entire coast, finding a gorgeous anchorage, “Honeymoon Harbor.” We stayed there for the last few days of her trip. The water was like glass and we did a lot of swimming.

This harbor is on South Bimini, which is where the airport is as well. (The harbor is technically called Nixon’s Harbor). South Bimini island was like a ghost town, a wealthy looking neighborhood that seemed abandoned… The marina had been destroyed in the hurricane and we tied our dingy to those run down docks. There was another resort on that island though where we found hot showers for free. There was a tiny village with a general store, but mostly South Bimini was wilderness.

Our last day together we had a good one. We hiked out to a point of land with a beautiful beach where we found a lot of great sea shells. We snorkeled around. Then we took a long walk across the island with Kathleen’s backpack. We had a beer at a bar and said some goodbyes. Then we were at the airport.

We still had an hour to wait, and actually this was the area where Barry’s fountain of youth was. We decided to look for it. It didn’t take long to get there, and hidden in the mangroves, we found the limestone pool.

We swam in it, but the water was quite creepy with jellyfish like I’ve never seen. I drank some of the brackish water, and realized I had drank millions of baby jellyfish! But as we lay in the grass, waiting for her flight, the mosquitoes no longer bothered us. We actually saw the wrinkles on each other’s faces disappear, I kid you not! My skin had been peeling and flaking from sun and was suddenly smooth. And as we walked back to airport we felt a strange hallucination-like effect. We felt on drugs! So it must have worked.

But the moment was intense as well. Because we were saying a very sad goodbye, and we weren’t ready to. I walked her into the airport, right to the security gate. Then we had to part ways. It was very sad, we said we see each other soon. There were some tears and we walked away from each other. It had been a very awesome and extreme journey to get here, and the whole time we weren’t sure if we even would get here.

So I walked down the empty road through the untamed bush of the South Island. I was alone now. The sun was shining warm, peaceful and quiet. I felt happy, though I knew I would miss Kathleen. I also knew I had my work cut out for me.

It was almost time for me to pull anchor and move on to the next step of this trip. Through the Bahamas. I have to get to Nassau, and it’s a long, long way. I would enjoy the rest of my time on Bimini. It’s rare that I’ve ever been to a place as fascinating and magical as this. Now I’m on my own, on a tiny speck in the middle of the ocean.