Bimini to Lucaya 2/27-2/28/18

Beautiful sunrise this morning off of the end of the dock

What a beautiful place to wake up in.  We had breakfast and I spoke with Cecil the dockmaster and a few other captains about our exit from Bimini. They pointed out the right way and I watched about 4 other boats successfully exit from Bimini.  When  it came time for us to leave the green mark that was lying on it's side yesterday was back on station and the whole thing made much more sense.  The colors of the water today were spectacular and as I said before even in 30-40 feet of water you can clearly see the bottom along with fish, dolphins and rays.  Abby still goes crazy anytime she hears the dolphins and whines and barks.  We think she is afraid of them and looks quite worried.  We hold her paw and tell her it will be OK but she still frets.

Abby is awaiting her morning walk

The crossing from Bimini to Lucaya is again pretty straight forward with no course changes once you are out in the ocean.  There was one little jog around Northeast Rock but after that back to 2000-2500 foot depths.  The wind was very gentle this morning with less than 1 foot of waves, ideal for travel and the crew was not going to be sick.  Around lunch we started to see rain clouds aproaching from the west and got some light sprinkles but ended up pretty much going between two rain clouds and just getting a slight shower.  The wind picked up a bit and the waves grew to around 2-3 feet but nothing too bad.

Our plan is to enter the Lucayan Waterway which traverses Grand Bahama Island north to south and exit on the north side tomorrow morning then proceed east to Great Sale Cay.  We entered through the breakwater and saw lots of places along the concrete walls which line the entire waterway for 8 miles along with many branches that we guess were built to attract homeowners to have a lot with a place to keep their boat.  The development thing seems not to have ever taken off as it was intended and it is sad to see so much effort and I'm sure money put in for a project that never blossomed.

We found a nice little nook to tie up to.  There are no cleats or bollards so we tied to trees and were quite happy with our location.  The Royal Bahamas Police Force came by in a super looking fast boat and asked us if we were staying the night.  We said yes and they waved goodbye. Now it was time for some Bahama Mama's and a little relaxation.  We were enjoying Bahama Mama number 2 when the police came back just as it was getting dark and suggested we dock over nearer to their police station which was just down at the end of the canal.  Nothing like a little drinking and driving....  Anyways we moved over and they helped us tie up for the night and told us they felt better that we were there as there were "fishermen that were along the canals at all hours getting up to trouble"  So I asked if I could borrow their go fast boat and the answer was "the boss wouldn't like that mon" Oh well.