Well, 2012s Bahama trip is done. We are happy, exhausted, a lot skinnier and with big smiles on all our faces. Its a tale of great diving and shipmates, weather both great and real bad, Captainal stupidity and a great boat, a 25 ft Seacraft called “Someday Came”
I had a wonderful crew. Unirdna, Ted, from Madison Wisconsin, who has made a trip with me every year for the last 5 or 6. Excellent diver, can stay down forever, one of the best, and certainly the smoothest, spearfishermen I've have the pleasure of diving with, and knowledgeable small boat operator. Simon, Azapa, from Santiago Chile, 50 meter diver, freediving instructor, another serious spearo. I've learned a lot, diving with these guys.
The trip was supposed to be 12 days, out 170 miles to Hole in the Wall, Abaco, for a week, then back to Bimini for a couple of days of dolphin diving. Tropical storm Debbie, that vicious, misbegotten bitch who just would not leave, messed that up. Cut the trip a couple of days short and eliminated Hole in the Wall. Tropical systems are supposed to keep moving. Debbie sat still for about 4 days. On take off day, it was storming here(Sarasota), conditions so nasty I wasn't sure I could even get to Ft Lauderdale with the boat on the highway. Rain, high wind, tornadoes, Reallly nasty. I called the crew(they were in Ft Lauderdale) and told them to find a hotel, we were screwed.
The next morning, things were better, but a long way from nice. I beat it over to Ft Lauderdale, picked up the crew and put the boat in the water, even though it was clear nobody in a 25 ft boat was going to going to Bimini from Lauderdale that day. Debbie was just a tropical storm, nowhere near a hurricane, and 400 miles away from Lauderdale. Should have been way too far away to affect the weather. Go figure. We puttered 20 miles down to Miami through a bunch of nasty squals, hoping for a better angle to Bimini, a wind shift and a better forecast. Forecast got even worse(seas 4 to 6 with occasional 9 ft), but another day cooped up on a very small boat and my crew would have strung me up. The next morning early, we pounded out to the edge of the Gulf Stream, just to see if crossing was possible, an unlikely long shot. Getting to the Stream across the shallow reefs was brutal, but once in deep water, it smoothed out and actually looked pretty good, 3-5 ft waves, wind 15 knots, both slightly behind the beam. OK, Debbie is almost gone. Piece of cake in my boat, but I did not think through what it might be like in Bimini after 4 or 5 days of strong southerlies, not smart. So, we took off and it was down right nice for more than half of the trip. Then the wind picked up, way up, waves increased to 5-8 foot+ and breaking hard, not just the wave tops. Ugly, but not as bad as it looked, fairly easy to steer around the breaking ones. It did not feel all that rough, but must have been. I got knocked out of the chair once. Actually twice, but the first time I was trying to steer with one hand and eat trail mix with the other. Doesn't count. The wind really got up, looked like a solid twenty five knots+. Briefly, the gusts were blasting the wave tops into spray so fine that looked like smoke. I have no idea how fast that was blowing, but a whole lot more than 30, for sure.
After that “fun” ride, we arrived outside of Bimini. I was worried about the transition from deep to shallow water, but that was no problem at all. Next, the pass........... Waves breaking all the way across. . . . . .. . For those of you who are unfamiliar with this stuff, the Bahamians call this a “Rage” Its dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. The trick is get the boat on the back of a wave, well back from the breaking crest and ride it all the way in. Simple, right? And, of course, I know what I'm doing, right? Think there might be room for a screw-up? Of course not.
There are two passes into North Bimini, a natural one which is deeper, but requires going parallel to the waves( I could not see any sign of it in the breakers) and a marked, used to be dredged, one that is straight and short, but shallow. What I should have done was gone around the corner to South Bimini and sat on my boat til the weather cleared, but I hadn't thought that one through, either. In we went, the waves didn't look all that large from behind( I know better than this) and I had run rough inlets before (a few times a long time ago). I lined up so the waves would stay directly behind me, cutting across the channel diagonally. All was fine until we were almost through, but I had let the boat speed drop too low. I think we clipped the edge of a bar that intruded into the channel, because I was reading some very shallow water and all of a sudden a big boy jacked up behind us. Crew said it was 8 or 9 feet, I was too busy to look, Crew yelled and the stern began lift, I gunned it as the boat started to go sideways and the wave broke on the dive platform, sending a whole bunch of water into the cockpit. Extra throttle got us out of the bad place before anything more could go wrong, but almost any other boat would have broached, rolled over and we'd be dead. Did I mention I am sometimes a damn fool?
After that excitement, we cleared customs, replaced fuel and ice, and then sat in North Bimini all day, no way I was going out that pass again. But even in Bimini Harbor, a diligent diver can eat very well. Thank you Azapa. We pigged out that night on local seafood.
Debbie finally slipped away in the night and all was beautiful the next morning. We took off early for Riding Rock, thirty miles south. The next 5 days were outstanding, mostly flat calm, adequate visibility, lots of fish , healthy reef and very very good eating. The farther south we got (away from people) the better it was. Conditions were good enough to use the kicker much of the time for following the divers. Saves a whole bunch of fuel. We spent a lot of time in shallow, scouting bottom in 35-40 feet, fish all over the place, and did a little deeper diving on some 50-60 ft high relief stuff that was very very pretty. That kind of diving I love, going slow, very relaxed, long bottom times. I don't try to spearfish in that stuff any more, its just a look dive, but a really nice one. One of those spots also harbored a gargantuan shark. The other guys were in the water, so I missed it , worse luck. You don't see many very large ones. Vis wasn't good enough for anything deeper. There are some great Wall dives in the 120-150 ft range in this area. Need excellent vis for them and we just did not have it. Mostly vis was in the 60-80 ft range. Once, we went out a few miles into the Gulfstream to do some line diving and the vis was mediocre even there.
to be continued in the next post.
