Re: Bahamas travel partners
This might be a little long and could be a little boreing to but here goes. About 5 years ago we planned a trip to Bimini in early September. Two boats, a 23 foot Century and a 19 ft Wellcraft. We arived in Ft Lauderdale the night before and got a motel. When we woke up that morning it was pouring down rain. We turned on the TV to find out a tropical depression had formed over the northern Bahamas. We called the Sea Crest Hotel and they let us cancel the first couple of days untill we could see what the weather was going to do. We headded south to the Keys and got in a couple of days of fishing untill the depression moved out of the Bahamas. Then we headded back to Ft Lauderdale.
We checked the weather and decided to give it a try. We launched the boats and my son and his room mate took the trucks over to a friends house where we had made arrangements to park the trailers. While there they went on the internet and checked the marine forcast. I tuned my boat radio to the NOAA channel and got the forecast myself. They were calling for 2 ft seas, but at the end of the forecast I could have swore I heard "Possible 7 to 9 ft swells in the Gulfstream". When my son and his room mate got back I relayed this information to them and they said no, that they had checked the forcast and saw nothing like that, only seas 2 ft or less. They suggested we head on out about 20 miles and if it looked too rough we could turn back.
Twenty miles off Ft Lauderdale the seas were like glass. We talked on the radio and decided the crossing was a go. The deeper we got into the gulfstream the rougher it got until about 5 miles out of Bimini the seas were a good 6 to 8 ft. When we came across the Bahama shelf (where the depth drops off from about 60ft to about 3000ft) those 6 foot seas became quite choppy. That last couple of miles into Bimini was pure hell, I took a couple of waves over my bow and don't mind saying was pretty scared. The Century handled it much better, of course it is much more boat than mine.
We checked in at Customs and Immigrations and that is when the fun really began. After filling out a ton of paperwork we went to pay our fees $150 per boat. My son handed the customs man his Visa card and the customs man said he couldn't take it. Seems all the rain from the tropical depression that had passed though had taken out all the phone lines on the Island and without comunications you can not swipe a credit card. We had a meeting of the captains and crew to pool our money and I had about $400 and the other 4 guys a combined $80. Considering our cruising fees were $300 for the two boats it didn't leave us much cash. Our next holdup was with my paperwork. I had screwed up and put the registration to my old boat in the file instead of the registration for my Wellcraft. Mr Customs Man was not pleased that I was in a 19 ft Wellcraft and the registration read 20' Proline. I offered to have the proper registration faxed over and he reminded me the phone lines were out. He was nice and let me through anyway then he discovered my birth cirtificate did not have a seal on it. It was an original but in 1951 not all hospitals sealed birth cirtificates. He insisted it was a fake or a copy but I convinced him otherwise.
We checked in at the Sea Crest Hotel only to realize we could not call home to let the wives know we made it OK. We did have TV in the motel and turned to the weather channel to find out the tropical depression that had moved through a couple of days earlier had quickly turned into a Tropical Storm and would become a Hurricane overnight. To make a long story short it circled in the Atlantic for the next few days about 200 miles East of Daytona Beach. For 4 days we sat and watched white caps on the ocean unable to get the boats out of port. Well we did get the Century out a couple of times but got tossed around so bad you could hardly fish.
Finally Friday night Hurricane Ophelia started to move off to the north but there were reports that it could circle back. My son and his room mate had to be back to work the next day and they said they were going to go ahead and cross. I tried to talk them out of it but they wouldn't hear of it. I told them I wasn't going to let them go it alone and against my better judgement I loaded up too. BTW the scariest thing is I had 2 sons on this trip. My oldest, his room mate and his room mates father in my sons boat and me and my #2 son in my boat. I think I was more scared of losing 2 sons and having to face moma than I was for my own life. Anyway we came back in 10 ft swells, luckly they were swells produced by Hurricane Ophelia 3 or 4 hundred miles away and not a real choppy 10 ft sea. Anyway I could not go over 5 to 10 mph and it took us 10 hours to cross back.
Oh I forgot to mention, the local Bimini fishermen at the boat dock were all laughing at me before we left. Some guy in a deep Bahama accent said to me "You're going to cross that ocean, in that boat, and those seas? We'll read about you in the papers." Then they all laughed. Kinda lets you know you are fixin to do something foolish.
