While the Bahamas is not officially part of the Great Loop, most Canadians end up going to the Bahamas because it's winter, so it's too soon to go north but you need to minimize the number of days that you are in the United States in each calendar year. Also, it's the closest you'll likely ever get to the Bahamas with your own boat, and, well, you've just got to explore the Bahamas! There are many jumping off points for travelling from Florida to the Bahamas as well as many destinations in the Bahamas. Generally, you want to ensure you are following a north easterly path so that you are not fighting the Gulf Stream. We decided to enter the Bahamas at Bimini and make that crossing from Miami so it was time for us to head south.
We left off last time in Stuart after transiting the Okeechobee Waterway with our friends. That first night we had docktails on our boat with Cyndi and Sheldon from C-Shels. We have watched their YouTube channel for years called Searching for C-Shels. They are a Canadian couple who boat primarily in the Bahamas and they do a really good job of covering their travels and all that goes with it. We hit it off nicely and asked lots of questions in preparation for our upcoming trip to the Bahamas. They were so kind and helpful.
The next day, Cam did a thorough engine check and tightened all the clamps, as instructed following the water pump replacement that was done in Anna Maria. Heather spent hours inventorying our provisions and making a grocery list for the Bahamas. That would be a huge list as we knew that groceries in the Bahamas would be expensive and not all the islands would have places for us to shop. Our friends on C. Marie arrived later in the day and needed help tying up their boat against the wind. We shared an Uber with James to West Marine to get a few parts. We decided to meet later for dinner along with Cyndi and Sheldon at the Tide Water Restaurant. We sat outside for Happy Hour but it got a bit chilly so we moved into the restaurant for our meal. It was a great evening!
One of the nice things about doing the Loop is all the good friends you make along the way. Cathy from C. Marie had kept in touch with Laura and Joe from The Grand Wazoo and Laura offered to drive us to Total Wine and Publix. Laura and Joe live in Stuart and completed their loop in November. We first met them in Green Turtle Bay and then a couple more times along the Tennessee River. Laura took us to the bank first where Cathy changed some of our US cash into smaller denominations. It's best to have cash for the Bahamas so we had picked up some US cash when we were home for Christmas but it was all in 50s or 100s and that would be hard to spend in the Bahamas. It was really helpful that Cathy had an account so the bank would change it for us. Next we got some really good deals at Total Wine, including Cam's Johnnie Walker Black for $30! Our final stop was the grocery store where it took 1.5 hours to shop and cost $552. That's a record for groceries. Since Cathy was doing the same thing as me, and Laura was getting a few things for herself, it was a miracle that it all fit in the car! It took hours to put them all away and we had to find some new spots for them too.
Cam had to do office work a lot too. We took a break at 4 PM and went for a swim at the marina pool, which was really nice. Then Cam inflated the kayak and used it to float around the boat to make a couple of repairs, including the generator through-hull fitting that we figured was the cause of our leak. After a nice dinner, we popped over to C Marie to make plans to anchor with them the next day as we both worked our way down to a crossing point for the Bahamas.
We had to take some time to do a bit of a cleanup before we left in the morning. The kayak Cam had inflated to work on the boat was still drying so we had to put that away along with extra life jackets our friends had been using, and some chairs. For departure, we had lots of help on the dock from our neighbours and the dock hand and we were away by 8:20 AM. As we were departing, Cam got the news that his uncle had passed away that morning. Such a huge loss. We had decided before we started our Loop trip that we would not go home for extended family funerals, but it was a tough decision and it was hard to choose to stick to that decision.
We had a fairly calm, and long run through the ICW. Heather took advantage of the time and the calm conditions to get the heads (aka bathrooms) cleaned and the floors vacuumed and washed. That worked out so well that we might do that again. It was a real time saver. We caught up to James and Cathy on C Marie just as we were approaching a series of bridges that needed to be raised so we just fell in behind them. We pulled up ahead when we reached a bridge that we could get under which C Marie could not. We finally anchored in Lake Boca Raton. C Marie pulled in shortly afterwards and anchored beside us but ended up moving back closer to the channel. After almost 9 hours on the water and arriving at 5 PM, Cam had a meeting! We enjoyed an easy dinner followed by wine on the aft deck looking at the city lights and the stars. We had a very comfortable night.
We hauled anchor at 7 AM the next morning to time our departure with bridge openings. Both boats stopped at Sands Harbor Resort for a final fuel up before going to the Bahamas. James had done his research and found that this was the best price at $4.95/gal. On top of that, Heather joined a frequent fuel up club, even though we never expected to get fuel there again, to save an additional $53 on the fuel. Good deal! It was a 6 bridge day and the first three had to be raised for us. They were all Bascule bridges, which means the span swings up to allow clearance, and they opened either at the 20, 40 or 60 minute mark past the hour, or on the half-hour and hour, so they were fairly well synchronized for our travel and did not cause any significant delays.
