Key Biscayne, FL to Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas | 18.8 Hours | 134.6 Miles
Within 10 minutes of posting last night's blog entry, I was on deck and bringing the anchor up. Even with my LED neck light on it was dark and difficult to see the chain. Slow and steady proved to be the best plan. The anchor came up clean from its temporary sandy home, so there was thankfully no need to wash it. We eased our way out of the anchorage while identifying the blinking red and green channel markers. The rotating light of the Key Biscayne Lighthouse provided little illumination, but did supply a spatial reference. We followed our old tracks out the shallow inlet and into the Atlantic. We had been asked to document our crossing to The Bahamas. Honestly, there wasn't much to see other than a few light dots on a black background. A couple of cruise ships were returning to port. The glow from the city lights was visible off our stern for many miles offshore. The most interesting scenery was in the sky as a dozen airplanes lined up in the approach patterns for both the Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports. The moon rose at 10:00 pm and provided a comforting horizon. We entered the Gulf Stream and set our course. The autopilot held us in a 25-degree crab angle to move across the strong north-bound current. When I came on watch at midnight, there were several ships in our area, but everyone was playing nice. The lights of Bimini were becoming visible in the distance. The predicted three-foot waves never materialized and we had another peaceful overnight trip. At North Rock we entered the shallow Bahama Banks. Barry came on watch and I got some sleep from 3:00-6:00 am. My favorite watch begins at 6:00 when I get to observe as dark turn to light. Our first Bahamian dawn was a good one. Blacks and oranges transitioned to blues and pinks.
As the sun rose over the horizon, the upper sky was already a bright blue. A thick cloud bank momentarily created a golden glow.
We were waiting with anxious anticipation for the sun to rise high enough in the sky to reveal the many shades of Bahamas blue. Oh, how we've missed these waters. At the Northwest Channel Light, we entered the Tongue of the Ocean. Water depth dramatically dropped from 20-feet to 6,000 feet in a quarter mile. The turquoise water transitioned back to a deep blue.
While in the deep water, we completed our customs and immigration forms. It was a warm afternoon with with very little wind. A definite improvement over home. Prior to our final turn into the Morgan's Bluff anchorage at the top of Andros, Barry raised our yellow quarantine flag, signifying that we had yet to be cleared by customs. We anchored, brought the dinghy down, and Barry headed to shore to check in. The process was quick and easy as the customs official was already at the harbor master's office. We celebrated by swapping the yellow flag for the Bahamian courtesy flag. I read onboard and watched as the sun set to the west. The large white clouds to the east were probably more impressive. We're supposed to get rain overnight, but should be able to get to shore tomorrow and do a little exploring.
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