Trailer Tri Adventures

Saturday February 25:  It’s 8:30 and we’ve left our lovely anchorage at Nixon’s Harbour bound for Florida. We’ll see if it works this time!

We spent the latter part of yesterday afternoon (Happy Birthday brother Ed!) watching turtles feeding and pelicans diving. We were anchored in about 6′ of water in sand and the turtles were feeding in the nearby grass beds.

Jim messed around with the dinghy. He went to check out the Bimini Beach Club marina but it seemed deserted and unused.

I jumped in with my snorkel gear to check the anchor and film whatever I could underwater. Those videos will be published later when I can edit them. I only saw little fish but some brave ones would come look at me while others would scamper away to hide in the weeds.

Paul played around on the paddleboard. It’s a bit tricky but he stood up for a while. He liked it and said it’s good exercise!

We waved at the Shark Research teams as they came back from collecting data then enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

We finished up the day with refried bean tacos and Paul kicked Jim’s butt in Sequence – which he’s never played before!

Note: the anchorage was protected from the west wind but was a but rolly when the wind swung to East in the night.

Here are pictures from yesterday when we explored the anchorage. There’s a creek off of the anchorage which is apparently a pretty good hurricane hole in the mangroves. The Yacht is the Party Girl. She is 45m charter Yacht. You can Rent her for a mere $170,000 weekly plus expenses!

A wreck by the entrance to the creek

Shark Research Lab pens.

Shark Nursery:  the mangroves are where the baby lemon sharks grow up.

The crew enjoying the sunset on the Lido Deck.

Sailed back to South Bimini around the south point and dropped anchor in Nixon’s Harbour just out from the biminisharklab.com.

Along the way in Jim spotted a big lemon shark,  two dolphins (our first this trip!), a couple of sea turtles, a bunch of pelicans and some sort of big jumping fish. 

Here you see a couple of runabouts from the shark lab heading out to check their instruments as well as a mega yacht anchored some distance away and a sailboat that has anchored behind us.

So this afternoon we played.

Dang. Couldn’t make enough headway to Florida. Turned back to South Bimini.

Wow! Jim just spotted a big lemon shark just off our beam! We all saw it. It  about 6′ long and just below the surface. Wild!

We left Bimini an hour ago.  Kind of lumpy but we are sailing. Heading for Port Everglades or Hillsborough inlet not sure which.  Tracker is on. If we decide we don’t like the lumps, we’ll head for an anchorage. It’s beautiful sunny day.

Winds and waves too much today. So staying another day. We’ll let you know when we decide to leave.

Visited the Shark Research Lab earlier. There were two young UK scientists who gave us a lecture about the research at the Shark Lab.  There were 3 Little lemon sharks in the pen behind us. Also got to pet a baby female nurse shark that they were studying as well. They also had a southern ray in there. They only keep the young ones there for a few days at most. The baby lemons are pupped in the mangrove shallows and live there until they are old enough to leave for deeper water.

Young female Nurse shark above that we got to pet.

Baby Lemon Shark about 2 years old.

Sunset at Bimini Sands Marina

Staying at Bimini Sands Marina in South Bimini today and tonight while a system blows through. All is well.  Can only get internet near office so if we are slow to reply,  that’s why.

Here we have access to two pools but because the management team quit not long ago,  some things are closed. We are well-provisioned though. We are in this little condo marina with a few big catamaransa couple of powerboats  and some serious cruising monos.  Eg a Hunter 45.

Unfortunately there are lots of midges where there is no wind. But it’s honking today so there is a good breeze on our dock.  Boys need to get something over at Alice Town so we’ll take the little ferry after lunch.

Beliw,  our mast is the short one!

Above Paul out scouting the sea state.  Pretty rolly and that’s the sheltered side! Below, a parrot fish by the dock.

Above is the view of the docks from the verandah at the Big Game Club restaurant.

One long day to North Bimini from Chub Cay yesterday. Our longest passage with this boat… 88 nautical miles.

Left at 6:15. 15-20 knots of NE wind out on the Bahamas Bank, waves not too bad but often a bit confused. Screecher went up for a while and we hit 14 knots but it came down late morning once winds built and course came more to a beat so we needed to put the jib up.

Saw an osprey snag a fish off Chub, saw some flying fish, and Carleen saw a big 5′ loggerhead turtle!

Weather was nice with partial cloud. Winds got lighter as the day wore on.  We sailed about 80 nautical miles on a starboard tack until we gybed around North Rock light at the top if North Bimini.

Funny, when we gybed a small bird of prey landed on our mainsail cover twice! It looked a bit scruffy. Weird.

Arrived at Weech’s Dock marina at 6:00 pm. Showered up and headed for well-deserved dinner out on the patio at the Bimini Big Game Club. Watched a big ray swim around at the game club.  It was 5′ across or so.  Apparently they feed bull sharks in there in the late afternoon! The restaurant is on the second floor and the open air lounge and games room is on the main level dockside.

Today it’s overcast, breezy and I’ve actually had to put a fleece on!  We will explore the island, and check the weather for a good day to cross to Florida.

Sailed 6 nautical miles from Bird Cay into Chub Cay around noon today. It was a bit wavey but One Love did well.  The poor Berry Islands look like they were pummeled by Hurricane Matthew with palms ripped off halfway up, buildings torn apart, and not too much going on.

Chub Cay is a marina/resort supposedly with a little store,  restaurant etc but as we passed by the marina entrance,  we noticed it was closed off with buoys.

So we anchored safely in the cove and went exploring the island in search of ice and a cold beer.  We dragged the dinghy ashore by what looks like a dump, locked her up and went exploring.

Two hours later, no luck on our quest. It’s like a ghost town. The marina/resort is closed due to the damage from Hurricane Matthew back in October. We saw lots of roosters and chickens running around and a few workers zipping around in golf carts.  It’s a really nice place with a beautiful clubhouse showing no damage with a restaurant, infinity  pool and hot tub (all functioning by the way) . Outdoor furniture was set up on the wrap around verandah and on the pool deck.

There are villas which one can buy and after the Hurricane, a few might be going cheaply!  One was so wrecked that we could see into two bathrooms side by side and there were still toiletries on the vanity!

We spoke with a few locals who said that one rich guy owns the Cay and they thought he didn’t seem to worried about the expense of rebuilding. Some ladies thought it might be open again March.

We flagged down one guy to ask if we could find ice anywhere. He said he’d go get us some but we waited quite a while.  Another fellow came along and told he’d get us some.  His name wad Dan. I gave him my dry back pack and he was back in no time with it full of cubes.  He didn’t want anything for it but we paid him anyhow.

Dan told us that a 15 unit motel, the little store and the laundromat were all destroyed on tbe edge of the marina by the Hurricane. He said his own house was also destroyed. Now he lives in a cottage in the workers village behind the Church. Thanks Dan! 

Tomorrow we plan to leave Chub Cay early if weather looks decent and make for Bimini.

(Pics to come shortly after supper if I can manage to upload them. Supper – bbq turkey breast in a bag and coleslaw… Delicious!)