This might be a little long and could be a little boreing to but here goes. About 5 years ago we planned a trip to Bimini in early September. Two boats, a 23 foot Century and a 19 ft Wellcraft. We arived in Ft Lauderdale the night before and got a motel. When we woke up that morning it was pouring down rain. We turned on the TV to find out a tropical depression had formed over the northern Bahamas. We called the Sea Crest Hotel and they let us cancel the first couple of days untill we could see what the weather was going to do. We headded south to the Keys and got in a couple of days of fishing untill the depression moved out of the Bahamas. Then we headded back to Ft Lauderdale.
We checked the weather and decided to give it a try. We launched the boats and my son and his room mate took the trucks over to a friends house where we had made arrangements to park the trailers. While there they went on the internet and checked the marine forcast. I tuned my boat radio to the NOAA channel and got the forecast myself. They were calling for 2 ft seas, but at the end of the forecast I could have swore I heard "Possible 7 to 9 ft swells in the Gulfstream". When my son and his room mate got back I relayed this information to them and they said no, that they had checked the forcast and saw nothing like that, only seas 2 ft or less. They suggested we head on out about 20 miles and if it looked too rough we could turn back.
Twenty miles off Ft Lauderdale the seas were like glass. We talked on the radio and decided the crossing was a go. The deeper we got into the gulfstream the rougher it got until about 5 miles out of Bimini the seas were a good 6 to 8 ft. When we came across the Bahama shelf (where the depth drops off from about 60ft to about 3000ft) those 6 foot seas became quite choppy. That last couple of miles into Bimini was pure hell, I took a couple of waves over my bow and don't mind saying was pretty scared. The Century handled it much better, of course it is much more boat than mine.
We checked in at Customs and Immigrations and that is when the fun really began. After filling out a ton of paperwork we went to pay our fees $150 per boat. My son handed the customs man his Visa card and the customs man said he couldn't take it. Seems all the rain from the tropical depression that had passed though had taken out all the phone lines on the Island and without comunications you can not swipe a credit card. We had a meeting of the captains and crew to pool our money and I had about $400 and the other 4 guys a combined $80. Considering our cruising fees were $300 for the two boats it didn't leave us much cash. Our next holdup was with my paperwork. I had screwed up and put the registration to my old boat in the file instead of the registration for my Wellcraft. Mr Customs Man was not pleased that I was in a 19 ft Wellcraft and the registration read 20' Proline. I offered to have the proper registration faxed over and he reminded me the phone lines were out. He was nice and let me through anyway then he discovered my birth cirtificate did not have a seal on it. It was an original but in 1951 not all hospitals sealed birth cirtificates. He insisted it was a fake or a copy but I convinced him otherwise.
We checked in at the Sea Crest Hotel only to realize we could not call home to let the wives know we made it OK. We did have TV in the motel and turned to the weather channel to find out the tropical depression that had moved through a couple of days earlier had quickly turned into a Tropical Storm and would become a Hurricane overnight. To make a long story short it circled in the Atlantic for the next few days about 200 miles East of Daytona Beach. For 4 days we sat and watched white caps on the ocean unable to get the boats out of port. Well we did get the Century out a couple of times but got tossed around so bad you could hardly fish.
Finally Friday night Hurricane Ophelia started to move off to the north but there were reports that it could circle back. My son and his room mate had to be back to work the next day and they said they were going to go ahead and cross. I tried to talk them out of it but they wouldn't hear of it. I told them I wasn't going to let them go it alone and against my better judgement I loaded up too. BTW the scariest thing is I had 2 sons on this trip. My oldest, his room mate and his room mates father in my sons boat and me and my #2 son in my boat. I think I was more scared of losing 2 sons and having to face moma than I was for my own life. Anyway we came back in 10 ft swells, luckly they were swells produced by Hurricane Ophelia 3 or 4 hundred miles away and not a real choppy 10 ft sea. Anyway I could not go over 5 to 10 mph and it took us 10 hours to cross back.
Oh I forgot to mention, the local Bimini fishermen at the boat dock were all laughing at me before we left. Some guy in a deep Bahama accent said to me "You're going to cross that ocean, in that boat, and those seas? We'll read about you in the papers." Then they all laughed. Kinda lets you know you are fixin to do something foolish.
