Bimini to Rose Island

February 12, 2015

It seems like cold fronts are rolling off the east coast of the US every 48 to 72 hours. So it is the right time to leave Bimini in our wake and head further south. We need to wait for almost a high tide to make sure we were able to skim over the sand bars at the entrance. This gave us a 10AM departure, well behind at least 20 boats that left ahead of us. As we pulled out there were left over swells from the last two extremely windy days – I held my breath as we transited the skinny parts as the boat dropped between two waves. Deep water was gained and never touched bottom – sweet! We did get the fishin’ sticks in the water today and landed our first fish of the season, a horse eye jack – not a great eating fish so we sent him back to grow up some more.

Our route from Bimini to Rose Island near Nassau was move than 24 hours and there are some sections that I really didn’t want to do in darkness so we decided to sail (or better said motored again as the weather gods used up all the wind the last two days)

to Mackie Shoal. This shoal is a shallow section of water about a mile long and only 6.5 feet deep in the middle of the Grand Bahamas Bank, a huge expanse of water where land is not seen in any direction. We anchored Ambition for the first time in 11 feet of crystal clear water. Maryse did a great job with the new anchor and windlass controls. There are 9 other boats anchored with us – guess I was not the only one with this navigation strategy! We sat on the aft deck and watched the sun set over an empty ocean – WOW – beautiful. Plan is to be back under way at 1:30 Friday morning yyaaaawwnn, to reach our destination.