We arrived safely in the Bahamas around 1pm today after leaving Miami this morning at 7. The trip across the gulf stream went really well – the weather window seemed just perfect – easterly winds of 10 to 15 knots and seas of 2 to 3 feet.
It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come – we left home on 29 September, left Baltimore at the start of our trip south on 23 October and here we are, exactly 2 months later, sitting quietly at Bimini Blue Water Marina. We’ve decided that we’ll probably stay here a couple of days including Christmas.
The weather is really warm, the water is an amazing turquoise colour and even here in the marina it is clear, clear, clear and you can see the bottom. I think the snorkeling is going to be like magic. 
Everything (outside) is covered in salt from all the splashes today and, as they charge for water by the gallon here, we haven’t yet washed it off. What of the watermaker you ask? Well we’ll make full use of that once we’re at anchorage and have access to nice clean sea water to run through it.
I have to say that we’re really pleased to finally be here – although the Chesapeake and the ICW were enjoyable, we were really on the go all the time (well apart from the delays of course!). When we were travelling it was always up at 6 and then a 6 to 7 hour day on the water. Now we want to put up our feet and relax.
Tonight I think we’re both especially tired, not only after today’s trip, but yesterday we anchored fairly close to the main shipping channel in Miami so we could get a quick and easy access out this morning. Well nothing to do with the ships mind you but yesterday afternoon we had so many jestskis and small boats racing up and down in the same bay that it was unbelievably bumpy. At times we were holding on to everything! So we got a good workout all afternoon.
Of course I’m mentally exhausted too – thoughts of crossing the gulf stream was my nemesis right from the very start when Lance started talking about this trip. So as you can imagine I didn’t sleep much last night and my heart was pounding all the way out the channel into the Atlantic. It was only once I saw that the conditions were really OK that I managed to relax.
It was a great feeling to see Miami disappear and then eventually have the islands start to materialise in front of us.
It’s definitely time to chill out now. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll take the dinghy for a ride at long last.
Of course our thoughts though are with our three daughters and their families back home in Christchurch – there was another fairly large earthquake there yesterday and so many more aftershocks through the night. Fortunately all is well with them. Stay safe!
I’m so glad you made it safely across to the Islands! Enjoy the next few months…..I am so envious! Glad your daughters are okay too. Keep in touch.