Bahamas Great Bank the Gulf Stream and Florida

Air Boat

Find the Alligator

Beautiful Coral

We departed Andros at 0730 hr with a 27 hr journey ahead of us. We would first follow along side the reef keeping out about a mile hoping to catch some big fish. Sorry to say we did not catch anything worth keeping.

We traveled the Great Bahamas Bank in depths of 10-15 ft. of water. It is hard to get your mind around seeing the coral and sand beneath you and not worry about hitting bottom.

Boat traffic increased as we entered this area, both sailing and power boats. We got into our regular routine of shifts in great anticipation of finally being finished getting Genesis to Florida. I couldn’t sleep much as many thoughts were going through my head. Bitter sweet. Happy to be finishing this journey but knowing that it wasn’t done in the way Ken and I had planned.

We had just one pass to go through. Gun Cays. It is a very narrow passage where you must hug the Gun Cay side as shoaling is on the Cat Cay side. I must have fallen asleep and Ernie decided not to wake me to go through the passage. Well best laid plans, just at the most critical time the radar went down. It is 0300 hr in the morning, no moon, just flashing lights. Ernie had no choice but to wake me up. He took the light and aimed it at the land, and I told him which way to steer with the chart. We didn’t want to bring down the computer then restart the radar as if we lost both we would have nothing. We inched slowly along until we were safely out of any danger.  I then shut the computer down and brought it back up. No problem radar was working great. Tell me why do you get a glitch at the most inconvenient time?

This brought us out into the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States to Newfoundland  before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It is a river with currents to be reckoned with. You never travel with a wind direction of North as it kicks up very large waves sometimes called Elephants. We had one day to get er done...

It was a wonderful crossing until the last hour or so and we were thankful to be in Florida and to arrive when we did as the winds picked up and switched to the NE.

We transited the maze like canals of the rich and famous getting totally lost trying to find the marina.

We finally found our way and with much relief moored.
We decided to rent a car and do a little sight seeing. The Science Centre was a much enjoyable trip.

Kenny departed on the 7th and I will forever be grateful to him and his wife Paulette. I know Ken was smiling down on us and proud to see what a great friend he is.

Nancy and Mike Rooney came to visit for the night and after a wonderful meal and too much wine we had a game of Mexican Train. It was great to see them and I am grateful that they care enough about me to drive across the State to make sure I was ok. One thing from this experience is that I have learnt that Ken and I truly have many wonderful great friends.

Today Ernie and I took a trip to the Everglades and road an airboat to check out the alligators.
The Everglades are a fragile ecosystem that has been slowly been taken for land. The Everglades as I learned is actually a slow moving river not a swamp. Many fish start of in the river making their way to the Ocean.

Pam will arrive tomorrow and we will continue to explore Florida and see what we can learn about next.