Marathon Key to Bahamas and Sting Ray City.
We waited to leave until later in the day as we were waiting for our Code 0 sail to be returned back from a few modifications. There were less favorable sailing conditions leaving on Wednesday, June 5th but still was going to be a good window to leave. Our routing tools told us that it would take about 24 hours to sail from Marathon Key, across the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic, and over to Bimini islands, Bahamas.
What makes crossing the Gulf Stream difficult, is that there is a 3-5 MPH current flowing north and it is a very busy commercial shipping lane (both north and south bound); which we experienced first-hand during our overnight passage. Our first encounter was with a 860 foot tanker that hailed us on the radio and showed our paths crossing within a ¼ mile. We had already been watching this unfold on our navigation instruments. When he hailed us, he asked us whether we wanted to cross on port or starboard. We informed him that we were going to alter our course and cross on our starboard side behind him. Our next encounter was with two cargo ships at the same time. We first watched them alter their courses for each other, which put us in between them. This all turned out fine but was some excitement for us at 4 in the morning.
As the sun came up, we were just getting to the outer banks of the Bahamas. This was a good time to get through the cut (a narrow passage) into the Bahama Banks. We would not have wanted to do this in the dark.
We went to Cat Cay Marina and checked in with Customs and Immigration. We were able to take down our quarantine flag and raise the Bahamas flag.
We then sailed a few miles north to Gun Cay and anchored offshore. This spot is a locally famous area called Stingray City. This is where local tour boats and other cruisers like ourselves go in the shallow water and sting rays approach you to see if you have anything to feed them. The stingrays are extremely friendly. They come up against you to see if you have anything to feed them. We had 8 or 10 around us at any one time from all directions as I found one on my back at one point. One small item off of our bucket list.
20 hours to Cat Cay Bahamas
8 hours into our trip
600 foot cargo ships on a collision course with 360 at 4:00 am!
Raising the “Q” (Quarantine) flag as we enter Bahamian waters.
After Customs and Immigration, exchanging the Q flag for the Bahamian courtesy flag. We will fly this for the duration of our visit.
