Crossing the Gulf Stream

When the watermaker was installed, I took a video of the installer giving me instructions on how to commission the system once we were in clean saltwater (if commissioned in the ICW, the filters would need changing too soon). To keep it short...one of the high pressure hoses were loose allowing water to spray everywhere; aside from this, the pump seized. They shipped a new pump to their affiliate to install (root cause: the instructions given in the video were incorrect - pressure valve needs to be turned counterclockwise, not clockwise to start). The vibration of the system caused a high pressure hose to chafe against a hose clamp which punctured the custom high pressure hose. They had to ship one from Canada and I would need to install that. Before the vibrating high-pressure hoses could puncture the other plastic hoses, I isolated them and put additional protective hoses over them. Now that the WM is working, we have to go sit up on the deck or go deaf...what a noise! If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have purchased a WM. Anyway, the hose arrived just as our friend Wally arrived...one hour before we lifted anchor to cross the Gulf Stream...but first, a rum and coke to celebrate Wally’s arrival.

Me and Wally

Once the anchor was lifted and secured, we headed west towards Miami and then east through Government Cut (Miami inlet) towards the ocean.

Exiting the Miami Inlet

As usual, the waves and winds were stronger than predicted. It was 16:30 as we entered the Atlantic Ocean. After considering input from other cruisers, our plan was to cross the Gulf Stream in the dark, arrive at the Bahamas Banks (shallow sandy shelf about 20ft deep for 70 miles) around midnight and go around the North Rock to by-pass Bimini. Then by sunrise, we should be half way across the Banks and arrive late afternoon at Chub Cay. We had hoped to fish crossing the Gulf Stream but it was too rough and dark, therefore, too dangerous to leave the cockpit. We approached a slow moving sail boat crossing the Gulf Stream towards Bimini. We could only see her lights even when only a few hundred feet off our starboard side. A young mans voice hailed us and we breifly chatted about the crossing. The boat was named Tatyana, a 25' Dory with a 6hp engine (1 cyclinder deisel engine) only moving at 2knts/hour. Later that night, I hailed them on the VHF, concerned about their crossing, but no response.
For the last month or so, when we move I have been only turning on SPOT (our GPS tracking device) every couple of hours, as we were burning through batteries too quickly. I had turned on SPOT earlier that evening as we left Miami and then grabbed some sleep before my shift at 22:00 as I wanted to be on shift when we arrived on the Banks near midnight (we go from thousands of feet deep to 20ft very quickly). Well, about 35 miles out from Miami just after 22:00, we were hailed by the USCG; they asked how we were doing? Confused that they would care, we told them that all was good and asked why they were asking. They said your brother called and was concerned...Rick has been following our travels very closely, I think reliving his same journey 15+ years ago; when he didn't see any tracks from SPOT while I slept, he called the USCG. Julie and I smiled and thought that was so nice of him...thanks for caring brother!

As we approached Bimini in the dark from many miles out, it was difficult to know what city lights belong to what island. It was 01:00 when we passed the North Rock, which is supposed to have a flashing navigational light on it... but that wasn't working. Thank you electronic charts! We could only make out the North Rock after we had passed it from the lights of Bimini in the distance behind it.
We now understand why most people don’t travel across the Banks in the dark, as there are coral heads and rocks to watch for; also moving along at 7mph in ~20ft of water for hours is a scary scenerio. However, we had talked with others who had done it and as long as we stayed on the Magenta line (magenta coloured line on our chartplotter) it would be fine. In the middle of this vast dark space, with 5ft of boat below the waters surface and no moon to provide any light (again, only our instruments to guide us) I shone our flashlight in the water next to the boat to give us a glimpse of our situation. The light beam easily penetrated the crystal clear water to show us the white sand just below and the turquoise coloured water (crystal clear)...absolutely beautiful...can't wait for daylight.  It was all surreal and helped it sink in that we were finally in the Bahamas!

Water clarity on the Banks for 70 miles