We’re Tested While Heading to the Bahamas! [Video]

John & Jane

Hey guys! Excellent questions, especially your question about night sailing.

First of all, unfortunately this is not “the day” (Monday, March 16th). When we got up this morning, we checked our weather sources for crossing the Gulf Stream to Bimini. The consensus was that the conditions, for at least the next few days, are unfavorable. So, we wait. But, we’re happy in our current state of waiting. Yesterday, we moved Dejarlo from our anchorage at Miami to a point about 20 miles further south to a place called Billy’s Point off Elliot Key. This place is beautiful! We’re anchored about a mile offshore in crystal clear water and the closest boat is about a half-mile away. We’re reading, watching TV and videos, taking naps and doing little chores around the boat. We’re only a few miles from our departure point for the Bahamas. So, when we get the green light, we can pull up anchor quickly and be on our way.

Regarding our night passages when we were coming south: it’s a matter of the distances from one harbor, or inlet, to the next. We never want to arrive at a destination in the dark. We only want to arrive early in the morning, or when there’s plenty of sunlight. In most cases, if we wanted to arrive at our destination at sunrise, we had to depart at, or near, sunset. Unfortunate for us, there just aren’t many “outside” passages short enough that would allow us to leave first thing in the morning and arrive the same day before the sun went down. That’s why many cruisers only travel the ICW north and south, where there are plenty of anchorages and marinas to choose from as it gets dark. However, traveling the ICW exclusively and dealing with shallow waters, shoaling waters and bridges has its own challenges, not to mention making the time required to get from one location to another much longer. If you’re set up to do it (and we are) it’s just much faster and less problematic traveling on the outside than using the ICW.

Actually, night passages offshore can be quite pleasant (if it’s not too cold, which it was for us). At about 10 miles offshore, you can still see the lights of civilization onshore. However, there’s enough darkness to make the view of the stars amazing. We have all kinds of electronics (AIS, radar, etc.) allowing us to see the other boats around us. And we have a really strong VHF radio to contact other boats, or the Coast Guard, if we get into some kind of trouble.