I had a wonderful crew. Unirdna, Ted, from Madison Wisconsin, who has made a trip with me every year for the last 5 or 6. Excellent diver, can stay down forever, one of the best, and certainly the smoothest, spearfishermen I've have the pleasure of diving with, and knowledgeable small boat operator. Simon, Azapa, from Santiago Chile, 50 meter diver, freediving instructor, another serious spearo. I've learned a lot, diving with these guys.
The trip was supposed to be 12 days, out 170 miles to Hole in the Wall, Abaco, for a week, then back to Bimini for a couple of days of dolphin diving. Tropical storm Debbie, that vicious, misbegotten bitch who just would not leave, messed that up. Cut the trip a couple of days short and eliminated Hole in the Wall. Tropical systems are supposed to keep moving. Debbie sat still for about 4 days. On take off day, it was storming here(Sarasota), conditions so nasty I wasn't sure I could even get to Ft Lauderdale with the boat on the highway. Rain, high wind, tornadoes, Reallly nasty. I called the crew(they were in Ft Lauderdale) and told them to find a hotel, we were screwed.
The next morning, things were better, but a long way from nice. I beat it over to Ft Lauderdale, picked up the crew and put the boat in the water, even though it was clear nobody in a 25 ft boat was going to going to Bimini from Lauderdale that day. Debbie was just a tropical storm, nowhere near a hurricane, and 400 miles away from Lauderdale. Should have been way too far away to affect the weather. Go figure. We puttered 20 miles down to Miami through a bunch of nasty squals, hoping for a better angle to Bimini, a wind shift and a better forecast. Forecast got even worse(seas 4 to 6 with occasional 9 ft), but another day cooped up on a very small boat and my crew would have strung me up. The next morning early, we pounded out to the edge of the Gulf Stream, just to see if crossing was possible, an unlikely long shot. Getting to the Stream across the shallow reefs was brutal, but once in deep water, it smoothed out and actually looked pretty good, 3-5 ft waves, wind 15 knots, both slightly behind the beam. OK, Debbie is almost gone. Piece of cake in my boat, but I did not think through what it might be like in Bimini after 4 or 5 days of strong southerlies, not smart. So, we took off and it was down right nice for more than half of the trip. Then the wind picked up, way up, waves increased to 5-8 foot+ and breaking hard, not just the wave tops. Ugly, but not as bad as it looked, fairly easy to steer around the breaking ones. It did not feel all that rough, but must have been. I got knocked out of the chair once. Actually twice, but the first time I was trying to steer with one hand and eat trail mix with the other. Doesn't count. The wind really got up, looked like a solid twenty five knots+. Briefly, the gusts were blasting the wave tops into spray so fine that looked like smoke. I have no idea how fast that was blowing, but a whole lot more than 30, for sure.
After that “fun” ride, we arrived outside of Bimini. I was worried about the transition from deep to shallow water, but that was no problem at all. Next, the pass........... Waves breaking all the way across. . . . . .. . For those of you who are unfamiliar with this stuff, the Bahamians call this a “Rage” Its dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. The trick is get the boat on the back of a wave, well back from the breaking crest and ride it all the way in. Simple, right? And, of course, I know what I'm doing, right? Think there might be room for a screw-up? Of course not.
There are two passes into North Bimini, a natural one which is deeper, but requires going parallel to the waves( I could not see any sign of it in the breakers) and a marked, used to be dredged, one that is straight and short, but shallow. What I should have done was gone around the corner to South Bimini and sat on my boat til the weather cleared, but I hadn't thought that one through, either. In we went, the waves didn't look all that large from behind( I know better than this) and I had run rough inlets before (a few times a long time ago). I lined up so the waves would stay directly behind me, cutting across the channel diagonally. All was fine until we were almost through, but I had let the boat speed drop too low. I think we clipped the edge of a bar that intruded into the channel, because I was reading some very shallow water and all of a sudden a big boy jacked up behind us. Crew said it was 8 or 9 feet, I was too busy to look, Crew yelled and the stern began lift, I gunned it as the boat started to go sideways and the wave broke on the dive platform, sending a whole bunch of water into the cockpit. Extra throttle got us out of the bad place before anything more could go wrong, but almost any other boat would have broached, rolled over and we'd be dead. Did I mention I am sometimes a damn fool?
After that excitement, we cleared customs, replaced fuel and ice, and then sat in North Bimini all day, no way I was going out that pass again. But even in Bimini Harbor, a diligent diver can eat very well. Thank you Azapa. We pigged out that night on local seafood.
Debbie finally slipped away in the night and all was beautiful the next morning. We took off early for Riding Rock, thirty miles south. The next 5 days were outstanding, mostly flat calm, adequate visibility, lots of fish , healthy reef and very very good eating. The farther south we got (away from people) the better it was. Conditions were good enough to use the kicker much of the time for following the divers. Saves a whole bunch of fuel. We spent a lot of time in shallow, scouting bottom in 35-40 feet, fish all over the place, and did a little deeper diving on some 50-60 ft high relief stuff that was very very pretty. That kind of diving I love, going slow, very relaxed, long bottom times. I don't try to spearfish in that stuff any more, its just a look dive, but a really nice one. One of those spots also harbored a gargantuan shark. The other guys were in the water, so I missed it , worse luck. You don't see many very large ones. Vis wasn't good enough for anything deeper. There are some great Wall dives in the 120-150 ft range in this area. Need excellent vis for them and we just did not have it. Mostly vis was in the 60-80 ft range. Once, we went out a few miles into the Gulfstream to do some line diving and the vis was mediocre even there.
to be continued in the next post.