We got to the Lake Sylvia anchorage first and it was very crowded. We managed to find a spot, but when C Marie arrived, they couldn't find a spot suitable for their boat, which tends to do the "Great Harbor dance" on anchor. They found a spot a couple of miles back. We wanted to get some cards and do a mail run so we dinghied under a very low bridge, down a canal and across the ICW. We could see the cruise ships at Port Everglades! We were pretty excited to see them and looked forward to going by them on Monday on Sea Clef! We enjoyed our tour on the dinghy looking at all the very rich homes and large yachts. We found a place to tie up the dinghy at Boatyard restaurant for $10. After you pay them they give you a voucher for $10 for the restaurant. We weren't thrilled with the docking option and you have to be very careful with how you tie up your dinghy so that it doesn't get stuck under the dock as the tide rises. We got to the Dollartree, the Post Office, and Winn Dixie, but we skipped the drink at the Boatyard so we could get back to the boat before dark.
On Saturday, we dinghied over to the Bahia Mar Marina to try to get to a marine store. First we got pulled over for speeding, but we were let off! Cam was hearing a rattling in the dinghy engine and wanted to speed up to see if it would go away, forgetting that it's a no wake zone on weekends. Oops! That goes down in history as our most entertaining traffic violation. Next, Heather got off the dinghy, and a staff member said we couldn't load or offload passengers there and there was no dinghy docking so she had to get back on. We looked for another option, then called the dive shop but they had no options for us so we gave up! Anchoring in Lake Sylvia is not convenient if you want to go to shore.
We went over to the 15th Street Fisheries next to meet Cam's cousins, Lisa and Glen for lunch. That restaurant had a nice dinghy dock which was very convenient. We had a great visit with Lisa and Glen. Afterwards, we asked the restaurant if we could keep the dinghy there so we could go to the hardware store and they said "no problem". It was supposed to be a 20 minute walk, but 10 minutes in we stopped at a dive shop. The manager was well informed and helped Cam choose a spear and showed him how to use it. His friend was in the store and he helped Heather choose a mask. While there, Cam ordered the part we needed from Amazon so we skipped the hardware store stop. However, we took advantage of having the dinghy in a safe place and went to the bank, the liquor store, and the grocery store. We ended up having to take an Uber back to the restaurant. It sure seemed weird cutting through the restaurant with our groceries and a case of beer!
When we got back to our boat, we discovered that one of the clips on one side of our anchor bridal had broken. Fortunately, we had one more replacement and Cam was able to fix it. A group of three boats, which would soon become four, had anchored near us and they were sharing their music with us. At first it was fine. Heather was watching them dance, and trying to learn to salsa while teaching Cam. But after four hours, we were getting tired of it. Cam said prefers his salsa with chips! It went until around 11 PM when they pulled up anchor and left in the dark! Between that and the winds that had us whipping back and forth, it was tough to get to sleep.
On Sunday, we had a slow morning. It was a pretty hot day but we stayed inside for most of it working on videos and blogging. We visited with friends and family on some video calls too. Then Cathy and James came by for docktails before we all dinghied over to the 15th Street Fisheries for dinner. It was a really nice evening. Cathy and James were planning an overnight crossing from Fort Lauderdale to the Berry Islands so they would be staying in Fort Lauderdale to wait for a crossing window. We had one more jump down to Miami before we would cross. We had friends in Miami that had been receiving Amazon packages for us so Miami was a must stop.
We were pulling up anchor at 8 AM. We were excited to finally be boating past Port Everglades on the ICW. We had left on a number of cruises from that port and we had always wanted to be one of the small power boats passing the cruise ships and that day had finally come. Given that it was a Monday, there were only two ships in port, including the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas and the Celebrity Equinox. The tows were kicking up a lot of wake, which was a bit annoying in a no wake zone.
Our journey was long with many no wake zones and we had to get two bridge lifts. Our timing with our 8 knot speed was such that we were going to have to wait for both bridges, so we just drove more slowly to arrive at the right time for the bridge openings - it's easier than holding position. When we were docking at Vice City Marina, there was a Manatee in our slip so Cam came in slowly and carefully, giving the Manatee time to get out of the way. Vice City Marina was easily the most expensive marina that we had stayed at up to this point and it had NO amenities: no laundry, no showers, no washrooms, no pool, and not even grass! There was a walkway beside the dock and a parking garage behind that. We did laundry on board, filled our water tank, and topped up our groceries. There was a Publix about a 15 minute walk away and we finally found everything on our list, so as far as groceries, we were ready for the Bahamas.
Ashley and Rafael are very good friends of our son and wife. We got to know them well when they stayed at our house for our son's wedding. They were very kind to accept all our Amazon purchases and we looked forward to giving them a tour of our boat and sharing Docktails and a meal with them. They arrived around 4:30 PM with most of our Amazon packages. They dropped them with us in the loading zone with crazy rush hour traffic all around and then parked and came aboard. They seemed to really enjoy themselves but they were both on Dramamine/Gravol to ward off sea sickness. We had warned them that it was fairly rocky in our slip so they came prepared. We had a really nice evening with them. They promised to connect with us in the morning with the last package. In the meantime, we would prepare to leave the marina and anchor nearby the next night while we waited for our crossing window. Spoiler alert: we ended up crossing the next day!
Enjoy the slideshow below and you can also view a video on our travels from Stuart to Miami.
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